Faster, Cheaper, Better
Faster, Cheaper, Better
Jun 01Faster. Cheaper. Better. These are the bywords of Darren Hakker, a relatively new entrepreneur in the Sarnia area who now runs Graphite Marketing – a marketing company that specializes in copywriting.
One look at Darren’s business card which simply has the word “Graphite” on it along with his contact information and you can see he believes in abject simplicity – one of the major keys to his success.
“I believe simplicity, like the fuel you find in pencils (graphite) can generate some of the most effective and great ideas for my clients”, Darren states.
Indeed. A native of Sarnia and educated at Mohawk and Humber Colleges in a variety of marketing programs, Darren now writes for all forms of media under an impressively diverse set of applications that include grant applications, direct mail, award applications, radio copy and media releases.
“I must be doing something right” Darren says, “because I’m batting 7 for 8 in award applications alone, resulting in some pretty prestigious awards for my clients.”
Darren is very much “doing something right.” He now numbers among his clients Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership, Bluewater Health Foundation, Goodwill Industries and Sarnia Christian School to name just a few.
He credits a lot of his success to advice given to him by staffers of the Sarnia Lambton Business Development Corporation (SLBDC), which “pretty much saved my life.” Over the course of about 5 months, the SLBDC helped Darren formulate a viable business plan and now, a year later, the rest is unqualified success.
In terms of advice to other budding entrepreneurs, Darren’s counselling is again, well, simple. “Staying motivated is really tough on some days!” he says, “Sometimes I’m working 7 days a week and I strongly advise those going into business for themselves to research any and all means of constantly staying passionate about your work.”
Darren believes that passionate is the operating description for anyone aspiring to start up a business and any potential entrepreneur needs to ask him/herself “What do I have a passion for?”
On a more practical perspective, Darren advises that those working for themselves also carefully monitor their own kilometrage for business purposes and set up a filing system for receipts and expenses that works for them.
For Darren “Faster” is offering a one man stop for personalized service. “Cheaper”, in his vernacular, means doing quality work the smart, efficient way and this reduces his costs to the client. Finally, “Better” characterizes his consistent goal of delivering a quality product – and he will go to the best of the best specialists in any field of the media to give his client the results needed for marketing success.
