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Hey agency owner – how do you monitor and measure your agency’s financial health?

We’ve talked about the advertising industry’s love for gross billings. But again, gross billings is a misleading metric. So much of your result is impacted by the kind of services you’re offering your client and what the cost of goods for those services is.  Clearly we need to find a better way to monitor and measure the financial health of agencies. Medium asked me to look at this issue further.  If gross billings is not the right benchmark, what is?  At Agency Management Institute, we teach agency owners to look at AGI or adjusted gross billings.  This number is vital to tracking your agency’s health.  Have you used AGI to monitor your agency’s business?  What has your experience been?  If you don’t, what do you used to measure your agency’s financial health?  I want to hear your experiences.

May 30th, 2014|

Thank You – Money Matters for Agency Owners

Thanks for registering for the Money Matters Workshop! We’re looking forward to spending a couple days with you, talking about ways to fine tune your agency to help you make more money, get/keep more clients and have more fun. We will definitely be adopting the AMI philosophy of —"you will gain in proportion to what you share" - so I’m hoping that everyone will come to the workshop ready to learn from each other and hopefully from us as well. We will also be honoring the AMI commitment to confidentiality so please come ready to get to know each other’s agencies —warts and all. Please fill out this brief questionnaire before coming! Click Here to Fill Out Form! The sooner you do it, the better job we can do to make sure you get the most out of this class.  Here’s everything you need to know for the workshop: You can download all of this information here to keep handy until the workshop: Download PDF LOCATION: PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS SOON. The hotel WILL sell out. Disney’s Coronado Springs in Lake Buena Vista, FL. Call 407-939-4686 and use event code G0773629 for discounted price of $255/night. SCHEDULE: We’ll start both mornings at 8:30 am with breakfast in the meeting room. We will start the actual workshop at 9 am both mornings. We’ll shut down on day one at 5 pm and on day two at 3 pm. ATTIRE: Please come to the workshop in casual clothes. Shorts, polos, jeans — whatever makes you comfortable. However — meeting rooms tend to be chilly and I tend to set them to chilly so you might want to bring a sweater, sweatshirt etc. MEALS: We will provide breakfast and lunch [...]

March 6th, 2014|

One-Page Marketing Agency Business Plan

I’m not going to preach the reasons why planning matters.  You know why.  You preach it every day. Instead, let me tell you a little bit about the one-page marketing agency business plan template and how you can use it to grow your agency.  I designed the template to accomplish a few goals. You need to grow your agency holistically — rather than focusing on just one or two problem areas. You need to do more than just identify some business goals.  I want you to flesh out the first few steps of actually getting started. Every goal has obstacles.  This template will help you identity those right up front. You shouldn’t forget the less sexy aspects of the business like systems as you complete your plan. The one-page business plan for agencies is designed to help you focus on 6 core areas of your agency: Leadership/Management Staffing Internal Systems Financial New Business Marketing The truth is — if your agency survived the past few years, you’re already running a pretty good shop.  You don’t need to make huge, sweeping changes.  You need to make smart adjustments.  But imagine, if you could make one significant improvement in each of those aspects of your business — you’d probably enjoy a pretty good year.  Now imagine if you repeat that process this year, next year and so on.  How amazing could your agency be in five years? Download the one-page business plan here.  

March 3rd, 2014|

Why hire an AMI accredited agency?

To earn the AMI accreditation, an agency principal must attend and participate in an initial 50 hours of best practices education, taught by a 30-year veteran of the agency business, who is still active in the business today – ensuring that the teachings are current and relevant. To maintain their accreditation, the agency principal must attend a minimum of 40 additional hours of education each and every year. During these training sessions, industry experts are brought in to provide a wide array of technical, ethical, and practical knowledge on areas like the law, accounting, growing the clients’ business, relationship building, negotiation skills, digital trends, and much more. Many member agencies go even further, sending their other leadership level and account service staff to workshops and other learning opportunities. The average AMI-accredited agency invests in over 75 hours of ongoing training a year. Not only must an agency demonstrate to the AMI staff that they’ve earned their accreditation, but they must also re-earn the approval of their AMI peers annually. How does this serve their clients? AMI agencies: Commit to the AMI manifesto, promising to conduct themselves as their clients’ best advocates and partners Focus on continual learning of best practices and strategies, emerging trends, and industry issues Invest in a minimum of 40 hours of ongoing training annually for agency principals, leadership, and staff Maintain and build a strong alliance with other AMI agencies – which extends their boots-on-the-ground resources throughout North America and specific area expertise on behalf of their clients Are employers of choice – attracting top-notch talent to work on their clients’ behalf Contribute significantly to the communities in which they live by adding to the local economy through payroll and benefits, [...]

February 27th, 2014|

5 Mistakes That Cost Agency Owners Money

Registration is NOW OPEN for a special live webcast event Led by Drew McLellan, Top Dog at the Agency Management Institute 5 Mistakes That Cost Agency Owners Money Thursday, March 13, 2014 12:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. CDT / 9:00 a.m. PDT This event is FREE but space is extremely limited. Please register now to secure your spot   Join Drew for a live training session specifically designed for agency owners who are looking for strategies and solutions, such as: Learn how to implement the system that will keep you out of financial hot water. Your account team is costing you money every day. Learn how to plug that hole. How to create a business plan you’ll actually follow — the results will blow you away! Your new business methods are guaranteed to fail every time. Drew will show you how to do it so your pipeline is always packed with prospects. The one thing you’re not doing for you / your agency that would return 500 percent or higher financial ROI! Registration form About Drew McLellan Drew is a 25+ year agency owner, national speaker, AdAge ranked blogger, facilitator, and top dog at the Agency Management Institute. He works with the owners and account service staff of over 250 agencies a year – helping them increase their bottom line. He has written two books and is often found quoted in the pages of the New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal called his blog “one of 10 blogs every entrepreneur should read.” About Agency Management Institute (formerly Agency Management Roundtable) Since 1995, we have offered agency training, consulting and agency owner networks for small to mid sized [...]

February 26th, 2014|

Thank you – Build A PR Practice Inside Your Agency

Thanks for registering for the Build a PR Practice Inside Your Agency Workshop! We're looking forward to spending a couple days with you, talking about ways to fine tune your agency to help you make more money, get/keep more clients and have more fun. We will definitely be adopting the AMI philosophy of — you will gain in proportion to what you share so I’m hoping that everyone will come to the workshop ready to learn from each other and hopefully from me as well. We will also be honoring the AMI commitment to confidentiality so please come ready to get to know each other’s agencies — warts and all. Here’s some general information for the workshop. LOCATION: Denver Marriott West 1717 Denver West Blvd Golden, CO 80401 303-279-9100 Use group code Agency Management Institute To get room rate of $159/night SCHEDULE: We’ll start both mornings at 8:30 am with breakfast in the meeting room. We will start the actual workshop at 9:00 am both mornings. We’ll shut down on Thursday at 5 pm and Friday at 3 pm.  Many of you will be able to fly back home Friday night, if you choose to.  Please do not schedule your flight so early that you have to leave early. We're hoping that Thursday night you will be our guest for dinner. We’ll meet in the lobby at 6 pm. ATTIRE: Please come to both day’s meetings in casual clothes. Shorts, polos, jeans — whatever makes you comfortable. However — meeting rooms tend to be chilly and we tend to set them to chilly so you might want to bring a sweater, sweatshirt etc. MEALS: We’ll have breakfast in the room both mornings, lunch both days and dinner on Thursday. BREAKS: [...]

September 30th, 2013|

Build a PR Practice Inside Your Agency

“Thank you for developing current,relevant workshops that are going to help me generate ROI quickly.  This workshop really lit a fire under us.  We went home and starting talking PR to our clients and saw an immediate increase in our monthly fees. ” “Between traditional and digital PR -- this was a must attend!” Our Build a PR Practice Inside Your Agency workshop focuses on the hottest trend in marketing and the biggest opportunity for you to score some serious ROI. Public Relations. But this isn't your granddaddy's PR! This workshop will teach you how to develop a public relations mindset inside your agency, how to map out a PR plan and execute it for big exposure for your client and big profits for you. We will share templates, tools, and dummy proposals and plans -- so you can see how to make it happen without having to reinvent the wheel. We'll cover: What is PR today What deliverables can you sell and how do you price them Working with your clients to define who they are and what their key messages need to be Creating a win win relationship with the media Writing winner proposals Leveraging social media and digital tactics Building your internal PR team Measuring and reporting results AMI’s workshops are where small- and medium-sized marketing communication companies come to learn and discuss their most important challenges. This is like no other meeting you have attended. You’ll walk away with fresh ideas, feeling excited about your business’ possibilities and re-charged to take on the day to day challenges of running an agency. All of our workshops are comprised of non-competing participants from all parts of the marketing communications industry—B2C and B2B ad agencies, [...]

September 26th, 2013|

State of the Agency

Some interesting stats on this infographic created by Levelwing.com.  They tell quite a story.  How close to your story is it?            

August 18th, 2013|

Thank you – Secrets of Successful Agency Owners

Thanks for registering for the Secrets of Successful Agency Owners Workshop! I’m looking forward to spending a couple days with you, talking about ways to fine tune your agency to help you make more money, get/keep more clients and have more fun. We will definitely be adopting the AMI philosophy of — you will gain in proportion to what you share so I’m hoping that everyone will come to the workshop ready to learn from each other and hopefully from me as well. We will also be honoring the AMI commitment to confidentiality so please come ready to get to know each other’s agencies — warts and all. Here’s some general information for the workshop. LOCATION: Chicago Marriott Magnificent Mile 540 North Michigan Ave Chicago, IL 60611 Call 312-836-0100 and use Agency Management Institute for discounted price of $229/night SCHEDULE: We’ll start both mornings at 8:30 am with breakfast in the meeting room. We will start the actual workshop at 9:00 am both mornings. We’ll shut down on Thursday at 5 pm and Friday at 3 pm.  Many of you will be able to fly back home Friday night, if you choose to.  Please do not schedule your flight so early that you have to leave early. I’m hoping that Thursday night you will be my guest for dinner. We’ll meet in the lobby at 6 pm. ATTIRE: Please come to both day’s meetings in casual clothes. Shorts, polos, jeans — whatever makes you comfortable. However — meeting rooms tend to be chilly and I tend to set them to chilly so you might want to bring a sweater, sweatshirt etc. MEALS: We’ll have breakfast in the room both mornings, lunch both days and dinner on Thursday. BREAKS: I [...]

May 2nd, 2013|

Ad Agency Principals: Tired of being treated like a vendor?

<A guest post by Rosemary Breehl> Smart Ad Agency principals are getting a seat at the CEO’s table and they’re doing it by building client relationships. It’s a new day out there for all of us. Competition is tougher. There are now “ten marketing dogs chasing that one corporate car.” CEO’s today are under terrible pressure to deliver revenues, so the last thing they want is another marketing firm trying to ‘sell’ them something. In their mind, marketing is an expense and the ad agency/marketing firm is just another vendor. Agency principals have been trying to change that perception for years. Interestingly enough, now is the perfect time to do it … with a new client or even better yet, with an existing one. When times are tough, CEO’s are looking for ‘game changers’. So they are more willing to listen. In a recent interview Jim Perdue, CEO of Perdue Farms said his expectations of marketing were: “First and foremost, marketing is the keeper of the brand’s health” … he goes on to say that “the health of the brand is critical to the success of the company and … marketing expenditures are not viewed simply as an expense but rather as an investment requiring a measurable rate of return.” And yet, you’re still doing brochures for your client. You need to up your game and start thinking strategically when building client relationships. You need to become a strategic partner and trusted advisor to your client … and not an expense. As long as you are still only delivering tactics, you don’t have a chance. You must act and sound different than your competitors. So, how do you get out of that rut and position yourself [...]

April 15th, 2013|

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