Fear Less, Brand More

The Creative Agency Model Is Not For Everyone

December 21, 2021 Season 1 Episode 3
Fear Less, Brand More
The Creative Agency Model Is Not For Everyone
Show Notes Transcript

Do you ever feel this insane pressure as a service provider where you have to grow your business and the only way to do it is by creating some type of agency? I know that's how I felt for a really long time.

When I started my business as a web designer, I saw all of these messages out there by coaches saying I really needed to find other people that could do the client work for me and create an agency.

Rather than spending time doing client work, I should only be spending my time marketing and selling my services, which is the way to grow a service-based business. There were so many coaches and messages floating around on social media, that I felt that the only way I could be successful was to follow that route.

To be honest, I wasn't really happy with the direction that things were going in, but I was told that this is the way that things are done. And then COVID-19 happened.

All of a sudden, I found myself in a position that I never thought I would be in. I had no childcare. My husband was deemed an essential worker and he carries our health insurance so my business had to take a giant backseat. I had several clients I had made commitments to and I was determined to meet those commitments.

So I started working every weeknight and every weekend. I hustled my behind-off, but there was no additional time for me to market my own business. I had no bandwidth to take on additional clients. Since I didn't have any money coming in, I didn't have the ability to pay these three people that were working for me.

I really wanted to be working directly with clients. I wanted to be putting the websites together. I wanted to talk about more than just the websites but also about the strategy and the branding. I took the pandemic as a way to see what would make me genuinely happy day-to-day, in a way that I hadn’t been in the past.

The conclusion I came to was that I needed to ditch the agency model and it didn’t mean that I wouldn’t be able to grow and scale my business.

We need to normalize the idea that as a service provider, it’s okay for you to be the only person providing the service. If you’re able to get better at providing that service with more experience and with the goal of investing in yourself, the better clients you'll be able to attract.

If you attract better clients, it’s easier to raise your prices. Having a higher price point means that you’re able to scale your business in a whole new way.

As a result, I'm able to make a larger impact on the businesses that I work with. I'm able to see their growth and that is something that gives me a sense of fulfillment.

I am so much more comfortable with this business model and much more comfortable by not having to manage a team that is working to provide services to my clients.

I'm now able to be in control of the whole process, including what the client sees and when they see it.

Do you need help figuring out your own business model? This is part of the clarity that comes with working together in the Clearbrand. Learn more about this service.

The Agency Business Model: Is it Right For You? https://smallbusinessboss.co/the-agency-model/

A Subito Media production

Jennifer Anastasi:

In today's episode, we're talking about how a lot of service providers are pressured into forming agencies. There are so many different business models out there, and for some people, the agency model is going to be a great fit for other people like myself. The agency model is one of the worst things you can do for your baby. There are so many messages out there that try to tell you that there is a one size fits all. And for service providers, that's often the agency model that they're pushing. So we're going to dig in to why it might not be the best thing for you by the end of the episode, you'll understand that there are so many different options out there and they're all okay. So if you're someone who wants to ditch that agency model and take everything on as a solo preneur, then go for it. It's a very valid and meaningful business model. And by the end of the episode, you'll understand why. Do you ever feel this insane pressure as a service provider that you have to grow your business and the way that you have to do that is by creating some type of agency? I know that's how I felt for a really long time. When I started my business, I was a web designer. And what I saw was that there were all of these messages out there by coaches that said, I really needed to find other people that could do the client work for me and create an agency. So rather than spending time doing client work, I should only be spending my time marketing and selling my services. This is really the way that you grow a service-based. There were so many coaches and so many messages floating around on social media, where I felt that the only way I could be successful was to go that route. I hired a VA that was going to come in and help me. Then I hired a web designer who was going to help me with my client work. Then I hired a graphic designer because I was also told I needed recurring revenue. So once the website was finished, I needed a way to get those clients to come back in month after month, looking for social media graphics that were cohesive and fit in with the website that we provided them. I then promoted my VA to be an online business manager, to manage the team so that I wouldn't have to do that. And I could go off and market and sell my services. And to be honest, I wasn't really happy with the direction that things were going in, but this is the way that things are done. And then COVID-19 happened. All of a sudden, I ended up finding myself in a position that I never thought I would be in. I had no childcare. My husband was deemed essential and he carries our health insurance. My business had to take a giant backseat. I had several clients I had made commitments to, and I was determined to meet those commitments. So I started working every night. I worked every weekend. I hustled my behind off, but there was no additional time for me to market my own business. I had no bandwidth to take on additional clients because I didn't have any money coming in. I didn't have the ability to pay these three people that were working. There was a huge amount of responsibility that I felt I put it off as long as possible, because I did not want these wonderful people to have to go and find another job in the middle of a pandemic. And I knew that their families were depending on them having these jobs and working. So it was not an easy thing that I had to do, but I had to unfortunately let my team go. However, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger for sure. And I took a very hard look at my business and decided I never wanted to be put in that position again, because I wasn't happy before the pandemic. I didn't love the business model. I didn't want to spend my time marketing and selling my services. I wanted to be working with clients. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be putting the websites together. I wanted to be talking about more than the websites. I wanted to be talking about strategy. I wanted to be doing branding. I took the pandemic as a way to say what will make me genuinely happy day to day. What would make me excited about my business again, in a way that I hadn't. And what I came up with is that I needed to ditch that agency model. And that doesn't mean that I would not be able to grow and scale my business. I heard this amazing explanation the other day of the difference between growing and scaling your business. When you grow your business, you increase your revenue, but typically you're also increasing your expense. You might be in that agency model where you're bringing in more clients, but you're hiring people to help you service those clients. So at the end of the day, your profit is probably going to stay pretty much about the same. When you scale your business, you grow your revenue, but you keep your expenses the same, or you decrease those expenses. You become more efficient. So your profit goes up when you scale your business. For me, I was able to scale my business by changing my business model and increasing my prices. The way that you're able to increase your prices is to offer more value to your clients. For me, that meant not just offering websites, but instead offering a complete brand strategy. I let go of the social media graphics. I did not want to be in that game. I decided recurring revenue is not a particular path that I wanted to go down. Instead. I wanted to provide amazing value because when I looked at the first few clients that I had worked with, I realized that they needed more than just a website. They need. Full brand strategy. And because they didn't have the brand strategy, even though they had a beautifully designed and beautifully executed website, they weren't getting the results from their business that they really should have been. And that it would have been better for them to invest a little bit more and get the full brand strategy with the beautifully designed website and they could get better results and better outcomes for them. By learning that I could provide so much more value and that I could charge a higher price point for that. It meant that I could take on less clients and make more money because of the value that I provide now, which is miles ahead of the value that I provided before I made this. I'm able to take on less clients. I am able to spend less time marketing my business and I'm able to spend more time reinvesting in myself so that I can level those skills up. I am always looking for better ways of sharpening my skill set so that for every new client I bring on, I'm providing a slightly higher level of value. And when I cross a certain threshold, I'm able to raise my prices. It also means that I've had to niche down on the clients that I work with these days I'm working with done for you service providers who provide a premium type of service. These are the clients that if they can get an additional, say, two clients, they're able to pay my services off. Because this is a smaller and more specific group. I am able to figure out very specifically what these people need and I'm able to provide it at a much higher level and get them amazing results because of all of this, my business is doing better than that. And it's way easier for them to refer me. It is way easier for me to network because I know exactly who I'm looking for. And it's easier for me to get referral partners because it's easier for me to communicate who it is that I work with. We need to normalize the idea that as a service provider, it is okay for you to be the only person providing us. If you are able to get better at providing that service with more experience and with the idea of investing into yourself, the better clients you'll be able to attract. If you attract better clients, it is easier to raise your prices. Having a higher price point means that I'm able to scale my business in a way that I couldn't have. I'm able to make a larger impact on the businesses that I'm working with. I'm able to see their growth. And that is something that personally makes me feel extremely fulfilled professionally. I am so much more comfortable with this business model. I am so much more comfortable not having a team that is working to provide this. Two of my clients. I'm able to be in control. I control exactly what the client sees when they see it. And I'm in complete control of everything that goes along before. That doesn't mean that I'm not going to hire a bookkeeper or I'm not going to hire an accountant, or I'm not going to hire a VA to help me with admin tasks. These are absolutely things that I am happy to hire for, but I hire very differently now than I did before the pandemic. I only hire in projects. It's also why only provide projects. I don't have an hourly rate. I only sell my services and package. And we need to focus as service providers on showing that this is an extremely valid and valuable business model. It is okay to intentionally stay small as a team, to intentionally work with fewer clients at a higher price. Then feeling like we have to provide a very templated service over and over and over again so that we can hire people to provide that service for us. There are things that can become more challenging as you raise your prices. There are a lot of people out there who are willing and able to pay$500 for a website. There are far less people out there who are willing and able to pay$6,000 for a website and brands. So this means that my marketing has become less about finding as many leads as possible and more about finding and building relationships with potential clients. I spend a lot more of my time building relationships, not only with these potential clients, but with referrals. I'm spending a lot more time networking and that's okay. That's what I am comfortable with. I'm not comfortable with running a bunch of Facebook ads. So I don't do that. And I don't have to, with this business model, keeping your business intentionally small is something that needs to be considered more. There are a lot of service providers out there who are spinning their. By taking the advice that they have to have an agency and that they have to hire out. And that is not the case. There are so many other ways of growing your business in scaling your business and making potentially way more money than just hiring a bunch of people to do the client work. So if you do not want to spend all of your time selling and marketing your services and you want to spend more time. Working on client projects, working directly with your clients as a done for you service provider. It is a very valid business model to intentionally stay tiny and to scale your business by upping up your level of service by increasing your prices by increasing the value that you provide to your clients. And by being extremely lean and efficient. Thanks for listening to today's episode. If you're someone who's struggling with defining your business model, having a strong brand strategy can help let's chat to see if the clear brand interview is the next right step for you. If you want to learn more about this topic, there's a great episode over at small business boss about the agency model that I've linked to in the show. And the next episode, we're going to dig into sales funnels. And why thinking of things as a funnel might actually be hurting your service based business until next time.