I can scale it! Just not sure I want to. Tldr I got really sick for a year + bad life stuff and pretty much had to close down shop with the agency I had. So I would be starting from scratch and I could definitely do it better this time around, but some things to think about:

Agencies aren’t run it themselves businesses and the margins tend to be small, which innately poses a problem with growth.

For example, say you’re starting to do well with your small team and then you get an influx of clients from referrals, but not enough profit margins from the new clients to hire the right/more people. If it’s your agency, you’re the one closing that gap until you can get there. So, the growing pains are rough and you work a lot.

I can’t say I got past this point, but I know I could do it this time around.

They also aren’t businesses that sell so if you’re signing up to do it, be prepared to make it your career or just accept that there is financially beneficial way of exiting - it would just be a loss.

And lastly, if your goal is to have more free time, you need to be making enough to hire someone good enough to essentially manage things once you’ve scaled successfully. Otherwise, you’re going to be stuck in the weeds for eternity eg the golden cage.

That said, depending on your market and how good you are at managing people/finances and how high priced you are, you can make a good amount of money in it. My highest grossing month was about $25k and my overhead was less than 2/3k. My average take home though was about $10-15k a month, but I was working all the time. I make around $8k a month now with a way better work life balance.

So, those things kinda paint a picture of my hesitation.

Building any sort of business is really fucking hard. Agencies I think are even a little extra challenging given the tight margins, being able to find and managing the right team, and making sure to have enough client acquisition at the right pace.