Casey's Head
By Christine Bryant

For almost eight years, Ann Arbor resident Casey Frushour worked as a full-time graphic design artist while building a business on the side. His dream was to have his own graphic design company, and spent years waiting for the perfect opportunity to make that leap from working for someone to working for himself.

Then came September 2008 when he knew the time was right. He had spent almost a decade working with clients and building his portfolio – so much so that his income for his side work surpassed the income of his full-time position as an in-house graphic designer for a biotech company in Ann Arbor.

“I was starting to not like my full-time job and there was no area for advancement,” he said. “I was looking at my life and trying to decide if I could do this for the rest of my life and be happy, and the answer was a quick no.”

Casey resigned from his position at the biotech company and pursued his dream, turning his part-time business into full-time work as owner of Casey’s Head. The celebration didn’t last long, however. A few weeks later, the U.S. economy tumbled into a recession.

“When you go look at the stock charts, that’s about when they went on a free fall,” Casey said. “The economy was already tough at the time, but then the economy took a dive.” The move left him examining his actions.

“I was questioning my decision at first, but business kept coming in,” he said.

It helped he operated his business out of a home office and began with himself as his sole employee. “When you’re a freelance designer working from your home, overhead is so low,” Casey said. “You don’t have to worry about paying rent for the office, paying employees or health insurance.”

As a graphic designer, Casey works with small business owners and other clients by offering design services such as logos, brochures, catalogs, posters, Web sites, newsletters and other print media. He also provides search engine optimization services in which he finds ways to draw more customers to a business owner’s Web site.

Casey jokes he’s a serial entrepreneur – not only constantly looking at ways to build his company, but help others as well. “I get a lot of gratification by helping clients develop an image and grow their business like I’ve grown mine,” he said. “Maybe that’s my passion – helping other companies and owners expand their ideas.”

Being an entrepreneur is something Casey says he always has had in him. While some teenagers work at the local ice cream shop or babysit for extra cash, Casey opened his own T-shirt business in high school.

As both an art and sports lover, Casey was a big fan of his Mason high school’s basketball team.

“We had a big student following, so I decided to create T-shirts for the students to wear,” he said.

For the next two years, he designed T-shirts for the student cheering section.

“That’s when I first decided I could use my talent as a career,” he said. “That’s when the light bulb went off, that it was fun and that I could make money off it.”

At the University of Michigan, while studying graphic design, he began a side business that he continued even after landing a full-time design job. That business eventually turned into what he now calls today Casey’s Head.

“I contemplated going out on my own for a year and a half or two years before I actually did it,” he said. “Once I did do it, I wondered why it took me so long to make that decision. You have so much freedom and you get so much out of it. You find out so much about yourself when you run your own business.”