Is Your Agency an Artisanal Bakery or a Wonder Bread Factory?
When I meet struggling creative agency owners, one of the first questions I ask is: what kind of agency do you want to run? Their answers typically involve the deliverables their agencies produce, or who their agencies serve, but that’s [...]
How to Get Paid When Clients Pull the Plug
It’s annoying and expensive when clients pull the plug on a project before you can recoup all of your upfront investment. And yet it happens all the time. So much of our work requires a huge investment on our part [...]
The Death (And Revival) Of An Agency Power Player
Production managers, also known as traffic managers, used to be everywhere in the agency world. They were responsible for plugging the gaps between departments and ensuring that creators, managers and clients all knew what to expect and when to expect [...]
How much will you owe in taxes for this year?
In my mind, as you read that sentence, you were thinking “Are you kidding? I just paid THIS year’s taxes. Why are we talking about 2019 taxes already?” Which of course is my point. If you’d like to pay less [...]
Keeping the Lights On at Your Agency is Easier Than You Think
You and your team are good at what you do. You’re smart, you work hard, and you’ve excelled in your professional skill area. But you’re not salespeople. Since money doesn’t grow on trees, and there’s usually a correlation between effort [...]
Avoid Elon Musk-Style Firing Sprees by Having Hard Conversations Sooner
In December 2018, Wired published a shocking account of Elon Musk’s infamous firing sprees during Tesla’s Model 3 production struggles. According to the article, Musk’s frustration with low productivity and failure to meet standards led to the firing of some 700 [...]
Are you happy with where your agency is standing?
It's the end of the 1st quarter — are you happy with where your agency is standing? It’s so easy to get caught up in the flurry of clients’ needs, demands of the day and the all mighty To Do [...]
Hold On To Your Money: How New Tax Laws Affect Agency Owners
Most agency owners don’t have backgrounds in finance. Agency owners who shy away from responsible financial management typically run into unnecessary challenges come tax season (if they even make it that long). By following a few simple tips, agency owners [...]
Have you lost your swagger as an agency?
The recession damaged a lot of agencies a few years ago, but one of the most damaging aspects of the financial crisis was that many agencies and their owners had to scramble just to keep the doors open. They were [...]
Losing Employees to Clients or Competitors? This Is the Secret to Retaining Them
Businesses lose employees all the time. What’s the problem? In a word, culture. You can throw money at top talent all you want, but if you don’t inspire your teams, you’ll struggle to attract employees in competitive job markets or [...]