Succeed by Daring to Have Fun: The Threadless Story

Well, here's one way to grow your business straight through the downturn: Just keep having fun. That's what hip teen t-shirt brand Threadless has done. The decade-old ecommerce company, which lets customers design their shirts, recently hit the big time with a tryout in a few Nordstrom (JWN) stores.

The Chicago Tribune recently wrote about Threadless' success and their playful corporate culture. Warning: Reading it may induce dot-com era flashbacks. At the 10-year-old company's Chicago headquarters, they shoot potato guns! They've still got the pool table, arcade games and photo booths that most companies long ago banished.

It might seem almost bizarre to keep a corporate culture this loose and fancy-free while the economy is going to heck in a handbasket, but that's exactly why it worked. The gloom outside the company's walls made it even more fun inside. While other companies crawled back to grayness and stopped encouraging workers to bring their dogs or kayak to the office, Threadless kept the party going.

Everyone's been so intense in Corporate America the past couple years. Maybe it's time to lighten up.

As Threadless has learned, having a fun corporate culture relieves stress, and increases productivity. Along the way, it might also make it fun for customers to come visit. And who's ever going to leave a job that's fun, in this day and age?

Other companies are still living the fun culture, too. There's Atlanta business SixthMan, which creates luxury travel events where you go on a cruise with your favorite band. In an interview on podcast Bold Ventures Radio, company CEO Andy Levine said the halls are still full of Razor scooters and dogs.

There's definitely a theme here, in that both of these brands serve a lot of young customers. Maybe that's why they kept building a fun culture even though it was counter to the prevailing corporate trends. But there's no reason fun can't work for companies of all stripes.

Photo via Flickr user kalleboo