In my work with agency owners, the topic of uncertainty comes up constantly. We’re always looking for ways to reduce uncertainty. Why can’t we get a solid forecast from our sales team or better estimates from the production folks? But no matter how accurate we make our forecasts, intuitively we know they are either lucky…
I got on the phone with a client this week; this is what I heard… “We’re busier than we’ve ever been, we’re booking more projects, bigger projects, and more of them with our ideal clients, that’s the good news!” “The bad news is all that new business has really impacted our culture! We’ve canceled most…
There are lots of folks who will sell you a “9 step process for growing your business quickly so you can retire early”. (Spoiler Alert: It’s going to involve buying a lot of FaceBook ads!) Heck, I even wrote a curriculum that I used with some early clients to make them better CEOs. That doesn’t…
And How to Respond to a Declined Job Offer As a creative agency owner, you will know how difficult it is to recruit the right people. And it’s getting tougher. We’re currently in the toughest hiring market in living memory. Sure, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, at the beginning of October 2021, there…
7 Tips to Influence Acceptance When you’ve been through the hiring process and identified the candidate you want to hire, it’s galling if they reject your job offer. All that arduous work, time, and effort invested in hiring quality people has been wasted. I discussed the reasons candidates decline job offers in my previous article….
On Tuesday, I discussed how my journey to grow my business required more than hard work and book learning. I tried working harder and reading all the right books, but I still wasn’t seeing all the success I wanted. I also wasn’t the leader I knew I needed to be! Instead of getting closer to…
Your Foolproof Checklist for Hiring Employees To grow your creative agency, you will have to hire people. There’s only so much you or your existing team can do. The problem is that you find hiring procedures for creative agencies more than a little challenging. If the hiring process leaves you frustrated and fearful that your…
Building a business is hard work. There’s lots to do and lots to learn. But if it was just “work hard,” most of us could handle that. I gave “working all the time” a try, but I learned that growing a business is more than just putting in the hours. As my business grew, I…
On Tuesday, we talked about the frustrated owner who had set herself up to be the problem solver, the person that everyone brought all the crises to so that she could solve them. I find that when folks set themselves up with that (very overwhelming) job in the office, they also set themselves up in…
Well, now is the time to give your team some feedback! Why now? Let’s see… If your team is like the ones I’m working with, they’ve been working hard lately, pumping out lots of work that’s making 2021 a pretty good year for your company! What you might not know (but that your team members…