Insights to Help You Grow a STANDOUT Agency

Whether you’re charging clients by the hour or not, if you’re running an agency, you’re in the knowledge business. You make your money from selling your people’s expertise. That means you want as many of those people as possible billing as much of their work as possible to clients.

That said, we are dealing with human beings and growing a business entity here. Nobody can bill all their work to clients all of the time. Team meetings, admin. etc are all necessary and valuable internal activities. Moreover, as you grow, you’ll need more people dedicated to admin, marketing, finance and HR. Many of these won’t directly earn revenue for you at all.

So how do you know what numbers of billable staff you should have?

#StandoutOrDie

STANDSTILL agencies
STANDOUT agencies

#StandoutOrDie

One of the most common reasons why agencies struggle is through being overstaffed.

Time and again I see agency owners paying themselves too little, and/or running their business on minimal profits, because they employ too many people.

So how many people should you employ? That depends on a number of factors, but there is a simple, but often overlooked, metric that can provide a useful guide: Revenue Per Employee (RPE).

#StandoutOrDie

Shareholder’s agreements outline shareholders’ rights and obligations which provides protection for each shareholder. They also protect and govern the management of the company.

#StandoutOrDie

STANDSTILL agencies hide from the data and guess whether they’re making progress.

STANDOUT agencies set a big goal then break it down into smaller milestones to keep them motivated and monitor their progress.

#StandoutOrDie

Lots of agencies operate a freelance model these days. They have few full-time employees and run their business through a network of freelancers. It’s an attractive model for some, but one I struggle with.

STANDSTILL agencies deploy freelancers.

STANDOUT agencies employ a team.

#StandoutOrDie

Lots of agencies operate a freelance model these days. They have few full-time employees and run their business through a network of freelancers. It’s an attractive model for some, but one I struggle with.

STANDSTILL agencies deploy freelancers.

STANDOUT agencies employ a team.

#StandoutOrDie

I often get asked what the biggest differentiator between STANDSTILL and STANDOUT agencies is.

It’s a tricky question to answer as many factors come into play. If I had to pick one though it would be this: confidence.

#StandoutOrDie

STANDSTILL agencies have a winning mentality,

STANDOUT agencies don’t.

”Wait…what? Surely it’s the other way around?” I hear you say.

I can think of no other industry where commercial success is so commonly and overtly labelled as “winning”. In other sectors businesses acquire users, they attract new customers, they do deals, they sign contracts, they form partnerships.

#StandoutOrDie