If you have never heard of One Week Job, the blog/video series follows Sean Aiken as he travels from job to job in search of his passion. The ultimate goal of the project is to work 52 jobs in 52 weeks and possibly find his dream job.
In week 30, he visited SnorgTees.
SnorgTees is a web-run t-shirt company out of Georgia. Founded in 2004 by brothers and run along with a few friends, the company has grown profitable after a few months of struggle.
Matt Walls is the president and definer of the word “snorg,” a “replacement word” that can be whatever you want. His brother Bryan Walls took the title of “Creative Director,” which must mean he came up with the word “snorg” in the first place. Really, if they did nothing else besides invent the word, they probably could have been considered pretty creative people. Instead, they defined a word and used it to create a company.
SnorgTees positions themselves well outside of the “faceless corporate entity” stereotype in their own description, and it’s definitely not a category they have any danger of entering.
Part of their innovation depends upon customers who appreciate their brand and company enough to submit awesome designs to them on a regular basis. They pay anyone who submits a “thumbs up” idea $100 and give them a free shirt!
What does that mean to consumers? They are approachable and involve their consumers. It’s the closest thing to a social network running a t-shirt company in existence today, if you are into that sort of Web 2.0 business hot topic these days.
Sean of One Week Job is also quick to point out that it’s not all fun and games running your own company. These guys may look like they are having the greatest time ever–and they should–but Sean notes that “If you want to run a successful company, you can’t forget all the details and long hours that go into it.”
“After the first six months of doing this full-time, I was pretty nervous. Then, every month it gets better and better and more comfortable and more fun,” Bryan Walls, president of SnorgTees, said. “Having a taste of owning my own business and working for myself, I definitely think that’s what I want to do the rest of my life.”
Overall, they seem to have found a pretty laid back company and discovered the dream, managing your own fun company and making your own paychecks. Oh, and they get to work with models. That must be rough.
