Official Business

What would you say if we told you we created the ERG business structure on a napkin at Bonefish Grill? Well, it’s true. Hope had an accountant friend at the time, so over drinks and Bang Bang Shrimp, he sketched out for us a viable way to structure a consulting business that included two partners. He introduced us to terms like Limited Liability Corporation and told us we needed get some papers in place and we would be a business.

So that’s exactly what we did.

One Sunday afternoon, we met at Hope’s house, found the North Carolina Secretary of State website, and downloaded the forms to start a business. One of the forms required a name for the company, so we started brainstorming. We knew of someone who had the word “group” in their personal business and it sounded like there was a lot of important and official work going on. Because of that, we knew we wanted the word group in our name. We also knew we wanted to be helpful to people… sort of a “resource” for educators. Even though we were both reading specialists at the time, we wanted to go with a broader name that could include a variety of subjects. Maybe even then we knew we would grow into something larger? 

We started typing names into the name finder – it’s a real thing on the website – and that helped us eliminate all kinds of things because if someone else has the name, you can’t use it. Not legally, anyway. We finally landed on Education Resource Group, LLC, signed the papers, wrote a check to the state, and waited for our articles of incorporation to come. (Huge disclaimer coming your way: do as we say, not as we did. We tell you this as part of our ERG history and not as something you should actually run out and do. We have learned since then that we probably should have had a lawyer involved in this process, but somehow it all worked out.)

Once we got those articles of incorporation, we decided we probably needed a logo and some business cards or something to give people. We had basically no budget for that, so we decided we would ask one of the high school graphic design teachers if he had any students who would like to enter a contest to design it. Turns out high school kids are pretty happy with a $50 gift card to Target in exchange for doing something they had to do in class anyway. And off we went with our new logo.

Just like that we were in business. We were excited and hopeful and happy. We still are.

Nothing feeds your soul like autonomy and agency, even if there are bumps in the road. We get asked all the time how we knew to do this or that. The real truth is… we didn’t. Sometimes we still don’t. I mean those of you who know us personally know that we really. did. not. know. what. we. were. doing. However, once we had our vision in place, we just kept moving towards that. We just started with what we did know, figured out resources we might need, crossed checked that with what we could access, and then did the next thing that made sense. 

ERG is proof that you don’t have to be in the business to be a business.

For Reflection:

• What gives you the sense of autonomy and agency?
• How clear is your vision? How are you moving towards that?
• Out of the resources you may need, what do you actually have access to?
• What is the one next thing that makes sense?