Note: This transcript was auto generated then some poor soul sat and listened to it, and followed through correcting any mistakes they spotted. Please however expect human error and shout if you spot an issue. Email: lee [fancy curly symbol] trailblazer.fm.
Verbatim text
Speaker 1
Welcome to the Agency Trailblazer Podcast. This is your host Lee, and on today’s show we’re talking surviving a recession. Now it may sound a little bit depressing, but with all of this bad news, with all of the fear from COVID etc., a lot of businesses are being severely affected. And unfortunately, there is news that there may be some form of global global recession mark 2. Now, if you’re old enough, you will remember the recession back in 2008, and that was a massive struggle for a lot of businesses.
Speaker 1
And back then, I was running an agency with several members of staff. There were 3 core founders in the business, and we were servicing companies from all around the world. We were doing really, really well, and then the big crash happened. And at first, we didn’t see anything wrong. Everything seemed absolutely fine, so we carried on with business as usual.
Speaker 1
But when it became official, when the UK itself got hit by that recession, within weeks we were seeing the effect. Clients were slashing their budgets, they were cancelling projects, and we were in a position where we were extremely fearful of what was going on around us. We had staff to pay, we had bills to pay, and we had a pipeline that was dramatically decreasing because clients were scared. They were scared of losing money, they were scared of investing money, they were pulling back and hoping that they could weather the upcoming storm. And that was negatively impacting us because as they cut those costs, as they pulled away those projects, we had less and less to survive on as a company.
Speaker 1
So as we are in some times that could be quite similar over the next few weeks and months, I want to share with you some of the lessons that we learned. And I’m going to break that down into, first of all, reviewing your products and services, We’re going to then look at refining your customer avatars. Then we’re going to look at how you could run a leaner operation as a business. We’ll look at your personal finances as well, because this is something that can also impact your agency finances. We’re then going to focus on your messaging and your marketing, especially during this time.
Speaker 1
Then we’re going to talk about supporting your existing customers. And finally, we’re going to finish with the most important person listening into this podcast right now, and that is you looking after your mental health and much more. So So be ready to write some notes and also be sure to cheque out the notes where I bullet absolutely everything that we talk about. And I share a whole load of resources of previous episodes that will let you deep dive into some of these topics some more. It became very apparent back in 2008 that we had a really wide range of products and services.
Speaker 1
We’d often positioned ourselves as a full service agency. Therefore, there were a range of services that we were providing that were just super unprofitable. So the first thing we needed to do take a look at what we were offering. Did we need to focus more on those more profitable projects rather than just trying a scattergun approach of pleasing anyone and everyone with anything? Obviously, we needed to focus on some core projects.
Speaker 1
What were our core strengths? This led to us doing a review of every single service that we offered and seeing how long each and every one tuckers to deliver, to try and understand what was the general profitability of that service. The same came in with our products. We were back then also offering print, we were offering hosting, and so much more. When we looked at hosting, we recognised that we were spending way too much time supporting people, their websites, the hosting service, et cetera, versus the amount of money that was coming in.
Speaker 1
So that was certainly one service that we needed to remove. The other service that we very quickly needed to remove was things like print management, which again, would be lots and lots of time versus the money that would come in. We were having to service print management to the nth degree, and the money that was coming in from that was too little and too late. So there were two products we instantly had to remove. The other services that we were doing were things like app development.
Speaker 1
We were building apps for people, and yet this wasn’t really a specialist service of ours. We didn’t have the strength to offer that service. We could do it, but it took us ages compared to an actual specialist. So again, we would look at that and say, okay, can we either productize this and make it into a templated app that’s easy for us to deliver, or do we just need to knock this on the head because this is something that we clearly can’t deliver, but we could perhaps pass them on to a partner company? And it was actually the latter that we decided to do.
Speaker 1
And finally, as we measured those products and services, we also wanted to measure the value to the client. Were they getting the results that they wanted from what we were doing for them. To get that sort of information, it’s a simple conversation. Talk to your clients, find out how things have been going, what they have enjoyed the most from your services, what they’ve got the most from, because that’s going to give you a real good sense of what is or what is not working. For us, we did that, but we also looked at the feedback that we’d had over the last few years where people had reached out saying, yes, We’ve had so much success applying X, Y, and Z.
Speaker 1
So we knew that there were certain things we were doing that people really appreciated and that were of high value. And equally, there were other things that we would actually get quite a few complaints about that didn’t seem to be hitting the nail on the head. These as well were things that we would consider either improving or knocking on the head. As part of this exercise, you naturally start to evaluate your customer avatar as well. So look at the feedback that you have gotten from your customers.
Speaker 1
And who is your ideal customer type? What customer does get the most value from the products or the services that you are offering? And on the flip side, what customer avatar resonates the most with your skillset and with your strengths? So again, back in 2008, let’s look back. We were being all things to all people.
Speaker 1
We had all sorts of products and we were offering them to all sorts of people. We had all sorts of services and we were trying to sell them into all sorts of businesses. And it was really hard because essentially we served nobody. The moment we defined who our ideal customer was, that was even before we got into niching and all that sort of stuff, things started to change because we knew where we could start to find this ideal customer. And funnily enough, by knowing where we could find the ideal customer also helped us understand the ideal industry that we should be focusing on.
Speaker 1
If you’ve all heard the storey a million times, I won’t tell it again, but feel free to listen to episode number 200, as well as copious amounts of previous episodes where I’ve shared how we eventually got into niching into the events industry specifically. Now that is an industry that we are heavily involved with right now that is being massively impacted by what is going on out there in the news with all of the lockdowns, etc. So this is an industry that we are continuing to have to speak into and to support and find ways that we can help as best as we possibly can. Also understanding that there will actually be an impact on us and our business over the next few weeks, months, and years should our clients be negatively affected. Understanding your ideal customer avatar means that you can continue to evolve your products or services, or perhaps even create new products or services that, yes, are going to be profitable for you, but importantly, are going to be valuable to them in this time.
Speaker 1
So, for example, I have already started creating content for my event clients on virtual summits, on live streaming, and so much more, because there is a lot that they need to be able to unpack back over the next few weeks and months. You’ll have heard me say in many other episodes that I do believe we have a responsibility to be there for our clients in the long term, to be there through the good and through the bad. So if we can find that group of people that we really care about, either that type of person or that group of people within an industry, then that really does help focus and channel all of our energy, our products, our services, our messaging towards those people. It means that we really care how they are affected and we can come up with solutions to the problems that they are having. Next, let’s take a look at running a leaner operation.
Speaker 1
So when times were hard for us, when clients were spending less money with us, we had to review all of our expenses. This is quite a difficult process. There’s a lot of data to look at. The quickest way I can recommend you do this is take a look at your business bank statement and then itemise each and everything that’s come out of your bank. Every single day for the last 3 months.
Speaker 1
It’s only actually going to take you maybe a couple of hours. And if there’s a couple of you to do this, you should be able to do this in a couple of hours. And you can group absolutely everything together and recognise that there will be certain things on your bank statement that you’re not sure why you’re paying out for them or even what they are. I remember a couple of years ago we were able to save ourselves thousands in our agency when we looked at all the software as a service tools that we were, quote unquote, using. But but actually not using.
Speaker 1
I’m not encouraging you to become super Scrooge-like and not spend money, but what I am doing is saying, look at what you are spending, and are you putting needless pressure on your business because you are spending on things that are not necessary? If you’ve gone through a product and service review and then decided you are only going to focus on a certain segment of what you have been doing in the past, there could be costs that you are continuously incurring that you do not need anymore? Perhaps it’s a piece of project management software. Perhaps it’s some licencing for apps. Perhaps it’s a monthly subscription to image downloads, etc.
Speaker 1
What is it that can be trimmed from the fat of your expenses? Now, I do a much deeper dive in this in episode number 255, where we talk about managing your agency finances. So be sure to cheque out the show notes and you’ll find a link in there for episode number 255. 5. Another very important episode is number 247, where I deep dive into some money-saving techniques for your agency.
Speaker 1
That’s both on the business and on the personal side. That’s episode 247. You can cheque that out in the show notes as well. Other ways of streamlining your business could be looking at remote working. With the current global climate, we’re probably going to have to do some working from home over the next few months, and I think as web agencies, we’re probably in a luckier position because we are used to doing this.
Speaker 1
We’ve probably collaborated with contractors and freelancers around the world who all work from home, and we probably have also done a long stint of working from home ourselves when we were freelancers. And the cost of a physical office can be quite high. The UK government, for example, have released some tax breaks and incentives for businesses that have a physical premises. But if a physical premises is not something you desperately need during a time of hardship, then that’s one of the things that could go. Far better to get rid of a physical premises than necessarily losing members of staff.
Speaker 1
And then again, we do need to talk about the elephant in the room, which is members of staff. Now, that was the hardest part of the recession for us, was actually losing a few members of staff that we could no longer service because their skills did not lend themselves to the products and services that we needed to offer our client avatar. So what we did was developed a contract relationship with them. We helped them go it alone. A couple of them were able to walk straight into other jobs, which was wonderful, where they really appreciated their skills.
Speaker 1
And a couple of others ended up becoming contractors for us and have then since grown their own agencies. And I’m glad to say that we still have friendships and relationships with all of those people that we did have to let go back in 2008. So you can really help people if you have come to the point where you do need to let somebody go, try and help them find a job up, do whatever you can to support them because there’s nothing worse than in a climate like this losing your security, your income. The other area of your finances should be your personal finances. Again, we touch on this in episode number 255 where we discuss managing your agency finances, and we explain that your own personal finances could be having a negative impact on your agency.
Speaker 1
If you are not making good decisions personally, thus having to draw a lot of money out of your business, then you are putting undue pressure on your business rather than making choices to grow your business because you need to maintain a certain amount of income to cover a whole load of decisions that you’ve made over the last few years. It might be a good idea to also review what you are doing personally to see if you can reduce the impact that you are having on your agency. So again, listen to episode number 255 and what can you do to support your agency through any peaks and troughs that may be coming. Let’s recap so far. We’ve talked first about our products and services, then we’ve gone on to our ideal customer avatar.
Speaker 1
We’ve talked about running a leaner operation. We’ve talked about our personal finances. Now let’s focus on our messaging and our marketing. Understanding what we are specialising in and who we are reaching out to completely changes our marketing message. And if we’ve not been doing any marketing, we at least now what we can be talking about.
Speaker 1
So can I encourage you during this time and beyond, because it’s great practise, to invest some time in social media and other marketing channels, putting out messaging that will resonate with your ideal audience, with your ideal client. That could be speaking into aspirations that they have, that could be speaking into problems that they have. And can I recommend you listen to episode number 257, which is planning your social media strategy, ’cause that’s really gonna help you in understanding what you should be talking about and how you could structure a social media marketing plan. Talking about marketing segues perfectly into our existing customer base as well. So if we take a look at our existing customers, they too may be feeling the pinch.
Speaker 1
They may be stressed out about the future and therefore have problems. So part of your marketing and your sales activity should be seeing how you can help them, putting messages out there that are going to offer them help, but also having conversations with them. We so often forget the art of picking up the telephone and having a catch-up and saying, hey, how are you doing? What’s going on in your business? What are you struggling with?
Speaker 1
Any wins? And so on and so forth. Building up that good relationship with your customers, I believe, is essential. For improving the lifetime value of that client, and also allowing you to continue to add value into their business. By having these conversations, we are learning what our target audience needs.
Speaker 1
We can offer free value through our marketing channels, helping them with initial problems that they have, those quick wins like remote working. For example, I’m seeing a lot of agency owners sharing with their client base all of the tools that they would need to remote work, including consultants, personal trainers, and much more. So this is a phenomenal time for content marketing that will add value to your existing clients as well as feed your marketing channels. Let’s wrap up this episode by talking about you, and that’s your mental health, your physical health, etc. During the recession, when I was super busy and super stressed, the last thing I was doing was looking after my health.
Speaker 1
When you feel the stress and the fear of what’s going on around you, it’s really tempting to put in ridiculously long hours and to overstretch yourself because you are worried about your income, you’re worried about the business. I would really recommend that you take some time to go through some of the elements of this episode. I recommend you do look at those products and services. What, what are— what’s draining your resources? Take a look at your customer avatars.
Speaker 1
Who are the ideal people that you could be working for? Have a look at your overall operation. Can you reduce some of the pressure through your expenses, through remote working, through contractor relations, negotiations, etc.? Look at your personal finances. Can you reduce those to reduce the pressure on you as a business owner?
Speaker 1
Also look at your existing customers. How can you better support and educate them and improve your marketing channels as a result? These are exercises that you can do for your business that will help you to take a step away from the busy day-to-day.
Speaker 1
Something that changed our business years ago was when somebody said to me, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. During the recession, we kept doing more and more and more of the same stuff. And actually, we were getting more and more and more into trouble. By engaging in these exercises, we were able to create clarity and focus, which meant we put our efforts into those things that would help drive our business forward. In fact, those things that would help us not only survive, but to thrive in a recession.
Speaker 1
Equally, all of that helps to clear your mind because you have that focus and clarity, and it allows you to create time. And I would encourage you to create time in your busy schedule for rest, to just take it easy, to chill out with the family. On the 24th of March here in the UK, Disney+ comes out. Come on, guys, that is a perfect excuse to just take some downtime and watch The Mandalorian. Equally, your mental health is so important.
Speaker 1
Take some time for that rest, but also take the time to talk to other people who will build you up. Not people that will drain you, but people who will build you up and encourage you, who can understand the position you’re in. And finally, I’d encourage you as well to go out and start doing some exercise. Either something at home to a video, a little bit of jogging on the spot, whatever that needs to be. Or going out for a walk or maybe joining a gym, but for myself, getting good regular exercise was essential for me to keep that motivation and that energy going and that mental state going during the difficult times.
Speaker 1
So let’s do a quick recap. Remember, number 1, we talked reviewing our products and services. So we’re looking at the profitability, what we deliver best and the value to the client. Then we talked about refining our customer avatar. So we’re getting really, really specific on who it is we’re talking to, and then we’re evolving slash creating new products or services for that avatar.
Speaker 1
We talked about running a leaner operation. We’re looking at our expenses, maybe changing the way we work, our relationships, etc. We talked as well about the effect our personal finances can also have on our business. Then we talked about our messaging and our marketing, which is delivered to our target audience. And we also talked about the importance of of supporting existing clients, having conversations, understanding how you can help them, leading with some free value through direct channels and marketing channels, as well as having regular calls with your existing client base.
Speaker 1
And finally, we wrapped up with the importance of looking after yourself, taking some time in all of the madness to rest and recharge. So folks, if you have been affected by anything in this episode, come and have a conversation with us over in the Facebook group. You can cheque that out over on Agency Trailblazer com/group. If you had value from this episode and you are looking for a new and reliable cloud host, then can I recommend to you our sponsor, which is Cloudways? You can cheque them out over on cloudways.com, and you’ll also find any special offers that are happening right now in the show notes.
Speaker 1
Cloudways has enabled me to develop an agency in the cloud supporting thousands of websites around the world. Using complicated technology but making it so simple. So I would highly recommend that you go ahead and cheque those out, folks. If we don’t see you over in the Facebook group, if we don’t see you in the comments of this episode, then we will see you in next week’s episode.
