50 things I wish I’d been told, before starting up a small digital content agency

Tref Smith
Aug 8, 2017 · 13 min read

OK. So it’s been less than a year since I launched my own small digital content agency. And to be honest, I’m still some way off from being able to call it a success.

I have however, learnt a hell of a lot. But I still wish I’d have been told a fair few more things, before I’d even started.

So, I thought I’d make a note of all the things that I’ve come to realise as being important in my journey so far. Both for my sanity, and in the hope it’ll help others who are thinking of playing the same sort of game I’ve decided to play.

It’s a bit of a beast of a read. To help, I’ve grouped the 50 points into 6 main categories:

1. You

2. Structure

3. Finance

4. Ways of working

5. New Business

6. Networking

And I’ve even made the key takeaway for each point, bold — for those skimmers amongst you.

Right, you’re all set. Enjoy.

YOU

1. Get good at dealing with risk and worry. Otherwise, this way of life isn’t going to be sustainable. There will inevitably be periods that are quieter than others. But hitting that panic button doesn’t do much good. Instead, be confident in the knowledge that busier periods are just around the corner.

2. Give attention to where you are heading — both in the short, and long-term.Change is constant. So, you need to regularly revisit where you are and what it is you’re offering — recognising your relevance, and adapting accordingly.

3. Make an effort to always be learning new stuff. Yeah, at times client work can make this difficult to do. But really, it’s just about making better use of your time. Fortunately, there’ll be a bit of on-the-job learning now and then too.

4. Find yourself a mentor. I’m pretty fortunate in that an ex-boss of mine did exactly what I’m trying to do — start up an agency. 30 years later and he’s still the head of an independent creative agency. Albeit one now with a global presence and quite a few more employees. Turning to him for advice is invaluable.

5. I made the decision not to spend too much time creating content for our agency (our focus is on creating content for clients). Instead, we’re giving attention to growing our personal brands — like what I’m trying to do here, by posting (hopefully useful) articles. The goal is to create agency content in the long-term, when we have more resource to be able to dedicate to it. But people buy people, right?

6. Be passionate. The amount of times passion comes up as the reason why someone was spoken so highly of and remembered and recommended, made me realise that showing passion is an absolute must.

7. Have interests and passions outside of the day job. And make exercise a key one. Yes, for the body, but more so to help keep that mind of yours in good shape. Interests are also a pretty useful tool for relationship building — people bond over shared interests. And having interests, again allows you to display your passion, when you talk to others about them.

8. Bit of a no brainer. But make sure to always put time aside for keeping abreast of industry developments. Know what the latest campaigns, best examples of creativity, and new developments in technology are. It’s easy to fall behind.

9. Importantly, remember — you are your own boss. And although at times it can be stressful. NEVER FORGOT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT. Otherwise, what’s the point?

STRUCTURE

10. Go it alone, or partner up with someone else? That’s the question you’ll have to answer when deciding to set up shop.

Going it alone would be (unsurprisingly) a lonely existence. And in all honesty, something I’m not sure I could do — well, to achieve what I want to achieve. There’s that saying:

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together

And I’m playing the long game.

11. To me it makes more sense to partner up with someone who has similar, yet slightly different skills. You can cover more bases, and have a greater offering.

12. Things became easier for us once we’d put a hierarchy in place — basically, defining our roles and responsibilities, and who and what we’d be managing. Without a hierarchy, it’s all too easy to waste time, unnecessarily working on the same things together.

13. Having an excellent pool of available talent (specialists in the main) is vital in delivering great work. Identify them. Build relationships with them. Keep them happy. Always keep your eye out for new talent.

Not only that, trying to build a network solely of potential prospects, isn’t the way to go. A big part of your network should be others that you can turn to, to collaborate with on client projects. As these relationships also offer huge reciprocal value. Work has come in, from those that we’ve given work to before.

14. Time is easily your most valuable resource. We all know that. Outsource (cost effectively) whatever you can. Focus first on the bits you just don’t want to do — for us, it was admin stuff. But for continued growth, you need to free yourself up from more of ‘the doing’, so as to focus on new business and client relationships.

FINANCE

15. Get an accountant. To be fair, I do as much of the finance work as I can. Quoting, invoicing, paying creditors, budgeting etc. — for which QuickBooks has become a great tool to use in doing so. But I leave the quarterly returns, the trickier stuff, and the annual accounts up to the accountant. I know my limits. And I know what else I’d rather be doing.

16. Retainers are crucial. Think of these as your security blankets. Long-term success is built on having as many long-term retainers as you can, and then supplementing them with project work.

17. If you let it, money can kill. It’s not said to be the root of all-evil for nothing. Be clear and transparent on all things money. For example, if it ended up taking a supplier longer than expected (through no fault of their own) to complete some work — don’t hide that from your partner(s). They’ll soon find out when bills and salaries are being paid. And they’ll be even more pissed off then, then when compared to being told at the time. Well, that’s what a friend said happened to him. Honest.

18. A rate card. It’s become our most important document on the November server. Everything goes through it. No matter what.

19. Price things based on time. If you don’t charge accurately for it, you just wont make any money (hence the reason why a rate card is so important).

20. Good cash flow is imperative. Things can very easily escalate to the point of no return. Manage it closely. Following the below point can help.

21. Try to have enough money in reserve, equivalent to a few months of operating costs — both for your business and your personal life (mortgage, rent payments etc). It’s reassuring, and so helps you to cope better with any of those nagging feelings of worry. Plus it will help if any unforeseen circumstances come your way, or if those quieter periods prove to be particularly, well, err — quiet.

22. I used to invoice with 30-day payment terms. Now when I invoice I ask for payment to be made within 7 days of invoicing. At first it felt a bit cheeky. But speaking to others, it’s become perfectly acceptable. Do it.

23. The faster you invoice, the quicker you get paid. It’s pretty bloody obvious. But earlier on, I perhaps wasn’t as quick as I could have been. It makes a huge difference.

24. Where possible negotiate payment in stages. Especially for large projects which have clear milestones.

At a basic level, we always negotiate a 50% upfront payment, and then 50% payment upon completion. There are a number of benefits in doing so. Such as:

- Giving you security on larger projects

- Showing a level of commitment from the client

- And obviously, it helps with the cash flow.

25. Don’t spend money on stuff that isn’t essential. I don’t have business cards. They’re not essential to me. I have my phone, on which I can type someone’s email, and then when in their presence, I can quickly send them an email with my details (email signature). Job done.

26. If you want to start something up yourself, in the words of Dan Wieden:

just do it.

It sounds cheesy, but you’ll regret the things you don’t do more than the things you do. And while there’s never a perfect time to start. It’s always best to start something ideally with a few quid in the bank, and some clients signed-up. Well, I could only manage the latter. But it was enough.

27. Admittedly, I’ve made some exceptions with money. I’ve lowered rates, as a way of trying to secure a longer-term working arrangement — and to work with clients that I wanted to work with. You’ll know when it makes sense to apply a bit of discount. Just make it clear that you are (discounting) when you do, so that the client knows your true value.

Also, charity work is something we do as pro-bono. Our name ‘November’ came from us setting up in yep, you guessed it, January. Just kidding. It also came from the fact that November has become the month of male health awareness (predominantly thanks to Movember). And with us (the founders) both being thirty something year old males — men’s health is of ever growing importance to us. November is therefore the month when we aim to undertake our pro-bono work — giving us more meaning and purpose to what we do.

WAYS OF WORKING

28. ALWAYS under promise, over deliver. Early on we promised big, and although we delivered, it felt like the client was slightly underwhelmed. Our overeagerness to please right from the very start of a project, was what I blame as the reason for this. We’ve not done that since. And clients now (nearly) always react to work in a way we love — overwhelmed.

29. Every day, have a list of things to do. Prioritise and delegate where necessary, and then work through the list till all is done. Trello is a great online tool to use. Similarly, a whiteboard works just as well. And is always in eye-shot!

30. Mornings are crucial. I find, in the main, the day is either won or lost here. I prep for the day the night before. Then in the morning, I run through what needs to be done, collaborate on the things that I need to — then focus on getting stuff done, which I’m a big fan of ‘Deep Work’ for doing so.

Cal Newport’s book: ‘Deep Work: Rules for Focussed Success in a Distracted Worldis one of those game-changing books. Read it. It’ll change the way you approach work.

31. Always re-write the brief in a language you and the others in your team will better understand.

32. Always challenge the brief when possible. Doing so always leads to better results.

33. Solid proposals are key. It will ensure both you and the client are literally on the same page when it comes to what is expected.

34. At times, things can feel somewhat overwhelming. The best medicine for this is simply writing everything down. Once everything is down on paper, it feels much more manageable. On paper you can then break things down into chunks. Tackling small parts of a bigger thing, feels so much easier to do than trying to take down one big intimidating beast. A bit like what I’ve done with this post!

35. Conflict and disagreement are natural in the creative process. If you were always in total agreement with colleagues, then something wouldn’t be right. And it would be reflected in work that was a bit too safe. When you challenge each other through the process, the end result is always (agreeably) better.

36. Don’t take things personally. Particularly when it comes to ideas. You need to detach yourself from an idea. Criticism of an idea is not criticism of you — it is of the idea. Also, you need to learn to ‘kill your baby’ (metaphorically!). It’s easy to get attached to one of your own ideas (your baby), and so you just don’t want to let go of it.

  1. You give birth to your idea
  2. You fall in love with your idea
  3. You nurture and raise your idea
  4. And you take pride in your idea

It’s pretty easy to see how you can get so attached to an idea, and why it can be likened to ‘having a baby’. But you’ll know when an idea just isn’t right, and when you do, you need to kill it. Trying to force the wrong idea to work, leads to bad results.

Know when to kill your baby (Metaphorically).

NEW BUSINESS

37. Dedicate time everyday to new business. At least 20% of your time should be focussed on new business. So ideally one day a week, minimum.

38. There’s no magic formula or silver bullet to new business (If you disagree, please do let me know what the solution is). It’s a mix of a few things: Cultivating your network. Email marketing. Creative, direct marketing. Getting yourself out to events. Content. Asking for referrals from existing clients. And if you can afford it, employing a new business agency.

39. Understand all your possible routes to market. We quickly recognised that we didn’t just need to focus on trying to sell our services directly to brands. Instead, partnering with and supporting other agencies that are working directly with brands, is a great route for us to take. Our size, speed, and affordability makes us a perfect fit for bigger agencies.

40. In light of the previous point. You’ll have different offerings for different audiences. Selling to an agency is different to selling to a brand.

Create different collateral and messaging to support you when approaching different targets. And have a clear understanding of the problems the different targets face — outlining exactly how you can help solve them.

41. At the beginning, say YES to almost anything (within reason). You’ll always make it work. We have.

42. Learn to say no. Wait, what? You just said to say yes to everything!? I did. Well, ALMOST anything. Saying no can be hard to do. Especially when you’re just starting out — and when you’re looking to not only grow, but survive.

But saying:

sorry we don’t do that, that’s not where our skills lie

shows strength and confidence in what you do. Remember, when making decisions to try on both your short-term and long-term caps — to see which one is the better fit for the opportunity in front of you.

43. Saying no becomes easier the better you get at quickly qualifying clients from the very start. At times, I’ve had an anxious feeling over a project, but taken it on anyway, only for it to come back and bite me later on.

There will be indicators and signs early on about a potential client/project. Don’t ignore them. Use them to help you to decide whether the partnership is right for you. You can bet your bottom dollar the client will be qualifying you for the job. You need to be doing the same.

44. Be able to describe what you do in a single sentence — yep, the good old-fashioned elevator pitch. Ours is:

We help brands create content to use on their digital channels.

It’s good to have a simple single sentence up your sleeve to use. Then if they show interest, you can pull out another couple of sentences that build on the first.

We do photography, video, animation, along with more traditional skills such as graphic design, and creative concepts.

We’re a purposefully lean team, which allows us to produce great work, at the speed of the marketplace, all while at a pretty efficient cost.

Then if they continue to show interest, you can drop a bigger paragraph on them, telling them the story behind you, what makes you different, and referencing some of your best case studies. Don’t worry; I’m guessing your interest in my sell is starting to fade, so I’ll stop here.

Basically, have layers to your pitch. Using them when it feels like enough interest is being shown.

45. Make sure friends and family know just what it is you and your agency does. They can very easily find themselves in positions where they could do some selling for you. But if they struggle to articulate just what it is you do, then opportunities can go begging.

We knocked up a very simple email and sent it out to friends and family. Friends and family want to help — you just need to make it as easy as possible for them to do so.

NETWORKING

46. Read this book. NEVER EAT ALONE. It’ll change your view on Networking.

I used to see networking as a bit of a dirty word. And for some reason saw it as a form of cheating in life. I always looked at good networkers as simply lucky buggers. They are not. NEVER EAT ALONE will show you why.

47. Always offer value when networking. I’ve been guilty of asking people if I could grab a quick coffee with them so that I could pick their brain. Yeah it can be seen as giving their ego a bit of a massage. But I’ve come to realise the translation is more like — ‘can we meet up please so that I can get as much value out of you as possible and give you nothing in return?’

A value exchange is crucial in networking. Obviously you don’t need to provide them with value at the time. Instead, find out any problems they have, and look into how you can help solve them. It could be as easy as putting them in touch with someone else in your network.

48. Similar to the above point. You can ask your network for favours, the opening of doors — once, twice at best. After that, it’s all about giving them value. Or you’ll very quickly find yourself being met with doors that are firmly closed.

49. Continually focus on growing and cultivating your network. Check in with people. Share things with them that you think might be of interest/value. It’s about continually staying on their radar (in a good way). So that once an opportunity does arise, you’ll be top of mind, and the first to be contacted.

50. Just be yourself. Act naturally. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. When you do this, networking becomes a whole lot easier.

THE END.

There you have it — the main things I’ve learnt so far after having spent less than a year trying to set up my own digital content agency. No doubt this list will develop over time, and so I’ll revisit and revise when needed. But for now, I hope it helps you out on your journey. It’ll likely be a roller coaster of a ride. But one I’d recommend giving a go.

Cheers

Tref

Tref Smith

Written by

Creative. Self-doubter. Working on both. http://tref.uk/

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