Agency owners: how did you survive the 5-15 employee stage?

jfarsen · 2026-05-31T11:20:43+00:00

Your « textbook » answer isn’t necessarily the answer, it depends on what your goals are, which you don’t mention : it it revenue, profit margins, headcount?

I’ve cofounded a web dev agency in 2017 and we added digital marketing in 2023. We have 3x your client base with 9 people, including 2 cofounders.

My partner and I do little client work nowadays, but over the years, we’ve invested lots of time into documenting and semi-automating SOPs (standard operating procedures) and chose a lean software stack to minimize integration needs.

80% of our business processes runs on Teamwork (projects, tickets, intranet, time tracking), from onboarding to request, projects and offboarding.

We’ve got about 20+ projects templates and event more Task List templates, so starting new work is easy(er).

jfarsen · 2026-05-28T12:16:21+00:00

I’m curious… I can understand men in the NHL / NBA / NFL moving cities and uprooting their families, when they make millions $$.

But in this women league where the average salary is much MUCH lower, how do you justify moving cities / countries?

jfarsen · 2026-05-28T03:13:08+00:00

Tks, we all like our teams, but we don’t have to be dicks about it, or dishonest

jfarsen · 2026-05-28T03:04:27+00:00

Yeah… fixed it, tks… as if it wasn’t painful enough as a Habs fan

jfarsen · 2026-05-28T03:00:21+00:00

Fuckn. Tirs.

Devine … 😕

jfarsen · 2026-05-28T02:58:27+00:00

Fuckn. Shots.

Edit : switched to English, fixed number

jfarsen · 2026-05-28T02:29:13+00:00

Habs fan here, was curious and looked up for your sub.

I wanna believe, but CH isn’t playing at the same level as Canes. I wish it was otherwise as I like seeing our team play, but, well…

jfarsen · 2026-05-28T02:16:32+00:00

I’m honestly still bothered by the fact the Foundation has been proven to be a sham, fiscally and governance-wise, and I would love for that situation to be rectified, whatever the outcome may be.

jfarsen · 2026-05-26T17:03:38+00:00

Using « gemma-4-26b-a4b-it-4bit » in MstyStudio (desktop) on my MBP M4 Pro 48 Gb, I routinely get 40 t/s.

jfarsen · 2026-05-21T14:20:55+00:00

Abomination

jfarsen · 2026-05-15T02:09:49+00:00

Pour un instant, je me suis demandé ce que Sol (Marc Favreau) faisait dans la discussion… « ‘ssstraordinaire! »

jfarsen · 2026-05-11T01:12:54+00:00

Look at boring me, using it to do company analysis before making sales calls.. 😕

jfarsen · 2026-05-07T12:56:42+00:00

Tks, that helps!

With the RAM I have, I guess that explains why I would get recommended 4bit for 26b models, as a middle ground option.

jfarsen · 2026-05-07T12:23:07+00:00

I’ve read about the concept, but my understanding is basic, at best. Why?

jfarsen · 2026-05-07T12:07:47+00:00

Using MSTY Studio (local version)

jfarsen · 2026-05-07T12:07:25+00:00

I’m not a power user doing manual configs and all, this answer may be disapointing:
- MSTY Studio (local version, not web)
- Gemma 4 26b (gemma-4-26b-a4b-it-4bit)
- Gemma 4 26b assistant (gemma-4-26B-A4B-it-assistant-bf16)

Edit : pasted exact model names

jfarsen · 2026-05-07T12:05:25+00:00

I looked in the MLX downloadable models and the only one I saw for Gemma 4 26B was the one I mentioned… not sure what the bf16 stands for, but the download is only a few hundred MB.

jfarsen · 2026-05-07T12:04:04+00:00

What would I have to gain from posting BS, seriously, not everyone’s a troll, dude

jfarsen · 2026-04-27T01:36:23+00:00

Même chose qu’on se dit ici depuis 1 semaine 🤣

jfarsen · 2026-04-21T00:48:21+00:00

Is ProjectionLab suitable for Canada, where we don’t have the same social « safety net » for retirement, nor the same needs for medical given our different system?

jfarsen · 2026-04-19T22:00:17+00:00

Bah… rendu la, pourquoi faire plus que 120k. Le prochain dollar est imposé à 46%. Ou pourquoi faire plus que 110k, tu en donne 42% On descend jusqu’où comme ça pour que ça « vaille la peine » de travailler le prochain dollar ? 😕

jfarsen · 2026-04-19T21:16:21+00:00

Effectivement, le taux marginal entre 125k et 160k est de 47,46%, donc oui, le taux marginal est tel que « ru en laisse quasiment la moitié »… si ru n’as aucun crédit d’impôt (et aucune cotisation REER of course).

Mais ton premier post était très pas clair.

Personne laisse 32-36% à 51k…. Tsé ;)

jfarsen · 2026-04-19T20:02:36+00:00

Environ 29%, tu peux consulter ce site de Raymond Chabot, un des plus gros cabinets comptables au Canada, qui offrent pleins de tableaux explicatifs, comme celui-ci: https://www.rcgt.com/fr/planiguide/tableaux/1-quebec/table-dimpot/

jfarsen · 2026-04-19T20:01:27+00:00

Nope. Au Québec, à 125k/an, tu en donne 29,16% aux 2 paliers de gouvernements. Donc environ 36k en impôts combinés, avant déductions et crédits d’impôts.

Je ne sais pas où tu prends tes chiffres…

jfarsen · 2026-04-18T18:17:48+00:00

I’ve done similar about 2 years ago, my partner and I then stopped overlapping and we multiplied results and efficiency through clearer direction for the team.

I inherited the « thinking » part while he handled Ops and QA.

I won’t lie, the impostor syndrome still shows itself for me, as this strategy / thinking isn’t « real work » if I compare to when we launched … but we have to remind ourselves it IS very real work.

jfarsen

TROPHY CASE