Tiffany Napper received her journalism degree and began a career as a marketing assistant, customer service representative and then as an editor. While she succeeded at her various jobs, she still felt she was searching for her true passion. After only a few years of picking up skills and trying to find that career dream, she switched her focus to public relations, and then cut her teeth working for two very prestigious companies: the American Cancer Society and Yamaha.
“Bats on Strings began out of the desire to stretch my wings and expand my services into a wider array of creative industries,” Napper says. “Each of my previous positions taught me valuable skills that carry over into being an entrepreneur, not to mention recognizing my vast array of skills made the leap to being my own boss much less frightening.”
Once she started her own business, Napper felt that the variety of pervious positions she held had given her a wealth of valuable knowledge.
“While working for my previous employers, I was always open and eager to learn something new,” Napper says. “At Yamaha, I learned about social media and digital marketing. I was also tasked with launching a video series, which taught me how to be a producer. I worked on a team producing large-scale concerts, which taught me how to effectively pull off a multi-faceted event. All of these skills combined with my PR and marketing experience, gave me the confidence and the desire to launch my own company, so that I could offer effective solutions to creative endeavors looking to reach the next level.”
Starting any new business is a leap of faith and presents many challenges. For Napper, she was glad to wear many hats, but found that there was one area she needed to delegate out in order to stay focused.
“When I first launched Bats on Strings, the hardest part was wearing the role of accountant,” Napper says. “Being the CEO, COO, creative, sales and IT support person didn’t bother me, but billing was a huge hang-up. It required serious dedication and, finally, it took realizing when it was time to ask for help. Taking that simple task off my plate gave me back my sanity, and that is priceless. My biggest challenge currently is building an amazing company culture. I feel lucky to have talented team members, so I am making an effort to learn what motivates them and what gives them joy.”
With a great team, of three full time employees and various freelancers on board, Napper says promoting her business has been relatively simple.
“Word of mouth has served us well, so we let our work speak for itself,” Napper says. “To tell our daily stories and showcase our personality, we use one of the greatest promotional tools in the current market: social media.”
As for how she relates to potential clients, Napper says she likes to keep it casual, yet focused.
“Our first meeting is always in person,” Napper says. “Preferably over coffee in a casual setting so that we can really dig into their goals. Next, we map out a game plan on paper. And perhaps most importantly, then we go over that game plan with the client, to make sure we are on the right track before we take that first leap. After that, we hit the ground running. We connect with our clients as often as necessary to get the job done. Since several of our clients live in other cities or are often on tour, we communicate heavily over phone and via email. For our local clients, we love to meet up in person when possible. I launched my own company because I wanted to feel more connected to my work, so a personal relationship is something we take very seriously. At the end of a term with a client, we provide an overview of our successes, including media placement highlights, social media growth numbers, and more.”
The future is looking bright for Bats on Strings and Napper feels optimistic that they will continue to learn and grown.
“Each year keeps getting better and better,” she says. “My hopes for the next year are to continue to grow our roster and make a difference in the lives of musicians and creative endeavors. I also hope to add an additional public relations coordinator and social media manager, and to pull off an event that I cannot say too much about, but let’s just say it has to do with brands and music and it would take place in New Orleans.”
Find out more about Bats on Strings by visiting their website.
