Every business needs to make money, but not every founder knows how -- or when -- to collect it. Cash flow problems are one of the top startup killers. The fad of acquiring users now and making money later is over. Companies need to turn profits quickly if they want to survive. To keep the [...]
The only way to keep your agency growing is to get comfortable with discomfort. When you think back on those first few years of owning an agency, somehow the tough parts get muted. That period of discomfort — though some of it was genuinely painful — helped you transform a mere idea into a real, [...]
I spend a lot of time in various agency conference rooms, critiquing their new business pitches. The invitation to do that usually comes after a streak of “we loved you, buts” or worse — not even making it to the final face to face meeting stage. The truth is — you are pitching your agency [...]
When you hear marketing agencies say "content is king," we don’t mean creative is king. Content’s supremacy has less to do with the creative genius behind it and more to do with the strategy that makes creation worthwhile. Businesses now recognize that creative work is only as valuable as the results it delivers. In the [...]
When you work in digital marketing, perusing (and gleaning inspiration from) social platforms comes with the territory. But when even a tech columnist for the New York Times admits he needs a break from his phone — and from social media in general — participating online can suddenly feel like a draining experience. Some marketers [...]
You know the drill. Client or prospect calls. They have an urgent need and you drop everything to figure out how to help them. About a third of the way in — when you need something (copy, assets, information, etc.) from them, suddenly there’s a grinding halt and you wait. And wait. It’s part of [...]
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 not what I’m asking. No, I’m really asking whether their agencies are artisanal bakeries or [...]
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 on the front end and when a client stalls or does a 360 and cancels [...]
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 it. Their timelines and budgets kept agencies running smoothly for years. And then computers replaced [...]
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 tax than you did this past year, you can’t wait to until late December to [...]
