When we started Hemlock, we asked ourselves about the kind of client we wanted to work with. People in our network would tell us things like:

“Go where the money is.”

“Try and target some of the big corporations in West Michigan.”

“Don’t waste your time with small potatoes.”

Why not spend our time on the “small potatoes” though? When I’m making a roast at home, I prefer to use a small potato medley nearly every time. They take a little extra care and time to get right, but the flavor and texture is worth it. It became clear that the little clients –the small potatoes– were a totally untapped market. Even worse than that, they’d been stranded by people who felt they didn’t have time for a client with a smaller operation or lower budget. 

Small businesses became our passion immediately. 

We come from friends and family who owned pop-up shops, farmer’s market stalls, and online shops. We wanted to serve people, not just businesses, and we structured the numbers around this. We figured out ways to reduce overhead and increase efficiency, and we specialized in sharing passions. We want to learn about your business or project inside and out –in fact, we kind of have to if we intend to do a good job. We keep everything within our small two-person team so your passion is never lost in a game of telephone. We do everything in-house and always keep two hands on the ball.

So when people look at us and say things like:

“You need to raise your prices and chase the big businesses.”

“Why are you spending resources on low budgets?”

“Don’t waste your time on small potatoes.”

We respond by showing our approach to get the small potatoes all the way from the farm to the table, from an idea to a campaign, from just another job to just another passion. Hemlock Media Co is all about small businesses –maybe because we’re just about as small as a business can get. 

Small isn’t worse, just different, and we think different is good.