28 Years… Wow
On January 5th, 2023 CraneDigital turned 28 years old. I was talking with my wife this morning wondering at what point the number of years one has been doing something could be construed as a minus, not a plus. Neither of us knew the answer to that question. The hope is the number of years of experience translates into integrity, trust and competence and the sheer fact that if you’re still around doing something that long, you must be doing something right.
The market place can be a great crucible. One metric might be longevity; how long a company is able to maintain the proper balance between serving their clients well and staying in business. Adjusting and changing with market trends to remain relevant can be tricky. On the one hand, ‘trending’ can be important. On the other, ‘trendy’ is, well… no one wants to be trendy. Trying to stay ahead of the curve just a little by investing time and energy in the right places while remaining true to the foundational principles that have shaped success over 28 years – without becoming stodgy or irrelevant.
Another metric might be repeat business. Once a client has elected to put their trust in you, will they do it again? How’s your repeat business? it’s always easier to repeat successful working relationships (for both client and vendor) than to fire up a new relationship from scratch. There are a lot of unknowns, and we totally get that at CraneDigital. That’s why when someone says ‘yes,’ we move heaven and earth to make sure at the end of the project they’re glad they did. When your name is on the door, that’s just what you do.
And finally, because companies tend to come and go, and individuals within organizations come and go, or – move around to different employment situations – it’s sometimes hard to know who will be around in a year, or two or three when you have a follow up project you need done. We’ve often won new business because the shop that created a previous project is no longer in business and our clients don’t know where to turn.
I suppose at some point years from now the same thing might happen here. But now, in January of 2023, things are going strong and we’re enjoying our 28th year in this business of creating custom, technically-detailed, creative, specific animation for our clients more than ever. Software has become more powerful and efficient. Computers are insanely fast, especially compared to the state of computing when we began in 1995. This makes it even more fun to create and allows more flexibility because it’s faster to visualize, faster to iterate and the end product is that much better because of it.
This is also a thank you to our excellent clients over the years. Without you there is no CraneDigital. To say we’re grateful for your business feels woefully inadequate. But we are, so thank you, sincerely, for the privilege of serving you over these 28 years. We’re still here and can’t wait to work with you again in 2023.
Sincerely, John B. Crane
Founder, CraneDigital LLC
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