I know sometimes we must learning things the hard way, but I wasn’t prepared for the mistakes I would make in business, let alone when I built my agency. There were 5 costly mistakes I made building & scaling my agency that I hope you can avoid.
Mistakes I Made With My Agency
These mistakes taught me so much. Mistakes are not failures; they are learning opportunities. It was not easy to navigate these waters, but it was worth it. And now I can help others avoid the mistakes I made with my agency.
The Five Mistakes:
- I Did Not Scale Soon Enough
- Choosing the Wrong Subcontractors
- Hire a Subcontractor Who Markets Their Business
- Did Not Delegate All of the Client Work
- I Did Not Schedule Regular Team Meetings
Mistake One: I Did Not Scale Soon Enough
The first mistake I want to share with you is that I did not scale soon enough. You know how it is as a Solopreneur, you do everything and don’t think about it in any other way. It was my business, and I just had to push through.
The Truth Is that I needed to scale long before I did. I needed to add a virtual team of subcontractors, but I wasn’t sure how to do it. I eventually dove in and did it, but it took a very long time for me to unlock the brilliance of having agency.
When I had an agency and needed to bring on more subcontractors, I often did it all wrong. I didn’t know what was expected of me as the owner. I also didn’t know how to choose the best subcontractor for me/my business. Let alone how to interview or what to look for in a subcontractor.
Mistake Two: Chose the Wrong Subcontractors
The Truth Is, you don’t need perfection; you need good character. It’s bad enough that I’m a perfectionist (I call myself a “recovering perfectionist “ – don’t quiz me), but to force it on those around is even worse.
I quickly learned that I needed to focus on their character first, before their skills. Yes, skill is important, but not at the expense of character. For my growing team and me, I needed to have a good fit. Someone with integrity, honesty, and who exhibits responsiveness.
Now I teach others to: “Choose character over skill. You can train skills, but it is difficult to try to mold character into those who are already adults.“
Mistake Three: A Subcontractor Who Markets Their Own Business
Choosing a subcontractor is a skill all to itself. When I interviewed for a subcontractor, I learned, after many mistakes, to look for one who only worked with other online service providers and did not like to market their business to outside work.
The Truth Is, I would put so much time and energy into my new team member. I took on new online service providers to help them. I trained and mentored them in taking care of clients, and before you knew it they had their own clients and were making more than I was!
The reason this was a mistake is that those who are actively marketing their own business often fall into categories:
- No Loyalty to You or Your Company
- Only with You to Learn and Be Mentored
- Will Not Share Your Business with Others
- Hungry to Make More
- And Want to Have Their Own Clients
These are just a few categories they fall into. Honestly, when they get their first client or two, they often leave, sometimes without warning.
I learned to only hire subcontractors who only wanted to subcontract. They were more loyal, willing to learn and make changes, and were very responsive to me and our clients’ needs. Yes, I said, ‘our’ because they begin to feel as if they are their clients as well. A subcontractor who takes ownership and likes to partner with you is so worth it.
Mistake Four: Did Not Delegate All Client Work
When I owned my digital marketing agency, I was great at attracting clients and onboarding them; however, I was not great at handing off client work. I did all of the client work the first month (& sometimes more). So, I was getting really burned out!
“Many agency owners spend so much time working in the business that they don’t have time to work on it. If you’re constantly knee-deep in client projects, it’s tough to focus on the bigger picture—business development, financial strategy and leadership.” Forbes
The Truth Is, as you may have read in my article about management styles for virtual teams, I truly believe that the best management style is “Fully Hands-Off Management“. I understand, however, that you may have to go through the “Helicopter Manager Style” and then the “Sifter Manager Style” until you are ready for the “Hands-Off” style. I certainly had to.
I even forgot to delegate my own business tasks. It was such a relief to get help and trust my team to do it.
It is important that you, the business owner, begin working ON your business and not IN it as much.
For more help building your agency, download this free checklist. It will help walk you through setting up your agency.
Mistake Five: I Did Not Schedule Regular Team Meetings
As my agency grew, it was easy to forget all the work everyone was doing because all the pieces were working smoothly. My team and I were very busy. I came to realize, however, that team meetings were crucial to our success.
The Truth Is that communication is so important when you are working with a team. Part of that communication should be regular meetings. This can be virtual or in person if you all live near one another. Even in a virtual meeting, you tell everyone to bring their lunches and enjoy one another. Get updates on their lives and what is going on within their families.
There are, of course, times when you should have a formal meeting. Creating an outline or agenda that I used when I was starting a formal meeting helped.
The somewhat formal meetings were based on the type of services the subcontractors provided. I put everyone into a category.
For example, if you provided social media services and there were some big platform changes, you would want to meet with your social media team.
I had six categories and placed each team member into one of the categories. Because I wanted them to be happy and loyal, I only hired subcontractors who enjoyed doing each type of service (this was a question I asked up front before even interviewing anyone). I did not want to bring someone for SEO Blogging who loved social media but hated writing.
My agency categories:
- Admin Services (as an add on ocassionaly)
- Email Marketing
- Graphic Design
- SEO Blogging
- Social Media Management
- Misc Tech Related (could be a specialist in a particular software like Kajabi)
Whereas the lunch meeting is much less formal and more about the team getting to know one another better. Life always happen and you may not hear that one team member’s son broke his arm, for instance. At an informal meeting, you will probably find out about it, so you can send a care package or a card.
Both formal and informal team meetings serve a bigger purpose for everyone and your business. Communication is key to running a successful agency.
I also set up a Facebook Community for our team to talk with one another.
Final Thoughts
Each agency is different. You will fall into a rhythm that works for you. It helped me to define these categories for my agency.
I’ve learned that if I’ve made a mistake or if someone criticizes me (or my work), I stop and sift.
Stop And Sift
This means I stop and consider what was said (or my mistake), then I seek what I should take away and what I should throw away.
- Take Away = the lessons we should learn from it.
- Throw Away = the voices in our head or what someone else said that does not serve us well.
Don’t let those voices keep ringing in your head; sift it right away. Then take away, followed by throw away anything that is not serving you well. Please do not make the 5 mistakes I made when building my agency.
Tammy loves empowering others to create and grow their agencies. Add your first subcontractor with her help. Don’t put it off – Reach out if you have questions, or set a Free 30-Minute Session with Tammy.