I built and sold a 7-figure agency in 24 months.
Here are 3 lessons I wish I learned earlier:
1) Recruiting
Recruiting is the biggest time and energy suck of all time.
It is one of the lowest value things a CEO can do.
I wish I used recruiters earlier and more often.
They're not cheap, but they usually cost less than the value of your time spent recruiting and interviewing.
You have a team and Income Producing Activities to worry about.
Reading resumes, sitting through interviews, and reviewing assessments is not the highest and best use of your time as the leader.
Let someone else do the soul-sucking part of hiring (recruiting, vetting, screening, 2-3 rounds of interviews) and then swoop in to choose from the best they found.
Ie. Spend 3 hours instead of 30.
2) Rogue Execution
Most people on your team learned how to do something a certain way.
And they want to do things that way.
That makes it difficult to deliver consistent and quality results across clients.
Every team member should get SOPs that they need to get familiar with before executing work.
There is a time for creativity and doing things differently.
And there is a time for adhering to standards.
How you execute falls into the 'adhering to standards bucket'.
I wish I implemented (and was more strict about this) a year earlier than I did.
3) Market or die
Agencies are notorious for focusing all their energy on marketing their clients and not marketing themselves.
95% of agencies rely on referrals as their ONLY source for new business.
When I started I made the same mistake.
Hoping for referrals...
"Trying ads" (but truly afraid to really give it a go)...
And sending cold emails
The excuse I made was, "I'm focusing on fulfillment or the team."
No no no.
The highest leverage activity you can do for the business is market and sell.
Income Producing Activities (IPA's).
The business doubled in 60 days when I shifted my focus from internal stuff to marketing and selling.
Put an outsized amount of focus there, and you'll never "hope" to get a client again.
Big Takeaways:
1. Recruiting is a worthwhile investment (for most roles)
2. Commitment to excellence
3. Market or die
All were valuable lessons learned.
Onward,
P.
Teamwork makes the dream work
The greatest hurdle in the game of business is learning to trust your team.
It’s about putting your ego aside while knowing some people can mess you up.
It’s a skill that you develop over time.
Not easy but you can’t scale without it.
Banger links
Here are some dope links from my browser history…
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