Meet Jonni Bailey of Ruff Haus

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonni Bailey.

Jonni, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started Ruff Haus back in 1997 after I found myself between jobs. To fill the gap, I freelanced for local design firms, I really enjoyed the independence that came from being my own boss but was a bit frustrated with not having direct contact with clients. My husband, then fiancé, encouraged me to take the next step so I did!

All of that happened not too long after graduating from SDSU where I earned my BA in graphic design and what I like to refer to as my “accidental” minor in psychology. I had to maintain a full load and I enjoyed the subject so I would fill in psych classes when I couldn’t get a class in my major. Before I knew it I had enough credits for a psych minor.

While I was in college and shortly after graduating I worked as a graphic designer for the Top Gun School when they were still stationed at Mira Mar. The job gave me an opportunity to hone my skills in the real world so to speak. In addition, I had an internship at a large agency that specialized in annual reports back when large corporations spent large amounts of money on their annual reports to impress investors. Working there really helped polish my design skills and set the bar high. After my internship ended they offered me a job in the production department. The agency structure was a typical one for that time where design and production were kept separate. It wasn’t uncommon for a young designer to work in production until they could prove their design skills. It wasn’t long before I realized I was always going to be “the intern” in their eyes and that I would need to move on in order to move up. I ended up in book publishing. I was the sole designer in the division I worked in. It was great at first, I was creative director, art director, designer, and production artist. Some changes in my personal life had me wanting a different work environment so I ended up back in an agency but this time it was much smaller, they were less specialized, more full service. I realized then how much I enjoy the fast pace and variety found at a small agency. Which brings me back to Ruff Haus.

My goal with Ruff Haus was simple – stay small by design so that I can always have that direct contact with clients. That holds true today. The advantage of being small is we’re pretty agile, I like to say we were agile before it was cool.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I had very few obstacles early on in my career. In fact, things might have come a bit too easy. The road from my internship to a job and then each job after that was pretty smooth. Even starting my own business seemed like a piece of cake. The agencies I had freelanced for were sending me clients that were a bit small for them but just right for me. There are challenges associated with being a small business and wanting to stay small but there are also advantages. If you lose a large client it has a big impact but on the flip side, it’s easy to cut back and weather the storm when times are tough. It wasn’t until around 2008 when the economy took a hit that I realized how much I still needed to learn about running a business. I really struggled but it was a good reality check for me. I invest a lot of myself in my clients and their businesses. Sometimes I forget I need to run my business like a business. I don’t always practice what I preach. But a friend of mine said the other day, “beware the agency with the super slick website”, they have too much time on their hands. Around here, clients come first.

Please tell us about Ruff Haus.
Ruff Haus is a boutique branding firm in Little Italy, San Diego. We have a suite in a historic Victorian that I just love. We work with small and mid-size businesses, as a small business, we understand how important it is for them to have a marketing partner they can trust. We primarily provide branding and brand management. By that I mean we lead our clients through the process of identifying their authentic brand culture, aligning it with their business goals and consistently communicating it to their clients. It’s not unusual for us to also produce marketing materials and in some cases, we’re our client’s marketing department. We always strive to provide creative yet practical solutions to our clients’ unique challenges because no two companies are ever exactly alike.

I believe a company’s brand, while intangible, is its strongest asset; that success requires a collaborative approach; and that grounded, strategic, and compelling design has the power to solve challenges and achieve tangible results.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
20 years of running a business will surely include lots of lessons learned. A few that come to mind in no particular order: 1. thoroughly vet your clients before you agree to work with them. 2. Don’t compromise on your definition of the right or ideal client because it will probably be a difficult relationship to maintain. 3. Only work with clients who really want to work with you and who are motivated to do what they need to do. 4. Always have buy-in and participation from the key stakeholders, C-suite, and upper management.

Pricing:

• We have 3 packages for branding: a Jump-Start package that covers the core basics, a Solid Start package that’s for the market builder, and a Head Start package for businesses who want to be the category leader.
• Packages range from $8,000 to $20,000 and include a Discovery, Strategy, Identity and Messaging and Execution phase that gets more comprehensive with the larger packages. The Solid Start and Head Start packages are somewhat customizable, where the Jump-Start really is the minimum we require for a brand to have a chance at being successful. Once we go beyond branding and get into brand execution and management we price each project or contract based on our customer’s specific goals and needs.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1665 Union Street, Suite B
  San Diego, CA 92101
• Website: www.ruffhaus.com
• Phone: 619-523-8181
• Email: thepack@ruffhaus.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonnidawg/
• Twitter: twitter.com/jonnidawg
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ruff-haus-san-diego
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruffhausdesign/

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