🖐 times I got it ❌ 🤬, 🖐 times I got it right ✅ 😜.
In July 2022 I made the decision to shut down my strategic brand design agency, at a time when the business was probably in the best shape it had ever been since I started it in 2013.
We had Google, Snapchat and Silicon Valley bank as clients, we were designed to be remote first and fully flexible and were well on our way to doing £1 Million in turnover.
My reasons for shutting down were multiple (I might write a post on it one day), some might say I missed my opportunity to sell an asset (another post for me to write on why I did, but also didn't, want to do that), but my learnings are the most valuable takeaways....but then I would say that now wouldn't I... 😝
If you are a creative entrepreneur looking for some advice and insights here are the 🖐 times I got it ❌ 🤬, and 🖐 times I got it right ✅ 😜.
❌ 1) I didn’t start with a client
Foolish. When I launched my business to the world in January 2013 it was me, my laptop and a download of my LinkedIn contacts. I went through that list and contacted everyone who I thought might want to work with me again and let them know I was open for business. It worked! That first year I made double my old salary. And for many years referrals and my reputation were my pipeline for work. But I also had no repeatable sales process, so ended up with a multitude of random clients to try and service. This meant my business stayed stuck in those very early years.
It would have been easier to build the business with a solid first customer and I was envious of the agency owners who had started this way.
❌ 2) I took too long to get out of the business
I was a graphic designer by trade, working my way up to creative leadership positions, so I was used to doing the doing. Doing the doing feels meaningful - it is like you are earning the money and having an impact on the business, but it's really like doing Van Dam's ‘Epic Split’. However, the longer you try and hang in there the further the lorries split apart and you end up doing both badly. Trying to move from Creative Director to CEO was bloody hard but I did it at the end.
Every accomplished entrepreneur I have ever spoken to made delegating their super power. I should have made it mine.
❌ 3) Sales and new business always took a back seat
Feast and famine. It’s a problem for freelancers and a bigger problem for creative entrepreneurs. When you are small you have to do everything in your agency. I really liked the actions which gave me an immediate impact on my never ending to do list. Send an invoice. Tick. Find a freelancer. Tick. But sales and marketing actions have no immediate tick. These are LONG game activities. The actions you do today won’t give you results for 3-6 months at least.
If you want to get out of the feast or famine cycle you have to have a strategy in place and do actions every week with new clients - and even more so with your existing ones. It took me way too long to understand this.
❌ 4) I bootstrapped too hard
I bootstrapped my agency. Not a single loan, not even an overdraft until the Pandemic when I took out a business recovery loan to help with liquidity for growth. I was never comfortable with debt, it was not behaviour that was encouraged when I grew up and it is a mentality that is hard for me to shake. Every year I invested the profits back into the business. I paid myself last, some years sacrificing my own salary. It meant growth was very slow, organic and often it was frustrating.
But until a couple of years ago I didn’t have the business acumen to know what I would have even invested a loan in. So I guess I can take comfort in that the business mistakes that I have made have been at my own expense!
❌ 5) I underestimated the complexity growth creates
Once you have the foundations of your agency in place then growth starts looking very exciting. There were many many many times I would say to myself ‘If I can just get xxxxx in place then it’s going to get easier”. This hope and optimism fuelled me through the really tough times you can have running a business. But as I got the right things in place more complexity was created. Everyone tells you to delegate, but when you do you suddenly have more and more people reporting into you, each with new problems to fix.
In hindsight I probably needed a business partner much sooner.
It’s very cathartic writing this but not much of an ego boost focusing on your failures so here’s 🖐 things I got right! ✅
✅ 1) Building a remote first 'liquid' agency model
By the time I had set up my agency I had worked agency side, lead in-house creative teams so I had an excellent understanding of what clients needed when it came to creative support. My agency model was about taking the best bits of both of these creative worlds. We had a core team (for consistency and client relationships), then a community of freelancers (never ending supply of fresh thinking). But I also had a passion for the future of work so I decided to be remote first from day one (not such a new idea post a Pandemic but this was in 2013).
In essence my agency model was created by applying design thinking. I looked at:
What the world already knew around the psychology of work and motivation.
The creative needs a modern brand was going to want (now and in the future).
Technology and our new ability to work differently thanks to the internet.
It was a ‘liquid’ business. Able to shape shift to clients needs, the changing economy, and to the growing number of freelance talent out there. I had to completely redesign and rethink the way an agency operates to do it successfully but, it was SO worth it for employee motivation, the end output and talent attraction.
✅ 2) Implementing a community strategy for our freelancers
Our freelance community was an essential part of the agency model. I love the tension of working with freelancers - they can walk away at anytime and so can you. This creates a good motivation on both sides to work well together.
Our strategy was to take them 'beyond better'. By working with us we were going to help them become better at what they did too. We had deep dive/show and tell sessions of the work presented by the community, we shared productivity tips and tricks, and had social gatherings. We were just getting started on this but I believe a community strategy is essential for agencies that work with a large collective like we did.
✅ 3) Being one of the first creative agencies to become a B Corp
Nothing like a bit of extra free time that a Pandemic gives you.... I did the entire process myself and it has been great. It's a pretty easy process when you pay people well, are remote first, and have always believe that business is a force for good.
✅ 4) Agency culture was my top priority
I am really proud of the agency culture I created. It was high trust, high autonomy, radical candour, bring your whole-self to work vibes. Every month we would sit down as a team and share the wins and challenges. I would ask 'what should we stop, start and continue?' and 'where is the friction'. Dealing with creative projects and clients is challenging enough, I never wanted agency politics or bad processes to get in the way - so we didn't let them.
✅ 5) Knowing when to quit
There have been several times in my career when I have quit. I have psychoanalysed each one. What were my drivers? What was I feeling? Overtime you get really tuned in to when it is right to quit and not just a reaction to some inner child thing you need to deal with. Shutting my agency was a very well considered thoughtful decision - albeit a quick one, so to the outside world it could have looked like a knee jerk response to my wonderful dad dying from terminal cancer.
I know when to intelligently quit. It's to know when the will isn't there.
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Thank you for reading.
I am currently in a 'noodling' phase while I decide what I might like to do next. I realise I have a unique perspective having worked in creative agencies, as a leader of in-house creative teams and as an entrepreneur.
Do reach out if you think I can help you.