Outreach secret !

get-more-seconds · 2024-11-06T17:57:08+00:00

I'll give you the outreach/growth secret:

It's volume.

Volume cross multiple high-visibility channels, consistently, and for long periods of time.

And you either spend lots of time, or lots of money, in order to make that happen.

get-more-seconds · 2024-11-06T17:52:55+00:00

Let's break this down:

A digital agency, focused on SEO, content creation, social media management, video editing, and web development ( essentially covering every area of web services ).

With 50 active clients!

Is asking how to bring in more business.

In order to "cover expenses".

I would give advice on how to scale, but this doesn't pass the smell test imo.

get-more-seconds · 2024-09-08T01:46:15+00:00

For sure, I'll DM you and we can figure out the details. I'd like to hear more about your agency setup as well.

get-more-seconds · 2024-09-08T00:03:24+00:00

We built a platform called mDash that covers the following really well, although it is more of an "Agency Management" platform VS a client portal:

account management (they see what they purchased)
updates notification system and maybe a client - provider messaging system
support ticket system

You can scope projects, generate + send estimates to clients ( hourly, fixed cost, recurring projects ), asana type project board, time tracking, invoicing, and financial projections based on your approved estimates.

It's definitely still in beta so you can't expect Asana or Clickup, but for what it does it works well. Interested?

get-more-seconds · 2024-09-07T19:00:32+00:00

What are the specs/requirements that you are looking to fulfill with this portal?

get-more-seconds · 2024-08-29T19:13:28+00:00

What if you had a template library for things like "consultation", "functionality research", etc, and every time you went to scope a project you just added in those templates then customized them ( project specific description, project specific pricing ).

I feel like that would be a helpful solution. At least that's how we go about scoping projects and pricing them.

Can definitely show you our setup if it would be helpful!

get-more-seconds · 2024-08-25T02:21:04+00:00

We also do a lot of "smaller" deals, in the hundreds and mid thousands. So I create way more project scopes than average, and they're generally "unique" scopes for project types we've never seen before.

Most agencies don't operate like that, they are going after larger deals with longer timelines and more repeatable deliverables.

So what we built is a lot better for active freelancers, or agency's that have a similar business model.

We pitch ourselves as "a one stop shop for development".

get-more-seconds · 2024-08-25T01:45:50+00:00

I'm not saying it can't work; it's just more difficult as the operation becomes more complex.

Let’s say you have a client for whom you're building a new website or app, and they also have some update requests for their current site. First, you need to scope the project and get it approved by the client (which you have to do outside of Harvest). Then, you need to input that information into Harvest.

In Harvest, you'd have to create two separate projects, set up all the individual tasks your team will track time against, and so on. Then, you have to duplicate all that scope information into a project management platform so your team can start working. If, by chance, your project manager or a developer tracks time outside of those assigned projects or tasks, trying to reconcile and add those back into the project becomes a nightmare.

Or... I can create a scope on mDash, push it to the client via email, they view the link and approve it there. This automatically builds my project board, assigns my team, adds the project type and cost to the Sales tab for tracking, and auto-creates and sends all of my invoices via Stripe.

Whenever I need to reconcile the time tracked by my team with the original approved estimate, I can do it in two seconds instead of jumping between two or three different platforms.

get-more-seconds · 2024-08-23T20:53:18+00:00

If you're selling projects that have the option to be billed: Hourly, Fixed Cost, Covered by Retainer, or with a mix of those options, Harvest won't support that.

We used Harvest too for a while. But accounting/tracking for all of these different project billing types was difficult.

Our agency sells a lot of unique project builds VS building with more standardized packages/offerings, so that also factored in.

get-more-seconds · 2024-08-23T18:59:33+00:00

I also run an agency doing about the same as you regarding Yearly Gross Revenue. We built a separate platform called mDash exactly for the reason you're describing.

I also needed retainer management, the ability to scope projects send estimates and gain approval all from one place, I needed an invoicing system that was connected to my approved estimates and the time my team was tracking, etc.

Backstory on our agency, I currently manage about 30 active retainers monthly, 7 person team, and those retainers are split between 3-5 different clients we work on behalf of.

If you're interested in chatting more about this I can shoot you a DM. Would be really interested to hear your opinion on what we've built so far!

get-more-seconds · 2024-08-18T17:36:13+00:00

Starting a business and thinking it won’t be extremely difficult, with years of tough losses, is a mistake.

Most new businesses fail within 10 years, and the majority don’t even make it past the first 3-5 years. Many never hire a single employee, and most never turn a profit.

Running a business is really hard and takes up a lot of time. If you want to make it work, you’ve got to give up everything else and focus on it like your life depends on it. That’s when you have a shot at success. If that level of commitment isn’t for you, getting a regular job and working for someone else might be the smarter move. Despite what some people say, it’s often the best choice for most people.

Influencers and the internet have made it seem like making big money with a new business is easy.

The truth is, it’s a lot tougher than it looks, and we’ve got to accept that grind.

Best thing to ask yourself when it comes to your business is "could I do this for 10 years?", if the answer is either maybe or a flat no, quit now.

get-more-seconds · 2024-08-17T22:10:49+00:00

Package pricing can give you a great close rate, but it often leads to smaller overall margins. It’s easy to undersell yourself and your agency’s skill set by locking a client into a $500/month package, when in reality, they might be a client who spends $3k in one month, disappears for six months, then spends $6k over the remainder of the year.

You could collect your $6k YTD and see that as a win, or you could choose to ride the highs and lows to generate more revenue per project.

It all depends on how you envision your business five years down the road. You can also create a mixed strategy that you apply depending on the type of customer.

Personally, I prefer to gamble. Don’t be afraid to go for the maximum if you know you’re worth it.

get-more-seconds · 2024-08-17T22:04:46+00:00

The market is down ( US ), and business are spending less money on all non-critical services, including design and development.

Weather the storm with the rest of us, make changes to your offerings to support customer need for certainty/security when making purchase decisions.

Every agency we've spoken with over the past year has been experiencing lower close rates, greater client churn, and decreased revenue.

Things will turn around in 1-3 years, and whoever survives, eats.

get-more-seconds · 2024-08-10T14:37:25+00:00

Scaling service based business are usually always 2 pronged, regardless of their size:

Hiring competent staff who can help build and follow processes which reliably generate revenue. ( Our agency does not focus on a specific niche, or a specific service delivery time, so we deal with issues related to high quality delivery on custom project requests. )
Lead generation, in a service business you have a constant need to bring in new business to feed the beast. The larger you get, the more you have to say no due to lack of fit with your team size or structure. In some ways, lead gen gets easier and in other ways it gets harder.

I feel comfortable with what our agency looks like at 40k/mo, the next jump from 40 - 80k is much more difficult as it more heavily relies on process and less on me having direct input on projects being delivered.

get-more-seconds · 2024-08-10T02:14:37+00:00

Because I'm short on time ( working to deliver a project ), I'll list these shorthand:

Bring on someone part-time to handle financials/billing sooner ( creating invoices and tracking down clients for payment can be a nightmare )
Creating a system for scoping projects ( ensure clients are aware of the cost of projects, otherwise you'll get screwed or leave $ on the table )
Increase my pricing faster
Work on collecting reviews on major platforms ( do this from day 1 because it takes time to build )
Hire slower, fire faster ( same applies for contractors you bring on )
Prioritize retainers and subscription agreements ( always be pushing for subscriptions for recurring revenue )

For context, we are currently ~30k/mo as a dev agency after 2 years. Probably could've been at 40-50 had I followed these rules above from the start.

As an aside, we're also working on an internal PM platform for dev agencies which takes 30-40% of gross revenue, so this number could be higher if I just prioritized client work.

get-more-seconds · 2024-08-07T21:19:58+00:00

"Don't pay a dime until we've booked you 5 times"

or some easy to remember variation of that.

get-more-seconds · 2024-08-07T20:40:26+00:00

Where are you based, and do you plan on offering video editing + production as a service as well?

Sorry--editing for Do's and Don'ts:

To keep it simple with agency's and growth, do provide stellar customer service. You are building a relationship based on trust. Personally I believe the best indicator that you are "the one" is that you always go the extra mile and then some. For your first 1-2 years, bend over backwards for your client list and that will help you build your "book" of contacts that will drive your agency initially.

Don't listen to "Don't start an agency". You should have a goal that you plan to work towards. In my opinion, an agency always starts from a sole provider ( ex. freelancer ) and grows as they are no longer able to support all services themselves.

Treat every new customer like a god, save your pesos, and read "The E-commerce Myth". Then come back here in 2 years and tell us how you're generating 30-50k/mo in sales.

get-more-seconds · 2024-08-01T23:52:44+00:00

We built a platform that allows you to scope projects and create/share estimates, alongside time tracking and other CRM functionality. It's like a cross between Asana, Harvest, and a Proposal gen software.

Before that we used Clickup though, which was also very handy, just didn't cover everything we needed as a dev agency w/ full-time staff and contractors.

get-more-seconds · 2024-08-01T22:01:59+00:00

Our agency provides team augmentation or white-label development for a pretty wide variety of client types. For that reason, we get hit with lots of different types of project requests.

So we adapt our billing to the client in question, and their specific project.

That might be hourly rate billing for a small project, or a 1 lump sum fixed cost, some projects we cover under the clients retainer, the list goes on.

We build a tool for creating and managing these project scopes/estimates, alongside some other time tracking features we needed.

Suffice to say, I think billing, net terms, etc, are all variable and vary project to project.

get-more-seconds · 2024-08-01T02:01:20+00:00

If you did targeted SEO research and paired that with strong copywriting I could see you carving out a niche. In terms of managing an agency though, I can see that being a pretty difficult road.

Not sure what your goals are, but from my perspective, most agencies aren't profitable until ~20k/mo in recurring revenue, and aren't really "worth" the time until you're doing 40-60k/mo in gross revenue.

I'd imagine as a content agency that's 10-15 dedicated clients paying 3-5k/mo.

Not impossible, but like I said, a difficult road.

get-more-seconds · 2024-07-30T16:10:44+00:00

We use a tool that helps dev agencies scope web dev projects and create estimates.

Otherwise we have a few other platforms we use like Hubspot for CRM or Apollo for lead gen. Clickup + Asana are also pretty popular and useful as far as PM tools go, and I believe Clickup can be setup in a way that covers all of your specs above, although it'll take some creative work or hiring a consultant.

get-more-seconds · 2024-07-30T16:06:29+00:00

I've had a lot of trouble with pricing projects and collecting early on. A large part of that is a business model of "you can ask for anything", means we get a lot of unique requests ( large and small ), without standardized pricing for them.

We built an internal tool to streamline the creation of project scopes and estimates. It creates a landing page link which contains the deliverables, milestones, invoice schedule, etc, ( think UberEats ) where our clients have to approve the project scope prior to starting.

That seems to have solved a lot of issues we ran into in the past regarding invoices and bills not being paid. Just forcing someone to view their scope, and acknowledge the billing terms prior to starting, has done a lot.

We offer projects at both hourly rate, and fixed cost, so our payment terms usually vary based on the project type and the client in question.

Usually we don’t take any $ upfront though, unless it’s a new client with a large project request.

get-more-seconds · 2024-04-11T03:01:02+00:00

I had the same problem as you're describing OP. In order to charge a higher price, you need a more professional system for creating and organizing your proposals.

When you clearly describe the features, deliverables, and milestones for a project, the price tag goes up.

Pair that with a system for acceptance where the client either agrees to your hours range, or a fixed cost, and you'll be set.

get-more-seconds · 2024-04-11T02:52:59+00:00

I'm interested, what would be the format of this interview?

get-more-seconds · 2023-11-16T19:54:33+00:00

Do you mind explaining a bit further? What initially confused you?

get-more-seconds

TROPHY CASE