10 Years of Joseph Studios
Ten years ago this month, Joseph Studios officially launched.
How Joseph Studios Actually Started
About a year before that, I was managing a $16.5 million enterprise software development initiative involving roughly 40 developers across six development teams, multiple continents, and stakeholders all over the globe. It was the most ambitious project I had been part of up to that point.
During that project, the company changed CTOs halfway through development. The new leadership philosophy shifted heavily toward outsourcing and cost-cutting, and I watched the culture and development standards we had spent years building begin to erode. After dedicating nearly 24 months of planning and execution to that work, I knew it was time to leave.
Several friends of mine were in similar positions. Many of us were operating at the director level, and together we started exploring what entrepreneurship could look like for us. Back in 2017, that conversation felt a little easier than it might today, but the excitement and possibility were very real.
That was the beginning of Joseph Studios.
Originally, we launched under the DBA “The Forge” and focused on consulting around project improvement, process management, Lean methodologies, and Six Sigma. But while building our own company, we quickly realized something important. Most businesses did not fail because they lacked operational knowledge. They struggled because they were not generating enough awareness, leads, and sales opportunities.
As we worked with more clients, the conversations increasingly revolved around marketing and sales challenges. Eventually, we pivoted from process improvement and training into marketing and sales strategy and services.
The Financial Reality of the Early Years
One thing I have not spoken about publicly very often is just how difficult those first years were financially.
For the first 18 months of Joseph Studios, I was personally contributing around $6,000 per month just to support staffing costs. From the very beginning, I wanted this company to stand for exceptional quality. That meant hiring talented people and building a team that genuinely cared about outcomes. I refused to compromise on that vision, even when it meant we were deeply unprofitable.
It took nearly three years before we could realistically hope to break even consistently.
I remember visiting my dad around 2019 and proudly telling him that we had finally made payroll entirely through company revenue. His response was simple:
“Great. Do it 36 more times in a row and you’ll be successful.”
At the time, I laughed it off, but honestly, every time payroll runs today, I still take a small victory lap in my head. For another two weeks, we succeeded together.
Then Came 2020
At the beginning of that year, none of our clients were under contract. Everything was month-to-month. We were doing roughly $30,000 per month in revenue, and in March, about half our clients disappeared almost overnight. The Federal Reserve’s Small Business Credit Survey found that over three-quarters of small businesses nationally reported a decline in revenues that year, and we felt every bit of it.
For the first time in my life, I had to lay off people I deeply respected and cared about. It was one of the hardest experiences I have ever faced as a business owner, and I promised myself I never wanted to be in that position again.
From that point forward, every client relationship became structured around contracts, even if they were shorter-term agreements.
What Nine Times Larger Actually Teaches You
As the economy recovered, we pushed hard on marketing and sales growth. I remember our Chief Marketing Officer and Sales Director asking why I was pushing so aggressively at the time. I told her that the economic wave in front of us was enormous, and when it passed, I wanted us positioned as strongly as possible for whatever came next.
Twenty-four months after COVID first hit, we were nine times larger than we had been before. We grew from a team of eight people to 45.
That growth was exhilarating and incredibly difficult.
Growth can be just as painful as contraction. Maintaining culture, quality, and alignment while scaling at that pace taught me lessons I could never have learned any other way. I learned about leadership, hiring, personality types, accountability, and the importance of protecting culture intentionally.
By 2022, I realized we needed to refocus. We began removing distractions, narrowing our ideal customer profile, and investing more deeply in teammates who shared our long-term vision and entrepreneurial spirit. We became leaner, more focused, and far more intentional about who we served and how we operated.
Building Toward Woven
The last decade has not been easy.
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, roughly 65 percent of businesses do not make it to their tenth year. I completely understand why. Reaching this milestone feels meaningful because building something from nothing requires endurance, adaptability, sacrifice, and belief through seasons where success feels very far away.
Today, though, we are in a strong position.
We are helping clients navigate uncertainty, grow through difficult markets, and position themselves for future opportunities when economic conditions improve. At the same time, we are building toward a much larger vision through a concept I call Woven.
Woven represents the idea that entrepreneurs often need support across dozens of business functions, and our goal is to create a family of specialized companies that can collectively provide those solutions. Sales, marketing, advertising, design, PR, automation, analytics, development, operations, and customer support all work together in a connected ecosystem.
People have asked me why we do not simply place every service under Joseph Studios directly.
My answer is simple. Taco Bell does not sell KFC chicken, even though they belong to the same parent company. Distinct brands allow teams to specialize deeply, develop their own identity, and serve customers in more focused and effective ways.
What Ten Years Actually Means
Looking ahead, I hope the future holds prosperity, growth, and opportunity for our team and our clients. That starts with taking care of our people. When our teammates are supported, they take exceptional care of our clients, and that care shows in the work we produce every day.
I cannot overstate how grateful I am for both our team and our clients.
People often say they love their clients, but I genuinely mean it. Over the last decade, our clients have supported us, believed in us, and stood beside us through incredibly challenging moments. Their trust has shaped how I personally try to treat others in business and in life.
In many ways, they became examples for me.
When I work with contractors or outside partners, I often find myself asking, “How would one of our clients approach this situation?” because the people we have been fortunate enough to work with have consistently demonstrated integrity, kindness, and partnership.
We are deeply blessed because of that.
As for the future of entrepreneurship, I believe there is still tremendous opportunity ahead. The challenge many new entrepreneurs face right now is timing. Everyone wants to know when the perfect moment is to start.
There rarely is one. The world is changing too quickly to wait for perfect conditions, and the people I have watched succeed did not find the right moment. They created it.
The entrepreneurial path is difficult. It requires sacrifice, resilience, and patience. But for those willing to endure the hardship, there is something extraordinary waiting on the other side: freedom.
When I look back on the last decade, the revenue milestones are not what I remember first. I remember the teammates who stayed through the hard years, the clients who trusted us while we were still figuring things out, and the partners who showed us what integrity in business actually looks like.
We built a company. But more than that, we created a place where people could build something meaningful for themselves, and that is what I am most proud of as we move into the next decade.
Here’s to 10 years of Joseph Studios, and to everyone who made it possible.
Daniel Klein is the Founder and CEO of Joseph Studios, an Atlanta-based organic marketing and PR agency, and founder of sister agencies Electric Buzz, ImagineNation, and Brass Monkey Labs. He writes on brand strategy, content marketing, SEO, PR, and the customer psychology behind authentic, relationship-driven growth.
