Building in scalability to a service
I don’t know why I have two agencies. Somedays I feel like I acted like a rash teenager and got myself in way too deep.
In particular, neither company is “systematized”. In other words, neither can run on their own without their owner(s). So really, I have two jobs, both of which take a lot of time.
That means today, like many Mondays, is a lot of little tasks…a lot.
- Checking on AB tests waiting to be finalized
- Answering client questions about AB tests
- Asking clients to approve AB tests
- Thinking through feedback and strategy on AB tests
- Helping a new hire walk through user testing videos
Then for Grow and Convert:
- Finalizing one content piece and sending to client for approval
- Interviewing one person for another content piece
- Discussing how the interview should be morphed into a story
- Interviewing a second person for a content piece
- Replying to feedback from client on content piece
And then sales and marketing tasks for both businesses:
- Talking through a content partnership with another agency
- Responding to inbound leads via email and phone
- Putting final edits on a blog post
Anyone who has run a service business (e.g. an agency) knows this is not sustainable. If the owner is doing all of this, the owner really just has a glorified job, not a real business.
But here’s what I’m realizing…
The root of this problem seems to be pricing.
If you price your service such that you don’t have margin to hire others to do the day to day work (“working in the business”), then you, the owner, will have to do it. Then you won’t have time to work on the business.
I really do think it’s this simple. If you have enough margin, this problem does go away. (Just hire someone awesome to do the day to day work.)
But none of this is black and white. It’s not “do I have the margin or not”. The real life situation is more like:
“I have some margin, but if I eat into it too much by hiring people, I’m taking a huge risk. What if I lose one client and then I don’t have much left over?”
This is a legit problem. We’ll discuss it next time.
