Cat Howell – The Incubator

There’s no denying we’re in a boom-time for agencies…
With millions of new startups being created each and every year, the need for marketing and other services to help businesses grow is on the rise – with no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

And as demand rises, so to does the attraction towards the agency model.

It’s no wonder either, demand aside, the agency business has fairly low barriers to entry (you don’t need a lot of capital to get started), and founders can get set up in a relatively short amount of time (you can set up your service offer and start selling almost on the same day – the same cannot be said for physical product businesses).

But just because there is demand, and just because you are competent at a service offer – doesn’t mean you will succeed.

Running an agency is just like any other business.

In order to succeed you must have enough clients (sales) and these must be the right kind of clients (otherwise you’ll encounter operational issues).
The traditional train of thought around generating leads for an agency has also involved lots of “hustling”.

Cold calling.

Door knocking.

Networking.

Landing press mentions and awards.

I thought all these things too when I first launch my agency six years ago.

At that time, no one was willing to pay for Facebook ad services – it was basically an intern job.

And being based in New Zealand at the bottom of the world – I struggled to find local businesses that could afford the fees I needed to charge.