Are You Making One of These 5 Hiring Mistakes in Your Agency?

We see you. You’re growing your digital marketing agency and you’re on your way to financial freedom! Yaaaaaas.

The road is mapped, the goals are set, the landing page is top-notch. Check, check, check.

But, what’s the next hire you need to make now to ensure you hit those targets?

After working 1:1 with tons of digital marketing agencies who were once right where you are today, we’ve learned a thing or two about scalability and growing a team—and we're about to fill you in on the top five hiring mistakes we see across agencies worldwide. 

1. Hiring before you have clients 

There are so many “gurus” out there who will tell you that in order to create a scalable business, first you have to set up a team to manage the scale. Set up the team and the clients will come, they say. But what we’ve witnessed is this: If you hire before you’ve proven your business concept, it’s going to mess with your confidence. Sound woo-woo? Hear us out.

If you’re able to bring in clients and help them get results to bring in a few more clients, you’ll have the momentum to scale. If you’re spending money left, right and centre to grow the #dreamteam from day one, you won’t have the momentum to support your team.

Now, of course this isn’t the case across all business structures, but within a small digital marketing agency? Our recommendation is to gain momentum first, then grow your #dreamteam.

2. Replacing yourself too quickly 

We get where you’re heading—make enough money to hire the best team to then replace your position in your agency and live the life of your dreams. We salute you, and we know you’ll get there!

But here’s the thing: As you’re creating this agency, you are your brand, whether you market yourself or not. If you replace yourself before you have a well-flowing sales system and team, it may stunt your growth.

When we work 1:1 with digital marketing agencies like yours, stepping in as the key client-facing role, we understand that for us to transition you out of your role, there are certain relationships and systems we have to nail down to ensure the agency’s momentum continues to scale without you.

In a nutshell, ensure your team understands how to transition you out in a way that’ll keep that momentum going and not stunt your growth. 

3. Not implementing scalable systems 

Ahhh the beloved systems talk. We all know we need them, but what does your agency need? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

The whole idea of having a system for each area of your agency is to ensure the things you learn from each client are applied to the next client… and all clients at that. If you see something working for one, let’s apply it to all (and future) clients. That’s pretty much it. 

Don’t feel that you need to test out every project management software until you find one that’s perfect (there’s no such thing!) Instead, create the workflow that works for your business and clients first, then import it into your software of choice.

Our Client Onboarding System for Digital Marketing Agencies is our proven workflow for ensuring your clients feel the love from day one—and you can import it into any software. After your sales call, you have a step-by-step flow for onboarding the client including sending them a handwritten card so they have a personal touch!

From email templates to briefing documents, you should have everything documented before importing it to a project management software or introducing a client to your agency. 

4. Allowing your top-paying client to control your entire business 

Boom—you successfully have that contract signed and you’ve landed your biggest paying client to date. Congratulations!

But your momentum shouldn’t stop here. When you land a client, you most likely jump right off the deep end to ensure the client experience is top-notch (and it should be!) However,  you may be overlooking something essential: In order to build a scalable, sustainable business, you gotta keep that pipeline hot with new clients.

Your goals will determine how frequently you should be bringing in new clients, but don’t let one client stump your growth. Pro Tip: Hire a specialist in client services to ensure your clients are taken care of while you grow your business. (Wink wink, nudge nudge if you’re already on the hunt for one!)

5. Not outsourcing your weaknesses first

If you’re a digital marketing agency looking to scale in 2020, we highly recommend you think hard about where to outsource. Let’s be honest: When you’re running every aspect of your agency, there are bits and pieces you’re not perfect at.

If running Facebook Ads is your jam and you could do that all day long, stay in your zone of genius. But if you’re like us and running ads makes your brain twitch a little bit, that’s okay, too. (And we get you!) Maybe your zone of genius is managing client relations like us, so embrace your strengths and just do that. (In fact, do it even better, and download our exact client onboarding checklist, you genius you!)  

The Big Picture 

These are the top five hiring mistakes we see within digital marketing agencies who are looking to scale. We understand it’s hard to know the exact best next step to take, but we hope you feel empowered and encouraged to take control of your business and make the best decision for your goals because that’s how you’ll make an impact on the world. Trust your gut—it’s generally never wrong. You’ve got this!

And if you feel like you don’t? No shame! Tell us what your biggest barrier to scaling is in the comments. We’re here to help.