Start With Confidence and a Long Runway to Grow Your Agency

3 Golden Nuggets From This Episode

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1. Getting your agency off the ground. For Scott, the biggest challenge to getting over the milliondollar mark was gaining the experience he needed to project the confidence that would actually lead him to land jobs. “You almost have to earn confidence in this business,” he explains, “because people are smart and they smell your bullshit.” He advises people who want to make as an entrepreneur to give themselves a long runway until that plane finally gets off the ground. It’s very difficult, as he acknowledges, it will take time and you will need to become an expert on your client’s business before you can confidently say that you know exactly how to do a great job for them.

2. Stop wasting time on bad pitches. After working hard to getting his agency off the ground and past the milliondollar mark, what would Scott do differently? For starters, he wishes he had been more strategic about growth. He is sure he wasted too much money on bad pitches and that he should have considered that the agency didn’t have the capabilities for that yet. “I should have only pitched what we had business pitching or key relationships that I had,” he says looking back. Another regret was holding on to unprofitable accounts. We’re all guilty of this, lowdollar pain in the ass clients that you didn't let go quick enough. “If I had done both of those things. I would probably be at 50 million in fees right now,” he adds.

3. Hope for the future. With client dissatisfaction rates in the industry at 80%, Scott believes this is something we should all take seriously and try to work on. The good thing is, this industry tends to thrive during difficult times. There’s real opportunity to see eye to eye now that clients increasingly have more in common with agencies and can learn from each other. So there’s reason to be optimistic, he says, at a time when bad practitioners are getting weeded out of the industry and people who are doing things the right way have a ton of opportunity. “Especially for independent agency owners,” he insists. It is a good time for small agencies that want to do the work and build their reputation.

Scott Harkey had a rocky start in the agency business, having to keep other jobs while he tried to get his agency, OH Partners, off the ground. It took time, but he built his reputation and now runs a stable of agencies, as he says. Scott talks about how the first years of agency growth are always difficult and why new agency owners should give themselves a long runway to get their business off the ground. He also reflects on the mistakes he made and why he should have focused on strategic growth and talks with optimism about the future of the agency business, where he sees tons of opportunities for independent agencies that are starting out as well as opportunities to rebuild trust with clients, which is at an alltime low.
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JASON SWENK IS AN AGENCY ADVISOR THAT GUIDES MARKETING AGENCIES THROUGH A PROVEN FRAMEWORK FOR GROWING THEIR AGENCY FASTER & EASIER.

In 1999 he launched his first digital agency growing it to a multimillion dollar operation working with brands such as AT&T, Hitachi, and Lotus Cars. After 12 years of amazing growth, his agency was acquired in 2012.

Since then he has cofounded and has grown another 8figure agency. He also runs a unique consultancy helping marketing agencies grow, scale, and enjoy running their agency by applying the framework that he used to grow, scale, and eventually sell his agency.

Jason has helped over 20,000 agencies in 42 countries meet or exceed their business goals. He generously shares it all as a speaker, podcaster, and author. He has been featured as an expert in top media publications such as Entrepreneur and Inc. Magazine. Plus, he currently hosts the top agency podcast: The Smart Agency Master Class.

Jason is dedicated to providing tactics and strategies to agency owners. His mission is to be the resource he wishes he had as an agency owner.