Advice after running a small agency for 15 years

I was asked for advice from someone who is extremely capable and is starting their own marketing agency. I was rattled by the idea of offering advice, but gave it a go. Lion’s Way is crafted in the image of my business partner and myself and in no way do I think of it as a case study for someone looking to make a business. I love it, though.

We have not scaled. We do things we are passionate about (writing and designing). Organizations that scale and seek to profit from the creators put themselves at a lot of risk and move out of the creation process that we enjoy. That is completely fine for them, but when we got to that threshold a couple times we stepped back.

The result is that we have a business that has fed us well for a good amount of the last 15 years. We never went into debt or folded. However, our agency is not a lot of long term contracts, processes, and employees that we could sell.

We made a different choice. People kept asking whether I was interested in growing the business or having what they called a “lifestyle” business. In action, we are showing that in this binary (all binaries are false binaries) the latter, though it is for more reasons than just that I like to fish all the time. When we have scaled, we have had to provide lower value work and I have not been allowed to write it.

I am always seeking harmony around this; I do like being the creative director and know that I can do more of that. I like to be close to the sales (as it is I do all sales) so I can craft promises to clients appropriately. And I like to write for a living. I know I will always build better days, I don’t think it will ever be “perfect.” And it won’t be a 4 hour work week sort of getting-away-with-it kinda thing.

That said, I do get to go fish a lot. Living with joy is important. That is part of the harmony too.

I don’t wake up thinking “here is the advice I have for someone starting an agency.” Also, I know that you are a whip smart individual, so I fear that what I would say would derail your current wisdom.

That said, here are some things to read and then freely ignore if they go against what your harmony sings.

Be specific about who you are. Sounds like you are already doing this. Being a generic marketing agency staffed by rock stars is hard. Being the B2B Technology Content Creation Agency is a lot easier to sell.

Embrace sales. I think at first leadership should do sales so you know what is out there and so you know what is being promised. As I mentioned, I still do all of our sales. If you have an idea how i could free myself up from that, I am all ears. However, I spent a bit too long waiting to be seen when I needed to be out getting told no enough times that the odds are someone will say maybe. Eventually sales is really a function of time, so put the time in.

Avoid group think. Who is your team? How are they like you? Those are disadvantages. How they are different than you are advantages. My business partner Karl and I disagree on fundamental principles about how the world and human hearts work. I am better every day at not being frustrated at that but it is still a lot of friction. From that friction we make better decisions and both of our world views expand. If everyone agreed all the time and just thought everyone else made fabulous decisions, I would be worried.

Win with small, experiments, not big gambles. Don’t get a big loan and try to scale massively. Do a small campaign to find a couple new clients. Don’t get too confident that you have a secret sauce that no one has ever thought of before. See if you can maintain profits and results for two, three, four quarters. Experiment in small ways where curiosity is more powerful than fear. It is hard to be creative when you are over leveraged or over committed. You are not at your best and your position and reputation will get damaged.

Do your own thing, not mine. There is not one way to make an agency. Those that suggest so are living in the availability heuristic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic) to explain their own biography. So, reject 100% of what I suggest and you will probably be successful anyway. If what I say rings true to you, I hope it is helpful to feed your decision making and enthusiasm.