From the chair
Notes on running a better agency, from someone who’s been in the chair. Short pieces, sent on a Tuesday, read in three minutes.
The hourly rate is a default, not a strategy. Why the agencies pricing for outcomes are pulling ahead, and what to read off your last three proposals before you change anything.
There’s a version of utilisation that tells you almost nothing, and a version that tells you almost everything. Most agencies are tracking the first one.
A short argument against the project-by-project agency, and a small operating change that makes year-long retainers easier to sell, and easier to deliver.
The most expensive mistake an agency between $1m and $3m can make is hiring this role too early. Here’s the rough shape of the conversation we have before we recommend it.
The work changes, the team changes, and the founder’s role changes, usually in that order. Notes from twelve advisory engagements across the threshold.
Quarterly is too slow. Weekly is too noisy. A simple monthly pattern for independents who don’t have a board yet, and don’t want a 40-page pack to read.
Almost every scope creep conversation ends up at the same place: a missing handover between sales and delivery. The fix is unglamorous and fast.
Most agency founders read the P&L like a school report. Two more useful lenses, with a short exercise you can do on your last quarter before the weekend.
A note for the founder who has quietly realised they don’t love the role they’ve created for themselves. There are good options. None of them involve selling.
The proposal-as-pitch is the slowest, lowest-conversion sales process in professional services. What replaces it, and why clients prefer it anyway.