If one of your goals for your agency this year is to have doubled business and client numbers, this is the advice you need.

In this episode we’ll cover:

• How one agency doubled business in just six months by giving work to other agencies.
• Building a network and being a trusted client resource.
• Why you should join a mastermind group to help you grow.

My guest today, Ian Garlic is one of very few two-time guests on The Smart Agency Master Class. He’s the owner of authenticWEB, which he founded 8 year ago. You might also know him from my “I Will Never Do This” Agency Pledge video as the naked ukulele guy. (Don’t worry, he’s not actually naked :) ) In this interview, Ian shares how his agency business doubled in 6 months… check it out.

How to Achieve Doubled Business: Not All Competition Is Bad

I don’t know about you but when I owned my agency I was always very guarded about who and what we were working on. I would never have even considered working with other agencies, let alone idea sharing with them and especially when I wanted to work towards doubled business for my agency.

Ian says he comes from a place of abundance and believes there’s enough work to go around. So share and share alike… Easier said than done though, right? It’s our natural instinct to seek and destroy. But….

[clickToTweet tweet="This is how one agency DOUBLED business in just SIX MONTHS!" quote="This is how one agency DOUBLED business in just SIX MONTHS!"]

3 Steps to Growing A Referral Network

If you want replicate the steps that Ian took to double his business here’s what you need to do:

1. Change your mindset. Agency ownership can be very lonely. No one really ‘gets it’ besides other agency owners. If you look at them as part of your agency family instead of the competition it will open you up to a ton more opportunities.
   

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2. Specialize. You can’t be awesome at all things, so pick one and rock it. You can build a reputation for being the best in a specific area, and when another agency needs that specialty you’ll be the one they call.
   

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3. Do favors without expectation. As you meet other agency owners, build relationships and get to know their areas of expertise. Naturally, you’ll be able to refer your clients to other agencies when their services are needed. Over time, these relationships will evolve into a referral network.

I know what you’re thinking…

You’re skeptical because you think most other agencies will try to steal your clients out from under you. I get it.

Ian said it best, “If someone can steal your clients you’re not doing a good enough job servicing them.”

Be Your Client’s Most Valuable Resource

Your clients trust you. They rely on to bring awesome ideas to the table - even if you aren’t the one to execute them. Use your agency network to connect the dots and get things done for them. When you refer your clients to other agencies that specialize in an area you don’t, you’re proving that you are connected in the industry and they’ll view you as a valuable resource.

The Benefit of Masterminds

Ian credits his involvement in mastermind groups for a lot of his agency’s success. He’s actively involved in 3 different groups right now. He says the idea sharing and accountability are crucial to growing and scaling.

Ian says even if you have the best team ever, you still need a peer group to keep you in check. Mastermind members are great for:

• A different perspective and help you see things differently.
• Giving you crap when you don’t follow-through.
• Advice and the benefit of a similar experience.

In fact, Ian and I have been working together for a while. We both have benefitted from mastermind groups for various aspects of our business and have decided to develop one strictly for agency owners.

Digital Agency Elite is a group of agency owners with the common goal of idea sharing to grow and scale their agency. The group meets monthly by phone and in person quarterly, the day before various marketing conferences around the country.

If you think this format of mastermind is right for you, check out Digital Agency Elite to learn more and apply. We are only selecting successful agency owners who are committed to everyone’s mutual benefit will be accepted.

Agency Tools You Need to Check Out...

There's a couple of pretty fantastic tools that all agency owners need to check out with some amazing deals just for Smart Agency Master Class listeners...

Cashflow or bookkeeping issues? FreshBooks is the solution. FreshBooks makes ridiculously easy­ to ­use cloud accounting software for agencies that will help you work smarter, become more organized, and most importantly, get you paid quickly.

Check out FreshBooks.com/SmartAgency and enter SMARTAGENCY in the "How Did You Hear About Us?" section for a FREE 30-day, unrestricted trial.

Klipfolio is a tool that is helping agencies continuously monitor and report analytics. It's cloud-based software allows you to define KPI’s based on your preferences and filters. With 50+ built-in marketing metrics, you can create a dashboard for yourself and your clients which can be viewed on desktop, mobile or old-fashioned PDF.

For a limited time, Klipfolio has a special deal for my listeners. Get a FREE TRIAL and an amazing offer just for The Smart Agency Master Class listeners at Klipfolio.com/SmartAgency.

Whether you are starting an agency or you're an established agency that has potentially hit a plateau, finding the best team especially your sales team is important. In this episode of Ask Swenk, I discuss everything you need to know about finding, hiring, paying and managing great sales reps to CRUSH IT in your agency new business.

I talk about everything from skill criteria and previous experience to salary and commission.

{1:42} Ramzi asked: “I was wondering if you have any great strategies to get referrals from current clients?”

{4:15} Myles asked: "Should I let my full time staff freelance in their own time? If so, what measures do I need to put in place to protect myself and my business?"

{7:02} Blake asked: "I am a big fan of your content. I own a 6 man agency and we’re going through that process right now. We’re trying to build our following with video marketing but it’s just tough getting started! Any advice you could share would be appreciated."

Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies today. Get Online Training to help you setup the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster.

Let Me Help You

I hope you found this episode of Ask Swenk helpful for your business but what are the other challenges you are facing in your agency? How can I help?

I have covered topics from facing failing economies and recessions or how a speaking opportunity can create business for your agency. Or maybe you want to know the four phases of growth within your agency and want extra help in taking your agency to the next level and sell your agency for a larger profit? I have all the information you need to help you through it.

You can learn more about my life and my experience as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

If videos are more your thing, don’t worry, i’ve got you covered! You can check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

Many agencies make the mistake in believing they just need to report on their analytics rather than monitoring them consistently. I am going to explain why you need to monitor analytics in order to build your business.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

• What agencies are doing wrong with analytics reporting.
• 4 steps you need to improve client analytics.
• Ways to monitor analytics to grow your agency business.

My guest on today’s episode is Mychelle Mollot from Klipfolio. She’s got a background in engineering, analytics and marketing… which makes her perfect in her role as CMO for marketing analytics software. Mychelle talks to us about the major differences in reporting vs. monitoring analytics, plus ways you can use analytics to grow your agency.

In our 2016 Future Outlook of Digital Agencies, we reported that brands are hiring 85% of brands are selecting agencies based on their ability to report and react to analytics. Unfortunately most agencies believe they’re being hired for their marketing and creativity.

That means there’s a major disconnect between what clients want and what agencies deliver. Agencies are not meeting expectation in this area - but there's hope!

Reporting analytics isn’t enough

Mychelle says a lot of agencies aren’t reporting analytics to their clients. And if they are, it’s a pretty generic monthly or quarterly overview that gets rolled up and presented in a neat little Powerpoint. That’s the problem, though. It’s a recap of what has already happened. If there’s a change in numbers you might be able to explain why, but you can’t do anything to correct it.

Instead, agencies should be establishing themselves as a valuable asset by bringing business growth ideas and strategies to the client when it’s relevant.

1. Change your mindset to use data proactively.
2. Work with your client to identify the most important metric(s) for their business.
3. Monitor key metrics in the moment (daily or every 2-3 days).
4. Use real time data to proactively change strategy and impact the client’s business.

Monitor analytics to grow your business

Create new opportunities with existing clients.

By monitoring analytics you can leverage your knowledge of real time analytics to pitch new projects to your existing. If you see an area that needs improvement or a different direction the client should be take, present those opportunities to the client with the data.

Analyze your own metrics.

You’re a digital agency but sometimes you’re more like the shoeless cobbler. You can use real time analytics to monitor your agency’s marketing. Just follow the 4 steps above and learn what’s working and what’s not. Tweak things proactively to impact your agency business.

Charge for analytics monitoring.

Agencies who provide analytics reporting usually do it as a built in service. However, if you are continuously monitoring activity there is potential to charge for this service. It can become cyclical this way… you charge to develop the work, you charge to monitor the progress and you charge for new projects that you discover through monitoring.

The KEY is understanding that monitoring is so much different than just reporting. The opportunities and growth potential is limitless.

Klipfolio is a tool that is helping agencies achieve continuous monitoring. It is cloud-based software that allows you to define KPI’s based on your preferences and filters. With 50+ built-in marketing metrics, you can create a dashboard for yourself and your clients which can be viewed on desktop, mobile or old-fashioned PDF.

I've played around with Klipfolio and it's a pretty awesome tool that can give you an edge over your competition.

For a limited time, Klipfolio has a special deal for my listeners. Get a FREE TRIAL and an amazing offer just for The Smart Agency Master Class listeners at Klipfolio.com/SmartAgency.

Growing Your Agency

When you monitor analytics for your agency, it gives you a consistent view of the performance of your business. In order to create the best business possible, you need to look from the foundations up for any other areas you need to monitor. By evaluating other areas of weakness within your agency, you can create a better business and improve as an agency owner. And the best thing about it is, I can help you get through all of it.

I can give you support and advice on many topics from what to do when you want to speed up sales processes, ways to increase your business profit margins or how you can build an authority for your agency.

Growing your agency can be a major struggle for any agency owner and I can show you the different phases of growth you will experience, how placing a process for performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your business and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell more!

Learn about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

Find more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

The post Why Agencies Need to Monitor Analytics, Not Just Report Them appeared first on Smart Agency Masterclass: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies.

Whether you are starting an agency or you're an established agency that has potentially hit a plateau, finding the best team especially your sales team is important. In this episode of Ask Swenk, I discuss everything you need to know about finding, hiring, paying and managing great sales reps to CRUSH IT in your agency new business.

I talk about everything from skill criteria and previous experience to salary and commission.

Finding, Hiring, Paying & Managing Agency Sales Reps

{1:03} Simohammed asked: “I’m thinking of hiring a sales rep for my agency. I know it's good to make the salary based on the representative's performance but from your experiences do you give a small salary as a base if there is no performance or is it always based on performance like project commissions and percentages?"

{3:48}  “What are other criteria that you look into a sales rep, besides being good in communication and a good sales person?”

{7:39}  “Is it possible to look for people with an existing network or previous experience in the same field etc?”

Grow as a Business

I hope you found this information helpful in finding the best sales reps for your agency to bring in those bigger clients and achieve the business growth you aspire to.

If you are looking for advice on what you need to do as an agency owner or learn how to fast track growth for your agency, I can help.

On my website, I have a bank of tips, tricks and insights that as an agency owner, you might find helpful. Head on over to the blog section of my website where you can find everything you need covering a wide variety of topics. If videos are more your thing and you find the more beneficial, you can check out the videos on my Youtube channel!

Have you ever considered starting a podcast to connect with your customers and create an audience for yourself and your brand?

In this episode, we’ll cover:

• 4 big reasons every agency should have a podcast.
• Common fears of podcasting and how to overcome them.
• Starting a podcast and building an audience of new business prospects.

I’m super psyched to have Pat Flynn as my guest on today’s show. He’s the successful guy behind Smart Passive Income - a major resource for entrepreneurs looking to scale their business. He’s also the podcasting guru and is sharing tips with us about the benefits of podcasting, as well as how to get started - including ways to get over your fear of recording your own voice!

Pat got his start as an entrepreneur when he was laid off from the architecture industry in 2008. He started an online study program for architecture’s LEED exam, called GreenExamAcademy.com and it took off. He learned a ton about quickly scaling an online business and over time turned that smart, passive income in another business… hence the name, Smart Passive Income :)

Pat says a HUGE way to nurture leads and establish a relationship is through podcasting.

4 BIG Reasons to Podcast

1. The podcasting space is less crowded. Stats vary but there’s something like 5 million+ active blogs and only 500,000 active podcasts. Those are great odds! Podcasting is far less cluttered so you can find and reach your target audience.
   

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2. Podcasts are evergreen. There’s potential for exponential growth when these shows live out there forever. Pat has episodes from 2010 that are still getting downloaded six years later!
   

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3. People are still discovering podcasts. Listenership is growing and by starting a podcast sooner than later you’ll get in on the ground level. Listeners are downloading podcasts to listen to on the go: during their commute, working out, waiting in long lines, etc. When they find something they love, they’re even binge-listening!
   

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4. You’ll gain credibility. You’re trying to establish yourself as an authority with your audience. And when you interview expert guests you are also adding to your own credibility.

Another bonus? Content can be repurposed. You can turn an episode topic into a blog post or ebook, create a Slideshare or live event, even a lead magnet.

Getting Over Your Fears

Maybe you’ve been thinking of starting a podcast but you’ve got some hang ups about it. You’re not alone. There are several common fears a lot of people face which hold them back from getting started. Here’s how you can get over those fears...

“What if people can’t find it?”

They will find it as long as you’re specific in who you’re targeting. People search for podcasts based on their interests, problems and focus. If you’re searchable in one of those areas, they will find your podcast. It just takes a little time to build your audience so be patient and let it grow.

“What if I can’t come up with show content?”

There’s a couple different formats you can try out and see what sticks.

Invite expert guests on your show to be interviewed on a specific topic that interests your audience. People like: authors, prospects, existing customers, and forum owners make great guests. Interviews are a win-win because you get some great show content and the guest gets to promote their business, book, forum or area expertise.

Another popular show format is Q&A. Take common questions and record your answers, solution or advice. This is an awesome way to establish authority and credibility with your target audience.

“What if people don’t like it?”

The key is to help your audience. Choose topics that are relevant and helpful to them. Don’t guess what people want to know - research it online. Find out where your audience congregates online and see what problems, issues, or questions they are posting. Develop your show topics surrounding those issues and helping solve those problems. Don’t sell right away, just help.

“How can I find my ‘hosting’ voice?”

Everyone feels the same way and you’ll get over it in time. Pat says finding your voice is just trial and error. You’ll get into a groove but in order for that to happen you have to start somewhere. Go back and listen to yourself, critique yourself and do better next time. Also, read the comments that follow your podcasts and make changes based on that feedback.

The best thing you can do is: be you. It’s ok to look at other successful podcasters and model after them, but don’t copy their style. Be authentic and your “hosting voice” will develop by itself.

“I don’t understand the technology and equipment.”

Pat says the technology has come a long way since he started in 2010. You just have to research and education yourself.

The thing about fear of something like this is that is a sign that you’re about to do something that could be a really awesome game changer. So embrace the fear and psych yourself up for extreme awesomeness.

In fact, Pat offers a Podcasting Course which break down everything you need to know about getting started.

Starting a Podcast

To be successful in podcasting you’ve got to fully commit. 

Tell yourself this is something you’re doing and going to continue to do. Then stick to it.

It was December 2008 when Pat first decided he was going to start a podcast. It wasn’t until July 2010 that he actually published his first episode. It took him a year and a half to get started?!?

Pat’s best advice…. COMMIT. Just take action.

Building Your Audience

You absolutely have to specialize. Pick a niche and be super specific on who you’re helping. When you try to serve everyone, you end up serving no one.

The more specific the better. In fact, when you upload your podcast to iTunes, Stitcher etc. you need to select a specific category in order to be searchable.

Specializing doesn’t mean that you have to turn away other prospects. Pat used the example of a video agency that specializes in streaming video classes. The agency owner knew a lot about yoga, challenges, lingo, phrases, etc. and targeted just yoga instructors and studios. She focused her advertising on this niche and was wildly successful. With that success she was able to expand to cross fit gyms, pilates studios etc.

Also, be prepared to be super patient. In Pat’s experience he says it takes a year or two to build a following and see real results. He stresses patience when you are trying to build a community of followers when starting a podcast. If you’re putting yourself out there, word will spread but it doesn’t happen overnight.

An Agency Tool You Need to Check Out...

If you're looking for a tool to help grow your agency you've got to check out Redbooth. Using this software will help you grow your agency and eliminate major profit leaks, such as scope creep. Right now, you can get a FREE TRIAL for 30 days and bonus agency templates for client intake, social media management & more by heading to www.Redbooth.com/Smart. Hurry, this is a limited time offer!

Curious about selling your agency? In this episode of Ask Swenk, I cover how to determine your agency's current value and what you can do to increase it. I also take a real look at the process to eventually sell your agency and gain profit.

{0:48} Tim asked: "What is my digital agency worth if I sold it today?"

{4:10} Bree asked: "What does the process look like when you sell your agency?"

{7:32} Tony asked: "How can you increase your agency valuation?"

Tim asked: "What is my digital agency worth if I sold it today?"

The short answer is it's worth whatever someone will give you money for it, and whatever you're willing to take. The thing I want to debunk right now is if you can get over $5 million, that you'll get tons and tons of money, or get over a million. It doesn't matter on your gross. I know agencies that are over $10 million in revenue, and they're like at 4% profit, which is horrible. Your goal for a profit margin should be 40% and more than that. If it's not, you're doing something wrong. There's a lot of people doing something wrong, but the cool thing is, know there's something wrong, and you can make it darn change. Through doing this and making that change, you can focus on how your agency can gain profit. Right? I don't want to cuss.

To answer your question, to give you kind of a baseline, it's all about looking at the past three-year track record. As a possible acquirer wants to know is, they want to make sure you're going up. If you're going down, it's going to be like a fire sale. They're going to be like, "Well, we'll just acquire your assets, and we'll give you this amount of money, and that kind of stuff." You really want to look at has my revenue grown, and by what percentage year over year in order to figure that out. On a low end, it would be 15% gross every year. On a high end, it might be 50%. Then you also need to look at the profit. That's really where it is. Who cares if you're a $10 million agency. You should be making mad bank on the profit. Then you can base your margins ...

On a small side, I'll give you a low, and a small, just to give you some kind of range. If you were 15% gross, or growing every year for the past three years, at 15%, and then 15% profit, you'd probably have a 5x multiple on profit. If you were at $1 million profit, you would get 5 million valuation for your agency. That's not saying you're getting $5 million cash, that's just what they evaluate it at, and then you can go through all the other stuff that I'll cover in the next question.

On a high end, let's say you're at 40% on both ends, 40% growth, 40% margins, then it could be 11x. Let's say you were $1 million profit, then you would get $11 million valuation.

That's just a rule of thumb to give you kind of low, and the high, and then you can calculate if you really want to sell it or not. A lot of times, I tell people not to sell their agency, because a lot of agency owners, and tell me if I'm wrong, they go, "Well, the grass is greener on the other side. I want to go build this product." This was me. "I want to go build this product, because it's so much easier, and I don't have to do all the hard work, and deliver, and all that kind of stuff. What they find is that the grass is greener on the side you actually water. If you did actually want to do a product, you can actually use the agency as an incubator, or this kind of system that just keeps producing these amazing products and technologies. Keep the agency, since you're not getting the huge multiples that you would on a Saas company. Build up these amazing Saas companies, and then you're off to the races, right? You get the money that you want, if that's what you want. If you're doing it just for the money and to gain profit, you shouldn't be doing it.

Bree asked, "What does the process look like when you sell your agency?"

The first thing is is an acquirer is going to reach out to you and ask you a number of different questions. They're just trying to get a baseline to figure out, "Am I going to give you a letter of intent," which will basically give you an idea of what they evaluate your agency worth, and kind of a high level structure of a deal. Maybe I evaluate your agency a $5 million. I'll give you $1 million cash up front. The other $4 million will be tied up in equity, and earn out over time. Something like that.

You have to be happy with the letter of intent. If you're not happy with the letter of intent, you don't want to go to the due diligence phase, because it's going to be a waste of time. You want to kind of negotiate back and forth, be like, "How did you come up with that valuation?" That kind of stuff. The other thing I want to tell you is when you actually start going through an acquisition process, whatever the acquirer asks you, ask them back. A lot of people do not know that, and they do not ask the right questions. They're just so excited someone wants to give them a bag of money, they're like, "Cool!" Sometimes they're just prying to figure out what's your strategy, and who are some of your clients, so you've got to be careful.

One of the things that I would recommend you do is set up an escrow account, or have them set up and escrow account saying ... After the letter of intent. Let's say you agree on the million cash up front, and then $4 million over time in equity. What I would do is I would say, "Let's put 25/50,000 in escrow. If everything you've asked me so far is true, when you actually start going through everything, and you back out, we keep the escrow. If it does go through, then you get that money back." It just keeps a lot of the time-wasters at bay. You'll see if they're really serious.

After the letter of intent, and you start going through the due diligence phase, then they'll actually draft up kind of a term sheet. This is the legal document. This is telling you everything. What you're really looking for is cash up front. The one thing I'll tell you, be happy with the guaranteed cash. Expect kind of the earn-out, the equity, all that that it won't ever happen. If it happens, great. But I want you to be happy with the cash. A lot of people, they'll get a $5 million valuation, they'll sell their agency, but they only got like $100,000 in cash. Then they never see the other $4.9 million. It's happened to so many people. Be happy with the cash up front. You have to figure out why you're selling as well.

After the term sheet, then you're sold. Then you've got to figure out am I staying on with the acquirer? What do I need to do? Am I going to have a non-compete? All of that other stuff. Then you can actually celebrate, because congratulations, you just sold your agency. Now what? I struggled for two years trying to figure out what the heck am I going to do next? I was just lucky enough that a lot of you reached out for help, and I truly loved it.

Tony asked, "How can I increase my agency's valuation?"

Well, there's a number of different ways you can actually increase it. The first one is looking at your assets. What assets do you have? Assets could be your client contracts. You want to make sure you have long-term contracts, not clients can cancel at any time. If you're month to month, that's not good. You want it fully extended. Also, too, you want to make sure that you can transfer those agreements with just written notice, that you don't have to get their approval. A lot of acquisitions, agencies will be an asset purchase, meaning if someone wanted to buy you, you actually have to go to your clients, get them to sign off ... You being able to sell that contract to them. You want to put that in your contract now. Just chat with your lawyers on that. It's just a transferable contract with written notice. That's about it.

Then you want to make sure that you don't have too much revenue tied up in one or two accounts, right? If you lose that account, you're going to lose a ton of money, and you don't want that either. You've got to make sure.

The other thing is kind of the profit. You want to make sure you're charging enough, you're not over-delivering, and is actually kept at a minimum, because that increases your profit, so you can keep growing, keep going up and gain profit. They also want to make sure you have multiple channels for your business development, right? I always tell people that I work with, and this is what we had: inbound strategy, outbound strategy, and strategic partnership strategy. I'm not talking about you give me a referral, I'll give you a referral. It's more about who is my strategic partners, how can I align with them, how can I help them out, and move forward?

Other things are, you want to really have a good snapshot of all your KPIs, right? My profit. How much does it take to acquire a client? What's the lifetime value of the client? What's my burn rate? All of these, you want to make sure you have a really good understanding of it. We've all watched Shark Tank. It's one of my favorite shows. I love when an entrepreneur comes in there, and they're not prepared knowing their numbers. That's what you look like if they start asking you questions, and you take a while to get back to them. We had everything ready. When they asked us questions, we're like, "Boom! Boom! Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom." Just giving it to them. They knew we were prepared. We knew our stuff.

The other one is really, a lot of times, getting outside perspective. You want that outside perspective to see through the trees. That helped us increase our valuation, because when you're in it, running it every day, that's hard. If you want to set up an advisory group, or board of directors, work with me, hint, hint. I'm winking, if you can't see me. Gives you that outside perspective in order to really get to the next level.

Want to Know More About How You Can Gain Profit as an Agency and Become a Better Agency Owner!

If you want extra help in taking your agency to the next level and want to gain profit or become a better agency owner? You can find lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics or if videos are more your thing, visit my Youtube channel!

What To Do When A Client Files a Business Lawsuit Against Your Agency

When a project begins to go south, you run the risk of a client filing a business lawsuit against you which can be detrimental to your agency's reputation and future.

In this episode, we’ll cover:

• The warning signs of a project that’s going south.
• Why it’s so important to have documented processes for your agency.
• 3 ways to handle a business lawsuit from a client.

This week’s podcast is a little bit of a different format. Instead of interviewing a guest who shares great strategies to help you grow your agency, you get to listen in on a coaching call with a client who is facing a client business lawsuit. I recorded the call with his permission and we chat about how to handle it without wasting outrageous amounts of time, money and emotion.

Before we dive any further, you should know a couple things:

1. This is not legal advice. I’m not an attorney :)
2. In the interest of privacy, names have been changed/omitted.

The Backstory

So today, I’m talking to Jake who owns a small digital agency in the midwest. They work with small and midsize businesses and have been in business for nearly a decade.

Jake’s agency took on a client who was retired from a successful military career. She was starting a side project which included an educational website. Jake’s agency quoted the project at $15,000 with payment terms as: $5,000 upfront, $5,000 at concept approval and $5,000 upon completion.

Why You Should Never Ignore the Warning Signs

Before they knew it Jake’s team was two-thirds into the project, victims of scope creep, way over on hours and project scope had changed many times… Jake admits all the warning signs were there and they ignored them.

He says in hindsight they should have fired the client and walked away. Instead, they kept working in order to recoup their loss and get the last $5,000 installment.

Finally, the project was complete and delivered. They didn’t hear from the client for about a month until she contacted them to help with a server upgrade. Which they did. For free. Again. :/

3 Words to Dread: “You’ve Been Served”

Another month after final contact with this client, Jake says it was business as usual at the agency until a gentleman arrived at the office, asked to speak with the owner, and officially served him with a lawsuit. It was exactly like the movies.

The client is suing Jake’s agency for $5,000… Which is baffling because it’s only for part of the project cost, not the full amount. This has never happened to Jake in almost 10 years in business.

In 12 years running my agency, I went through this process 3 or 4 times. It’s scary at first. The best way to handle it is professionally. Keeping your cool and an open mind.

Why Processes Outperform Talent Every Time

Without knowing the exact reason for the business lawsuit, the first thing to look at is Jake’s agency’s process. Could they be at fault or negligent in delivering what was expected, promised and paid for? He says no.

Jake had purchased my Agency Playbook and has access to all my agency documents. He assures me that his team has documentation of the approved proposal, launch order forms, $0 change orders and project approval. He has full confidence that his team followed their processes and has a paper trail to prove it. So what piece of the story are we missing?

3 Ways to Handle a Client Business Lawsuit

1. Keep attorneys out of it (if possible). In Jake’s case, his agency was being sued for $5,000. Attorney fees would be least that much. This is a small claim should be easily resolved without racking up legal fees.
2. Make a personal phone call. Even though you’re shocked and insulted call and ask for a phone or in-person meeting to discuss her side of the story. There must be a reason she resorted to legal action, so give her a chance to explain.
3. Diffuse the situation. You definitely want to defend your agency and your team, but just ask for her story and then listen without interrupting. Most people want to be heard so let her rant and vent and just hear her out. Brace yourself, because this could be the hardest part.

Moving Past A Negative Experience

Every experience has the potential to be something you learn and grow from… Even something like this. It’s important to me that Jake not only get through this but also walked away learning how to avoid it in the future.

Obviously, this agency’s project delivery process is completely buttoned up. But, I always say there is no bad agency client - only a bad prospect or bad process. So somehow this really bad prospect slipped in and became a difficult client - which is the result of a flawed screening process.

What I wanted to make sure Jake is able to avoid any future issues, so we talked about what he could do differently next time. Here’s my advice to him moving forward:

• Trust your gut and don’t ignore the warning signs. If a project or client is getting out of hand, fire them. Walk away and don’t look back.
• Never, never keep working on a project just because you’re too far in. You might want to recoup what you've already invested but you'll lose so much more. You’ll never get the time back and it’ll cost you even more in lost opportunities.

Jake ended our call with the intention of calling this former client to see if they could meet to go over her complaint.

Justice Is Served

Update since the interview: As it turned out, Jake was forced to meet his former client in court. She was suing the agency on claims that she lost business while the site was being built.

The $5,000 she was suing for included the cost of business trips she couldn't take because the site wasn't finished, as well as her phone bill for the business line that was tied to the website.

Jake and his team went to court in with a 5” binder of every email, signed document and a timeline of the project. When the judge asked questions, they had answers with documentation.

In the end, Jake says it was a really good experience and he feels a new sense of confidence in their work and their processes.

An Agency Tool You Need to Check Out...

If you're looking for a tool to help grow your agency you've got to check out Redbooth. Using this software will help you grow your agency and eliminate major profit leaks, such as scope creep. Right now, you can get a FREE TRIAL for 30 days and bonus agency templates for client intake, social media management & more by heading to www.Redbooth.com/Smart. Hurry, this is a limited time offer!

Moving Forward With Your Agency

Avoiding a business lawsuit moving forward with your agency should be a key consideration when you are looking into project maintenance, communications as well as the customer service between the client, you as the owner and your team.

I can give you support and advice on many topics from what to do when you want to speed up sales processes, ways to increase your business profit margins or how you can build an authority for your agency.

Growing your agency can be a major struggle for any agency owner and I can show you the different phases of growth you will experience, how placing a process for performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your business and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell more!

Learn about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

Find more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

Employee Profit Sharing, Referral Commission & Hourly to Retainer

Is employee profit sharing a good idea? In this episode of Ask Swenk, I answer your questions about if and how to compensate clients for referral business, how you can convert a longtime hourly client to monthly retainer and profit sharing for your team of employees.

{1:58} Geoff asked: "What are your thoughts on profit sharing for key employees?"

{4:50} Ryan asked: "I know you've talked about sales people and compensation before but, what about referrals? Flat fee or percentage? One time or for the life of the project/client?"

{7:28} Kirk asked: "I have a great client we do work for at an hourly rate -- this is the only client we have like this. We want to transition that client to a long term contract for a flat rate. Any suggestion on the best way to have that conversation about making the transition?"

Improving Your Agency

To bring your agency to the next level, finding ways to improve is always important. Through my years of experience, It's allowed me to provide advice on many topics from the struggles you may face with failing economies and recessions to how accepting a speaking opportunity can create business and the four phases of growth you may experience within your agency.

Want extra help in taking your agency to the next level and sell your agency for a larger profit? Or want to become a better agency owner?

Learn more about me and my experience and find lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics!

If videos are more your thing, don’t worry, i’ve got you covered! Check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

Creating Fast Track Revenue for Your Agency

If you want to know how to be up there with the big name agencies through fast track revenue, then my interview with Brad Martineau has everything you need to know.

In this episode, we’ll cover:

• 2 secrets to building multi-million dollar through fast track revenue.
• 2 things agency owners should quit being afraid of.
• A cool strategy for qualifying and educating new prospects.

My guest on this episode of The Smart Agency Master Class is Brad Martineau, co-founder and Chief Baller (best title EVER!) at SixthDivision. He started his digital agency after leaving a seven year career at Infusionsoft. He shares with us the secret on how he built a $3 million agency in just a few years.

Brad started at Infusionsoft in 2004, as their sixth employee. When he left in 2011 they had 650(ish)! What he discovered over that time is that Infusionsoft is a very powerful tool that very few people can actually use. When he left, he began consulting and eventually founded an agency for helping business owners master automation and technology so they can enjoy greater success and free up more of their time to enjoy life.

Fast Track Revenue: 2 Secrets to Building Multi-Million Dollar Agency

1. Serious focus (to the point of perfection).

Brad says it’s super important to stay focused on building one great, profitable product.

He was first exposed to this idea in book Ready, Fire, Aim: $0 to $100 Million in No Time Flat. His biggest takeaway was that a business owner’s sole responsibility in getting to that first million is to figure out how to sell just one product profitably.

He took this principle very literal and for three years, SixthDivision focused on one single product… The Two Day Makeover. Brad says at first, a "two day" makeover was taking more like two weeks, which obviously wasn’t efficient or profitable.

Working in this way, though, gave the team a chance to get smart about developing a successful process that is profitable, without the distraction of developing and selling other products.

2. Systems and processes that automate the sales process.

Do you have a process for screening your leads? If not, learn how to qualify a prospect quickly here.

Not only does Brad have a screening process, but he also puts his qualified leads through a campaign that establishes the know-like-trust factor before they even jump on the phone together.

Check out this super cool strategy for increasing conversions:

• The prospect requests to chat using the online contact form.
• The prospect answers pre-screening questions before their request is approved.
• If approved, the prospect is put into a “prep and reminder sequence.” They receive emails about how to prepare for the call, as well as videos to watch prior to it. Video include info on what and how SixthDivision works, success stories, etc.
• On the call, the sales person can jump over the informative stuff and dive right into specifics.

Most people are so anxious to jump on the call, they end up doing the rest of the work on the backend. Doing it Brad’s way means spending more time talking about the prospect and their needs, well as more time for objection handling.

This process leads to more efficient sales calls and a higher conversion rate. It also give you the opportunity to elevate the client’s experience on the initial call because they’ve had the opportunity to be educated. (And using software, you’ll know whether they watched the videos or not. So, you’ll know if they’re showing up to your call prepared or not… which gives you the upper hand.)

2 Things Agency Owners Should Quit Being Afraid Of

Here’s a couple things Brad and I find commonly hold back most entrepreneurs from reaching their revenue goals.

1. Raising Prices

My clients often complain about not being profitable but are afraid to raise their prices because they don’t want to lose clients. Brad says he sees and hears the same thing. Most entrepreneurs are stuck on a specific financial model - even if it’s broken. If you’re losing money you need to restructure your pricing. If you lose clients by raising prices, that’s OK because you were losing anyway. Bottom line: take action.

2. Specialization

There’s some sort of weird satisfaction in being able to say you offer everything to everyone… but if as the saying goes, when you are a jack of all trades, you are the master of none. It’s not realistic to say that you’re a full service agency. Let go of your hesitation to specialize. If you need more convincing, check out this interview about one agency owner who increased leads by 30%+ by getting super specific in a niche.

Support Our Sponsor

If you're looking for a tool to help grow your agency you've got to check out Redbooth. Using this software will help you grow your agency and eliminate major profit leaks, such as scope creep. Right now, you can get a FREE TRIAL for 30 days and bonus agency templates for client intake, social media management & more by heading to www.Redbooth.com/Smart. Hurry, this is a limited time offer!

Challenges Growing Your Agency

I hope this episode has helped you take the first steps towards fast track revenue but do you need to focus and improve other aspects of your digital agency to ensure you continue that growth?

I have provided many successful agency owner with support and advice on many topics from what to do when you want to speed up sales processes, ways to increase your business profit margins or how you can build an authority for your agency.

Growing pains within an agency can be a major struggle and I can show you how to identify the different phases of agency growth, why placing a solid process for performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy and what the three questions you need to ask yourself are for you to sell more!

Learn about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

Find more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

First Pitch to a Client

On the first pitch to a client, it can create different obstacles for you as an agency owner as well as your team. Understanding your agency, resources you have and those you can bluff can make the difference in any first pitch with a potential client.

In this episode of Ask Swenk, I talk about understanding cash reserves for your agency, why clients leave and how to avoid it, PLUS how to respond when prospects ask for an success story that you don't have yet.

{3:01} Alina asked: "How much money should we have in reserve for a rainy day to run our agency successfully?"

{6:12} George asked: "We just lost a major long term client. We never saw this coming because we've won a lot of awards on their work and they've seen traffic and sales growth every year we've worked together. Why do you think they left and what could we have done differently?"

{9:11} Phill asked: "When you're pitching for that first big project that you have not done for anyone yet, what is a good approach when the prospect asks, "Do you have an example of this that has been successful for another client?" And this being your first pitch for this type of project, you don't have any examples to give them. So, what's a solid comeback?"

Agency Owner Advice?

Want extra help in making the best decisions for your business as an agency owner  to get those potential clients on board?

You can find lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics or if videos are more your thing, visit my videos on my Youtube channel!

If you are an agency owner, let me know if you would like to chat about your possible EXIT plan – strictly confidential. Click here to get my help now.