Melissa Carbone of Ten Thirty One Productions: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started My Company

Diversify every department and party involved in your company — When you only have one person who handles all the production since day one, that person has you hostage. This happened to me. I counted on the fact that this person would take care of a big piece of the company so I didn’t learn it the way I should have or depended on others on the project who knew it who could step in. A critical person on the team who held all the blueprints abandoned the project on the day we were to install it and it knocked the wind out of us for a while. This can happen so easily. Now everyone from material suppliers to lighting designers to costume designers are all valued part of the team but everything is diversified so we aren’t taken out by someone leaving the company.