Have you ever dreamed of taking a month off from your $1,000,000 business? Does it sound impossible? It’s not. With the right agency management practices and a solid team in place, it’s easier than you think. You can take time off and your agency operations will continue and even grow. Here are ten steps to build and exit a million-dollar agency.
Expertise
Before you reach a point where you can remove yourself from agency operations, you need a solid foundation of experience to build on. This might mean investing time and money into training and continuing education to master management, operations, culture, and communication.
Success Stories
Developing confidence and experiencing success is important for getting yourself ready to take a break from your agency management. Early in your career, you may have to work for very little or even nothing to get a few big wins under your belt. Once you do some great work for a client, you’ll have a reference to use and name to drop in sales calls.
Lead Generation
While you’re building up your reputation, start working on a lead gen system. It will take some time to perfect, but here’s a relatively simple model to get you started. Pick a niche and write content to that niche. Then, send cold outbound and follow it up with value-added content. Engage with your niche online a lot, and book appointments with people who read, like, and comment on your content.
Sales and Closing
You can’t grow your agency operations without knowing how to close. Bumping up your close rates will help give you the confidence and stability you need to keep learning and growing. The Five Step Sales Process training by 8 Figure Agency founder Jordan Ross is a great resource to learn how to improve your sales and closing skills.
Business Partners
Hopefully, you get to the point where you just can’t take on any more clients on your own. When that happens, taking on a partner can help you continue to grow while working closer to your goal of getting out of day-to-day agency operations. Find a partner with a similar agency management style whose talents complement your own.
Training and Learning Management System
As your agency begins to scale, your focus should be training up your team so everything remains consistent when you’re not around. Build up a library or invest in a learning management system, then develop a comprehensive training strategy to equip your team with all the knowledge they need to succeed.
Brand and Twitter
Focusing on building a brand can be a real game changer. Again, the key is to remain focused on your niche and give away as much value for free as possible. Use Twitter to consistently engage, and you’ll see some explosive growth.
Increased Prices
It goes without saying that the more work you do on building your credibility, the more you can charge for your services. Potential clients need to know you’re going to get results. One thing you can try is creating an entry-level package for clients to get their foot in the door and experience what you have to offer. Those clients will eventually move to retainer clients with high lifetime value.
Audits
Once the foundation for your agency has been laid, you need to continually audit your operations and look for ways to improve processes and performance. Great agency operators can look for improvement opportunities and use feedback for coaching.
Customer Success
The last piece of the puzzle is making sure you have a solid plan in place for customer success. Getting more clients means nothing if you can’t keep the ones you have. Designate someone in the business to be responsible for customer success and empower that person to do what it takes to keep the customers happy.
Ready to Take a Month Off?
If you want help building your agency operations and transforming your business into 8 figures, the experienced and motivated team at 8 Figure Agency is here to guide and support you. Schedule a free consultation today.
