[Note: Sporadically journalling my journey, I found this note on my desktop during a weekend cleaning, and thought I should publish it on my blog. Its notes likes which make for fun reading after a few years, and make you realize how much you’ve grown as a person]
2017 was an eventful year. It was my first full, proper year of running my own little agency in good old Hapur. I’ve managed clients alone and with remote teams. But with an in-house team, it was a whole new experience. The year is ending and I’ve just come back from a long drawn holiday (I recently got married. thank you!). It will take me some time to come back to reality. So I thought, why not reflect on what I learned in 2017 so that I could make 2018 even more eventful and filled with achievements?
Lessons I learned in 2017
1.Nothing is impossible (if you persevere)
I officially started my digital agency in October 2016 with one partner and zero employees in Hapur, out of my father’s empty office. Everyone around me probably thought I was stupid and naive. But with perseverance, we have worked with over 45 different clients, large and small, on over 120+ different projects. This includes a few national brands, a couple of international clients and several small and medium businesses. A good accomplishment.
2. Retaining clients is better (and more difficult)
We won over 45 digital marketing clients. These were clients who had monthly retainers with us for handling daily digital marketing activities. However, at the end of 2017, we have managed to retain about 10 of them. The rest – well, some left us, or we left them. Reasons were due to poor client/agency fit, unreal expectations and most of all which hurts, the lack of results or poor service quality.
Winning a client is expensive. It requires a lot of time in terms of meetings, follow-ups and more. Retaining that client becomes cost-effective over the long run. And highly profitable if one manages to provide stellar service and win repeat business or referrals. A specific client who was happy with our services agreed to increase his account 3X within 2 months.
It was a lot more convenient having 1 person giving me the business of 5 than having 5 people giving me the business of 1.
3. Performance should be awarded
We lost 2 great team members. I’m still debating whether we took them for granted or it just wasn’t meant to be. But had we formed policies which enabled easy retention, we would have offered better service quality. Again, it takes a lot of time to train a team member. It’s better to reward that person’s performance rather than spend money or time looking for newer members.
4. Focus on the few
Each product or service a business offers to the market is in essence, a solution to a problem being faced by the market.
Focusing hard on a few important problems or a few products was more rewarding, financially and spiritually, than focusing on a multitude of problems or products. And it was easier to manage. I lost lesser hair. In 2018, I’m going to sharpen my focus more. Or rather, find it and stick with it throughout, rather than flipping around each time I face a deadlock. Focusing on that specific client and delivering stellar results enabled us to win more business from that specific client. Hard focus meant that each request was seriously considered and acted upon. Each problem, regardless of its size or urgency, was solved in the best and fastest way possible.
Trouble began when this put our agency on the growth track. We just couldn’t maintain that focus on service quality. This was due to the lack of placing skilled folks in charge.
A person can only do so much. A team and accomplish a lot more.
5. Delegation enabled growth
Consistent delegation of important tasks to my team members ensured they kept learning. It was a challenge to trust them with important tasks I knew I could do far better. But the realization that –
- I cannot do everything, all the time
- I need to grow the business
- Only if my team grows, the entire company will grow
Forced me to delegate. From 8 man-hours, we grew to over 100, daily. In 2018, I will only keep 1 or 2 important departments under me and delegate the rest to my team.
Learning to Fly 