It's been 10 years since the day you started your company. You've seen a hell of a lot, rode the roller coaster through all the ups and downs, and now you've reached a milestone very few businesses in the modern era may ever hit. What would you say was THE defining moment for Family Industries.
Alex: [laughs] I always think back to this one job we did for a pretty big client, and how that order went terribly wrong. We were sent a perfect looking graphic from the client, everything looked solid.
Max: From what I remember, the graphic was a URL for their new website.
Alex: Right! Yes, and we didn’t see aaaaanything wrong with it. So, we went and printed the order. 1,000 shirts.
Max: We sent it to the client, thinking ‘hell yeah, we nailed it’. Then, we get a call telling us WE messed up the entire order.
Alex: Which, fine I’m always willing to take the heat whenever I mess up, but we couldn’t see a thing wrong with the graphic they sent us.
Max: It turns out that the graphic they sent us of their URL had a period somewhere that should have been a dash. So minuscule a detail, but obviously something that needed to be changed IMMEDIATELY.
Alex: I’ll never forget the client told us it was only “30%” their fault. How they came up with that number, I'll never know, but we both had to move passed the ridiculousness of that statement and try to make it work. Cause at that point, we either made this order happen, and make it right, or Max and I were getting back on craigslist to find new jobs.
Max: As unfortunate as the situation was, it taught us that mistakes happen, and though it may not 100% be our fault, we have to do what we have to do to make things right. It almost killed us as a brand new business, but we were able to work with the client and make things right.
What have each of you learned the most from being business owners for 10 years?
Alex: I’ve learned to always move forward, and never let adversity get in the way. It’s never as hard as it seems, and if you keep a level head about things; anything is possible.
Max: To keep plowing forward, and learn from your mistakes. Make sure your employees are taken care of, and have a vision of your company’s future. Our business is our ship, and it’s up to us to steer it in the right direction.