How do you set objectives for your company, and does your mission take you there? That’s the question I asked myself when I felt my company was stuck in a “wash, rinse, repeat” cycle. Now we’re on a mission to make a $1 billion dent in the economy. Let me explain.
Twenty years ago, we started our company out of my parents’ basement, building websites and producing corporate videos. We were young, hungry, talented and innovative. Those were the early days of the web, and it didn’t take long for our work to get noticed. We won awards and grew organically.
And so it went for many years. We grew our team, expanded our office, adapted and innovated. But all the while, we essentially just kept doing the same thing — making websites, creating videos, designing logos — rinse, repeat.
It Was Still Just A Mousetrap
After a while, I started to get antsy and frustrated with spending my life simply reinventing a better version of the same mousetrap. Or at least that’s what it felt like.
Around the same time, I stumbled upon a global peer-to-peer network of like-minded business owners who want to learn, share and grow. I quickly stepped into leadership roles and discovered that my true passion in life was to help other business owners realize their own dreams by growing their companies, making more money and being free to live life on their own terms. Stepping into the president role of our local Toronto chapter, and then a role on the Canadian Board of Directors, I had enormous insight into the struggles, challenges and opportunities that entrepreneurs go through. It was transformative, and it shifted my life’s mission.
To qualify, a business must make a minimum of $1 million a year in revenue. I realized that if I could help our members add another $1 million in revenue to their top line, it would have a significant impact on their lives. Multiply that by our 1,000 Canadian members, and suddenly that impact becomes a whopping $1 billion. Now that’s something to get out of bed for in the morning!
How Does This Relate To Agency Life?
I could list many of our clients who report incredible return on investment (ROI) from the work we’ve done. I could also list a bunch where we didn’t move the needle at all. Or, more accurately, where no one could identify where the needle even was.
Our biggest industry challenge is that we are perceived as builders of “things,” whether it be a website, video or logo. And that’s all well and good because we build really awesome things. The question is: Are we building the right things, and are they helping our clients make at least another $1 million? More importantly, is building “things” always the best way to achieve that goal?
There Is A Formula For Successful Projects
And it happens to tie right into my billion-dollar goal. Over the years, a pattern has emerged about the type of projects we’ve done that have led to a large ROI. And not one of them started with an estimate to build some randomly defined “thing.”
This is the process for a typical project in our industry: Labor (people and hours) becomes a Product (website, video, app, etc.) and that creates Results (revenue, brand awareness, profit, new employees, etc.).
This process works well if a company understands its own business needs and what tools are needed to serve them. But in our experience, that situation is rare. More often it’s the case that a company comes to us to build them a “thing” without any clear reasons as to why, or what it will quantifiably achieve for them.
It became obvious that our approach to projects had been completely backward. We discovered that we could only make a consistent and measurable impact, and fulfill our billion-dollar mission, by reversing the process.
Start With The End In Mind
How do you ensure your project is going to be successful? How do you know you’re building the right things? Start with the business results you’re looking for, and then work backward. They should be quantifiable, so you know exactly where you’re going vs. where you are now.
• What does your business actually need?
• What are the opportunities and threats?
• What is the core problem you’re trying to solve?
• What does your market look like right now? And what is the future state?
• What is a $1 million-plus win to you? Is it a bump in revenue? Reduction in overhead? Which service/product line could you expand? Which market? Which vertical?
• What tools are needed to achieve that? Are they the tools you thought you needed, or does something new emerge?
• Then, what specific features and options do those tools need to have? Once you figure out that you need a vehicle, are you building a minivan or a race car?
All of this and more should be done in advance of ever writing an RFP for a website or other “thing.” It’s only by utilizing this type of thinking that we can empower others with the processes and tools needed to unleash larger business goals and create massive impact.
So I challenge you to start with the end in mind, to forget your assumptions about what you need or how much it should cost, and to think bigger, broader and with a more focused intention of quantifiable returns on the tools and strategies you buy for your organization. After all, there are a billion dollars on the line.