The Truths vs Myths About Growing an Agency

I’ve been in business for almost three years now and about two years ago, as my business naturally grew, I needed more hands so I added an online service provider agency to my business. 🎉

In just two years, I have learnt through joy, hardship, and growing pains that creating a service-based business is DEEPLY rewarding, but not always easy. 

I have built an amazing team who provide gold standard Virtual Assistance and Online Business Management (OBM) services to multiple clients. Those clients are creators, entrepreneurs, disruptors and thought leading women, they’re pretty damn incredible and a pure joy to serve.

There is no rulebook or one-size-fits-all strategy to this venture, but if you’re EVER thinking of hiring additional support, you need to know the “TRUTHS vs MYTHS” about growing an agency….So keep reading! ⬇️ 

✅ TRUTH: Building a team helps with burnout.

When I first started, I was a £15 an hour VA (ugh, I know…. It happens to the best of us!). I used to handle all hands-on work for my clients, along with all admin, website updates, etc for my own business.

Imagine me waving at ya from Burnout Town while referrals and leads piled up, and the floodgates of building a business had been opened! I knew doing it all on my own wasn’t sustainable. Hiring a team helped my frazzled nervous system as I offboarded one client, then another… to now being a full-time coach and CEO that landed a £30k client this year. 

Building this team of incredible women has enabled me to stack and grow more  than I could do alone. Bye Burnout Town!

❌ MYTH: It's easy to scale if you just hire people and hand over client work.

I can’t even lie - this sh*t is HARD. Suddenly becoming a boss, a leader, a client manager, weekly check ins, on-boarding - SHEEESH. I had ZERO guidance, was navigating it all alone, and didn’t know anyone else with the same business model.  It was NOT smooth at the start, but now through SO much trial and error, I learnt that you need to create seamless processes and systems to automate and support the biz. Things I can’t live without now are Dubsado, and SOPS - life savers! It’s smooth sailing when you have the structure to build on.

✅ TRUTH: Investing in a coach helped me grow the agency authentically and sustainably.

Good grief, I wish I had hired a coach or expert to help me figure out how to not lose my sh*t, or clients, or staff when I FIRST started growing… When I did invest in that expertise and someone who had walked down a road I had only just started on, it shifted everything in hugely positive ways almost immediately and just having a sounding board and knowing I wasn’t alone at this level was priceless. It’s why I’m a coach, I adore helping others a few steps behind me grow.

❌ MYTH: Hiring and managing a team is easy.

Hahahahahaha… nope.

First of all, hiring the RIGHT person was harder than I thought the first time I did it, then firing someone who just didn't fit my company culture was pretty traumatic. It left me second guessing everything and lost me a major client.

But the hard lessons are sometimes the best and I learnt quickly. Now, I have a clear and slick method for hiring and help women navigate hiring and outsourcing with ease.

Plus, I have THE most iron clad legal agreement (it’s so good, and written by legal minds) in place to protect my agency, my business, and myself. I have a dream team who make my life SO wonderful!

✅ TRUTH:Your confidence will grow with your business.

Don’t beat yourself up with the missteps. Don’t get your team quite right the first time? That’s fine, you learnt along the way! Don’t understand all your business finances? You can learn!

It doesn’t need to all happen at once and the more you become familiar with your business processes, your team, and your ideal client’s needs, your confidence will grow. This is a perfect example of how having a coach to help you figure out the strategy and structure for building a team is a GAME CHANGER.

❌ MYTH: You'll suddenly be rolling in money.

Priorities shift when deciding to build an agency or a team. Instead of lining your pockets, focus on taking care of your team and nurturing these amazing humans who show up for you and your clients.

Sure, your turnover can quickly hit six-figures (as mine did before the end of year 2 of biz), but profit goes from 100% in your pocket (after tax) to roughly 30%-45% after you've paid your team. There may be a dip in income, or a huge increase, or it could stay the same. BUT it's a slow stacking that will allow you to eventually take your hands off the wheel and step back from hands-on work, if that's what you're aiming for.

Meanwhile, you’ll be able to finally bring in even more business than you knew was possible, or simply take your hands off the wheel a little and spend more time with family, or on that passion project. Isn’t it time?

So if this has been helpful I’d love to know and if you’d like to chat about what the practical strategies for the next steps in your business could be - let’s book a free clarity call in.