Internal growth goals
We believe that every agency employee should have a growth goal for every quarter. What we mean by that is that they should get better at something, they should learn something new, they should add to a skill set. They should invest in themselves to be better for themselves, the agency, and the clients. The first one is what am I going to learn that's going to benefit me? I'm going to get certified in Google AdWords. I'm going to take a presentation in class, or take an online webinar on how to use AI to take better notes, whatever it may be. Number two, what is my growth goal in terms of serving our clients better? So that might be that I'm going to sit in on a sales meeting for a client to learn more about their objectives and learn what the salespeople hear when they're on the road. Or I'm going to go to a part of a trade show day with a client and sit in their booth and listen. And then the third one is how am I going to get better? How am I going to grow to benefit the agency? So that might be I'm going to write an extra blog post for the agency. How am I going to help the agency grow? I'm going to contribute to our thought leadership. I will start spending time on LinkedIn, sharing and liking my colleagues’, my coworkers’, and my clients’ posts. Watch »
Breathe
One of the ways we can help our team, but we can also help ourselves is to think about what we need to do to ease some of that stress, ease some of that unrest, and give ourselves literally and figuratively, some breathing room. Drew McLellan, CEO of Agency Management Institute, offers a weekly agency management tip to agency owners. Watch »
Recoup your professional development investment
Here's a simple but effective way to make sure your agency really benefits from the professional development dollars you spend on your team. Watch »
Profitability by client
If you're not making at least 10% profit on a client, you have to ask yourself, why are these people why is this business still a clients? Now, there may be reasons why an unprofitable client — even a client that you're paying for the privilege of doing the work — is worth keeping. They may be a great referral source. But you have to make that decision consciously. You have to be intentional about that decision. And, by the way, and I know this is not going to surprise you, they can't all be less than 10% profit. So profitability by client by month, by quarter, and annually. Watch »
Unreimbursed Partner Expenses
Let's talk about unreimbursed partnership expenses. An unreimbursed partnership expense are expenses that you pay for out of your personal pocket that you don't get reimbursed for. Let's say you're a start-up, or let's say you've had a tough year and you couldn't run all those pass-throughs through the business like normal. You still can take a tax advantage. The way it works is, first of all, this has to be covered in your operating agreement between your partner, in your partnership, or in your S Corp if you are a sole owner. Watch »
You can’t carry the load forever
For many of you, you've been riding the profit line really tight since probably fourth quarter of 2022, and then all through 2023, things have been tight and a struggle for you and you have kept your good people and you have been waiting and kind of betting on the come, hoping that the work would come because clients and prospects were saying, “Yep, we're going to do it. Yep, we're going to do it.” But how long can you carry the load and not make money? Watch »
Get the most from your credit cards
I know that sounds crazy, but the reality is most agencies use their credit card pretty liberally. We have a lot of expenses we run through on our cards and we want to make the most of credit card benefits. We can create our own currency by choosing the right credit card. Watch »
Repeat what matters
This is a simple but very important reminder, worthy of repeating. When we are communicating with our team our clients, or our prospects we need to bake in opportunities for repetition. When we repeat what matters, we verbally underline and bold it... and that leads to retention and action. Watch »
Using your all team meetings well
The start of the year is an opportunity to really rethink how you're going to show up in the new year. And we think about it from a goal perspective. We think about it from a resolution perspective. I want you to think about it from your team meeting perspective. Watch »
Are you living your values out loud?
Our agencies are bound by a set of values or beliefs. But I don't think we often think about how we make sure that we are really transparent about how we're living those beliefs. I'm wondering how you visibly live out those values, to show to your team and your clients that those values are something that are really meaningful to you and that you've made a commitment. By the way -- that's regardless of the inconvenience or the cost to honor that and to be true to that. Watch »
