6th
Building an Agency; Part 1 - How NOT To, Addendum
Ok so I talked to some folks about these ideas around this topic and had some additions worth sharing. And apparently there’s a fair amount more of the what not to do variety, which is not surprising. First point is on that tip.
5. Don’t Ignore the Bad. It is seemingly human nature to focus on what’s wrong, even within an ocean of what’s right. Never downplay or worse, ignore, what is wrong, and be interested in the wrongs you don’t know about. Be a crusader. Actually want to fix things. Take actions to fix things, public actions. A lot of people will talk about it, which the smart people I referred to earlier will have little patience for. If anything goes awry as you pull people together and develop philosophies and your overall practice, take it on. Treat it like another project, a client project, with the same seriousness. Otherwise things will hang around like a bad rash and only get worse. Don’t worry, it’ll only hurt for a little bit. People will remember these efforts, but they have to be decisive, only because they’ll remember the bad more. And you don’t want to be associated with that.
6. Don’t sell work to a client without fully understanding their scope. This is a specific but great point, and applies to any agency, or really any business, at any point in its development. I would add to this don’t take one client’s word for it, particularly in large corporations. Clients are people, and have their own likes, dislikes and personal philosophies. They also know what they need to do to do well at their next review, and will try to steer you towards their belief in it. Work to build relationships with these individuals so you can better understand motivations. This in turn will help you better understand what they’re boss needs, and so on up until the CEO. If your client IS the CEO, then duh.
The second way to look at this one is valid as well — don’t sell ideas to a client that you don’t know how you’d do. Or, especially how long it’d take. I’m not saying stifle creativity here — far from it — but ground your strategic approach in the real-world. Big ideas are great, but clients really don’t like getting half an execution of your idea because it wasn’t actually doable. Talk to some people. Especially technology people. Involve them in the brainstorms, for pete’s sake. They’re creatives too, IMHO.
Tomorrow, the good, the what TO do. Unless someone lectures me at lunch again.
