Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Jumpstart Episode 4: Chris Blanz
- Chris Blanz is CEO and Creative Director at Cabedge
- Cabedge started as a graphic design company
- matured and realized content is the most important thing and how it is organized
- Cabedge is a overall strategy company with a web centric approach
- Chris became an entrepreneur at 8 or 9. Independent kid and influenced his mom!
- In college freelance was the dream
- Not smart enough to realize failure was an option
- Worked very hard with support of his wife and a couple of partners
Chris’ 3 tips every entrepreneur needs to know
- Make more money then you spent. If you’re spending someone else’s money, try to make more money than they are spending.
- Hire the right people. Partner with the right people. You don’t always have to hire right out of the gate. Make sure they compliment what it is that you do. If you’re bad with numbers, find a numbers person that you trust.
- Save $.20 on every dollar, so it’s set aside when the tax man comes. It is also a great savings plan.
Please SUBSCRIBE to the podcast in iTunes, so you’ll get new episodes as they are available.
Jumpstart theme song “DLDN Instrumental (ft. Onlymeith, Mellotroniac)” by: St. Paul from ccMixter.
TRANSCRIPT
Dave: Welcome to Jumpstart. I am your host Dave Delany. My guest today is Chris Blanz; CEO and Creative Director at Cabedge. Hi Chris, welcome to Jumpstart.
Chris: Hey, how are you?
Dave: I’m good man. How are you?
Chris: Doing really well.
Dave: Excellent. Well, thanks for joining me. I wanted to talk a little bit about Cabedge first of all, tell us what you do.
Chris: What do I do?
Dave: (Laugh)
Chris: I trust great people to do their jobs every day.
Dave: (Laugh)
Chris: As – you know, as a CEO – somebody described it before as you’re supposed to be Chief Revenue Officer sub. I try my best to create opportunities for Cabedge to succeed. And then recognize talent within the company and bring them in and let them do what they do so well.
Dave: That’s great.
Chris: Yeah.
Dave: Yeah, that’s awesome. And tell us also about Cabedge. What do you guys in a day-to-day basis? What’s the business all about for those of you right now?
Chris: It is – let’s see, we started out as a graphic design company and it was all about the image. And we’ve matured over time, realizing that content is the most important thing and how you organize that content in website for a company. We’re not necessarily an ad agency and we’re not just a web design shop.
Dave: Uh-huh.
Chris: We’re more of an overall strategy company with a web-centric approach. So if it sounds like web or rhymes with web, if it resemble web in any way, we can help.
Dave: Uh-huh.
Chris: And if we don’t have the expertise in house, we have our big network of people to pull in to help. At the core, it’s how you strategically organize content specific for an audience.
Dave: Makes sense. So Chris, at what point in your career did you recognize that the entrepreneurial bug had bitten you?
Chris: Let me see, I was probably about eight or nine.
Dave: (Laugh)
Chris: I was always a pretty independent kid, and I would influence my mom.
Dave: (Laugh)
Chris: Sway her in whatever way that it thought I needed to get what I wanted.
Dave: (Laugh)
Chris: She gave a lot of good practice.
Dave: Yes.
Chris: Anyway, that was really early on.
Dave: Uh-hm.
Chris: But I was – when I was in college; freelance was just the dream. I had no idea why. I think I was just naïve. I didn’t realize everything that went into it – I thought – you know, as a designer, you just make pretty pictures and you sold them. I thought I was going to get a nickel for every version of the logo that was printed that I happen to have designed.
Dave: Yeah.
Chris: I just really didn’t know any better.
Dave: Sure.
Chris: Once I – you know, I had a couple of jobs. There were internships – had a full time job out of school, and then another. And it was about a year and a half into my professional career that the bug bit.
Dave: Uh-huh.
Chris: And the – what I described to some people is just that I was not smart enough to realize that failure was an option.
Dave: Right.
Chris: So I just dove in. Luckily I had the support of my wife. We put just a little bit of money in and then worked really really hard with a couple of partners. And I’ve been very entrepreneurial ever since; only having a couple of the – I’ll do the air quotes – “real jobs”.
Dave: Sure.
Chris: in my career after those first two out of the gate.
Dave: Right. I like to end each episode asking folks to share their three tips for any entrepreneur or – you know, would-be entrepreneur; anybody maybe starting out on a business or in their own business or – you know, even people that have been doing it a long time. And I’ve had some great tips – no pressure at all. (Laugh) Do you have some tips that you would like to share with the audience?
Chris: The most basic thing that anyone should know is to make more money than you spend.
Dave: Right. (Laugh) It’s a good tip.
Chris: But along those lines, if you’re spending somebody else’s money which is the case sometimes with – you know, funding start-up.
Dave: Yeah.
Chris: You try to make more money than they are spending, realizing that you may have to get into that point over time. But – yeah, at the end of the day, make more than you spend.
Dave: That’s good.
Chris: The next one is most definitely hire the right people, or partner with the right people. Sometimes you don’t have to hire right out of the gate. You can go in and partner with other companies, partner with other people. But make sure that they complement what it is that you do.
Dave: Uh-huh.
Chris: If you’re bad with numbers; find the numbers first that you really really trust, and let them do their job really well. And speaking of numbers, the most practical thing that anyone ever taught me about business is the government takes money from you.
Dave: Yes.
Chris: And just go ahead and plan on it.
Dave: Yeah.
Chris: If you’re making any kind of profit at all, and let’s say you’re – you know, in the twenty something percent tax brackets, if you make a dollar, take twenty cents and put it in a drawer. And just take it out of our checking account – you know, write a check for that little bit of money and put it away. And then when taxes come due; you’ve already set it aside. It’s not reflected in your checkbook anymore, and so you don’t spend it. Honestly, that was kind of my savings plan for a little while.
Dave: (Laugh) It’s a wise plan. It’s very smart actually.
Chris: It really really helped.
Dave: Yeah, I bet. (Laugh) It’s a great tip. It’s a good tip for anybody actually.
Chris: Oh yeah.
Dave: Okay. Well listen, I really appreciate you taking the time with us today. Where can people find you?
Chris: Cabedge.com CABEDGE
Dave: Great. Thanks Chris.
Chris: Thank you.
Posted on April 10, 2011
Categories: Blog, Podcast
Tags: Cabedge, Chris Blanz, Jumpstart podcast