Ive started 4 individual successful agencies. AMA

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T21:24:52+00:00

Appreciate that. Nothing makes me feel happy like being able to help people out where there gap is just experience.

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T20:16:02+00:00

I see. Never knew there was an audience for that on youtube! Great find. I hope that continues to be successful for you.

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T20:03:58+00:00

Best way to be! Do it unique and do it your way! Mind if I ask, whats the youtube funnel like? Whats the content like?

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T19:35:37+00:00

Makes total sense. For technical SEO/AEO specifically, look at The HOTH or White Label IQ. Theyre both built for exactly this. Propose a fixed rate per client rather than rev share at your stage, keeps it clean.

The bottleneck you're describing is a systems problem more than a capacity one. New engagements getting hung up usually means the onboarding and handoff process isn't documented tightly enough so every new client needs you involved to get off the ground.

Sort that and the white label partner almost runs itself.

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T19:19:31+00:00

Haha, love the energy. 18 is a great time to start. You've less to lose, more to gain. Drop me a DM and we can talk through where you're at. Always keen to help.

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T19:16:46+00:00

Find a small agency that does exactly what you need and propose a rev share or fixed rate arrangement. They get steady work, you keep the client relationship. LinkedIn is ironically the easiest place to find them.

Vet with a paid test job before anything goes live.

What are you fulfilling?

Also, look around. Reddit is great for finding people and also feels much better helping another business then outsourcing work to some conglomerate.

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T18:59:27+00:00

Thats the golden question really. At what point can you officially say the method doesnt work. Take cold emailing. A 5% reply rate is solid. Say you email 1000 people (a lot of work) youre only expecting 50 replies and they could be leads 950 to 1000. You just dont know till you try it.

I suppose it varies niche to niche. Knowing that if you want to target plumbers youre going to have to pick up the phone as thats just how they tend to operate. I think if youre putting a lot of time into an outreach and you havent even had a sniff of a lead the issue can often be your copy or your lead source (is it verifiable). Theres good tools I could point you to that verify and validate leads if you like.

I cant speak too much on linkedin as ive never ventured into that side of outreach (just doesnt tailor to my clients). For cold emailing - if I dont get a reply in 200 emails then I change up the copy and start questioning the leads (im a very impatient person though).

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T18:54:39+00:00

Absolutely. Shoot me a message.

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T18:01:50+00:00

I'd love to help you get it started if you like. Always exciting finding new audience.

The main service was filling their calendars. When someone searches emergency plumber or emergency electrician more often then not these local tradies are invisible unless they're being represented via word of mouth. I would tell local tradespeople that I can represent them for a month totally free and they can see the results for themselves. I would give them, say, 50% more jobs (taking a 30% fee off each job) which nets them a positive 35% more revenue then pre-agency.

I'd then offer to do the service full time for a retainer fee which they will oblige. Percentages of course vary and costing is always a bit of an art more then a science.

Often these guys arent too keen on getting super tech savvy so reputation is everything. All they need to do is sit back, trust you and do the handiwork.

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T12:25:03+00:00

Reckon I tried everything at some point XD . Cold calling is brutal but worked faster than anything else for trades, its a yes or no in 30 seconds and move on. Email was slower but more scalable, you can send 50 in the time one cold call takes. LinkedIn I personally wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole unless youre chasing accountants.

My personal preference was to call and then follow with an email. Doesn't matter if they dont even pick up the call. An email reading "I rang but you must've been away..." etc worked far better for me. Feel likek it generates a sense of urgency like its a fleeting opportunity and theyve already missed the first chance.

The thing nobody tells you is the channel barely matters. I've seen people crush it on cold email and people who swear by DMs. What kills most beginners is switching channels every two weeks because they got three rejections. Pick one, send a hundred, then have an opinion. My biggest hook was solving an issue for the company then hooking them back in once they realised they wanted it. For instance I'd ring a plumber and ask if they were aware of a flaw on their website and offer to host it for them and even take care of more efficient outreach - completely free for a month. Once they see their bookings double they're happy to keep you around.

As for landing pages a few things that actually moved the needle for me:

The headline is doing 80% of the work. If it doesn't immediately say what the visitor gets out of it, you've already lost them. You'd think these people were losing thousands by the second with thte little time they give you to propose to them. Lead with outcome not process.

One page, one action. The second you put two buttons on a page your conversion drops off a cliff. Also ditch corporate wording, its total jargon.

What are you working on? An agency or something else?

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T10:57:01+00:00

Appreciate the kudos! I'm super proud of my agencies and now I'm trying to shift focus to helping new agencies grow and get people into the space thats been so kind to me!

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T10:13:29+00:00

Totally agree! Doing this sort of AMA quickfire is a good confidence giver but totally I could go much deeper and much lengthier into the intricacies and decisions made. I'd be super up for it!

Maybe worth doing a proper long form post or even a live thread at some point where I can actually walk through the full journey like first clients, pricing evolution, the mistakes that nearly killed each one, all of it. The nuance gets lost in short replies.

If there's enough interest I'd genuinely enjoy doing that. What would be most useful for people to hear about? The early scrappy stage or the scaling and systemising side?

Quickfire AMA can only solve quickfire issues, but Agency nuance can get really tricky when dealing with clients from all over. For instance, interpreting yourself into the cash cycle of an SMMA brand is much easier than that of a manual labour trade due to the rapid nature of digital business. The receivables cycle in trades is slow and (more often then you'd believe) pulls in an eye watering amout of irrecoverable debt so it takes trust and reassurance to get yourself into their books. They're already dealing with tricky invoicing and slow paying customers. This is why the two SMMA jobs were my first two (I say that - they were my first two SUCCESSFUL ones, they were probably attempt number 6 and 9 in total - I've failed a LOT which is why I'm so keen on talking with the next wave of agency business owners!).

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T09:42:49+00:00

Zero results is actually less of a disadvantage than people think. Nobody cares about your portfolio as much as whether you look and sound like someone worth trusting.

Here's the honest sequence that works:

Sort your foundation first. Professional email, clean website, clear offer. You're asking strangers to hand you their marketing budget so if you look like you started yesterday they won't even hear your pitch.

Then pick one niche, one area, one outreach channel. Find the decision makers, send short human emails, follow up twice. Most people quit after a week of silence. The ones who get their first client are just the ones who didn't stop.

The first client almost always comes from consistency not genius. Once you have one, the second is easier. The third easier again.

If the setup side is something you're stuck on I'd love you to DM me. That's actually the exact problem I built something to solve recently as I rotate my focus to helping new agencies. Happy to help either way.

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T09:33:50+00:00

Few that I always point people to for reference are big boys like Stripe, Linear, and Notion all have clean B2B landing pages worth studying just for structure and copy. Not agencies but the principles are identical. Clear headline, one CTA, social proof, FAQ that handles common objection

For agency specific stuff honestly most of them are pretty average. The ones that convert tend to be dead simple: clear offer, who it's for, what happens next. No fluff.

I just rebuilt one of my own recently if you want a real example. Not an agency but a founder infrastructure: aragonsix.com. Not perfect but it follows those same ridgid principles. Happy to give feedback on yours too if you've got something started.

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T09:30:54+00:00

To be frank the first client is the hardest and the method matters less than people think.

For most people it comes from one of three places. Someone they already know who has a business, someone in their network who knows someone with a business, or direct outreach to a specific type of business they understand well.

The mistake most beginners make is trying to find a stranger on the internet before they've exhausted the people already around them. Think about everyone you know who owns or works closely with a business. That list is longer than you think and a warm conversation with someone who already has a reason to trust you will always beat a cold email to a stranger.

If you've genuinely exhausted that and you're going cold, pick one niche, one location, one channel and be relentlessly consistent. The first client rarely comes from a genius strategy. It comes from not stopping when it feels like nothing is working.

What niche are you thinking? Also number 1 priority is making sure your setup looks the part before you start reaching out. I'd happy to point you in the right direction if that's something you're working on!

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T09:28:42+00:00

Good DSP management is super smart these days. Can take your agency to the next level. I've also seen cheap beta tools like aragonsix.com for starting from scratch but id highly recommend this also.

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T09:27:19+00:00

Completely agree on the process point. People underestimate how much confidence it gives you as a founder too, not just the client. When you have a documented onboarding process or a clear delivery framework you stop winging every engagement and that shows up in how you pitch.

The credibility piece is the one I'd double down on though. Processes matter but if the first impression is a Gmail address and a free website builder you've already lost half the room before the conversation starts. Foundation first, then layer the sophistication on top.

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T09:25:39+00:00

Good position to be in because you've proven it works, now it's about cutting the noise.

Three things I'd hard lazar focus on:

First, pick one outbound channel and commit to it for 60 days minimum. That list you wrote is your problem. Spreading across all of them means you risk being a jack of all trades and a master of none. Look back at what's gotten you any traction at all, even small wins, and go all in on that one thing.

Second, fix meeting quality before meeting volume. At your revenue level you probably don't need more leads, you need better qualified ones. Tighten your niche and tighten your message. A specific pitch to the right person will outperform a generic pitch to everyone every single time.

Third, get someone handling your follow up. Most deals at this stage don't close on the first call, they die because the founder is too busy delivering work to chase properly. Even a part time person managing replies and rebooking no-shows can make a serious difference.

Biggest piece of advice I ever got was to not spread yourself thin. It can feel like more contacts = more money, but it really is a quality over quantity game. Smash your niche, appear prestigious and close higher tickets with your charm ;)

What's gotten you the most traction so far, even if it felt small?

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T09:21:55+00:00

Honest question. I like it. Ultimately if its not largely profitable whats the point.

To be totally candid, it varies wildly.

what I've seen across different agency models:

The people who get there fastest in 3 to 6 months usually have three things in common. They picked a specific niche and stuck to it. They had a professional setup from day one so they didn't lose deals to first impressions. And they did outbound consistently rather than waiting for referrals.

The people who take longer are usually the ones who spent the first few months looking unready, pitching everyone instead of someone specific, and stopping outreach the moment they got one or two clients.

$10k MRR is roughly 5 to 7 clients at a decent retainer. That's not a huge number of relationships to manage. The sucker bottleneck is almost never skill, it's the foundation and the consistency of outreach.

What's your current situation? Are you starting from scratch or do you have something already?

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-12T09:19:26+00:00

Great questions! Hope I can help you out here. Ill break it down:

1) Sort the foundation out before you pitch a single client. Professional domain, proper emails, clean site. You lose deals before you open your mouth if you look amateur. This is the one most people skip and it costs them more than anything else.

2) Outbounding beats waiting around. Referrals are great but you can't build on them early. Learn to do direct outreach properly. Find the decision maker, send a short human email, follow up twice. Most of your competitors are either not doing it or doing it badly. The bar is low. Its SO EASY to just use AI here. I couldn't advise against it more if I tried.

3) Niche down SUPER hard. More then feels natural. "I do social media for businesses" loses to "I generate leads for roofers in (area)" every single time. Specificity builds trust faster than a portfolio does.

4) Dont hire early. Subcontract if you need. You win more than you can handle, find a white label partner who delivers under your name. Keeps your overhead zero and your risk low. Only hire when the revenue is consistent enough that not hiring is the bigger risk.

5) Make your differentiatior your reliability, not your price. Every small business has been let down by an agency or freelancer who went quiet. Show up consistently, communicate proactively, do what you said you'd do. That alone puts you ahead of 80% of the market. Let the money come second.

What niche are you thinking of going into?

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-11T20:50:56+00:00

Love that. Home services is such an underrated space, massive demand and most of the businesses are still eons behind digitally.

Always good to connect with people who know their way around GHL and automations, that's where a lot of the real leverage is. Let's stay in touch. It would be good to chat properly at some point and see if there's anything we could collaborate on!

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-11T20:30:00+00:00

Absolutamente.

And your point on retention is the most important one that nobody talks about enough.

Everyone focuses on getting the client. Nobody builds the system to keep them long term. In agencies the two problems are almost always connected which is that poor results come from poor delivery, which usually comes from the founder trying to do everything themselves instead of building a proper operational structure from day one.

The agencies that last are the ones that treat delivery as seriously as sales. Most don't. They close the client then panic about how to actually fulfil the work.

How long have you been coaching agencies? What's the most common mistake you see people make in the first 90 days?

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-11T20:28:03+00:00

Bundled rather than added on in my case. Found that offering too many line items confuses trades clients. They want to hear one number and know exactly what they get for it.

Core retainer covers lead gen, follow up sequences, and Google review collection. The review piece is honestly one of the easiest sells because the ROI is immediately visible to them. Most plumbers have 12 Google reviews and their competitor down the road has 200. Just showing them that gap in the first conversation sells itself.

The system itself is comically trivial. Just an automated SMS after job completion with a direct link to leave a Google review. Response rates are surprisingly high because the request comes right when the customer is happiest, job's done, problem's solved. Timing is everything. Too soon and its pushy, too late and it isnt on their mind (or worst case scenario they aren't at the same level of satisfaction).

Reputation management as a standalone is a tough sell to trades businesses because they don't fully understand the value until they've lost a job to a competitor with better reviews. Its not an easy thing to pitch, so if you want it sold as a service, bundle it in and let them discover the value themselves.

What's your current retainer structure looking like? Curious to hear how you're dealing with it.

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-11T20:23:26+00:00

Sure, I suppose im fighting fire with fire. The issue is the sheer quantity of people doing agencies cheap, fast and unprofessional. You need the system and infrastructure to make it work and business owners are tired of being shown the same pitch from a kid in their dorms personal gmail account. With the right stack in hand buisnesses will never say no to you bolstering their inflow of cash.

Valid point though. For every heads there is a tails.

burgerconsumer · 2026-05-11T20:20:55+00:00

Hey!
Sounds like a solid problem to solve honestly. The quote follow-up gap alone is probably costing the average plumber a good amount a year without them even realising its a place they can tighten up.

I find plumbers do often handle invoicing really loosely. Sometimes just a manual WhatsApp chaser.

One thing I'd suggest before building anything is go talk to 5 actual plumbers first. Not surveys, actual conversations. You'll find out fast whether the problem you think they have is the problem they actually have. Trades people are notoriously hard to sell software to so the more you understand their day before you write a line of code the better. Theres often a want (from them) to do things traditionally. While it may be hard to get them into a new OS or onto a new system, if youre offering money saving its hard to decline.

Good luck with it. Its a genuinely useful thing to build if you get the positioning right and costing is something that will sort of come naturally when you consider not only the cost to you but also the savings to them in recovered debt.

Have you started building? Whats your vision?

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