http://onthegridagency.com/2015/11/business-transparency/ One trend that’s not going away is being transparent about the ins and outs of your business. Here are 17 ways your business can be more transparent today. Credits to: Blind TheSkoolRocks Mix Digital Marketing Agency CoLab by Possible 8ninths Oneupweb Digital Marketing Zco Corporation Motivate Design Stupid Studio Five.Agency Sparkbox SueAmsterdam Haberdashery Design Agency The HopShop Formstack

1. onthegridagency.com http://onthegridagency.com/2015/11/business-transparency/
17 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR BUSINESS MORE TRANSPARENT
Transparency is here to stay
In this day and age information is everywhere, it’s only a click away. There are YouTube videos, how-tos, and top 10
lists on just about anything. And one trend that’s not going away is being transparent about the ins and outs of your
business. How I edit my YouTube videos is a prime example. JENerationDIY walks you through step by step how to
make amazing videos like her. She’s giving away her trade secrets and has received 700K views in return.
More and more companies are making the leap to business transparency
In the world of creative agencies, perhaps the most transparent is Blind, a multi-disciplinary design studio based in
Santa Monica. Blind partners with a design education company TheSkoolRocks, and they produce The Skool
YouTube videos discussing the Business of Design and the Design of Business.
In The Skool videos
Jose Cabbaler and Chris Do open the hood on their business and give customers a detailed look at how Blind works.
From process, to positioning, and dealing with problem clients, they share insights and case studies in a personal,

2. and delightful way.
Blind also demonstrates they’re organized, have a strong process and produce high quality work which provides
reassurance. They put it all out on the table so I feel like they have nothing to hide. Here are a few screens from one
of my favorite The Skool videos, Developing Brand Identity Stylescapes.
Talk about being transparent!
This feels like very proprietary information and in my mind it raises Blind’s status. Not only do I have a good
understanding of what it’d be like to work with Blind and TheSkoolRocks, I would trust them to deliver on a tough
project — one that carries a big budget. Aren’t these the types of projects a service business is looking for?
Transparency breeds trust
Today, those companies that are embracing transparency are allowing potential partners and customers to get to
know them and build trust before that first meeting or before they purchase your product. If your customers have
seen the inner workings of your company and like what they see, you’ll spend less time selling. It lessens your
chance of customer mistaking your company for something you’re not, and you’ll attract customers who know they
need the product or service you offer.
Committing to transparency doesn’t mean you start sharing confidential information
It means providing insight into your thinking, beliefs, and processes so that people can feel like they know you and
start to build trust over time. Trust is the hardest thing to build, but oh so necessary for sales.
If people like you they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you they’ll do business with you. – Zig Ziglar
The elephant in the room
It’s important to address the risk in this. In the cut-throat world of business — your ideas, your process, and your
people are likely your biggest assets. When you make any one of those transparent you are potentially risking your
competitive advantage. In this day and age, people will try to copy anything innovative and new and your good ideas
will become commoditized, so by then, you should have already innovated again — this is how you’ll stay ahead of
the copycats. They can copy your ideas but there’s only one of you and they can’t copy that.
When you become more transparent, you’ll need a differentiator that sets you apart
This is where your positioning strategy comes in. The process of finding one or more meaningful differences
between you and your competitors and building a reputation around that. What’s one thing your competitors can’t or
won’t do? Amplify that uniqueness. One suggestion in your differentiation and transparency strategy is for you to
become an integral part of your brand. Nobody will copy this because they don’t have you. This is exactly what Chris
and Jose are doing.
To get you started, here are 17 ways your business can be more transparent today.
1. Put your credentials in a deck on Slideshare. Mix Digital Marketing Agency Credentials.
2. Make a video about an internal tool or process. CoLab by Possible.
3. Film your team unboxing a new product. Oculus Rift unboxing from 8ninths

3. 4. Post a video about your design process. Design process from Oneupweb Digital Marketing
5. Post a video about your App development process & setting client expectations. App development process from
Zco Corporation
6. Post a slideshare about your innovation process. The What If technique presented by Motivate Design
7. Interview a team member about their role. Lowe Campbell Ewald’s SEO Manager
8. Create a manifesto. Stupid Studio’s Manifesto
9. Publish an overview of your design process. Five.Agency design process published in Medium
10. Create a Pinterest infographic about your responsive design process. Sparkbox responsive design process on
Pinterest
11. Post a Slideshare about how you’re different. SueAmsterdam, The Structure of Digital Agencies
12. Discuss the tools you use and how that makes your team more efficient (and be featured by Adobe!).
Haberdashery Design Agency discuss moving to Creative Cloud
13. Post a stop motion video of a logo design. Logo design in London
14. Post logo sketches on Behance & Pinterest. The HopShop logo sketches by Sam Holliss
15. Post a picture of your weekly scrum on your blog, Facebook and Pinterest. Weekly scrum by Formstack
16. Post a picture of your agile project schedule on Pinterest. Northwest and Delta 18 month system integration
schedule
Be adventurous
Those are just some agency examples. You’ll be surprised at what companies are willing to put out there. Buffer
publicly discloses employee salaries.
Be an open book. Let your customers know who you are and what you’re about and you’ll be on your way to
generating more trust and more sales.
___
ABOUT JESSICA JOBES
Founder OnTheGrid, a growth marketing agency. http://onthegridagency.com
After 13 years at Microsoft in Marketing and Engineering roles, creativity was calling so I left for agency life. First
working at a digital agency and then founding OnTheGrid.
The last 8 years of my Microsoft career was spent on the Bing Engineering team — Bill Gates favorite engineering
team of all time. We worked hard for every inch of growth against Google using data and innovative technology and
this is the DNA I apply to my client’s companies. From 2010-2014 I was the Chief of Staff for the Bing.com CVP
followed by a Chief of Staff role for Julie Larson-Green, Microsoft’s Chief Experience Officer.
ABOUT ONTHEGRID
Ultimately, it’s all about growth | We use data and technology to grow your business, beating other marketing
companies on speed, cost, and quality. Some may think we’re agile market researchers, rapid designers and
developers, or communication crafters. The truth is we’re all three — we’re GROWTH MARKETERS. And we eat
progress for breakfast.