Winner in the creative services category, Steve Curran is president, creative director and co-owner of Harvest Music + Sound Design, which provides creative services for the advertising industry, including business-to-business and business-to-consumer.

The company, founded in 1982 by Curran and his partner Mark Miller, moved to Old Town in 2007 where it continues its steady growth year after year, in terms of sales revenue, industry recognition, and perhaps most importantly, expertise.

Home to 10 employees, whom Curran thanked profusely for his company’s success during his acceptance speech, Harvest’s client base includes Meijer, Ford, Chevrolet, Herman Miller, the Detroit Free Press and many, many others. Always striving to expand its footprint, in its current stage of development, Harvest is focusing on providing current accounts with “greater, long-term, creative solutions” to their marketing needs. Curran is also very proud of negotiations recently begun to create an original song for the 2012 Olympic Games.

And now, it’s time to step back and hear from the creative services entrepreneur himself.

On what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur:

“One thing I can say is that it’s definitely not for everybody. There are many [successful] people I talk to in large corporations who would never ever want to be an entrepreneur. You have to be comfortable with taking risks and with the choices you make. You have to have something that you’re passionate about and that you love to do.”

Curran says that in his case, it wasn’t as if he had to go out and search for something he wanted to do. He had the desire to enter into the music business, in some form or fashion, early on. And he knew that to succeed, he would need integrity, commitment, and would have to have fun with his chosen profession.

As he says, “I couldn’t do it if I didn’t enjoy it.” Just how much he enjoys it is evidenced by a recent not so typical work week: Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., with a short break on Friday to spend time with his wife and nine-year-old son. Despite the long hours, Curran said that for the most part, he’s not conscious of the time because it’s not as if “I hate doing this.”

In 2009, he spoke to 200 students who were taking an advertising class. “I said to them, ‘how many people would be okay with not knowing where your next job would come from in the next 60 days?” After a few moments of silence, he says, “One person raised a hand, but that’s only because he wasn’t paying attention.” Then he asked how many would be comfortable changing their schedule and the number of hours they worked each day based on the amount of work coming in. That drew a couple of hands. Next question: “How many here are OK with having not one boss, but 120 that you have to answer to?” Again, very few hands. Based on that, Curran’s advice for the students was, “Then don’t go into business for yourself, [because] that’s what’s required. The truth is [that] you often don’t know where your business is coming from.”

Curran continued by saying, “I’m a very grateful person. Grateful for having an extraordinary team ... of very creative people.” The philosophy Harvest operates under is that “all we are about is possibility—what it’s possible to do.” Otherwise, they’re not interested. “Every meeting is steeped in what’s possible,” he says, and that’s a zone he loves to live in at work and at home with his family.

On their clients:

“We’re very comfortable on a big stage. We like the big clients, [but] we love to work with everyone.” One day, they could be working with a local car dealership with a single location, and the next with Ford Motor Company in Los Angeles. It was there, a few years ago, that they worked with then-newly crowned American Idol Taylor Hicks on a Ford commercial. Closer to home, Curran has a decades-old professional relationship with actor, singer and songwriter Jeff Daniels, having worked on Escanaba in da Moonlight, Super Sucker, and having produced a CD of Daniel’s live performance.

On what defines Harvest:

“What we seek out and are exceptionally good at, are creative partnerships,” Curran says. Although they may not always see eye to eye, creatively, with every customer, both client and vendor know that in the end, it’s “all about achieving results in the work we do.” To that end, even though they’ve won their share of them, Curran says that lately, they’ve “stepped away from winning awards,” because that’s not what their business is all about, nor dependent on. “What really interests us the most is sitting down with people and finding out what are they looking for, what path are they on and how best to help them achieve the results they need to get them there.

“We look for people who respect what we do, and we have a unique way of working with clients,” he says. This is reflected in the great number of clients who “love us. They really do. And I’m really grateful for it. I cherish it. I would do anything for my clients.”

An example, “The other night a client called at 10 p.m.,” he began. Bear in mind that this is the president of a $1.5 billion company. He “had some issues” that he needed to talk through, something Curran likened to “talking him off the ledge for 30 minutes.” After he hung up the phone, Curran said his wife commented that the client sure was calling late. Curran’s reply? “That’s because he values my opinion.” When asked about the best part of his job, Curran quickly states, “I get to invent stuff. I get to make stuff up.”