Planking.

Last Tuesday I had a bad client call.

A client I've had since I opened the metaphorical doors of GeorgeCo., LLC, a Delaware Company almost six years ago, decided they no longer wanted to pay my (very reasonable) monthly retainer.

I suppose this is, somewhat a rite of passage: Losing a client. And it happens to every agency.

Though it's not happened to GeorgeCo, before.

The client came to me on the recommendation of two of the most luminous of old-time Ogilvy luminaries. And to look on the bright side, as you must when something like this happens, I don't think anyone anywhere expected I'd keep them--and keep getting paid--for six long years, Net f-in' 90 after Net f-in' 90.

About a year ago, before amerika was trump-dumped, the Economist ran the article below as a cover story.

As you'd expect from a scrupulous and fact-based magazine like The Economist, they provided data to support their headline. Data that shows what they mean by "startup" boom.

During the six years I've been in business, the bulk of my business comes from startups. I've even developed an offering that I tailor to help those many startups.

Of course what follows is self-serving, but if I'm not serving myself, what am I? Horn & Hardart's?

I wish the Economist had asked me about the start-up boom. I'd have something to say. Something valid.

Every start-up I've ever worked with underspends on marketing.

I'll say that again.

Every start-up I've ever worked with underspends on marketing.

It's the opposite of the dot com craziness of 1999.

Every start-up I've ever worked with underspends on marketing.

What's more, most start-ups can't even describe what it is they do. And virtually zero can describe what they do in a way that makes consumers (or investors) say "break me off a piece of that Kit-Kat bar."

That said, when they finally have a product or offering that works, when--through working with me--they finally can define what it is they do and what makes them different, and how to tell it--when they've finally get through the hardest work of establishing the stuff that brands are made of, they're gun-shy and don't pull the "spend-trigger."

Every start-up I've ever worked with underspends on marketing.

I'd say the client that fired me suffered from that situation in spades. 

It's like owning a bakery and having the next cronut or bagclair (the famous bagel-eclair combo that didn't take off) but never telling anyone about it. The practice, in a twisted Georgian-way, reminds me of a line attributed to Yogi Berra"

"Sure we're lost. But we're making good time."

We finally have something special, but why tell people? That would only ruin it.

If you're a start-up and you're not under-capitalized, why not call me?

At the very least I can throw a good, maybe even wise, Yogi Berra-ism your way.

Or we can share a bagclair.