As one of California’s oldest and largest independent ad agencies located in Los Angeles, we're known here at The Phelps Group for our work in building brands and generating sales for our clients. Our success is partly due to our ongoing commitment to a mission statement that clearly defines what we expect from both the agency and its clients. In part, it reads:

“Our mission. . .is to do great work for deserving clients, in a healthy working environment, to realize our clients’ goals and our potentials.”

We define “deserving” as those clients whose products make the world a better place to live – and who treat us like human beings.

When we were about $14 million in billings, a friend came to me and offered to bring in a large account ($12 million) but said there were some strings attached. He said the account would be extremely profitable, but the client had a severe drinking problem, which invariably results in agency people working very hard, but never seeing the results of their labor. He also said that we’d sometimes have to lie about the client’s whereabouts.

This account represented a lot of money for us. It would virtually double the agency’s size. I thought about it for a couple of days. On one hand, I wanted the revenue; on the other, I didn’t want to destroy the harmony of our young, but fast-growing and very healthy agency. Here’s how I solved the dilemma. I basically went into the future and looked back to the present.

Our growth plans called for 25% growth per year. I could see on the chart that it wouldn’t be very many years until we would reach $50 million in billings. And I knew that if we maintained our present course, we would get there, and be a well-rounded company working for “deserving clients,” and would be proud of our accomplishments. However, if we took this big, but troublesome account, it could ruin our healthy environment, and we might never realize our real goals. So the decision was easy. We turned down the account and have always been glad we did. This year our billings will be $44 million, and we will probably reach $50 million before the end of next year.

If you’re ever having trouble making a big decision, mentally go into the future and look back to the present. Things can get crystal clear from that vantage point.