Most agency owners are visionaries – able to see the future and come up with idea after idea to keep their agency on top of things. But most agency owners struggle to move those ideas forward on their own. They need an integrator to help them get things done – to wade through the details [...]
Small business owners have a lot to consider when it comes to employee benefits. Health insurance costs have been rising steadily, and with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, many small firms may see a further increase in their premiums. Nevertheless, employers know that robust benefits packages are a huge draw for talented workers and [...]
Agencies face all sorts of challenges as they struggle to decide what kinds of clients to serve and what kinds of deliverables to offer, and there are many different types of agencies you can be as well. For this special solocast (it’s our 100th episode!), I want to get you thinking about what kind of [...]
About five years ago, a business owner requested a meeting with my team to help rebrand his company. When we met, he set down a three-ring binder filled with copies of my weekly marketing column and said, “I’ve been reading you and saving your columns for three years. I’m finally in a position to hire [...]
Despite their best efforts to stand out, nearly every agency looks, sounds, and acts just like every other one. We all think we have figured out how to differentiate ourselves using catchy taglines and clever techniques, but from the outside looking in, it’s hard to tell the difference from one to the next. Don’t believe [...]
What would happen to your agency if you were abducted by aliens? It seems like a silly question, but bear with me. If you were captive on another planet with no way to reach your team, would your company survive? If the answer is no, then I've got bad news for you. You built a [...]
Picture this all-too-common scenario: You're 12 revisions into a client project, when you promised only four. You've now spent almost triple the time you intended on the project, which gives you less time (and energy) to devote to other clients. It's a frustrating situation, for sure, but the damage goes beyond that -- it's also hurting [...]
Pricing agency services is a nuanced art. Priced too high, your target customers won’t be able to afford you. Priced too low, you’ll leave money on the table with each new client or — even worse — run your business into the ground. Many agencies struggle with pricing. Their biggest mistake? Providing only one option, which [...]
Running a business takes everything you have. Entrepreneurs pour their creativity, passion, effort, savings -- their everything -- into their work. And five years after they start, half of them are out of business. A decade later, two-thirds have called it quits. But why? For marketing firms, I believe it comes down to a lack [...]
To agencies operating in the “Mad Men” era, marketing today would be almost unrecognizable. Agencies used to sell media, giving away all their best ideas — even producing ads for free! — in exchange for media commissions. The end goal of that culture was creating the best creative content, regardless of how much time it [...]
