Marketing to Millennials: Q&A With Jacques Bastien of boogie

Name: Jacques Bastien

Company: boogie

Years in business: 4

Business location(s): Brooklyn, NY | Troy, NY | Los Angeles

Number of employees: 8

Chief product: Millenial-focused marketing

Website: boogie.co

1. First of all, how is business these days? 

Thanks for asking. Business is very interesting and exciting right now. We’re in the process of changing our focus as well as launching a few new brands within the company. After spending the last four years transitioning from a design firm, print studio, and web development firm to a marketing agency for millennials, we’ve decided to focus on being a multicultural marketing agency for today’s generation. As we learn more about who we are and who we can provide the most value to, this decision made the most sense. 

2. What led you to start your own business?

It was actually an accident. I’m naturally curious, and I set out to learn everything that intrigues me. For boogie that was design. I started designing because it was a cool hobby, but eventually my "obsession" for perfection led to me working day and night trying to become one of the best designers out there. People treated boogie more like a business than I thought it was. Naturally, I turned to Google to start researching how to start and run a business. Eventually, my obsession with getting better every day led boogie to grow out of my dorm room and into an 800-square-foot office. Now, we have a 2,000-square-foot space with two other satellite offices.

3. What sources did you use for startup capital?

That’s a great question—there weren’t any sources. Fortunately, living on campus allowed me to live rent free as I built boogie in my dorm room. In 2012, when I graduated from college, I found an 800-square-foot basement space and signed a three-year lease. I paid the security deposit with savings from my freelance gigs, and once the transition was done, I had $200 left in my bank account. With no recurring clients, no loans/credit cards, and absolutely no idea what I was doing, I had 30 days to hustle and make enough money to pay for both the office and my apartment. Today, four years later, I’ve never been late on a rent payment.

4. What do you think is your biggest business strength?

My biggest strength in business is my ability to relate to others and put myself in their shoes. I’ve been many things in life: an immigrant, an ELL student, a translator to my non-English-speaking parents, a resident of New York City's housing projects, a proud owner of only one pair of shoes for the entire school year, a college student with a campus job, a struggling entrepreneur, and currently a college professor at the University of Albany. It’s easy for me to put myself in others' shoes because there's a high chance that I have probably already walked those miles. Those experiences make me a much more authentic and humble entrepreneur, professor, etc.

5. What do you enjoy most about owning your own business?

Options. I enjoy having the ability to choose how I want to conduct business. No one from our team had ever worked at a marketing agency, so when it came to building boogie, we just built the agency that we would have loved to work for. Because of that, we only work four days a week, have weekly catering, and much more.

6. What’s your least favorite part of running a business?

Everything else. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone! It takes a certain type of person to be able to start and run a business without losing their minds—(although, I’m sure I’ve lost my mind a few times). My background is in design, and that’s what I love doing—whether it’s design on the computer or designing processes for the business to run efficiently. But the job also comes with writing, hiring, accounting, finances, negotiations, contracts, etc. Trust me, not fun.

7. What do you think are important entrepreneurial skills to have?

Like I said earlier, I think entrepreneurs should be humble, intelligent, caring, detail-oriented, open (transparent), and loyal.

8. What are some challenges you’ve faced in business and how did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge for me was finance. I needed to get better clients, but those clients needed for us to have a bigger and better team. But the team costs money, and it was money we weren't able to get without the team. That was my entire journey when growing boogie. We didn’t really get over it, but we faked it until we made it. We found ways to get the things we wanted without spending money that we didn’t have. It’s really difficult building a company without any financial resources.

9. What do you wish you’d known before you started out?

One of the biggest things I’ve learned over the years is that there is no such thing as an overnight success. I wish I knew the amount of hard work and patience it took to be a successful entrepreneur.

10. What is the smartest move you have made with your business so far?

I don’t know if I deserve the credit for this, but one of the best moves I’ve made for my business was asking my wife (my then-girlfriend) to join us full-time in 2013. I can honestly say we would not be where we are today without her.

11. How do you find new customers? What do you do to make sure they become return customers?

Over the years, we’ve done a lot of trial and error when it comes to acquiring new customers. Ultimately, it comes down to two things: public speaking and public relations. Together, public speaking and public relations give us the ability to showcase our expertise to a large group of people at once.

12. What’s your management style with employees?

Our company is pretty flat, and it works well for us. We’re still a small team and everyone kind of does their own thing. We’ve been very specific about hiring problem solvers and critical thinkers who will make things happen without needing much supervision.

13. What are some other companies or entrepreneurs you admire, and why?

At the moment, I really admire Kevin Hart. I'm not sure he would make everyone else's list, but he’s a true example of hard work and hustle: a true "hustlepreneur." He’s also proven that you don’t have to be limited to just one career path. He acts, does standup, runs for Nike, directs, and raps.

14. Do you have a favorite inspirational quote?

I live by this every day: “If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.”—Thomas Jefferson

15. What new initiatives are you working on?

We recently launched a new brand called SHADE, and we’re continuing to grow that company. Through SHADE, we help brands find and collaborate with culturally-diverse content creators and influencers. In addition, we’re currently working on an annual study of black millennials; we should be releasing it in early 2017. Personally, I’m in the process of writing my own book as well, Fake It, Make It: How to Make It in Life, Business, and Relationships.

16. What advice would you give to someone hoping to start a business similar to yours?

A few things:

1. There’s no such thing as an overnight success.
2. If you want something you’ve never had, you have to be willing to do some things you’ve never done.
3. Be human.
4. Don’t change yourself for people; change the people.
5. Strive to be better than you were yesterday, every day!

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