Documenting my journey from 4 to 5 figures MRR

[DoWhatWorks]

Hi all,

I intro'd myself in this post and plan to share my progress every week or so in me scaling my social media management agency from its existing $1,970 a month to $10,000 a month.

Quick intro about me: Mid 20's, live in London, work in tech, and started my agency last year. Within 1-2 years, I'd like to live off my business.

Where my business is: x3 sales contractors performing outreach on my behalf and x3 social media managers servicing x4 clients, I'm still taking sales calls and quality control checking my client's social media posts myself.

Obviously, my goal won't happen overnight, so there'll be checkpoints in between that I'll work towards to keep me motivated:

[X] $100 online, accomplished in 2020 via affiliate marketing

[X] $1000 online, accomplished in May 2022 via my existing agency

[X] $1000 MRR, accomplished in 2022

[X] $2000 MRR, accomplished in March '23

[ ] $3,000 MRR

[ ] $5,000 MRR

[ ] $7,500 MRR

[ ] 10,000 MRR

At the moment, the biggest blocker to my business scaling is that I work too much "in my business" and not on my business.

So far, I've done the following to help with this:

• Incorporate AI tools in my operations to improve the output of my social media managers (saving me time on quality control)
• Hired English Native copywriters (this ended up being temporary as I still had to make a lot of edits myself while paying more)

My next batch of plans are:

• Promote one of my social media managers or recruit someone externally to manage them on my behalf

• Create very clear ways of working and company policy guidelines as some of my social media managers are getting sloppy

• Split test different outreach messages. So far my stats are 8% reply rate, 31% response to call rate & 19% call to sales. Meaning the top end of the funnel is a great opportunity to improve how many clients I'm closing. In 2023 so far it's been on average 1 new client a month

• Improve my service to get better client retention. So far, my average retention is 3 months which is a little embarrassing lol. Lost a load of clients in the early days when I wasn't as good. The silver lining is my longest-standing client has been with me for 10 months so not all bad.

 

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[Jose huzaifah]

Hi all,

I intro'd myself in this post and plan to share my progress every week or so in me scaling my social media management agency from its existing $1,970 a month to $10,000 a month.

Quick intro about me: Mid 20's, live in London, work in tech, and started my agency last year. Within 1-2 years, I'd like to live off my business.

Where my business is: x3 sales contractors performing outreach on my behalf and x3 social media managers servicing x4 clients, I'm still taking sales calls and quality control checking my client's social media posts myself.

Obviously, my goal won't happen overnight, so there'll be checkpoints in between that I'll work towards to keep me motivated:

[X] $100 online, accomplished in 2020 via affiliate marketing

[X] $1000 online, accomplished in May 2022 via my existing agency

[X] $1000 MRR, accomplished in 2022

[X] $2000 MRR, accomplished in March '23

[ ] $3,000 MRR

[ ] $5,000 MRR

[ ] $7,500 MRR

[ ] 10,000 MRR

At the moment, the biggest blocker to my business scaling is that I work too much "in my business" and not on my business.

So far, I've done the following to help with this:

• Incorporate AI tools in my operations to improve the output of my social media managers (saving me time on quality control)
• Hired English Native copywriters (this ended up being temporary as I still had to make a lot of edits myself while paying more)

My next batch of plans are:

• Promote one of my social media managers or recruit someone externally to manage them on my behalf

• Create very clear ways of working and company policy guidelines as some of my social media managers are getting sloppy

• Split test different outreach messages. So far my stats are 8% reply rate, 31% response to call rate & 19% call to sales. Meaning the top end of the funnel is a great opportunity to improve how many clients I'm closing. In 2023 so far it's been on average 1 new client a month

• Improve my service to get better client retention. So far, my average retention is 3 months which is a little embarrassing lol. Lost a load of clients in the early days when I wasn't as good. The silver lining is my longest-standing client has been with me for 10 months so not all bad.

Thats really great. I tried to operate a social media agency too but when the facebook ads is too expensive it kills all my clients and had to work back again

 

[Absar]

Hi all,

I intro'd myself in this post and plan to share my progress every week or so in me scaling my social media management agency from its existing $1,970 a month to $10,000 a month.

Quick intro about me: Mid 20's, live in London, work in tech, and started my agency last year. Within 1-2 years, I'd like to live off my business.

Where my business is: x3 sales contractors performing outreach on my behalf and x3 social media managers servicing x4 clients, I'm still taking sales calls and quality control checking my client's social media posts myself.

Obviously, my goal won't happen overnight, so there'll be checkpoints in between that I'll work towards to keep me motivated:

[X] $100 online, accomplished in 2020 via affiliate marketing

[X] $1000 online, accomplished in May 2022 via my existing agency

[X] $1000 MRR, accomplished in 2022

[X] $2000 MRR, accomplished in March '23

[ ] $3,000 MRR

[ ] $5,000 MRR

[ ] $7,500 MRR

[ ] 10,000 MRR

At the moment, the biggest blocker to my business scaling is that I work too much "in my business" and not on my business.

So far, I've done the following to help with this:

• Incorporate AI tools in my operations to improve the output of my social media managers (saving me time on quality control)
• Hired English Native copywriters (this ended up being temporary as I still had to make a lot of edits myself while paying more)

My next batch of plans are:

• Promote one of my social media managers or recruit someone externally to manage them on my behalf

• Create very clear ways of working and company policy guidelines as some of my social media managers are getting sloppy

• Split test different outreach messages. So far my stats are 8% reply rate, 31% response to call rate & 19% call to sales. Meaning the top end of the funnel is a great opportunity to improve how many clients I'm closing. In 2023 so far it's been on average 1 new client a month

• Improve my service to get better client retention. So far, my average retention is 3 months which is a little embarrassing lol. Lost a load of clients in the early days when I wasn't as good. The silver lining is my longest-standing client has been with me for 10 months so not all bad.

Hey, that's awesome!

I've also been working on creating a agency. Although I'm still in the research phase (kinda stuck there).

I have two niches in my mind -
1. Short form content repurpose for content creators
2. Funnel creation for bizs

Honestly I think I should go with the first niche as I found that more interesting and retentive.

I live in India, so I can leverage the talent here which is ready to work for lower prices.

Honestly I think I am being a pus** and not doing the real work and doing action-faking.

 

[DoWhatWorks]

Thats really great. I tried to operate a social media agency too but when the facebook ads is too expensive it kills all my clients and had to work back again

Thank you! I personally went for a content/branding offer vs FB ads because although it pays less, I assumed it would be far easier/more sustainable to run as a beginner (so far, I've been proven correct).

Although I'm still in the research phase (kinda stuck there).

Paralysis by analysis is a real thing!

Honestly I think I should go with the first niche as I found that more interesting and retentive.

Answered your own question aha

I live in India, so I can leverage the talent here which is ready to work for lower prices.

Definitely, a competitive advantage that you should make full use of!

not doing the real work

We can all fall guilty to this now and again. Important to be honest with ourselves and re-align when needed.

 

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[DoWhatWorks]

Very quick update - not much to report.

Was hosting a friend from Spain last weekend and work has been eating into the evenings so had less time to work on business in the past few weeks.

Spent this weekend catching up on my day job (which I've been neglecting a little if I'm honest) so after this week I should be in a good space to ramp up "working on" "not in" my business.

On a positive note, I squeezed in interviews for x2 of my social media managers for a promotion where I want them to take on some of the post-delivery and client management tasks that I do I.E manage the social media managers and respond to clients.

Quite hard to decide who to promote because one has much better people skills and the other will be better at time management/deadline hitting.

I'm debating promoting both of them but splitting up the tasks to their strengths or promoting the one with better people skills because the deadline management is probably an easier skill to learn/teach.

Would love other people's thoughts on this

Onwards & Upwards x

 

[DoWhatWorks]

Quick update from me:

The Good:

Signed a new client and now at $2,400 MRR a month

The Bad:

1. My profit margins are terrible atm lol. Ended up promoting x2 of my social media managers.

>> Client Manager - so they can respond to clients on my behalf & manage my other social media managers/contractors

>> Project Manager - who can focus on deadlines and systems so posts consistently go out on time

>> I'm also struggling to keep track of everything. Sales calls, client calls, service delivery. It's because I'm too "in the business" so trying to set up systems to de-attach myself from service delivery so I can spend 90% of my time on sales where it should be. Being so stretched has also made me lose opportunities by being slow with sales call follow-ups for example.

2. Had to fire a contractor. Unfortunately, they were uncharacteristically unresponsive and rushing their work. After like 4-5 warnings I ended things and am glad I did. They had checked out and overall I think I handled the situation well.

What I learnt from that is to not give too much work to your A-players as they may get burnt out. Also as the boss you have to read their situation and make adjustments as they may feel too shy to tell you they're struggling.

By the time I reduced her workload and got other team members to help them, I think the damage had been done.

The Opportunity

1. I've seen great potential in the team members I've promoted already. They're very proactive and I think in the long run they'll save me a ton of time and be self-sufficient. Just need to focus on building templates/clear instructions to set them up for success in their new roles.


2. I've empowered my sales team with a commission structure to reply to more messages on my behalf or at the very least contact me directly when an important message needs my attention. This should prevent deals from slipping through.

3. I'm also going to make sure I take payment when I receive a yes on a call. I've had x2 "yes" which are in limbo as I wait for payment. My course taught me to take payment on the call after a yes and I thought it was a little pushy but based on my experience this week, I'll definitely be doing it. That 1 tip alone would mean I'd be on 3K MRR right now ‍

4. I'm hiring for a copywriter/editor. This alongside my other promotions should eventually lead to me being 100% removed from service delivery which will allow me to improve all the other areas a lot more quickly too

Onwards and Upwards x

 

[DoWhatWorks]

Spoke too soon in my last update! Hit 3K MRR June 2023

Feeling like everything is starting to take off and I'm scrambling around to keep things together.

Basically the 2 prospects in "limbo" paid on the same day, taking me up to 7 clients then I've had another verbal yes from another prospect for $1K a month's worth of business. Excluding the verbal yes I've hit a new milestone of $3K MRR.

I've had to pause on sales outreach while I onboard the 2 new clients and I'm lucky that I was interviewing when I didn't need to in order to try and get ahead of demand as I just about have enough quality team members to meet the demands of the work.

Once I get my team set up with systems my next process shift is to hire someone to look after HR so that I can always have a steady flow of handpicked candidates who I can give work when needed.

My profit margins are also very low right now because I've improved my service but haven't increased my prices. As a result all new sales calls with have a 20% higher rate than existing clients and I'll be asking x1 client a month to pay 10-20% more depending on what I can get away with based on advice from a mentor.

Logically makes sense because I've improved my systems, and provided a copywriter/editor free of charge so now something has to give.

That's it from me - back to work

 

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[DoWhatWorks]

Overall Update

Still at 3K MRR and hit a plateau.

Have had holiday trips which has slowed things down sales wise (and revealed I need to eventually de-attach myself from Sales too) and basically lost some clients and won some clients.

I've experimented with offering a smaller package with lower deliverables to boost sales and the results so far are negative. Basically the smaller package attracts a lower quality client who still haggle and check each/every detail.

My top client didn't negotiate, barely contacts me and is always thankful/grateful when I check-in with him

Lower ticket clients double check every section of contract, try and squeeze more out of the service then have the cheek to ask for discounts *face palm*.

In short I'm done with cheap clients lol. The price is the price and people can take it or leave it.

Rant over. I saw many people talk about this but experiencing it for myself now it's like offering a McDonalds service vs high-end restaurant it's obviously going to be different.

Anyway to add some structure I'm going to start updating this based on sections. As the agency model is extremely simple (but not easy) you just have to win clients and retain them. So I'll split my next updates based on that:


Winning new clients

1) I've been getting impatient and steering off track from what works e.g. almost closing a client that would need Spanish translations before speaking to my friend who rightly said it was a terrible idea that would make things more complex

Going to go back to basics, stand firm and accept lower sales conversions for lower clients.


2) Working with a consultant who's setting me up on a CRM to improve the efficiency of my outreach team and save me time on reporting.

3) Once I'm done with the CRM I may also hire a 4th VA to help with outreach before looking at a commission based closer who can help convert meetings.


Retaining clients


1) My copywriter is onboard and saving me a ton of time. I'm at 6 clients and wouldn't be able to manage them all alongside my day job so despite being expensive, it's worth it for now

2) Empowering my project manager with templates to share a monthly report on what posts are performing best across the client-base. Hoping this improves our service as we get oversight on best practice and ensure each client is using the best strategies proven to work. As we get more clients we'll also get more data which in turn should improve our service.

3) My client person seems a little unengaged at the moment, so speaking with them tomorrow to see what's going on/if I can help

But yeah that's all for today. Still tweaking/adjusting until I get this right. Hard to strike the balance between scalable business that works without me and profitability.

Focused on growth / scale now & will figure out profitability later which (I think!) is the right approach when I'm not dependant on the biz income and don't want to create another job for myself.

Onwards and upwards x

 

[CrimsonNight]

I am looking forward to seeing your progress. Pretty sure you can reach 5 figs MRR by the end of this year!

 

[DoWhatWorks]

I am looking forward to seeing your progress. Pretty sure you can reach 5 figs MRR by the end of this year!

Thank you! Words of encouragement mean a lot, can feel like you're banging your head against a brick wall sometimes aha

 

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[DoWhatWorks]

Overall Update

Spoke to soon on my last update, now at about 3.4K MRR after signing some smaller clients. They're going to be the last batch that I offer the lower experiment pricing to because the effort involved to onboard them is the same as more profitable clients and the work involved is only slightly less.

My presentation and confidence has also improved as I'm still getting verbal yes' even after increasing my prices.

Although I know verbal yes' don't mean too much, I'm hopeful that I'll be at 4K MRR fairly soon. Unfortunately I talked myself out of taking payment on a call and instead said I'll share details afterwards.

Need to stop doing that lol - if someone says yes I should just take payment there and then.

It's definitely a mental thing because I have no issues doing it with smaller numbers but hesitate with bigger ones. Which at the moment isn't even much... My average deal size is around $500 per month.

Winning new clients

My CRM consultant has annoyingly gone ghost on me after only doing half the work. I think he's overstretched himself with work so I'll be looking for a plan B. Have to remind myself to lean into the pain/inconvenience because that's where most people tap out but if I stick and execute, it will be a permanent competitive advantage that's hard to replicate.

My Sales VA's have also been on fire and I'm super happy with their performance. All of them have earnt themselves some nice commission too.

I still need to A/B test my sales messages. Can definitely be improved as it's far too long, but I've put it on the back burner because it's working, my retention needs improving as a bigger priority and I need my CRM in place to do this scalably and sustainably.


Retaining clients

Time will tell, I've got a new flux of clients and I'm at a personal record of 7. My promotions are making things far easier because literally a year ago, things would start to crumble at 4 clients lol.

Now it's a case of me continually building SOP's and adding a project management software to help us keep track as we scale. My project manager has recommended Trello so I think I'll just go with that.

Also need to hire more rockstar social media managers - so if you know anyone, let me know

I'm also finding it annoying that my clients email me when I specificially tell them to use Slack lol. I'm considering migrating my clients to Whatsapp as that has more personal adoption to reduce the friction of getting accustomed to Slack but we'll see, it may be an overkill reaction.

Final notes

My profit margins are slowly but surely increasing. If my both my verbal yes's come onboard I'll be looking at 25% net profit margins which is excellent.

Lastly one of my very pro-active Sales VA also found a lifetime deal of a software I spend $150 a month on. There's a job for me to migrate my clients and save on that monthly cost which will help with margins too. Just want to make sure it's smooth to limit disruption.

Onwards & Upwards x

 

[DoWhatWorks]

Another update

Been on 2 holidays this summer and been managing the business in-between on top of a day job so not much progress.

Those are excuses though, I will do better.

No more holidays booked for the rest of the year so will be able to buckle down and set up processes so that the business still works with or without me.

Current MRR

3.2K - frustratingly lost a client, more details will be below in "retaining clients section"

Winning new clients

Been on holiday but starting up my outreach messages again. Last month had a flux of good leads (peers in my space confirmed the same) confident we can bring in few more clients towards the end of the year. A key part of this is promoting one of my team members so they can start to take sales calls on my behalf.

I also need to improve my onboarding process as it's unnecessarily long. Going to sit down with an A3 page, map out what I need from a new client and then distil that to a succinct process.

At the moment my process probably takes like 1-2 hours through a video series (I learnt from a course) but going to decrease this to 30 minutes max maybe just on a 1-page PDF. Especially as my target audience is busy business owners.

Retaining clients

Annoyingly lost one of my highest paying clients ($667 a month) actually caught me by surprise as service delivery has been very smooth and we've got good engagement, follower growth & visuals for them. I've asked them for feedback and waiting to hear back.

The learning I've taken is I need to "check-in" with clients. This was something I was a lot better at when I was in lower client numbers e.g. 3-4 but I've slipped up on as I approach ~8. The way I'll fix this is add a process to this and add reminders to myself to message every client at least once in every 2 months.

On the topic of process, I've deployed Trello across the team to keep up with tasks and so far so good because it visually shows where everything is and has made me feel calmer for sure lol. Project manager is responsible for this and unfortunately he's been unresponsive recently so need to jump on a call and see what's going on with him and if the trend continues, look at a replacement.


Final notes

I've also been thinking about the best way to build an online brand that starts to bring inbound clients as cold-outreach gets relentless and easily becomes a race to the bottom

Also thinking about mid-long term strategy of providing a full 360 service that doesn't just provide social media management but all online marketing services required to make money e.g. newsletters, website creation etc. I get asked this by clients and I unfortunately have to turn them down.

This may need me to hire or alternatively white label/partner so we'll see

Onwards & Upwards x

 

[DoWhatWorks]

Been very quiet because I've been busy working.

Had a cycling accident and fractured my arm so have been homebound and it's worked in my favour.

Silver linings I guess...

Current MRR

$5K - I've signed 3 clients in the last 2 weeks' and retained all the others since my last update.

Recruited some great social media managers who have helped ease off the workload.

Winning new clients

My messaging team are in good flow. Had to enforce some discipline a few months ago (I.E fire then re-hire someone who wasn't performing as a last chance) and offer incentives of uncapped commission that I'm seeing make a difference. I've also improved with AI note taking tools and follow up email templates which has made me much better at following up with prospects and keeping up momentum to close more sales.

Re-did my onboarding process using a self-led Google Site but to be honest it was still rubbish lol. Need to re-do it but in the meantime I've been onboarding people by only sharing the most important sections of my existing website and skipping the rest.

However long term I'm going to re-do my contract (make it very simple English) as that's also slowed down deals.

I'm taking the mentality of 1% gains everyday is how I'll get elite at this vs big outsized gains.

Spent $2K on a course that's been beneficial and given me access to mentors who're doing the exact same thing I'm doing but have scaled it to $20K a month. What's been reassuring is after sharing my whole process they shared I'm not doing anything wrong I just need to raise prices and reduce my costs which I'll go into next.

Retaining clients

Implemented my 2 month check in process and managed to uncover some niggles that a client wasn't happy with that I can now fix. Learning that from my previous client loss looks like will proactively help me save another one.

I also got feedback from my previous client that revealed holes in my service and how I manage my team so that will be an improvement area that I'll work on too. Namely being very clear with exact deliverables and required timelines.

In terms of reducing costs I found a lifetime value for the software I use via a team member. So going to move all my client accounts to this lifetime account which will save me about $200 a month forever which is pretty damn cool.

Also negotiated a good deal with my copywriter which has really helped profitability too. In short they get a base level salary regardless of my number of clients and this incrementally increases per client if they stay with us for 3 months+

Lastly did a lot of back-end maths work and realised I have a LTV to CAC ratio of 3:1 which is solid.

My current set of clients also have an average tenure of 6 months' which is great too. Slowly but surely things are improving and I'm transitioning from scrapping around to feeling like I have a well oiled machine that can consistently work with or without me.

Onwards and Upwards x

 

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