Not sure when you should add to your agency team? Wonder who the first hire should be, and when? Growing an agency can be difficult and lonely. But when you have the right kind of support, the right people, and identify the right clients you'll grow leaps and bounds.

In today’s episode, we’ll cover:

How to know it’s time to add to your agency team.
#1 thing to grow your agency beyond 6-figures.

On this week’s podcast, we are hearing from Drew Schulthess, owner of Catchfire Creative. Drew’s agency has been working in the consumer packaged goods and lifestyle brands space since 2011. He’s on the show today talking about the steps he took to get over to the million-mark and beyond in revenue.

How to Know It’s Time to Add to Your Agency Team

Drew’s first hire was a mere four months into starting his agency. That’s super quick, right? He said that at the time, a resume came across his desk that was just good to pass up. The person was multi-faceted and seemed to have experience in many different areas that Drew wanted to grow. So even though it was a stretch on the budget, he took the leap to bring the person on board… and eight years later, he’s still with the agency!

Of course, Drew says his first hire has been amazing and able to adapt and evolve as the agency changes and grows.

Here’s the thing about hiring. When you’re just starting out, you might feel like you need to “sell” the agency to the candidate and convince them to want to work with you. (I remember thinking, “why would someone want to do this with me?”) But remember -- it’s supposed to be the other way around, of course! Make the candidate sell themselves to you. And hire for culture fit first, over skillset.

#1 Thing to Grow Your Agency Beyond 6-Figures

Here’s why I really dig Drew… he listens to me :) Drew credits a nugget of advice he picked up in one of my videos about setting prospect qualification criteria. He says taking the time to do that made the difference for his agency and helped them sky-rocket to the million mark and beyond.

Once you have a framework for who your ideal clients are, you can stop saying yes to everything. (Like you can quit taking on the clients with unreasonable deadlines and outrageous requests, like this one.) It might seem counterintuitive to turn down work, but when you start saying no to the wrong work, it frees you up to only saying yes to the right stuff.

Drew says that creating the criteria and actually putting it on paper was an important exercise for his agency. It gave him the clarity he had been missing and was the turning point in the agency’s growth.

Related: https://jasonswenk.com/nbat/

Would You Like More Leads for Your Agency?

If you want to get more leads with an 80% open rate and 25% click-through rate, you need to check out ManyChat. Engage prospects and build relationships with simple personalized experiences using the #1 bot platform for Facebook Messenger.

I've been using ManyChat for 3 years for connecting with prospects and converting leads. ManyChat bots are ideal for marketing, e-commerce, and support; making it easy to have automated conversations with prospects and customers. To connect with the 1.3 billion daily Facebook Messenger users, head to ManyChat.com and enter code: SwenkPro for a free one-month trial.

How to Quickly Grow Your Agency Beyond 6-Figures

Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies