If you’re like most business owners, you focus on your accounts and clients. The bottom line, after all, is important. But have you considered the impact your agency’s culture has on that bottom line? What kind of culture do you think you have? What would your clients say? Your employees? Entrepreneur asked me to write [...]
Are you tired of thinking you've found a great new employee only to be disappointed again? You can definitely build a better agency with better hires. An advertising agency can be a tough place to work: We live in a world of high pressure, tight deadlines, and demanding clients. Let's face it, they're all part [...]
Social media has had a real impact on not only our ability to communicate but how we communicate. Emoticons, twitter sized 140 character thoughts, tiny urls, etc. The “ease” of communication has also led to a decline in how to communicate. How prepared is your team when it comes to sending an email, writing a [...]
If you're wondering what does an account executive do all day in a successful agency management system -- you've come to the right place. At Agency Management Institute (AMI), we've trained hundreds of account executives, helping them understand their role with their clients and within the agency. To be able to perform the myriad of [...]
Your people are your agency’s largest asset. They’re also your biggest investment. Despite that — most agencies do not have an actual plan for attracting, retaining and growing the right people. And they certainly don’t have guidelines for how to know when someone isn’t making the cut. I wrote an article for the Washington Post [...]
Here are some questions you should be asking yourself when wondering how to motivate your employees: Can you name ten ways in which you motivate your agency employees? Can you name one? Or are you too busy putting out fires to consciously think about keeping your team fired up and working at a peak performance level? [...]
I have found that most agency owners are very generous people. They love the people they work with and want to create an amazing working environment. They are also very slow when it comes to firing an employee – whether it’s because the person isn’t performing at the right level or because billings have dropped [...]
Have you ever wondered what your agency employees want from their boss -- AKA you? I just spent two days with a room full of account executives, teaching them how to add more value to their agencies and their clients. As part of the conversation, we talked about improving employee relations and the difference between [...]
The staffing model for agencies has changed dramatically over the past decade. It used to be that everyone has to be under one roof, working the same hours and available for face-to-face conversations at all times. But now with remote employees, flex time and work from home options, how you build your team is very [...]
A non-compete agreement form is like fire insurance. It's a sickening feeling to see the smoldering ruins of your just-burned house, and wish you'd bought the insurance policy. The time to create your non-compete agreement is before you get burned. There's a widespread belief among the advertising agencies that we meet in our workshops and [...]
