My wish for you -is that 2015 is your year of action!

I don’t know about you but as much as I love the holidays, I look forward to this time of year as well.  The slate is clean and for the first couple weeks in January as things rev back up — it’s the perfect time to finish your annual planning.

Want to have a spectacular year?  Here’s how to give yourself a fighting chance.

  1. Complete the One Page Business Plan for the year and follow it.
  2. Institute a bonus program that gets every single employee focused on AGI (ask me more about the AMI model)
  3. Have an aggressive, unstoppable new business system and assign a bulldog inside your agency to manage it
  4. Resolve to be a owner of action this year

What do I mean by being an owner of action? I think one of the human truths that cripples many agencies is that their owners are too slow to take action.  You either overthink everything or you are a little passive/aggressive and hope if you ignore an issue, it will go away.

I know running an agency is complicated and exhausting — but honestly, sometimes you are the one who makes it that way.  (I can say that because I’ve also said it to the guy in the mirror more than once!)  Are you sometimes going to make the wrong call?  You bet.  But more times than not, you know what you need to do. You’re just afraid to do it.

Owning an agency takes a blend of insanity, courage and confidence. I think he recession beat a lot of that courage and confidence out of agency owners.  The ones who are back and kicking ass are the ones who make the tough calls and take action quickly.

Resolve to make this the year of action by:

  • Firing any employee who is not at least a B+ player and replace them with someone who is
  • Firing any employee (even an A player) who damages your agency’s culture
  • Firing any clients who actually cost you money to service (don’t laugh — I bet you have at least one) or are unpleasant to work with
  • Hiring that person who you’ve wanted on staff for a long time because you know they could be a game changer but they’re expensive
  • Get yourself out of day to day client work and run the agency’s new business efforts
  • Read the book Traction by Gino Wickman and crush that one page business plan
  • Invest time, money and your attention in your best employees — retention should be on your radar screen every day

What do you say?  Are you ready to step up and really lead your agency?  If you’ve gotten the agency this far — I know it’s in you. Time to push yourself a little.