• So you’ve made your first million. Now what?
• As a small agency, it can be difficult to grow – especially without mass amounts of funding to help you do it.
• Join us as we discuss how small agencies can create sustainable growth without breaking the bank.
“The trap that a lot of agency owners fall into is that the main problem is actually them.”
So you’ve made your first million. Now what?
As a small agency, it can be difficult to grow, especially without mass amounts of funding to help you do it.
“You’ve got to take yourself out and make sure that you are not the bottleneck,” says Matt Beswick, co-founder of Aira. “If you want to scale above that £1-2m mark, you cannot be the one that is delivering.”
When Matt first formed his agency with his partner Paddy, the first thing they did was hire a diverse mix of people. With a workforce made up of both fresh, young talent and experienced creatives, Matt and Paddy were able to separate themselves as directors very early on.
“We still speak to clients now, but we’ve always had a team around us that could pick stuff up and get shit done.”
Justin Deaville, managing director at Receptional, offers some similar advice.
“Get the best people that you can, and pay them well to make sure they feel incentivised to deliver on the things that you need.”
The challenge is, if you’re a small agency, you can’t afford it.
“It’s an entrepreneurial choice to bring someone on board who you can’t quite afford,” says Justin. “You can’t grow if you haven’t got the right people around you.”
At first, Justin thought that the best way of setting his business up for success was to hire lots of young creatives and try to train them up quickly.
“But we didn’t have the pool of people nearby, and we weren’t paying the right salaries, so we ended up with a team of generalists,” Justin says.
“People buy into an agency for their team of specialists, so with a team full of generalists, you are not adding value to the client because you know as much as they do.”
Join us as we discuss:
- Tips and tricks to get you to the top.
- The importance of finding your brand’s purpose.
- Who you need to hire to succeed.
- What NOT to do when trying to grow your business.
- The mistakes we’ve made along the way…