Honest advice for creative and digital agency founders navigating AI, pricing, operations, and growth.
The founder instinct As founders who run an awesome company, we love our teams and we want to share the spoils. We certainly don’t want them to see those proposal values increasing in size and think that we are keeping it all ourselves (as if). So we want them to feel the benefit, and have some skin in the game, and maybe one day that will help us step away a bit. Our problem-solving mind lands on…
Everyone’s got a story. And everyone’s reverse-engineered it to make themselves sound clever. So here’s mine, except I’ve kept the luck in because vulnerability makes me look good. First, the raw materials Building pipeline requires conditions outside your control. Demand for your services in the market, and the macroeconomic conditions that make people invest. When we started our agency the…
Are you more likely to stop reading because my writing doesn’t hook you, or because you aren’t interested in the subject? One is a packaging problem. The other an ICP problem. To fix one I need the other to stay the same while I experiment. As an agency founder you are chief problem solver (CPS). But there’s an uncomfortable truth (and I’m not just saying that to hook you). As you grow, you need…
Design agencies are different to marketing agencies. You could frame it as systems vs creativity, or ahrefs vs Figma, or retainer vs projects. But fundamentally it’s because design is different to marketing. It requires a different brain. I wouldn’t say design is easier than marketing. But I do think that the brain that can do it is more scarce. And that shapes a lot of things. Where design…
Every meaningful relationship you have right now exists because someone reached out. And if you think back to how they did it… you can learn something. We’ve done bad How did we get so bad at the simple act of introducing ourselves to someone we don’t know? How did we get to the point where we spend time screenshotting people’s attempts and posting them with the caption “look at this idiot”? I’m…
As an agency founder you can identify as lots of things. Entrepreneur (hard to spell but nice to say) Leader (for the LinkedIn) Imposter (not a real syndrome btw, just a belief) Probably the most important thing you are… is an allocator of resource. However many people are on your team, however many clients you have, however you bill, you are deciding where effort goes and for how long. To know if…
Wondering if you can get good at winning work from emails is the same as wondering if you can look good in a big green hat. It’s all about how you wear it. If you’ve never worn one before and then one day just stick it on and walk out the door? No one knows why you are wearing it and you look ridiculous. That’s your cold email. Buy from me. Here’s my case study. Click this link. People back away.…
Ever looked at financial KPIs and thought - “one day I’ll care”? Because when you are small it’s easy, just you and the revenue, no surprises. Won a new project? It’s going to be a good couple of months. Tax bill time? Cash is going down a bit. There’s one number that matters - the bank balance. You’ve got a couple of spreadsheets you’ve pulled together, probably motivated by one of those tax…
I’ve spent a bit of time on LinkedIn the last few days and I need to say something. It’s all horsebutt. A load of people have learnt how to hack my brain. I get a little jolt: “I need to care about this.” So I click, scroll and look for closure on that feeling. And then I realise there’s nothing there. And now not only did I waste the attention I just paid. I didn’t learn anything or move forward…
I need to hire someone vs I can afford to hire someone. These are two similar statements from different parts of your body. The analysis that you can afford to hire someone comes from the brain and the feeling of need comes from your gut. Actually scrap that. The need comes from your brain when you’re trying to juggle multiple projects and run a business. There’s no time to analyse, the need is…
If you owed another business money, would you put that down as revenue? You wouldn’t. Obviously. And yet, that’s basically what happens when you take a deposit or a prepayment, and declare it as revenue for that month. If your business stopped straight after taking that deposit, that company would want that money back. Your business hasn’t stopped (phew) but they want their work. You owe them…
Last week we pondered on marketing to people that aren’t in the market for your services right now . Reminder: that’s most of the people that read your content. And to some readers it felt a bit passive. Content without the offer. Too patient. But sending your offer to people that don’t want it is too spammy and ineffective. Buying triggers are something you can bring into play to have the best of…
2 facts: Getting people to read your marketing content is hard. A very small percentage of the people who see your marketing are looking for an agency So if people do read your marketing, it doesn’t make sense that the message you’re sending them is about how good you are. If your reader’s problem isn’t “how do I find a good agency?” (and that hardly ever is their problem), then it isn’t…
Marketing isn’t a job you get done and tick off. Unlike most of our other to-dos, which are a closed system: Receive feedback from client Implement feedback Share Get signed off Marketing’s system includes the whole of the economy: Write LinkedIn post Post LinkedIn post Macroeconomics Interest rates Someone gives it a like It’s chaotic. But chaos shouldn’t put you off. You already navigate chaos,…
While your business is playing out in real life, day by day, opportunity by opportunity, problem by problem, it’s also playing out in numbers. The bank account and the invoices issued for payment vs your commitments and your take-home. How much money you’re making or not making short term is apparent when you check your banking app. Though your monthly revenue line can lie to you if you aren’t…
When looking to hire, one of the decisions that needs making is how experienced you want the person you’re hiring to be. You normally start with junior people. It’s a combination of the financial commitment being lower and perhaps the founder who’s growing their leadership skills feeling they need to hire someone distinctly below them in terms of status and experience. Before any of this, though,…
If a plant has the right environment and soil, it will grow. When you put a plant in a pot, it gets as big as it can, given the size of the pot. Eventually, if you want it to get bigger, you have to change that pot. We can stumble upon, through circumstance or design, an environment in which our business thrives. And then we can scale it, until we hit the edge. Scaling: Growing in the Same Pot…
Marketing feels chaotic and you don’t know what works. If that resonates, only half of your marketing works - and that’s fine. Your problem is that you are thinking about doing marketing as one thing. A big complicated activity that only someone experienced can deliver. To understand it start by breaking it down. There are three different seats you need at the table in order to not only do…
Every time a good employee asks for a quick chat, it’s grimace emoji time. Because if they’re leaving, you have no idea how you’ll replace them. You think if you could find more people like your best people, your problems would be solved. But there’s no one else like them, they are like unicorns. You got lucky meeting them and, next time you hire, you can’t hold out for someone that good, so you…
Every business does marketing. You can’t choose not to market. You can say you don’t. You can have zero marketing budget. But it’s still happening. You are interacting with the market. Every time you post on LinkedIn, have a coffee with a past client, or answer “what do you do?” at a networking event, you’re marketing. And you’re probably doing a good job of it. If you subscribe to the idea that…