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CROJosh

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Hey all,

I run an agency that serves ecommerce stores and I've been having growing pains for the last year and need a change. Not sure if I want to jump ship completely or just take some off the table and advise but this is not sustainable.

If there was ever a stereotypical Phoenixian, it'd be me: golfer, real estate investor, marketer, made up of mostly craft beer and spf 50. In reality, I'm an introvert who's probably better suited to live in the mountains, if I could only find mountains that don't freeze.

I'm here to see who I can help and apparently do a lot of reading; there's a lot gold threads...

I look forward to connecting and learning.
 
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Andy Black

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Welcome. What are the growing pains? What’s causing the desire to jump ship?

@Ungodly might be interested in this thread.
 

CROJosh

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Welcome. What are the growing pains? What’s causing the desire to jump ship?

Clients are getting bigger and badder - seems like a good problem but they question and undermine at every turn and seem to think they own me and my time - it's completely my fault, I courted them first. But I'm not interested in racing to the bottom with budget services or competing with mid-rangers. When the best work you've done all year has been sub work for other agencies, it's time to move on.
 
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Tom.V

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Clients are getting bigger and badder - seems like a good problem but they question and undermine at every turn and seem to think they own me and my time - it's completely my fault, I courted them first. But I'm not interested in racing to the bottom with budget services or competing with mid-rangers. When the best work you've done all year has been sub work for other agencies, it's time to move on.
Welcome! You've definitely come to the right place.

Been there done that. There is a good reason why I don't chase after the big dogs, and it is for that reason specifically. You become a slave to their needs and at their beck and call. There is a happy medium that I have found right before you get into the ultra needy types. I don't know about you, but the last thing I want is for a client that is generating >20% of my revenue calling me up at 4am asking why this or that isn't running and so on. Literal nightmare scenario.
 

Andy Black

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Clients are getting bigger and badder - seems like a good problem but they question and undermine at every turn and seem to think they own me and my time - it's completely my fault, I courted them first. But I'm not interested in racing to the bottom with budget services or competing with mid-rangers. When the best work you've done all year has been sub work for other agencies, it's time to move on.
Lots in this.

There’s plenty of agency owners, former agency owners, and budding agency owners in here. Maybe some will pop in with their thoughts too.


My thoughts:

Bigger doesn’t mean badder of course. There’s clients who’ll question and second guess you at all price tiers. To counter that problem it could be a case of better prequalifying and relationship management.

Budget pricing doesn’t necessarily mean a race to the bottom. @Ungodly is building an agency to serve eCommerce clients at a higher price point than the local lead gen clients I’m serving. But we’ve different visions for the next step of our businesses.

I personally don’t want to do too much subcontract work to other agencies, certainly not for the ones that provide the same service I do. I do work with agencies though if I think there’s good win-wins to be had.

Personally I’ve no desire to build an agency either. I do have agency style clients at the moment, and I also build and rent the assets out, with a vision of owning a platform(s).

With your skillset you can go many directions.

You can listen to the call I had with @Contrarian, and quite a few others in the thread in my signature where I talk to fellow forum members..
 

CROJosh

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There is a happy medium that I have found right before you get into the ultra needy types.
Ah, the Fortune 500,000! You're dead right, the 4AM call is real. And to be honest my attitude is a big factor too. One of the reasons I got into real estate was that it had nothing to do with marketing. I enjoy the work and am good at what I do, but I suck at hiring good clients.
 
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CROJosh

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Budget pricing doesn’t necessarily mean a race to the bottom.
I agree, it just seems that the higher I price my services, the less payment problems I run into. But it opens up a different can of worms...

I personally don’t want to do too much subcontract work to other agencies, certainly not for the ones that provide the same service I do.
Yep never planned on it either until an seo reached out for cro advice. After the 3rd call he said, why can't you just do it? And his payment cleared so I did.

Personally I’ve no desire to build an agency either. I do have agency style clients at the moment, and I also build and rent the assets out, with a vision of owning a platform(s).
This makes complete sense and is a smart way to do it.

You can listen to the call I had with @Contrarian, and quite a few others in the thread in my signature where I talk to fellow forum members
Cool. I feel like I'm being offered a sip from a firehose...
 

Andy Black

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it just seems that the higher I price my services, the less payment problems I run into
I setup automated monthly payments, in advance.
 

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