I think a lot of us have been (or you currently are) in situations where every time you get a new client, it’s like starting from scratch…
The processes that you need to execute on to solve their problem … the solution looks different.
And maybe even the problem that is coming in looks different.
And thus every time you get a client, you’re starting from scratch and you don’t really build up momentum towards anything.
And in one of the more recent episodes, I talked about this book, The Road Less Stupid and in this book, he says:
the most expensive part of change whether it’s an external change or an internal change is the inevitable loss of momentum
So, if you’re an agency and if you’re doing unique custom services every single time … like every time you get a new client…
What they get is different than what the next client would get…
So typically you’re never going to be able to achieve momentum in the first place
And that’s why oftentimes you hit a wall when trying to grow
AND you don’t have the ability to hit the revenue numbers that you’d like…
Because you just can’t serve enough clients in any given window of time to effectively reach those numbers.
Transcript / MP3
What’s good, everybody.Greg Hickman here and in this episode we are diving into the topic: Why starting from scratch is actually killing your agency. … As an agency owner or a service provider or even a freelancer, you may have been in a situation or maybe you currently are in a situation where every time you get a new client, it’s like starting from scratch…The processes that you need to execute on to solve their problem … the solution looks different.And maybe even the problem that is coming in looks different.And thus every time you get a client, you’re starting from scratch and you don’t really build up momentum towards anything.And in one of the more recent episodes, I talked about this book, The Road Less Stupid and in this book, he says:the most expensive part of change whether it’s an external change or an internal change is the inevitable loss of momentum.So, if you’re an agency and if you’re doing unique custom services every single time … like every time you get a new clientWhat they get is different than what the next client would get…So typically you’re going to never even be able to achieve momentum in the first place, right?And that’s why oftentimes you hit a wall when trying to grow and you don’t have the ability to hit the revenue numbers that you’d like because you just can’t serve enough clients in any given window of time to effectively reach those numbers.Like in order to hit your numbers, you need to be able to be selling 10 clients a month. But because every single time a client comes in, all 10 of those, all the first five of those clients are all unique.So you’re doing unique things for each and every different client. You never get to build a system or any sort of standardization or any sort of repeatability in your delivery process that really puts you stuck in fulfillment. You’re drowning in fulfillment and you’re at five clients when you need 10 to hit the revenue goals that you actually need. Right? And so he, he also continues to say this book, the problem with always starting over is that you’re always starting over, right? The problem with always starting over is that you’re always starting over. So again, if you’re, you’ve hit the ceiling, you can, and maybe you haven’t even realized you hit the ceiling is one of those glass ceilings where you’re like, man, like we can’t seem to get to, you know, 30 k a month in revenue or what have you. Then the likelihood, first thing I would say is go look at, well, how unique is your fulfillment?Right? Do you deliver the same thing for each and every client? Or is it like starting from scratch and you know, with a clean slate, the more of a clean slate it is for you, the, the more likely it’s going to be that you won’t be able to grow fast, grow at all, and hit the goals that you really set out for yourself. And so, um, I remember like when we started, we were doing a lot of custom projects and, uh, you know, you can solve some of these problems by hiring early on, but I think very quickly you realize, oh, but by having all of these people, if every single project is unique, then the types of people that I need actually the skill sets that they ended up to to have probably needs to be more general, right? Like you need to go higher that Badass a person because they can do a wide range of things.So that just in case, you know, client a comes in and they need one thing, well you can give them to that badass person, but then client B, c and d come in and they still have some skill sets to go give to that person. But now that person is a little bit overwhelmed, right? And they’re doing a little bit of different stuff for each and every one of those clients, a through d. And so, um, the amount of time or the amount of force needed in this book, he goes on and I can’t, I have a book somewhere on my kindle. I would pull it out and give you the author’s name. Uh, so I apologize again, but the book is the road less stupid linked up in the show notes and he says the amounts of brute force needed to get the merry go round started again, is monumental in comparison to the minimal effort needed to keep it maintained and spinning.So think of that merry go round a huge [inaudible] and you’re trying to really get it going yourself and really pull it, start pushing from a standstill. It’s going to be really, really hard and to get that thing moving. And that’s exactly what you’re doing every single time you get a new client that you’re allowing them to have a custom arrangement, accustomed solution, and you’re going out there and you’re, you know, Cherry picking some different solutions. Uh, and also you not having a specific Avatar, right? If you serve chiropractors, agency owners, dentists, you know, nonprofits likely they all don’t have the exact same problems and how you execute on it is going to be different, right? And so every single one of those clients, you’re manually starting to get that merry go round and moving, which is a lot of effort, right? Like I would gather that the amount of energy, effort, gas, power and fuel to get a ship like the titanic to go from a standstill to moving was a lot difficult than for it to compare to it just to maintain moving at a, at a particular speed through the ocean, right? Just like once you get that merry go round moving, when you add a new client or a new person hops into that merry go round, you can still maintain that momentum because you’re already moving, right? Hey, we already know how to solve this problem. Mary ground keeps going. Hey, we already have a way to solve this problem. We have a system, we have a process. We have the right people in place to deliver on this exact solution that you actually need mister or misses new client, right? So you really got to ask yourself, um,starting from scratch right now and depending upon where you’re at in your business, when you first got started, it allowed for the flexibility for you to collect cash, right? Um, but you’ve probably, if you’ve been around long enough in business long enough and you haven’t drowned yet, you’re probably stuck at a similar revenue, like a revenue, um, kind of arena, whether it’s like 20, 30, 40 k when it comes to smaller agencies that are getting started, usually they really start to feel the friction around that, like 30 to 50 k a month mark where they’re like, why is this not working? Why is this so difficult? Why would I get a new client, my sales and marketing stop, right? Why am I doing everything manually? Often that’s because you’re, you’re starting from scratch every single time and you’re starting from scratch every single time because you’re doing done for you generic services and you’re going forward with the service menu.And oftentimes you’re letting your client’s shoes, right. You’re laying them choose off of your menu what they would like. So right out of the gate, your client is in control of the entire relationship, which remember they came to you for your expertise and before they even signed the contract, they’re telling you what to do. I want these three services, not these other five, right? That’s what happens when you start from scratch every time. It’s helpful in the beginning, but very quickly, it’s the thing that is preventing you from hitting the numbers that you would like. So where in your business right now, are you starting from scratch? Every single time you get a new client, we need to solve that. Now, if you want to start making that transition to what we call productize your business, simplify it at a more scalable and leveraged business model to either transform your agency or to completely replace your done for you services.Then we can help. We’d love to chat with you. Um, you can, uh, click the link below. We have a free training. It’s on demand. It’s, you know, you have seven days to watch the training. It’s not one of those funky webinars where we pretend like it’s going to be live, but you have seven days to watch this training. I’m going to dive deep into our method to help you make this from struggling agency doing done for you custom projects into um, you know, a more scalable one to many model where Your Business Works like a well oiled machine and that you have the time and freedom to actual actually like spend time with your family and take a vacation without bringing your laptop right. So if that sounds good, uh, visit system.ly forward slash Webinar or you can click the link below in the show notes.We’d love to have you enjoy this training, see if it can help you. And if it does, at the end of that training, we’ll invite you to a call where we can talk through and see if we can take our methodology, apply it to your business and accelerate you into making this transition like we have with, um, now hundreds of our clients. So, uh, hope you guys enjoyed this episode. It’s time to stop doing everything from scratch when it comes to serving your clients. If you want to be more scalable and more leveraged and you know where to go and we’ll catch you next time and you have a great day,Hey, are you looking for that cool place to hang on the Internet with all the people just like you? Well, I got it for you. If you want to learn the best strategies, tips, and tools to productize and automate your business, visit system dot l y four slash community to join our free private community and continue the conversation. We’ll see a day.
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