Core Biz Values of Maple Creative
Core Values are the ideals that hold true regardless of the project you’re working on or the customers you’re currently serving. They represent the guiding vision for your work.
For me, I didn’t start Maple Creative to earn money. Of course, I want to make a living doing what I love, but the reason I have so much energy and drive is because I can design my business around these core values.
These values are both guiding for the business and for doing the work itself. When I hire someone to the team or partner with someone, these values shape the way our work is done.
Be Generous
Giving creates abundance. It’s that simple. The best way to grow a business is by being generous and seeking to make a difference. While there is a limit to how much time I can give to clients, I can always answer a question, share information, or refer somebody to a helpful resource.
Playfulness
Everyone deserves work that is fun and engaging. Being playful is a kind of openness that allows creativity to explode like a maple tree raining it’s spinning, dancing seeds. These are ideas with wings!
Resourcefulness
We are incredibly resourceful in overcoming our barriers, and we trust that we can call on our network for support when we get stuck. There is an abundance of solutions waiting to be discovered or designed.
Be Helpful
Being helpful and providing a “quick win” is the best kind of marketing. It is generous, costs nothing, and creates story-worthy moments (even if it involves turning down a good project because someone else is better suited). A successful creative agency is based 100% on trust, which is developed by showing up and always seeking the win-win solution.
Success happens together – for us, the clients… but also in our ability to give back to the land, animals, spirits. Just like a maple tree, we become more and more efficient in our processes and it’s through this efficiency that we are abundant and can provide so much to the world around us.
Collaboration
Through teamwork, friendship, and support we cultivate a sense of abundance and possibility. We know that anything is possible because everyone involved in a project (us and clients) are able to bring something valuable to the table. We play to our strengths rather than try to fit ourselves into a cookie cutter mold. Through collaboration, we can be ourselves.
Outcome thinking
Every project or task has a clearly defined outcome, so when we commit to a project we are taking responsibility for completing it, even if we don’t know how to do it yet. Sometimes the path appears once we start walking in the right direction.
Flexibility
No system, process, or procedure is set in stone. It’s simply a seed… a blueprint for a possible outcome. We are flexible in finding a way to achieve the outcome that we commit to, even if there is no clear path at the moment.
Leadership
Some people on the team will have more experience in a particular area (like web-development) than others. This is an opportunity for mentorship and leadership. We’re walking down the path, and if you know the way, please step up and guide us.
Documentation
We take every opportunity to leave a trail, create a map, or tell a story that will help someone else in the future. Our rigorous documentation creates transparency, opportunity, access, and helps to make our work more effective because we have a way to measure, improve, and be sure that we’re completing a task. This value is represented in our team documents as well as support docs and video training for clients.
Mistakes
Growth does not happen in a straight line, and the rings on a tree are not perfect circles. The process of learning and developing skill requires mistakes, challenges, and even feelings of inadequacy… there is simply no way around the mistakes so we can just accept them and move on without shame. That’s why we have a team.
Self-Care
Our collaborative work and work with clients is an opportunity to develop our own identities, confidence, joy, and authentic pride in our creative work.
Agency
We each have agency and choice to be involved in any particular project that we’re working on. No one on the team is required to do anything they are not excited to do, and no one is required to continue working on something that isn’t working for them.
Communication
Everything that we do requires consistent and clear communication. We are responsible for updating our team on our success so that projects can be completed, and on our challenges so that we can push through them. We use communication tools such as slack and Trello so there are clear and regular opportunities to check-in.
Quality
We seek to provide the highest quality service and outcome that we can. The world needs us to step up and shine, to be focusing our unique offer in a way that gives back. We choose the people and the organizations we serve, and so they deserve the highest quality work – otherwise, we should be serving someone else.
Simplicity
The simplest solution is always the best solution. By prioritizing simplicity we’re also reducing future risks that things will fall apart. By choosing a one-page builder tool to create content in WordPress, we allow all our documentation to be relevant.
Service
We are honing our skills in service of a larger meaning – supporting the magical web of life which sustains, delights, and surprises us. Sometimes this means taking on projects that amplify our values – like building a website for a community center or a wildlife sanctuary.
