Did You Know 2017 was Sleeping Giant Creative’s 10 Year
Anniversary?
That’s okay, neither did we. Well, okay we did, but we just forgot all about it. The cobbler’s kids never get new shoes, et cetera. Now that it’s November, and our anniversary year is almost over (though, we started up in July (Danni thinks), so technically we have until July 2018 to celebrate…right?), we’re finally sitting down to write a little something about it.
Let’s put it in a nice, easily digestible timeline, shall we? It all started in…
May 2007: Dannielle Stark blissfully whiles away her daylight hours at Scheitlin Communications where she’s been an art director for 9 years. One day, Owner/Bosslady Barb graciously decides to send all her employees to a personal coach to improve their minds and hearts and lives and stuff. This personal coach helps Danni realize she’s actually always wanted to have her own business, so she quits Scheitlin to do her own thing. Not really sure that’s what Barb had in mind….
July (we think) 2007: Sleeping Giant takes its first tentative steps as a real, live company and lands smack dab in the corner of the Stark family dining room. Pros: naptime = any time; no one to judge mid-day movie screenings (you know…for inspiration); no need for daycare, kids can run around the house all day. Cons: no need for daycare, kids can run around the house all day; no more separation of work and home; try not to starve.
2009: The Stark family builds an addition to their house, and Sleeping Giant gets its own, official home office space! With a lockable door and a sofa! Much more professional. Much less embarrassing to bring clients over. It was even featured on some random home office blog. Very exciting times.
2010: Danni quits doing web development because she’s too old. Thus begins a 7 year partnership with a local developer. Websites are essential, guys. No getting around it.
2011: The business somehow survives Danni’s second pregnancy (there may have been a few meetings she unwittingly slept through). Danni hires her first office assistant to help with filing, making copies, and the like.
2012: Danni fires her first office assistant.
2014: The onset of the 60 hour work week…Danni decides she doesn’t actually want to be a boss, so she hires a boss. Who is her sister. Things get interesting. But at least it’s an excuse to get matching desks!
Later in 2014: The office gets a couple mascots. 
January 2015: Sleeping Giant hires freelance copywriter.
July 2015: Freelance copywriter becomes part time employee.
September 2015: Part time employee becomes full time employee. Goodbye sofa….
June 2016: Sleeping Giant hires an intern! My my, we are getting big for our britches.
April 2017: After a full year of bitching, Kyle and Courtenay get their way and Sleeping Giant gets a mini fridge.
April 2017: Apparently, this world wide web thing isn’t a fad. Sleeping Giant adds an in-house web developer and officially ups its employee count to 4 ½.
May 2017: Courtenay regrets the decision to get a mini fridge and wishes she still had a shelf in the big fridge.
June 2017: Four desks start to seem a bit crowdy. Poor intern never knows where her computer will end up (on someone else’s desk, the dining room table, a piano bench in the foyer). Plans are considered to open a Sleeping Giant basement annex.
July (we think) 2017: Sleeping Giant’s 10th birthday.
November 2017: Sleeping Giant realizes it missed its birthday.
And that’s about it! From one desk in the dining room to four in an actual office space, one lone designer to 4 ½ employees, a basic Pandora subscription to Pandora Premium…it’s been a helluva 10 years. We started with one decent sized contract job and a couple referrals and have been busy ever since. So, thank YOU for being a part of our success! We can’t imagine where we’ll be in another 10 years, but we hope to see you there.