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Growth and revenues are some of the most commonly used metrics for assessing a company’s success. Stories of industry giants like Amazon often celebrate rapid and continuous growth and focus on how this has contributed to their success.
Recent events, however, have exhibited the dangers of focusing on such metrics. Even big tech companies like Meta and Netflix have seen heavy setbacks caused by unexpected plateaus in growth and revenue. Similarly, growth-based startups frequently face setbacks when the growth stories they’re chasing fail to pan out. Evidently, pursuing growth and revenue, at least without first understanding the fundamentals of the business, can spell disaster for companies both big and small.
For public relations and marketing entrepreneur Stephen Donnelly, one fundamental thing that he believes many have forgotten is that client relationships should always come first. With his New York-based firm Stephen Donnelly & Associates, Donnelly gives life to his belief that when a business puts the client first, the money is sure to follow.
“When I had just graduated college and worked for large marketing firms, I learned quickly that most of them focused on the money part of things and making as much money as you can. I started my company with the belief that there is a better way—that we can focus more on relationships than just focusing on the dollars,” he says. “Today, what makes our firm unique is that we really focus on not only retention and keeping our clients happy, but also growing along with them—really building and fostering those relationships.”
Even though growth and revenue take a backseat to client relations, this business philosophy has turned out to be hugely successful for both him and his firm. In the past five years, the company has grown by 400% in revenue, staff, and client base, with upcoming expansions in various locations throughout New York and across the United States.
For Stephen Donnelly, however, a better metric of success is his firm’s long-term partnership with many of its clients, most of whom have been with Donnelly since before his firm’s establishment 20 years prior.
“I would say our biggest success stories, and one of the things that I think that I’m most proud of, is seeing the growth and success of clients like Adam Weitsman,” he says. “Adam was actually our first client, and in our 20-plus years with him, we were able to grow his professional brand into a conglomerate of various companies as well as grow his personal brand and help him become worth over $1 billion. His story is just one of the really great partnerships we have had over the years, with everything from small mom-and-pop organizations to Fortune 100 companies. Adam is a really great example of why I started my company—of what a company that puts its client first can do.”
Find Stephen Donnelly on his Facebook and Instagram to find out more about his business and his work in public relations and marketing.
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Photo provided by the author with written permission from owner Stephen Donnelly
