This should only take about 5 mins to read.

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Shrinking My Agency After A Record Breaking Year

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NEWSLETTER (SELF) SPONSORSHIP

This issue of the newsletter is self-sponsored my upcoming project: Agency Starter Kit (currently a waitlist). Agency Starter Kit™ is a proven success blueprint for a 7-figure agency and more—it's an easy-to-follow blueprint that'll help you to get your new agency up and running with just enough guidance to help you make smart decisions.

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After 5 years of running my service agency, we grew to 22 people and did $1.4M in revenue in 2021. Then I decided to dial it back to 7 people.

​Tako, like most eCommerce agencies, experienced hyper-growth during the pandemic:

• Our revenue shot up by 300%.
• Our team grew from 12 to 22 people.
• We expanded our service offering.

We are in the eCommerce space, and at the time, everyone was taking their business online. It felt like someone strapped a rocket to our backs and shot us into space while we tried to strap ourselves in for a safe take-off.

No helmet.

No suit.

Only jean shorts and a tank top.

As you would imagine, I didn’t think twice about it; all I saw was growth.

Growth meant more of everything.

• More team members.
• More revenue.
• More clients.
• More, more, more…

But that came with:

• More management.
• More stress.
• More problems.

I assumed that was my business’s next phase: expand, grow, more revenue, and repeat. Tako Agency was my first 7-figure business; this was the natural first step, or my business would die. After 1.5 years, I realized that’s the farthest thing from the truth.

In retrospect, If I had to do it all over again:

We would have stayed at 10-12 people, focused only on the 2-3 service offerings we were great at, and kept the operations lean. Any overflow of work would send to a partner agency.

Reason for downsizing:

I didn’t enjoy managing 22 people at any given time; it took all my energy and left me creatively dry. I was putting out fires every day.

I had other business interests that I wanted to explore—building more SaaS products in public, building my personal brand, starting a podcast, and becoming a better writer online.

I felt stuck and unmotivated to continue growing. It was taking over my life.

Lesson:

If your business is growing steadily and you’re hiring people, and expanding your service offering, take a minute to think about what YOU want. Is this the right path for you? Not for anyone else but you.

If you’re up for the challenge and want to grow your business, there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, some people should go in that direction. I don’t regret doing it; I learned a lot from the process, and after that experience, I realized that I don’t want that for myself.

A big(ger) business is only for some; in fact, I’d argue that you can be a lot more successful with a smaller business.

• It’s more manageable.
• It’s easier to pivot.
• It’s less stressful.

Your business shouldn't run your life.

My goals for Tako are:

• Stay lean.
• Stay profitable.
• Focus on 2-3 services rather than 5-6.
• Keep the team within 7 people.

I want to focus on having a manageable team and doing great work without losing my creative touch. Money is not the focus.

Things to know about service businesses:

Your expenses stay the same even though your client list might be shrinking. You have software expenses, employee expenses, and any other overhead costs.

Without regular deal flow, you will burn your cash pile.

Managing a large number of people is exhausting, and it takes a lot of time away from the creative side.

Remember: 80% of your revenue should come from existing clients and 20% from new clients.

You don’t have an unlimited runway; you need weekly cash flow.

Keeping the team small with high ticket pricing is the way to go. Obviously it takes time to get there, but it's more than possible.

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Tweets from the week:

Tweet 1: Just a reminder

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Tweet 2: Focus on taking action after you read that book.

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Tweet 3: Steps to building a personal brand on Twitter

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Podcast stuff:

In this week's episode, I talked with the host of The Danny Miranda Podcast, Danny Miranda himself. The Danny Miranda Podcast is all about interviewing creators, entrepreneurs, and people who are pursuing the highest version of themselves.

• Danny started his podcast by putting out a tweet in 2020 asking if anyone wanted to talk on the phone. He ended up having great conversations with all the different people. As he thought that these conversations were valuable he started recording them, which eventually turned into a podcast.
• Danny mentioned that it took him some experimenting with different formats and frequencies until he found his groove. It originally started with three episodes a week, dropped to two in the second year, and is now back up to three again with a fixed schedule. He believes that consistency is the key to the success of his podcast.

We also talked about the importance of enjoying what you do, how to understand things from different perspectives, why documenting and recording your journey is important, and more. If you're interested in learning more about Danny’s journey be sure to tune in to the latest episode.

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Listen to the latest episode here

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Checkout some of my products here.

If you are interested in 1:1 business coaching, go here and see how I can help you.

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Follow me on Twitter​

Follow me on LinkedIn.

Listen to my podcast.

Download Dropvoice for Shopify.

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That's a wrap for issue #38

Email me at z@zlatkobijelic.com if you are building something. I'd love to know what you're working on and if there is anything I can do to help you.

See you next Wednesday!