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Are you building a people-centered business?
Ask any business owner or CEO, Who the most important people in their business are, and most will say “the customer is of course.”
But what if we refocus that lens and make our employees and colleagues most important? What happens when we create a business that gives meaning to our employees? How will they interact differently with customers and how does that affect the bottom line?
Listen in to this episode where I talk with Jeb Banner the CEO of Small Box creative agency.
Jeb Banner CEO, Co-Founder of Small Box
Jeb was born in Chicago but moved to South Bend, Indiana when he was 6. Childhood was spent fidgeting at school, raising tadpoles in pools while building go-karts and tree forts in the rain.
Growing up it seemed that starting a business was the furthest thing from Jeb’s mind. After graduating with an English degree from IU in 1996, Jeb moved to Chicago to live in a ballroom with some friends, work odd jobs and play music. This lost weekend turned into a two-year stretch that brought Jeb to Indianapolis in 1998.
Finally the business bug bit. In 1999, Jeb discovered eBay. A few months and a large record collection later and StuffE was launched. It should be noted that said record collection also inaugurated Jeb’s record collecting habit which he has yet to kick. His vinyl collection clocks in around 3000 albums. After building StuffE into a mildly successful eBay consignment business he partnered with Dan Ripley to launch Antique Helper, an online auction house that married Dan’s knowledge and network with Jeb’s online auction systems.
In the meantime, Jeb and fellow Antique Helper employee Joe Downey collaborated on building Musical Family Tree, an online archive of Indiana music, which was founded in January of 2004. By the end of 2005, Antique Helper had grown into a successful business with $3 million in annual sales, but Jeb decided it was time to move on. Antiques were fun but the internet was calling.
In 2006 Jeb and Joe founded SmallBox, landing NUVO Newsweekly as their first client. As the company grew it moved beyond websites to become a fully integrated web marketing company. In early 2012, Jeb began to lead the company towards deeper consulting engagements, working with clients on organizational health issues. 2016 has seen a transition to what the SmallBox team calls 3.0. In essence, a quest to turn work into play and help clients do the same. Learn about this new direction here.
Jeb is very happily married to the amazing Jenny Banner and they have three strong, smart and bold girls. They live about 4 miles north of Broad Ripple with 2 cats, 1 dog, and 1 tiki bar.
Twitter: @jebbanner
Personal Blog: www.jebbanner.com
SmallBox is a creative agency focused on helping clients find opportunities, solve big, fuzzy challenges, and build meaningful employee, brand and service experiences. We take a people-centered approach to designing solutions with you. Our services, from branding to strategic consulting to employee engagement, all speak to one goal: partnering with people to create distinctive and meaningful experiences. We thrive on curiosity, courage, collaboration and persistence, and these core values drive everything we do.
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