Scott Ballum is another entrepreneur getting his start in Green Spaces – a shared office space for socially-responsible startups. His company is named Sheepless Co. Why? In Scott’s words:
“I stopped working to promote companies I didn’t know anything about. I stopped blindly spending my money on what others thought I should like. It’s an exciting new life, away from the herd.” Needless to say, we agree.

Scott Ballum of Sheepless Co.

We’ve found, with a lot of the people that we interview, that the companies they start fulfill many of their needs beyond the financial. Social needs, creative needs… Your job should fulfill all of those other needs. It’s your life’s work – it’s what you’re doing every day.

But most people don’t enjoy what they do every day. It’s surprising to me! Even when I was working for someone else, it was still at a design company. And a graphic design practice is still going to be more enjoyable than so many other jobs that are out there. I was still using this artistic skill that I wanted to use.

Since I’ve been working here at Green Spaces, and on a couple of other projects that I’ve done, I’ve met a lot of people who basically are finding ways to support themselves – but it’s around some issue, or some mission, that they feel really passionate about. Not just because, “I want to make money.” I find that really inspiring. I think a lot of people wish that they could do that, but they don’t think it’s possible.

Graphic design for the Art Director’s Club

That’s definitely similar to what we’re trying to do on our site, which is promoting creative entrepreneurs who are creating their own path and making a living doing it.

I’m specifically interested in “activist entrepreneurs.” I want to show the relationship between really political street activists who band together and sell their posters online to make money, and, say, Seventh Generation. Which is a big cleaning products company, but they’re also based around social and environmental issues. i want to create this new way of thinking about business.

What I’m hoping to do is provide a voice, a way for those people who are doing it to branch out and tell others, “Yes, this kind of career is possible.” You can leave your horrible middle-management job, or whatever it is, and do something that you’re excited about.

It will start as an online magazine. I hope to, at least quarterly or bi-annually, do printed versions as well. I think there’s a place for that – people want it. You can hold it, you can take it places, you can show it to people. But it’s a lot easier, and faster, and cheaper, to build an audience online. As I’m sure you know!

Graphic design for the Art Director’s Club

Absolutely, the internet makes finding an audience so much easier. What is your background?

I’ve always wanted to be independent. When I came out of school, where I studied graphic design, I passed up a couple of jobs because they just seemed like they were too focused on one particular type of design. Or one particular industry. I wanted something that was broader. I ended up freelancing by default, because I kept turning down jobs!

Then I actually fell into a couple of jobs that were pretty fantastic. I worked in-house at Housing Works, and then I got a job with C&G partners. I would be working with design legends, and it was the kind of job you just don’t turn down when it’s offered. I liked, when I was there, that they had a very broad range of clients. I was taken in as senior personnel and I was able to run my own projects. But even then, I still had to report to someone else. There was still someone else who was deciding the direction of the company.

Also, I have a background in writing, and I was finding more and more venues to do that write. But I had to squeeze it into after-hours and weekends. I wanted to find a way to make that a really solid part of what I did. I decided to go out on my own and turn it into some sort of a business.

Graphic design for the Signature Theatre Company

How did you end up a part of Green Spaces?

I left the company I was working for in September. Great timing. I had projects all lined up, and I thought I was totally set. Well, the big projects all disappeared when the economy crashed. There were a few months of serious drought there. During that time, I was working in coffee shops.

I would tell myself that the people who worked in the coffee shop were my “co-workers” and if I was late they were going to know! I really had to convince myself of that – there had to be some way to get myself out of the apartment. I had to go somewhere else and say, “OK, this is work time.”

In February or March of this year, I started getting a few phone calls, and projects started coming up. Doing design work and writing in the coffee shop environment was a lot harder than sitting there looking for work. I started thinking I should find some other space – not having any idea yet how I would ever afford it. In that same coffee shop, people from this building had put up a flier with little take-away tabs with their phone number, saying, “Co-working office space.” I decided to just take a look.

Graphic design for Housing Works

Why not?

Exactly, why not? It sounded like fun, and I figured I’d meet some more people. When I got here, I loved the building. It’s so alive, and there are so many different people here doing so many different kinds of things. And yet we all have a very socially-conscious, environmentally-conscious mission to whatever we’re doing. We’re not competition – we’re all very supportive of each other. It seemed like a great thing to try, so I tried it, and I loved it.

As your own small company, you could just sit at home or in your little office and be really isolated. Places like Green Spaces let you be autonomous and let you do what it is that you want to do, and yet still share resources and share inspiration.

Could you tell us what your mission is at this point? What kind of projects are you doing?

For the design practice, I aim to work with small, socially-responsible businesses or non-profits – cultural organizations, things like that. I’m trying to work on projects that I can really get behind and support. It’s not easy, because that’s definitely not a niche where there’s a lot of money. It means that I have to take on more projects. But they’re much more rewarding. Even if I have to put in long nights, I’d rather do it for something I feel good about and am excited about.