The Challenges Of Running Your Own Agency (And How Exhausting It Can Be)

I know it can be really lonely at the top when you are running your marketing agency on your own and I also know how exhausting it can be. So that's what I want to focus on in this week's episode of the Agency Accelerator Podcast. And I want to talk about why that happened. My own particular story when I ran my agency and a few things that you can start thinking about doing so that you don't feel everything sits on your shoulders and your not permanently stuck in client service mode on the client service hamster wheel of doom. So that's what we're talking about today and let's get on with the show. I'm Rob Da Costa and this is the Agency Accelerator Podcast. As someone who has stood in your shoes, having started, grown and sold my own agency, I know just how it feels in the ups and downs of agency life. So this podcast aims to ease your journey just a little by sharing mine and my guests experiences and advice as you navigate your way to growing a profitable, sustainable and enjoyable business. Hey everybody and welcome to this week's episode of the Agency Accelerator Podcast. I want to talk about the challenges of running your own agency and how exhausting that can be and how it can feel super lonely at the top because all the weight sits on your shoulder and everyone, your clients and your team, if you have one, are looking at you for some of the solutions. And if you're not careful, that can quickly lead to burnout. And one day you wake up thinking, what on earth am I doing? Why did I decide to start my own agency? So talking of starting your agency, let's go back to the beginning. You started your marketing agency because you had an opportunity. Maybe you thought you could do it better than other people or you felt like you wanted to be in control of your own destiny and not be an employee and that's why you still started. Whatever the reason, there's always some kind of catalyst that gets us going. And probably for the first year or two, you ran your marketing agency as a freelancer and as you got busier, you started to outsource work. Now in this day and age, outsourcing work can mean a number of things. It doesn't just mean hiring staff as full time employees. It can be using other freelancers, using people in different countries, part time people, remote workers and so on. But you probably got to a point where you had too much work on your plate and you started hiring a team. And over time that team grows and you hire more people and you win more business and you've got more demands on you, and if you're not really careful, your whole agency will take on a life of its own. And before you know it, you just are an employee working for this monster that you've created. And that's typically what organic growth looks like. And that's typically what organic growth without a plan looks like. Like I say, it takes on a life of its own and you create this monster that you kind of resent working for. You know that you need to be focusing more on the future, but you're so busy right now, stuck on the here and now and on the client service hamster wheel of doom, that you have no time to think, let alone plan. Your key focus is keeping your existing clients happy, making sure your team are performing and they're happy, and you're kind of at the back of the queue when it comes to being paid. And actually someone saying to you, how's it going? And that's why it's, it can be lonely at the top. And that is really why one of the reasons why I started my membership program where there is a group of like minded agency owners who often feel that way, who now suddenly have a community that can provide them support. Anyway, this episode isn't a promotion for the membership, but I'm just explaining why I started the membership in the first place. I can really relate to this story because if I go back to when I started my agency, this is exactly how it happened. I was the marketing manager for a software company and we really struggled to find a PR agency that understood the complex advanced tech solutions that we were selling. So I thought in my naive, arrogant youth that I would start my own agency because I could do it better. So I left the software company. I started out on my own for a year freelancing and things went really well. I won business and things were great. And then I took on a business partner and he had a background in hardware, so it was a really good fit. And by the way, we were a tech PR company and my background in software is in hardware. And over the years we started growing and then we did the things that I just explained. We took on our first staff member and then before we knew it we ended up with 25 staff turning over about 12 pounds. Lots of clients, including some big brands and lots and lots and lots of stress. And one of the things that we didn't do is we just didn't spend the time planning enough like plotting our map so, so that we knew where we were headed and we knew that we Wanted to head towards that desert island and not the iceberg, which is in the opposite direction. And I think my story is really typical for many of you and I'm sure you will be able to relate to this wherever you are in your journey. So what you really need to make sure that you're doing, and I've talked about this many times before, is that you just need to make sure that you make the time and space to sit down and actually plan and have control of the direction. Because often we feel like we have no control because things happen to us, opportunities come along or economies change and things happen to us, rather than us being in control of the things that happen. And we kind of justify this by saying, well, that's just how it is. It was down to luck or it was down to things outside of my control, like a pandemic or a downturn in the economy. But the truth of it is, if we have a plan, then we can start to foresee some of this. Okay, we couldn't foresee a pandemic, but we can certainly foresee a downturn in the economy or, or new opportunities that might come along and therefore feel like we're in more control of our direction. Now. One of the important things about having a vision for your agency is that you need to decide what you want. Like what is your bigger term goal? Is it to build a 25 person agency? Or is it to have more of a lifestyle business? Or is it to build a self running agency where other people can run it and you can take a step backwards? Or do you want to build something of value that you can sell one day? Or all of these are completely viable options. But none of these things will happen unless you have a clear plan that looks at the long term aspirations both for you personally and for your agency, and then breaks that down into the midterm and the short term as well? I didn't have this. And although my agency was really successful and we grew rapidly over 11 years and we were, you know, things went really well and I made good money from it, at the end of the day, I was tired of running that agency and that's why I decided to sell the agency. And you've heard my story before, so you know what happened next when we did sell. But I just want you to understand that if you want to not be exhausted from running your agency, if you want to feel like you're not at the back of the queue, and if you want to feel like you have some control of it, then it starts by having a really clear plan. Now, once you've got this plan, you need to obviously make sure you've got the time to actually deliver it. And the problem is if you are completely stuck in client service mode on the client service Hamster Wheel of Doom, then you are never going to be able to get off of it. And of course you're the knowledgeable person, you're the front person, all of your clients want you on their account. And therefore as you grow, your time gets pulled in more and more different directions and you will might have your plan, but you'll just see it getting further into the distance because you just don't have the time to deliver it. So we have to find a way of getting off the client service Hamster Wheel of Doom. And that starts by training your clients to understand whoever you put to front up their account is completely capable and will do a better job because they've got real hands on knowledge of what's going on rather than you who has more hands off knowledge. And of course you need to tackle your mindset as well to change that thinking from no one will do it as well as me if I don't work on the client count. They will hate me and leave me and all of that kind of crazy stories that we tell ourselves that aren't true but keep us stuck on the client service Hamster Wheel of Doom. And as I've been saying, that is really, really exhausting. So we've got to find a way of stepping off of it. So first of all, challenge your mindset and then make sure you have a team that are capable and that you can delegate to and let go of tasks and be confident in knowing that they will get done to a good enough level so that your client is happy. Now, when it comes to splitting up your time, there are three areas that you can focus on. Revenue, strategy and admin. And it's really important that you get the balance right because if you spend all of your time in revenue, that is that's earning money this month, which will be all the client service work, then obviously you're going to have a very successful month or few months, but then projects will come to an end. And because you've been completely focused on revenue on the client service Hamster Wheel of Doom, you will fall off a cliff because there won't be new clients waiting in the wings to to come on board. So that's the first area, revenue. The second area is strategy. And strategy is everything to do with how you're going to earn money in the future. So this is your marketing, your business development, your sales, your planning, your vision, and so on. And so we've got to split our time between those two areas, revenue and money this month and strategy money in the future. And then the third area you need to focus on is admin. And admin is everything that you do to keep your business running. So this is things like getting your invoices out on time to avoid cash flow problems. It's doing HR and recruitment and onboarding to make sure you have the right team in place and that they are performing at an optimal level and all those other office admin tasks. Now the key to this is getting your split right across those three pots, if you like those three areas of revenue, strategy and administrative. And your time should be something like 35% strategy, 55% revenue or 60% revenue, and then 5 or 10% admin. And that is probably the right fit for a leader of an agency. Although of course there is no right or wrong split. But obviously if you think about it this way, if you spend 80% of your time in revenue, 10% in strategy and 10% in admin, then you're going to have a very successful, successful short period of time and then you're going to fall off a cliff. Similarly, if you spend 80% of your time in strategy either future, then you'll have a good plan, but you'll probably never get to deliver that plan because you will have had massive cash flow issues and you've probably gone bust before you can deliver it. And similarly, if you spend too much, much more than say 10% of your time in admin, you're going to have a very well run agency, but no clients and no revenue. So we want to get that split right. Now. One of the things that I've created to help my clients out I'd like to offer you is I created this time pot calculator where you just measure your time across those three pots for a couple of weeks and then it will show you how you're splitting your time across those percentages and then you can work on how to transition from that point to your ideal point. So if you want to grab a free copy of my time pot calculator, then check out the link below because it is really important that you are the CEO of your agency and not a lowly paid employee. Now, this is a topic that I am going to be talking a lot about in September of this year, that September 2022, because I think it's super important. I see too many People who are running their own marketing agency, who are acting like a lowly paid employee, either doing a lot of the work, but they're at the back of the queue when it comes to being paid. And a lot of the tasks they are doing really could be done by somebody else or even automated or ditched, but they are hanging on to them. Because one of the reasons, if I'm honest, that we start our own business is because we want control. But as we grow, we've got to learn to let go of that control. And if you don't, then you end up doing everything and you end up becoming a lowly paid employee and not acting like the CEO. As I said, this is something I'm going to be talking a lot more about later on this year. So look out for that, because it is a super important topic. And I don't think enough agency owners recognize who they are and who they are behaving like every day in their agency. They just do what they do because that's what they know. And they've got clients shouting at them and team members shouting at them. And so they're focused on that, but they're not really behaving like a CEO. And of course, if you are just a lowly paid employee, then you're going to be constantly struggling to be profitable. You're going to be more entrenched in your agency than ever. And you might have started your agency because you wanted flexibility and freedom, but now you find yourself more entrenched, working for a much, much tougher boss than you ever had when you were an employee. Now, look, I know I'm painting a real doom and gloom picture, but it's only because that's where I was myself. And I see lots of agency owners in a similar place. And that's when they reach out to me or they join my membership. I just don't want you to get to that place and I want you to be more mindful and more aware of the picture no matter where you are in your journey. If you're listening to this and you are just starting out, or you're thinking about starting your own marketing agency, then fantastic, you're going to learn what not to do. And if you're several steps along that journey of running your own agency, then you're going to either relate to this or this is what's coming down the road for you. So it isn't all doom and gloom, because there are plenty of things that you can do about it. One of them is to work out how you Split your time and to make sure you're getting that time allocation right. Second one is to work on your mindset and the third one is to start putting a team in place, whether that be remote workers, part time people, freelancers, or an in house team, so that you can start delegating those tasks that other people can do and that you make sure you train them efficiently so that they can do them well enough to keep your clients happy, leaving you the time to focus on your superpower, the things that only you can do. And you've got to work on your mindset here because you don't want to kid yourself and be saying, yeah, but Rob, the things I can do all of these things and I can do them better and faster than anybody else. That's the kind of mindset that will keep you stuck on the client service hamster wheel of doom and keep you as a lowly paid employee in your agency. And trust me, one day you will wake up and you will think, what on earth am I doing? So there's just a few really quick food for thought ideas. And I guess the main point about today's podcast is for you to recognize where you are and where you might be headed down the road and to start thinking about how you can make changes to that. As I said, it can be lonely at the top. It can be frustrating that you don't have that support. It can be lonely because you don't have other agency owners who can sit there and nod their head and say, yep, that's exactly where I was. And then they can share with you what they did. And that's what I hope this podcast achieve. And that's obviously what I achieve in my membership. So I hope you found today useful. I'm going to dig into some more aspects of these topics in future episodes, but I just wanted to set that scene for you today because it doesn't have to be lonely and the weight of the world doesn't have to sit on your shoulders. And if you start being more mindful and aware of it, then you can start making some changes. So as ever, if you found this useful, please do think about leaving a review. Now, a few people have asked me, Rob, how do I leave a review on Apple podcasts? So I've created a short video showing you how to do that and I'll put that link into the show notes because quite honestly, Apple don't make it easy to leave a review if you are not a Mac or an Apple Phone iPhone user. But it's super important for me that I get the reviews because it helps my my podcast be shown to more people, as you know. So other than that, I hope you have a fantastic rest of your week and I will see you next Thursday for the next episode of the Agency Accelerator podcast. Sam.