How to grow your agency whilst looking after your business expenses

By Lydia | 09 Mar 22

Introduction
Pin point your hidden costs
Are there opportunities to grow your agency?

The costs of running an agency can fluctuate a lot more compared to other businesses. That’s because your variables are often dependent on the projects you take on. For some clients, you may have all the in-house resources you need to grow your agency. For others, you may outsource freelancers or purchase software and services that help you build the content you’ve promised to create. While there may always be surprises, and some months are going to be better than others, if you’d like to stay on target, you should have a clear overview of what your expenditure looks like. By doing this, you can charge what you’re worth and keep an eye on those sneaky little added costs.

In this blog, we’ll take you through any hidden costs and potential opportunities for you to grow your agency.

Pin point your hidden costs

A little investigation into your outgoings could help you uncover the hidden costs that are totted up on your bill every month. You may think you know how you’re spending your budget, but are you really? Take a look at this list and see if you could make some significant savings.

1 Punching above your real estate weight

There’s no shame in utilising modest office space while you grow your agency. Don’t sign up for the long lease on the expensive commercial building in the trendy part of town if you can’t afford it yet. The lean years are all part of the hustle. So embrace it and don’t move into a location if it’s not yet financially sustainable.

If however, your current location has gone up in price or you’re struggling to justify the spend, it may be worth having a conversation with your landlord. Investigate whether you can get a good deal based on your great track record and loyalty. You never know until you ask.

2 Review your full-time hiring structure

Sure, you want to build the dream team. But, in the line of work you do, you may be encountering that the conventional employment contracts no longer apply as much. Designers, developers, and content creators are quite happy to freelance for the right rate. Therefore it’s important to evaluate whether you want your next role to be more lucrative as opposed to offering a salary package. For example, opting for a part time role or somebody on a freelance basis.

Another way to trim the human resource cost is to outsource tasks that don’t need a permanent in-house employee. This could be your accounting, HR, or admin staff. If it’s cheaper to have a third party oversee those tasks, then be sure to make use of that service.

3 Obsolete tech and equipment

Do you really need that bulky printer in the office? The one that requires maintenance on the rare occasion and is secretly used by Glenda to print out her daughter’s birthday invitations. If you have kit that is no longer serving a purpose, it’s time to liquidate it.

4 The price of misquoting

Understandably, as your business grows, competitive pricing will be at the forefront of your quoting process. But, sometimes, you may be compromising yourself financially by not managing your customer’s expectations. It’s important to align your deliverables with what is actually feasible for you to produce in a specific timeframe.

If you’re going to outsource extra help or the client is requesting amendments repeatedly, you may want to re-evaluate. Extra amendments could mean other tasks will have to be put on a back burner while you prioritise that one project that simply refuses to budge out the door.

To avoid this scenario, you should consider putting processes in place. Be sure to outline how you’re going to provide the agreed service, the hours needed and what extras are chargeable. Have a checklist of questions that ensures you get all the accurate data from the client before commencing any work. By understanding what success means to them, you will avoid wasting time and money on backtracking to fix errors as a result of omissions or miscommunication.

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Are there opportunities to grow your agency?

Agencies have a lot to contend with these days. As clients try to curb their own expenditure, they can often look to your services as negotiable or flexible. For this reason, you must be able to confidently show the value you add to your customer’s business, but you shouldn’t leave yourself exposed by only relying on your core offering as a means for income.

If your monthly workload is primarily project-based, you could hugely benefit from bolstering your profits. You can do this by adding additional services, such as: