Are you staring at a mountain of work that needs to be done? Are you not sure where to start climbing? Don’t worry, you are not alone in this feeling. Most agency owners might look like they have it all together, but you wouldn’t believe how many that actually are feeling overwhelmed, with too much water above their heads.
Often, the most boring thing at first glance is the thing that will save you from drowning in the long hall. Building up solid processes and procedures from the get go will, after some time, let you sit back and watch your lives work fly towards the stars.
Before it all begins...
Before you start earning money...
Before you hire employees...
Before you think about growing your agency...
Handle your systems first. If you do not have the right guidelines for how to handle your financials, or every other thing coming your way for that matter, you will often end up not doing it to the best of your ability.
Like Forbes said “...one topic that can be overlooked is creating systems in order to achieve growth.”
Get it all out of your head and create a manual. This way, you won’t have to be bothered every time things has to be done. It will always be a system or a procedure in place for your employees to look to. Hence, you will get more time to do what you actually want to do.
So, as the agency grows and tasks and the overlooking of different processes are delegated away from yourself, you can slowly pull back and watch your lives work flourish.
Read more: How to have an agency that you love [Part 1]
What does all successful agencies have in common?
You guessed it! All successful agencies get their processes and procedures right.
Something that should almost be self explanatory is to keep your processes and procedures agile. As the marked changes you should adapt where appropriate. There are too many examples of agencies not willing to change, hence falling short and vanishing. Don’t repeat the same mistakes people have done before you, rather learn from them.
Get buy-in from your colleagues and employees on how things are working and if something can be improved. Do you have someone in charge for this? If not, get on with it right now.
Even though you may care the most about the agency, you can easily get too close to it, hence not see the measures that has to be taken in order to get on the right track.
Read more about why hiring a business mentor makes a lot of sense for your agency here...
Profits
Quality processes and procedures saves time and ensures efficiency. When the foundation is laid out, your agency will be running like a well oiled machine. When less time is spent figuring out how to do things, like putting out fires and so on, everyone's time can be used on the actual tasks at hand.
Don’t be afraid to let this process out of your hands. It is understandable that the money is a touchy subject, but others in you company will most definitely care about it too. Someone should be responsible for the process for it to succeed, and admit it, you can’t do everything yourself.
Naturally that ROI will go up. And you have to admit it, even though money’s not everything in this world, you can go pretty far with a fair amount of money. So if you do this, you’ll get the freedom to do what you want to do with both your agency and your life.
Happy partner /agency = happy life
Wouldn’t it be nice to go on vacation and know, deep down in your gut, that everything will stay in place while you are gone? Did I hear a “YES”?
In order to do that you have to make sure that everyone in your agency knows what is goin on. From top to bottom. Let the employees in on what's happening. When they are happy, so are the customers and so are the agency.
Remember the saying “sharing is caring”? It’s known for a reason. So be open and honest about what is going on. Make everyone understand the big WHY. When people know why they are doing things, it is more likely that they will stay motivated, and do a better job.
For example; why they are tracking their time, why they are let in on things, why they are using the specific programmes.
Why they are tracking time is something important, as many agency owners experience difficulty in getting this procedure committed to by the employees. There are many ways to ensure you get buy-in from your team to use the time tracking tools everyday - here are some tips.
- Use the simplest tool - a browser extension that automatically starts so that people do not have to remember to start logging time.
- Explain to the team that by everyone tracking time you can measure your costs and then work on increasing profitability. More profits then you have more money for the things they like, pay rises, staff parties, better coffee in the office canteen? etc.
- Make it a competition - have a leader board visible so that everyone can be accountable for logging their time and get help from the others.
- Everyone should have a number and you could perhaps set an individual target for a person logging on a regular basis - perhaps give them a voucher every quarter.
- Set a team target, e.g. if the company hits your yearly profit target you will take them all away for a weekend (call it a company conference and have a meeting for a couple of hours).
So get on with building these boring processes once and for all and start enjoying your life, as you deserve.
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