Where Do You Stand?

Our blog will soon feature a series of posts titled “How I started ‘Standing.’” These short pieces will give readers insight into how the members of our outstanding team came to join Standing Partnership. Since I literally “started Standing,” I figured a back story was in order and that I should go first.

I must start by mentioning my background. I have had a diverse career, and I worked, generally, at some great places. However, the effects of corporate reorganziations in the late 1980s and early 1990s rubbed me the wrong way. So after spending time with two multinational public relations firms, a small advertising agency and two Fortune 500 companies, I teamed with my sister and we branched out on our own. By October 1991, Kelly and I had started Standing Partnership. It was just the two of us, and it often felt like we were “playing office.”

We selected the name of the firm for several reasons. First, we felt like the name showed clients that they could depend on us. It also implied that we would be around a long time. Most importantly, or perhaps most conveniently, “Standing” is our family name. Yes, I’m the PR person formerly known as Cathy Standing. Many people aren’t aware of that fact.

After a fun first year in which Kelly and I handled everything from writing news releases to billing clients, we hired our first intern. Soon after, Kelly left the firm, our intern headed back to school for the fall semester, and I was left running a one-person ship. But that didn’t last long. Standing Partnership grew steadily, and we were up to 16 employees by the end of 1994.

The growth was amazing, but we never lost our core values. You see, when we started Standing Partnership, our goal was to create a great place to work. A place where we could work with clients we respect. And a place, thanks to the people and environment, where we would be excited to work each day. Plus we didn’t want to fall into what we felt was the stereotypical public relations firm. You know the type – 80-hour work weeks, dollars above all else, etc. We’ve never been that type of firm, and we never intend to be. Our core values are at the forefront of everything we do.

I feel like the great place we created to work back in 1991 has held up quite well. Most days, I have not lost sight of who we are or what we are about. On occasion, I still feel like I’m playing office. And I’m still excited to come into the office just about every day.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 12:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.