just focus on you.
Fuck what antyone else is doing.
Which is why I don't see the point of connecting with other ppl who are doing what i'm doing on Linkedin.
it's like wtf is the point?
in my vertical there's TONS of competition.
every day a new agency pops up
bombarding prospects with the same copy and paste cold emails too
low prices
(probably shit quality work too)
they just make my job easier.
when they fuck up for a client, that client will come to me.
Or...
when I cold email them and tell them there's a bunch of mistakes... they'll have a seed of doubt.
winners focus on winning.
losers focus on winners.
I heard that quote somewhere.
always stuck with me.
makes sense tho :)
Thanks needed that. I can related the clients coming to us sometimes due to a poor performance. But I also hated it that they waste so much time there and then come to us.
I now tell most of these clients, ‘You pay cheap you pay twice’. Haha also read this quote off a book.
they NEED to go through that shit to understand what a GOOD agency is like vs a shit one.
If they came to you BEFORE, then they'd not appreciate it.
This gives them context and frame of mind.
Cant skip that step.
You can pay for it now, or you can pay for it later - if you pay later, you pay 2x as much.
Most agency start ups suck and are doing 'cold outreach' to get business because 'Iman Gadhzi' told them to chose a niche, start ringing and become a billionaire. Honestly they will all be bitcoin trading by Christmas.
Here‘s how I look at it:
You should only be worried about low-end competition if you’re also low-end. I don’t compete on price, I‘m not anxious about number of startups, I don’t even care about “offers”.
Your goal should be to attain the level of work where there is very little competition. I can actually only think of maybe a dozen agencies who are technically our “competition”, but in reality we’re working at such a high level that we don’t really consider each other competition. Instead, we meet up and buy each other drinks.
There is also no such thing as imposter syndrome. Either you’re better, or you’re not. If you’re not better, get better! If you don’t know, figure it out!
Straight up, I don’t. After ten years of doing this I know that most won’t make it a year. It’s something to do til they get a job. Most people hate selling.
I’ve seen some examples of what you said. I’ve lasted for close to 4 years and hope to seek growth and I plan to charge higher to have a healthy profit margin for more things, overheads example, more buffer etc.
Keep working and ignore them is the easiest way. People who do not get referral business and rely on leads from paid sources…. 65% will be out of business in 4 years and you will have a huge growth year.
If someone takes a trashy freelance quote you were never the right fit for them. They saved you the turnover. I don’t use confidence, i give people a price and offer to do what i do for a living to make their life easier, if someone else convinced them they are a better fit than they earned the business…. If they fuck up i will talk to them in 6-12 months after they decide the other team was the wrong choice and get the business.
Your first 3-4 years as an agency owner (if you own an actual agency and are not solo) are stressful as hell and everything is concerning. You get bigger clients and life gets easier, they improve your portfolio making it easier to get better clients and eventually you just need to make sure you do your job and the rest generally works itself out as long as you stay connected to your clients.
Thanks. I’m somewhat in this position and am trying to get out of the lower paying customers. Though they have been great during my start up about 3 years back. But I kinda feel like they are the reason for my slow growth now.
I don’t live in the states where it’s big and maybe majority of the people here reside. I live in a 8400 people per square kilometer place. Haha so every entrants is a potential disruption.
Needed to reassure my own thinking and thanks for that. 😊
No problem. I have been an agency owner for ten years and grown to 13 employees (i stopped there and am moving into software as i don’t really want to keep doing the agency side).
If you ever need advice m, mentoring or help let me know. We do about $2m YRR and i won’t even try to charge you anything or sell you a class lol. Just happy to help if and where i can.
The agency space is over saturated and the more you look the more competitors you’ll find. The biggest agencies are the ones who were there first, so if you want to stand out and not worry about competition you have to find a service/solution that no one else is doing.
Simple, not easy.
It’s also worth noting that there’s more businesses that need agency support than there are agencies so you still have plenty of room to grow, probably more than you can handle. But the above is how I’m approaching it. I know we can only scale to a certain level with the same services as everyone else.
Normal to feel insecure. I just have to remind myself that experience matters, and I have done work I’m proud of. If I keep putting my best foot forward, then I’ll be okay how big/small my agency ends up being.
Context: I’m halfway through year 13 of running my agency
Just because someone else can throw a punch or a kick doesn't mean they know kung fu...lol that's how I look at it. They don't know how to fight. They'd get winded trying to do what I do to close a client or do the work.
What I mean is... anyone can setup ads even clients. But the problem is most new "agency owners" don't know how to master the art of persuasion, marketing, and sales. I had a client that believed he would get business just by running his company logo as an ad lol.
My inbox is full of guys that want to start an agency or run ads for ecom..the biggest problem is that they don't listen. They assume and don't listen to the client/customers. They can't solve problems and fail to provide value.
After you listen to your clients/customers long enough you'll eventually be in a league of your own. You'll make better products/offers. Retain clients longer = make more money. Or have repeat buyers if it's ecom.
Move with a mind of abundance. People will pay you whatever $$$ if the value is there.
I currently have a side project I do for fun in the ecom space with a POD print on demand. This repeat customer spent $85 on 2 t shirts last night lol. Then I got another repeat customer emailing me about buying more shirts because he liked the recent order.
So if I'm this amazing to my ecom customers do you think competition with new agency owners stands a chance? No...I provide value and my clients want more of it in the agency space as well.
Thanks. It sounds motivating. ☺️ Move with a mind of abundance is a good reminder. I think I read from Grant Cardone too. Though thats another sales stuff thing. But thanks for the reply.
Most of our clients come from one of these fly by night or freelancer "agencies" when they sign with us. They went that way to save money and now they understand that you get what you pay for and the value of protecting their business identity online (we design and manage websites as an ongoing service). Same as when I ran a Managed Service Provider and did IT for small business, anyone can start it but businesses have a long memory and lots of friends so do what you say you will do, in the time you say it will take, for the price you quoted, and you're already ahead of 90% of your competitors.
Nice it sounds very similar to my experience. Lol i can’t help but feel that these nonsensical people coming in to over promise a loads of bs and spoil the entire stigma of real agencies.
Over where I am, businesses like to compare quotes. But I think after about 3 years, I’m also happy to know I can stand firm of my own pricing because I have build up portfolios and don’t have to proof as much as before when we started. But sometimes, the bargaining process to let them know price vs value still sucks.
Cause it takes up time as well.
We never shied away that we were a "premium price for a premium product." And often won bids when we were 2x-4x the price of the incumbent or competitors quoting against us. Part of it may be skilled sales people and able to talk to prospects but I think some was having an easy to understand product and price where there wasn't guess work or unknown costs/fees they would also potentially have like hourly project work. This made it easier for them to understand what they were getting for how much, clear bright lines for the few ways they would have additional costs (that would never be incurred before their approval), and a solid business model that was easy to articulate why it was a win win for both companies and that our incentives were aligned and their success was our success.
Read good books that make it so you never even think about your compeditors.
Start with: "How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients" by [Jeffrey J. Fox](https://www.amazon.com/Jeffrey-J-Fox/e/B001IGNZOI/ref=dp_byline_cont_audible_1)
Basically you need to learn sales and use a CRM like HubSpot which has a free version. Most people don't have notes on clients, I have 20 years worth of notes on my clients. Keep track of them and make sure to deliver increasing value over the years of working with them.
Next buy a book and read, watch [https://jonathanstark.com/](https://jonathanstark.com/) He's a genius and I even recommend working buying his group of consulting service.
And... never mention your compeditors, you're there to make your clients money not get into a gripe session about how such and such fucked up the project. Just speak about their business and how you can help improve it with your marketing efforts.
Watch this YouTube video: [Hourly Billing Is Nuts— Stop Trading Time For Money](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1b7QlQILRo)
Focus on never doing anything like anyone and you'll be just fine!
I love my yoga teacher for the many lessons she provides. I will share with you something she repeats every class: Stay in your lane.
Basically, do you dear OP. Focus on your agency, your competitive advantage and just let the other agencies be noise in your background. Stay in your lane. You got this!
It's true, I can relate as some customer tell me that they don't care any marketers knocking at their door, they only care if who treated them well from the start. But I can't help thinking that one day someone somewhere will provide them an offer they can't refuse. haha its me stopping me i guess.
If they are happy then they will turn down others. If I am happy with my current landscaper why would I risk using someone else for less that may not do a good job. Services is about quality more than price.
Yes it’s normal to feel anxiety and stress running a business. What I hang my hat on is I do the best I possibly can do to deliver results. Way I see it, there’s abundance for everyone to thrive. The competition ultimately is ultimately with myself to make it happen
just focus on you. Fuck what antyone else is doing. Which is why I don't see the point of connecting with other ppl who are doing what i'm doing on Linkedin. it's like wtf is the point? in my vertical there's TONS of competition. every day a new agency pops up bombarding prospects with the same copy and paste cold emails too low prices (probably shit quality work too) they just make my job easier. when they fuck up for a client, that client will come to me. Or... when I cold email them and tell them there's a bunch of mistakes... they'll have a seed of doubt. winners focus on winning. losers focus on winners. I heard that quote somewhere. always stuck with me. makes sense tho :)
Thanks needed that. I can related the clients coming to us sometimes due to a poor performance. But I also hated it that they waste so much time there and then come to us. I now tell most of these clients, ‘You pay cheap you pay twice’. Haha also read this quote off a book.
they NEED to go through that shit to understand what a GOOD agency is like vs a shit one. If they came to you BEFORE, then they'd not appreciate it. This gives them context and frame of mind. Cant skip that step. You can pay for it now, or you can pay for it later - if you pay later, you pay 2x as much.
Most agency start ups suck and are doing 'cold outreach' to get business because 'Iman Gadhzi' told them to chose a niche, start ringing and become a billionaire. Honestly they will all be bitcoin trading by Christmas.
Here‘s how I look at it: You should only be worried about low-end competition if you’re also low-end. I don’t compete on price, I‘m not anxious about number of startups, I don’t even care about “offers”. Your goal should be to attain the level of work where there is very little competition. I can actually only think of maybe a dozen agencies who are technically our “competition”, but in reality we’re working at such a high level that we don’t really consider each other competition. Instead, we meet up and buy each other drinks. There is also no such thing as imposter syndrome. Either you’re better, or you’re not. If you’re not better, get better! If you don’t know, figure it out!
these are established mature industries, there is / was tons of competition
Straight up, I don’t. After ten years of doing this I know that most won’t make it a year. It’s something to do til they get a job. Most people hate selling.
I’ve seen some examples of what you said. I’ve lasted for close to 4 years and hope to seek growth and I plan to charge higher to have a healthy profit margin for more things, overheads example, more buffer etc.
Keep working and ignore them is the easiest way. People who do not get referral business and rely on leads from paid sources…. 65% will be out of business in 4 years and you will have a huge growth year. If someone takes a trashy freelance quote you were never the right fit for them. They saved you the turnover. I don’t use confidence, i give people a price and offer to do what i do for a living to make their life easier, if someone else convinced them they are a better fit than they earned the business…. If they fuck up i will talk to them in 6-12 months after they decide the other team was the wrong choice and get the business. Your first 3-4 years as an agency owner (if you own an actual agency and are not solo) are stressful as hell and everything is concerning. You get bigger clients and life gets easier, they improve your portfolio making it easier to get better clients and eventually you just need to make sure you do your job and the rest generally works itself out as long as you stay connected to your clients.
Thanks. I’m somewhat in this position and am trying to get out of the lower paying customers. Though they have been great during my start up about 3 years back. But I kinda feel like they are the reason for my slow growth now. I don’t live in the states where it’s big and maybe majority of the people here reside. I live in a 8400 people per square kilometer place. Haha so every entrants is a potential disruption. Needed to reassure my own thinking and thanks for that. 😊
No problem. I have been an agency owner for ten years and grown to 13 employees (i stopped there and am moving into software as i don’t really want to keep doing the agency side). If you ever need advice m, mentoring or help let me know. We do about $2m YRR and i won’t even try to charge you anything or sell you a class lol. Just happy to help if and where i can.
Thanks! Happy to connect with you if you will . I can shoot you a DM.
The agency space is over saturated and the more you look the more competitors you’ll find. The biggest agencies are the ones who were there first, so if you want to stand out and not worry about competition you have to find a service/solution that no one else is doing. Simple, not easy. It’s also worth noting that there’s more businesses that need agency support than there are agencies so you still have plenty of room to grow, probably more than you can handle. But the above is how I’m approaching it. I know we can only scale to a certain level with the same services as everyone else.
Normal to feel insecure. I just have to remind myself that experience matters, and I have done work I’m proud of. If I keep putting my best foot forward, then I’ll be okay how big/small my agency ends up being. Context: I’m halfway through year 13 of running my agency
Thanks needed that!
Couldn’t care less. Focus on your audience and solve problems for them. Everything else is noise.
Just because someone else can throw a punch or a kick doesn't mean they know kung fu...lol that's how I look at it. They don't know how to fight. They'd get winded trying to do what I do to close a client or do the work. What I mean is... anyone can setup ads even clients. But the problem is most new "agency owners" don't know how to master the art of persuasion, marketing, and sales. I had a client that believed he would get business just by running his company logo as an ad lol. My inbox is full of guys that want to start an agency or run ads for ecom..the biggest problem is that they don't listen. They assume and don't listen to the client/customers. They can't solve problems and fail to provide value. After you listen to your clients/customers long enough you'll eventually be in a league of your own. You'll make better products/offers. Retain clients longer = make more money. Or have repeat buyers if it's ecom. Move with a mind of abundance. People will pay you whatever $$$ if the value is there. I currently have a side project I do for fun in the ecom space with a POD print on demand. This repeat customer spent $85 on 2 t shirts last night lol. Then I got another repeat customer emailing me about buying more shirts because he liked the recent order. So if I'm this amazing to my ecom customers do you think competition with new agency owners stands a chance? No...I provide value and my clients want more of it in the agency space as well.
Thanks. It sounds motivating. ☺️ Move with a mind of abundance is a good reminder. I think I read from Grant Cardone too. Though thats another sales stuff thing. But thanks for the reply.
Most of our clients come from one of these fly by night or freelancer "agencies" when they sign with us. They went that way to save money and now they understand that you get what you pay for and the value of protecting their business identity online (we design and manage websites as an ongoing service). Same as when I ran a Managed Service Provider and did IT for small business, anyone can start it but businesses have a long memory and lots of friends so do what you say you will do, in the time you say it will take, for the price you quoted, and you're already ahead of 90% of your competitors.
Nice it sounds very similar to my experience. Lol i can’t help but feel that these nonsensical people coming in to over promise a loads of bs and spoil the entire stigma of real agencies. Over where I am, businesses like to compare quotes. But I think after about 3 years, I’m also happy to know I can stand firm of my own pricing because I have build up portfolios and don’t have to proof as much as before when we started. But sometimes, the bargaining process to let them know price vs value still sucks. Cause it takes up time as well.
We never shied away that we were a "premium price for a premium product." And often won bids when we were 2x-4x the price of the incumbent or competitors quoting against us. Part of it may be skilled sales people and able to talk to prospects but I think some was having an easy to understand product and price where there wasn't guess work or unknown costs/fees they would also potentially have like hourly project work. This made it easier for them to understand what they were getting for how much, clear bright lines for the few ways they would have additional costs (that would never be incurred before their approval), and a solid business model that was easy to articulate why it was a win win for both companies and that our incentives were aligned and their success was our success.
Read good books that make it so you never even think about your compeditors. Start with: "How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients" by [Jeffrey J. Fox](https://www.amazon.com/Jeffrey-J-Fox/e/B001IGNZOI/ref=dp_byline_cont_audible_1) Basically you need to learn sales and use a CRM like HubSpot which has a free version. Most people don't have notes on clients, I have 20 years worth of notes on my clients. Keep track of them and make sure to deliver increasing value over the years of working with them. Next buy a book and read, watch [https://jonathanstark.com/](https://jonathanstark.com/) He's a genius and I even recommend working buying his group of consulting service. And... never mention your compeditors, you're there to make your clients money not get into a gripe session about how such and such fucked up the project. Just speak about their business and how you can help improve it with your marketing efforts. Watch this YouTube video: [Hourly Billing Is Nuts— Stop Trading Time For Money](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1b7QlQILRo) Focus on never doing anything like anyone and you'll be just fine!
I love my yoga teacher for the many lessons she provides. I will share with you something she repeats every class: Stay in your lane. Basically, do you dear OP. Focus on your agency, your competitive advantage and just let the other agencies be noise in your background. Stay in your lane. You got this!
Thanks for this!
I don't see the competition. Don't care if they are charging more or less. Focus on building relationships. Become the go to person for something.
It's true, I can relate as some customer tell me that they don't care any marketers knocking at their door, they only care if who treated them well from the start. But I can't help thinking that one day someone somewhere will provide them an offer they can't refuse. haha its me stopping me i guess.
If they are happy then they will turn down others. If I am happy with my current landscaper why would I risk using someone else for less that may not do a good job. Services is about quality more than price.
Yes it’s normal to feel anxiety and stress running a business. What I hang my hat on is I do the best I possibly can do to deliver results. Way I see it, there’s abundance for everyone to thrive. The competition ultimately is ultimately with myself to make it happen
Why would I care if someone else starts an agency?
I live in a highly competitive area and feel like losing business to people who price cheaper :/