Growing a digital agency?

[Yelsha64]

Hi Guys

I was wondering if anyone here runs a successful digital agency?

I am currently a self employed web designer and have been slowly growing my brand for the past 6 months, I'm getting busier and increasing my prices which is going well but have ambitions to grow a digital agency in the future.

I am a bit confused as to how the transition happens from a one man band with one speciality to hiring people to do other services? I have seen countless blog posts and videos on people advising to specialise in one field to start with which is what I am doing but not much else on how they expand to offer other services and ultimately employing other people to do it. I know it's a complex question so I guess what I am asking is what is a good next step to get closer to this goal? Learn the other services? Wait until I work with bigger clients who want the other services with bigger budgets and hire someone to do it? I am a bit confused!

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies!

 

[AnotherSEOGuy]

Some of the best info and golden nuggets I've picked up have been through Daryl Rossers YouTube. He interviews some of the biggest names in SEO, marketing and some big ass agency owners. You can pickup some cool tips on how they scaled, client acquisition, prospecting, how to create alternate forms of revenue etc. Some really potent messages in there!

 

[Yelsha64]

I just had a quick glance and it looks like there is some useful content on there! Thanks a lot.

Are you running a digital agency as well?

 

[websitehelper]

Hire local freelancers with a good track record (when you can afford to) and build a working relationship. You will soon discover that you have a team around you.

I started as a one-man band. There is now 5 of us.

 

[Yelsha64]

Hire local freelancers with a good track record (when you can afford to) and build a working relationship. You will soon discover that you have a team around you.

I started as a one-man band. There is now 5 of us.

Thanks for the advice! I checked out your site to, good stuff Did you hire them part time to begin with?

 

[AnotherSEOGuy]

Hey, yeah running a digital agency also, based in South Wales but have clients all over (mostly in the US & Europe). Currently trying to get more local clients because working to a Central/West Coast US timezone is sometimes more effort than it's worth!

 

[Yelsha64]

Hey, yeah running a digital agency also, based in South Wales but have clients all over (mostly in the US & Europe). Currently trying to get more local clients because working to a Central/West Coast US timezone is sometimes more effort than it's worth!

Okay great, I found email marketing can really help for local clients. Are you a one man band or have progressed?

 

[websitehelper]

Thanks for the advice! I checked out your site to, good stuff Did you hire them part time to begin with?

Thanks.

Yes, as and when I needed them. Finding the right people is what may prove to be challenging at times.

 

[fisicx]

...but have ambitions to grow a digital agency in the future.

Why do you want to do this?

This isn't a facetious question, it\s goes right to the heart of any advice given. is it money, power, security, a need to lead or what?

If you can do everything you want being a one man band then where is the benefit in growing the business?

Does your current situation negate the worries you had in this thread: https://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/threads/feel-like-im-getting-nowhere.380777/

 

[Nochexman]

Based on first hand experience a great way to go is having a client who puts a significant amount of money (six figures per annum) your way on an on-going and regular basis.

 

[Yelsha64]

Why do you want to do this?

This isn't a facetious question, it\s goes right to the heart of any advice given. is it money, power, security, a need to lead or what?

If you can do everything you want being a one man band then where is the benefit in growing the business?

Does your current situation negate the worries you had in this thread:

Good question, a variety of reasons really. I love giving value to clients and doing this on a greater scale would be much more rewarding I think, I am loving it so far but feel the need to keep growing. I also enjoy leading yes.

 

[fisicx]

I love giving value to clients and doing this on a greater scale would be much more rewarding I think.

But if you were running an agency you would spend all your time running the business and not doing what you love. All you time would be a taken up marketing, doing the admin, managing staff, dealing with invoices, payroll, disputes and so on. Your staff would be the ones delivering value to clients.

 

[Yelsha64]

But if you were running an agency you would spend all your time running the business and not doing what you love. All you time would be a taken up marketing, doing the admin, managing staff, dealing with invoices, payroll, disputes and so on. Your staff would be the ones delivering value to clients.

But would that not still count as giving value? The creation of the agency itself would be giving greater value to the clients.

 

[fisicx]

Depends on what you enjoy most. I really like coding - it's the bespoke stuff that gets me most work and has generated a lot of new friends and referrals. If I had to manage staff I wouldn't be doing any coding so wouldn't be doing what I enjoy.

 

[Yelsha64]

Depends on what you enjoy most. I really like coding - it's the bespoke stuff that gets me most work and has generated a lot of new friends and referrals. If I had to manage staff I wouldn't be doing any coding so wouldn't be doing what I enjoy.

That's true and there will always be a need for good coders

 

[fisicx]

So do you plan to do the marketing yourself and employ people to do the coding and build the websites for you?

 

[Yelsha64]

So do you plan to do the marketing yourself and employ people to do the coding and build the websites for you?

Eventually that is one of the goals yes

 

[Wise Web Solutions]

I'm in the same boat, a one man band running my own digital agency, I get some work here any there from word of mouth and referrals, but currently struggling with how to market correctly on a larger scale to bring in more work.

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

Based on first hand experience a great way to go is having a client who puts a significant amount of money (six figures per annum) your way on an on-going and regular basis.

Whilst this could be a good thing it is also best not to focus your client income stream on one high-spending client. If you focus all your efforts on them - rather than looking to gain multiples of clients where possible - and they decide to move on at some point, or close the business, then you are back to having to recruitment multiples of clients in any case to cover the short-fall.

 

[Inva]

If you don't have a big budget then I suggest you find a partner. Without a partner you will probably be overwhelmed before long.

 

[antropy]

Thanks for the advice! I checked out your site to, good stuff Did you hire them part time to begin with?

I quit a very highly paid IT contract to start my own web agency and started off working alone in my bedroom. I'm pleased to say that right now I'm sat in our own nice office surrounded by my staff, all working hard for our clients.

The first employee is the hardest because it will almost certainly be the biggest percentage increase in staff numbers and salaries you ever make. It's also absolutely vital you start with the right person because they will become 50% of your company.

As you suggest, starting with a part time freelancer could be a good start, and then if they're really exceptional and want to go permanent - take them on.

It's certainly not been easy, but over the years we've got better and better at what we do in all areas and we're looking forward to what the future will bring!

To sum up - don't feel you have to hire too soon, and work with people on a freelance basis first to make sure they can actually deliver. In this industry finding good people is one of the hardest things.

Paul

 

[Yelsha64]

Hi Paul

Thanks for the reply and it's really nice to hear from people who have grown in the same industry!

Can I ask, I have been doing a lot of research lately on billing and charging and have heard from many agencies that in order to scale you need to charge by value based pricing over hourly or how long you predict a project may take. What is your take on this?

Thanks again and really appreciate the answer.

Thanks,
Ashley

 

[Lauren Hayward]

I follow Neil Patel for growing business/brands and his ideas to promote services. His blogs are great to know about various SEO and digital marketing tricks.

 

[Paul Murray]

I was in your situation a few years ago. I decided to stay self employed, mainly because being just one person is a big selling point for me, and I don't really want the stress and hassle of leading a team and paying their wages. I'd rather earn less but have more time and flexibility in my career options.

A few options you could consider:

1. Partnership – find someone with complementary skills and go after bigger jobs as a team. Grow from here if and when you need to.

2. Collective – get a group of freelancers together in a shared workspace. Everyone works for themselves on their own stuff but you've got a team for the really big jobs. I know a couple of people who started agencies like this, it kind of happened naturally though.

3. Faux agency – source some reliable local freelancers and go after bigger jobs on your own. If you win, just pay them to do what needs to be done. Just make sure you don't underquote on the pitch. Again, I know someone that is a limited company of one but has a team of suppliers he calls on. He often wins council jobs based on this.

 

[Richard Patey]

I would recommend niching down and then productising your service in order to more easily scale - is there one type of client you've worked with more than others?

 

[antropy]

Can I ask, I have been doing a lot of research lately on billing and charging and have heard from many agencies that in order to scale you need to charge by value based pricing over hourly or how long you predict a project may take. What is your take on this?

Well firstly you have to know roughly how long it will take and what your costs are so you know the minimum amount you'd be prepared to do it for and for it to be worth it. Then you can work out if your brand and reputation and what your company can bring to the table is worth enough for you to be able to charge more. It's not just a case of chucking out high prices - no one will go ahead.

Paul

 

[Yelsha64]

Hi Richard, funny you say that, I am just niching down at the moment actually because I work with an industry more than others Thanks for the advice, it's obviously a better idea! Thanks

 

[Yelsha64]

Hi Paul Murray, that's some really good advice! Thanks a lot

 

[justinaldridge]

There's some really good advice in this thread. We started as a partnership about 6 years ago, I'm technical and my business partner is very commercial. Together we work really well and we complement each other's skills. But partnerships are hard so you have to really know someone before going down that route.

I didn't want to grow the business much at all but today we have nearly 30 staff. It just kept growing and initially the new staff costs were scary but now we are used to having the overheads and we have a great team of people.

It's tough though and very different to being hands on with projects. When you start to build the business you do less of the actual work and instead need to work with the team, motivate them and train them and focus on running the business.

I would say I now spend about 80% of my time working on the business as opposed to doing actual client work. It's very different to the early days

Best of luck!

 

[Yelsha64]

Hi Justin,

That's really good advice thanks so much. Can I ask when you were scaling did you focus on one or two services first or perhaps niche in a specific industry to get more customers? These are techniques I keep hearing work very well for digital agencies so would love to hear your advice on that if possible, I also checked out your website, really impressive!

Ashley

 

[justinaldridge]

Thanks Ashley, we have a new website coming next month which is a big step up!

Our initial focus was very much on our core service, which is SEO. We just found that as clients grew with us they then also wanted us to handle their PPC, web development, content writing, hosting and other web marketing requirements.

Our core service and strength has not changed. It's still SEO. We have remained very true to what made the business successful in the early days but clients seem to prefer a sole supplier for most of their requirements so we have expanded into those areas to offer those additional services.

But that came later. We needed to get our core offering spot on first before expanding into other areas.

 

[jazperson]

If you are already earning a lot of income by yourself, I think you should just stick to that. Managing and owning a company is sometimes a pain and can be stressful.

If you want to do a startup company, I've seen a lot of companies where they are composed of almost a family and relatives, the people that you can trust. But of course, some of them doesn't have the skills. Just my opinion.

 

[Yelsha64]

Hi Justin

Thanks again for the informative reply. In my case it is building and designing websites as my core, a few clients have asked me for other services too so will try and build on that!

Thanks again,
Ashley

 

[HazelC]

As others have suggested, build up a network of freelancers.

We are content writers and work with lots of agencies as their 'web content writers' and bloggers. As far as client is aware we work for them - and that works for all parties