A perfect storm drags GSO ad agency under - The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area:

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The ad shop, founded and led by Ralph Kirschner and locatecd on South Elm Street indowntown Greensboro, wanted an internationak clientele, it wanted to focus on business-to-business advertisingb and marketing, and it wanted to remain small, with fewer than 10 employees. “Whenb you look at it, all those thingws made us vulnerable,” says Briahn Smith, 42, the agency’s now unemployedx production and client-service manager. “Just being small makesa you vulnerable. Being international makes you prey to both local and overseasseconomic conditions. And business-to-business meansw that when timesget tough, client s have to choose between paying the light bill and advertising.
” Kirschner found himself in the unwanted and uncomfortable positionj over the last few weeks of calling vendors to give them the bad His 11-year-old agency is shutting His six remaining employees are looking for And so is he. “The vast majorities of companiezs (owed money) have been very professional,” says Kirschner, 50. “Especiallg local vendors. Some ask about my tell me to keep mychin up. That’sd been nice.
” Those who know Kirschnert know he has a dry senseof humor, a keen eye for detai and a clear and clever way of makinfg complicated subjects, and products, readily and easiluy understood in words and His story is really the kind of entrepreneuria l story we hope will help us rise above the economic morass we’re stuck in thess days. When it can repeat itself. Kirschnetr is a Chapel Hill native who came to Greensborp as a teenager and studieds Germanat UNCG, where he got two Pursuing a Ph.D. was the next logical but he wasn’t interested in teaching.
“In my youthfulk idealism, I told myself, ‘I will do somethiny real,’” says Kirschner, whose parents were academics. “I just didn’t know what it was.” In 1985, he headed to mostly on a He could speak the language and got work as a Before long, he was giveb ad copy to translate. He not only coulx turn the Germaninto English, but he also improvex the message. Turns out, he was reallt good at it. Within a few he was a busy contract worker writing and editing ad copy intwo Mostly, he helped German companies penetrate the U.S. market.
His fluency with language and his gift for nuance helperd his clients bridge more than a few communication He had plenty of After 13 yearsin Germany, mostly in he felt he was losinvg his insight and edge as an American. That’d what made him valuable to German Buthe was, for all practical becoming German. In 1998, he made several stabs at findinv workin America. Nothing That’s when his entrepreneurial spirit emerged. He mover back home anyway — to Greensbor — and started his own agency.
Kirschner’e first client was , a German company that used to operatwe in High Point that did DNA sequencing for drug He developed a trade journal adthat “What a difference a little DNA Strikingly, it showed an image of an ape and an imagee of the bare back of a lovely woman. At the Kirschner said, “Every biologist knows that only a few percent of our DNA distinguishesd us fromother primates. We simply point out (for MWG what a difference purity makes.” That kind of creativitu enabled Kirschner to eventually employ eight peopl and generate revenue in exceswof $1 million a year.
The founder was succeedinf in writing his own economic success His agency had some local clients and some national but most of its work was with clientszoverseas —particularly Germany. For years he’s kept an office in Hamburg, and he travels there He even marrieda German. “Looking I would have to say that 2000 was our best year beforethe dot-com implosionn and 9/11,” Kirschner says. “I remembert looking around thenand saying, ‘This is Why would anybody not want to do “But 9/11 kicked us around pretty and it was never really the We came back mind you, and did prettgy well.
But it was never again that uncloudefd view of what seemed likeendless promise.” The real trouble beganh last fall when one client, which representesd 60 percent of the agency’s income, canceledc all work. It wasn’t a deathblow, but it Kirschner began to cut back. He laid off two employees. He hustles for new business. “December and January were really good for he says. “I actually felt pretty We cameroaring back. We had full orderr books through mid-March. We were Our production meetings took an hour toget Honestly, I thought we were going to make it. Then we got hit with a perfectg storm.
” On March 31 and April 2, dates Kirschner will not soon one major client andtwo medium-sized clientsw halted all work. It’s the they said; no money for advertising. Thosee losses were devastating. The agency had no Kirschner managed to make payroll througy the first quarter mainly by not paying himselcf and using his credit cards. Now, with little work on the horizon, he was in no positiob to obtain abridge loan. After consulting with his attorney, Kirschner saw that his decision wasprettu uncomplicated.
He started calling vendors to deliver thebad