Our Firm's Purpose, Part 4

We are in a blog post series on what our firm’s purpose means. You can read the first, second and third posts as well. Here is our firm’s purpose:

“We proactively lead clients to equip them for growth.”

The final word in our purpose focuses on growth. We want to equip agencies for growth. We believe our firm has the knowledge and care to help agencies actually grow. We coach agencies, help them (re)structure their businesses, add new financial systems that streamline their processes, and take financial and accounting details off of their shoulders. These are all part of preparing our clients for growth. But not all clients are prepared for growth. The requirements we put on our clients to be involved in their own growth can be surprising at first. Clients have to be prepared for what growth will ask of them. So we tell our new clients to be prepared for the ramp-up of time it will take to allow us to take over their financial systems, and build the trust that will allow them to give up control.

What prevents growth?

Disorganized Systems

Some agencies come to us with disorganized systems, or they are dealing with the result of having created their own ineffective business models. Often, these systems are preventative to growth because information can’t freely move through a system that is disorganized. So part of our services may be to document better financial processes that allow our team to step in and run these financial systems for the client. This frees the client to then focus on leading their team, getting new clients, and perfecting the delivery of their service.

Misunderstandings of Growth

Creative agency owners are, technically, creative people. They often don’t know how to grow a company. But we do. So coaching and business model (re)structuring help the client (re)think their company in all new ways that allow them to grow. But this process of (re)thinking often requires a change in habits, beliefs, and behaviors. Learning to understand growth in a new way takes time, and the agency owner must be led by a trusted partner if they are to move to a new place in how they think about agency growth.

The model of our firm is that we expect that a client wants to grow. So we expect the client is prepared for what growth will ask of them. But not all are ready. So we have to tell them explicitly what it will take, that the time commitment upfront is big, and that they need to let us lead. Some can do this, but it’s truly a struggle for others.

For the agency that is ready, growth is a reality they can achieve, even if it takes a year or two to fully realize (and often it does). And when they meet our firm, we are the catalyst to lead, guide, challenge, and push our clients to accept and enjoy what growth can mean for them, their team, and their wonderful clients.

Do you need to change what you believe about growth? Maybe you need to gain a new understanding of why you’ve found growth to be so hard? We can help with that. Email us at [email protected] to see how we can help your agency grow.