Great Entrepreneurial Place to Work

Employees: 50 in the US, 20 in the UK

What they do: Independent communications consultancy.

Why it’s great: CJP Communications founder Jennifer Prosek takes her company culture so seriously, she wrote a book about it: Army of Entrepreneurs. This management strategy is focused on helping every member of the staff develop an owner’s mindset, which means employees take full and enthusiastic responsibility for each of their accounts, from client service to generating ideas for expansion.

According to one staff member, the management model can be described as “flat is beautiful,” and “management by empowerment” and has led to new practice groups, junior staff quickly taking on senior-level work, high staff retention, and a hard-working but fun and creative culture. 

“The idea for Army of Entrepreneurs started when we had fewer than five employees and I was really frustrated that we weren’t growing fast enough,” said Prosek. “I felt overwhelmed because I was doing everything. I did a lot of complaining like a lot of small business owners do, ‘Boy, why don’t my employees to this? Why don’t my employees do that?’ Then I woke up one morning and thought, ‘Maybe I’ve never asked my employees to help me in other regards and maybe I’ve never really laid out for them what we’re trying to achieve, and maybe they don’t actually even understand how the business ticks.’”

From that realization, Prosek embarked on a process of professional development  and began training all of her employees on how the business works, how it makes money, and how they each fit into the company’s goals. “It changed the nature of the way people thought about their jobs and the company,” said Prosek. “Once they understood the way the business worked and how they fit into it, they started thinking a little more like an owner than an employee and magical things started to happen.” 

When Prosek had this epiphany of management, the company was doing $500,000 in revenue and had four employees. Once she instituted the new model, the company achieved rapid growth. Over a 10-year period they grew to a $12 million in revenue.