Foundations of Agency Success: Simplifying Operations for Growth

Why do we read books like Traction, Scaling Up and E-Myth and still struggle with implementing systems, defining processes and training people in our agency?

These are incredibly comprehensive methodologies. And yet, digital agencies still suffer from holidays or famine months, inconsistent project deliverables and deadlines, quality control, audits and more. It’s not because they aren’t great at what they do. I

it’s not because their service has no value. Often this is because they have not defined the three most important elements of delivery: howthe when, and why.

Early complication of our operations can lead to a lot of failures in their implementation. Business owners overcomplicate their own processes, hesitate to write things down, and then there’s a ton of operational drag on the company.

Couple that with split attention and paper-thin resources, and you’ve got an agency that spends most of its time putting out fires, responding to client issues, and generally building a culture of “the founder/creative director/leader will fix it” mentality.

Before we start talking about how easy this all can be, let’s go back to the beginning.

When we start our companies, we are told to hurry. And hurry up. We are taught that it takes a lot of effort to build momentum, close deals, hire people and manage projects. And that’s all true. It takes a lot of work to get a business up and running.

The challenge is for all of us to adopt the habit of burning the candle at both ends and in the middle, all for the purpose of business growth. And we carry that habit into the next phase of growth when our business needs… you guessed it… the exact opposite.

In Mike Michalowitz’s book, Profit First, he begins by insisting that the reader understand and accept a fundamental truth: our business is a money-eating monster. The truth is that our work is also a time-eating monster. And only when we realize that as long as we feed it with our time and resources, it will devour everything leaving you with nothing in your pocket and a bunch of confusion about why you can’t grow.

It’s true that financial problems are easy compared to operational problems. Money is everywhere. You can get a loan or generate more income simply by providing value. What’s harder is taking that money and creating systems that produce profitably. The next level is taking that money, making profits and free time.

In my bestselling book, The Sabbatical Method, I teach owners how to fundamentally reduce the amount of time they spend in their business doing everything and how it can save owners a lot of money, time and headaches by professionalizing their operations.

The hard part about being a digital agency owner is that you probably started your business because you were great at something. Creating websites, creating strategies for search engine optimization or running paid media campaigns. And then you ended up as the head of the company. They are two very different things.

How to get out of your own way and create a simple structure for your agency…

1. Start working less

I know this sounds really cheeky and counterintuitive, but I’ve seen it work wonders for clients and colleagues. I often say that you can’t see the label from the inside of the bottle and I have not found a truer statement when it comes to things like planning, vision, direction and creating operations.

Owners who stay in the weeds of their business while trying to build a structure are like hunters in the jungle hacking through bushes with a machete, getting nowhere with very sore hands. Instead, define your work day, create those inclusion boundaries, stop working weekends, nights, and jumping over people’s heads to solve problems.

This will help you gain another sweet spot for your company, and your team can build some autonomy in the meantime.

2. Master the art of knowledge transfer

There are two ways of imparting knowledge to others: learning and writing something down. Apprenticeships began as a lifelong relationship and often the knowledge was retained by just ONE person to continue your method.

Writing was limited (before the printing press) to whoever held the pages.

We are fortunate that today we have many ways to impart knowledge to our team. Creating this habit early can save a company from depending on any one person with a bunch of “how” and “when” questions in their head.

While you need some time to get out of the day, start writing things down and recording your screen (use a tool like loom.com) as you answer the questions.

Deposit those learnings into the company’s knowledge base, a central location for company resources. Some of the companies I’ve ever worked with with the highest growth and sales had this habit down there.

3. Define your processes

Lean back. No fancy tool or software will save your business. Every team I’ve ever worked with that came to me with a half-baked project management tool suffered immensely because they didn’t define their process first. It is not easy to do, but it can be simple.

What keeps most teams down is simple decision making. If you can decide how you’re going to do something, when you’re going to do it, and why it’s happening that way, you’ve already won. I know exactly what you’re thinking: our process is constantly changing, per client, per engagement, etc. That’s fine.

Small businesses should be constantly finding better, more efficient ways to do business. Developing your processes and building maintenance efforts to keep them accurate and up-to-date will be a life raft in a rough sea. You will be able to stick to it when the agency has work to do.

“I’m so busy, how can I work less and find time for this?”

You cannot afford not to do this work. Burning the candle at both ends and in the middle will make up for it in some way. Whether it’s burnout, clients leaving the company, a team member leaving, a huge, unexpected tax bill.

I’ve heard all the stories and they’re all nonsense. It’s easier than ever to start a business, but harder to keep it. This job may not be sexy, but it gives us the freedom we craved when we started our companies.

Start small and simple and watch your business become more predictable and your team more efficient.