Photo:
Getty
My digital advertising agency was recently named Inc’s No. 15 fastest-growing company. We’ve grown 10,171% in three years and went from 60 to 175 employees in the last year alone. There are a lot of things that have allowed us to achieve this much velocity over the past three years, but mostly I attribute our success to three main factors:
Building A Strong Team
Look, it’s not an agency without people, period. This is the hardest problem for anyone looking to start a business, and we have been incredibly fortunate in finding people who are intrinsically motivated. You can provide direction and momentum, but you cannot waste time or resources motivating people, no matter how talented. The most important talent is motivation. You have to place big bets on the best people who believe in the work you do. If you hire the right people, they can also create network effects across teams.
But it can be tough to tell who’s intrinsically motivated, especially in marketing. A lot of times you’ll find folks who are incredibly good at appearing to be motivated, while internal drive can be hard to quantify. So, if you’re looking for those people with hustle, try to set up your interviews so they end up doing the majority of the talking. People with the right mix of motivation and ego will be genuinely curious and excited about your work and should be able to come up with rough plans about how your team can take things to the next level. However, you do have to balance motivation and ego. I definitely leaned toward the riskier side of the equation, but those risks paid off in a tight-knit and supportive culture. Speaking of which:
Creating A Holistic, Long-Term Vision
This is the hardest needle to thread and, therefore, the hardest piece to give advice on. Finding the right team feeds into this, but you have to find the right perspective, a true north star that doesn’t get obfuscated by shifts in the market. For me, it was finding every way possible to ensure my clients increased their revenue, and I mean every way. If you hustle enough to find multiple levers for success, you can shift focus and find even more. Don’t just find one thing you’re good at, find lots of things that feed into your goals. Adaptability is going to be key the further we hustle into the 21st century.
It takes many little details to achieve scale for disruptor brands, and we were able to find those details because our teams meshed together so well. It really surprised me to learn that long-term growth was something that happened in such small, minute-by-minute details while structuring campaigns.
Maintaining Focus On Sustainable Growth
For an agency, it’s not just about growth. It’s about growing sustainably. This is the easiest trap for agencies since so many are in the same space as Facebook, Google and high burn-rate disruptor tech companies. Many entrepreneurs feel like they have to overspend on office space and offer wildly expensive vanity perks that don’t actually increase employee happiness.
Business owners need to build as much runway as possible so their employees can be comfortable while moving the needle. Don’t blow your limited reserves on an upscale office space or gaudy perks. Sublease in affordable spaces and invest your funding or revenue reserves into your employees’ long-term success. By maintaining this kind of growth, you have the opportunity to build something that actually lasts. Top talent wants to know they’re investing their time at a company that’s going to survive long-term.
And just to tack on one last piece: I know this is really overstated, but I absolutely recommend finding a mentor who can help you navigate the agency and entrepreneurship world. There are simply too many details for any book or article to cover — and the best thing you can do for yourself is to find someone who has experience and a perspective you trust.
In Conclusion
Obviously, there’s a lot more to scaling an agency than these three principles. But, without this people-first, revenue-above-all focus, we wouldn’t have even gotten out of our first year.
In the end, we’re living in a high-risk, high-reward economy that may make it feel like the world is a pay-to-play landscape where you need a lot of money and even more luck to build a successful company. However, since the rewards for success are so high right now, if you focus on these small details and find the right people, you can build something lasting and sustainable even coming from nothing. Just remember:
1. Be particular in who you team up with. Listen to outside opinions of those who are intrinsically motivated. See what they’re offering to bring to the table and how to evolve, and build on that.
2. Maintain a long-term vision by constantly evolving and listening to your clients with empathy. In creating a holistic, long-term vision, lead with intention and break it down into small, actionable steps. Include your expert team and give them the tools for success. Celebrate in their success and be held accountable in their failures.
