How to Start a Profitable Marketing Agency

We opened the Internet agency "Kompot" from scratch, rented an office and started working without a single ruble invested. They say that 90% of businesses close in their first year. Another 5% will close in 2 years. Thus, running a business that has been working (and earning) more than 3 years is already an achievement and we are just beginning to grow. When we opened our agency, we did not know anything of what I will write below, we made our mistakes ourselves and survived by a miracle. I hope our rules will help you too!

Fixed income should be greater than fixed costs

This is the golden rule that allows you to live happily from the first month. The fact is that salaries, rent for premises, for all sorts of things necessary in the office (water, internet, cookies, etc.), taxes must be paid every month and every month this money must be found. And if you do not want to live with cash gaps (which is very unpleasant), then it must be observed. This rule makes you think about when it is necessary to increase fixed costs (take a pretentious office in Moscow City, a secretary with great prospects, students (to learn), a marketer of all Russia).

Generalists are cooler than narrow specialists

When you just opened and you only have money to hire employees, you need to look for the most suitable specialists for the Internet agency. If a candidate can make websites at the middle level and customize the context a little and make the design even for 3 points out of 5, then he is much more valuable than a senior developer. When we started, we had programmers who thought, for example, that finding a picture on a website and cropping it was none of their business. And the content of the site is also not their business. They can only program, and everything else has to be done by someone else (since there is no one else, you will do it). And you have other things to do. And we smoothly move on to the next rule.

Founders and directors should not assume core competencies of employees

This is a very important rule. My educational partner and I are programmers, have worked in several studios and, in general, could have been developing websites on our own. But founders usually have many other tasks - new clients, contracts, sales, accounting, hiring, marketing, and a thousand more questions. When we opened, we decided that we would not program on our own and clean the office (and on the very first day we hired a cleaning lady who still works with us). Our main mistake (we understand this already when so much time has passed) was the lack of understanding that in addition to programming there are still a lot of tasks that also had to be immediately outsourced as soon as money appeared for this.

The average bill of projects must constantly increase

If your check doesn't go up, you run the risk of stopping going up. If your check doesn't grow, then you are not making a cool product. And one becomes a consequence of the other. No money - no cool product. No cool product - no cool portfolio. No portfolio, no sales. No sales, no money. It is very difficult to get out of this vicious circle and the main solution is to increase the bill of projects and improve the quality of projects despite the money that is paid. Make a $ 1000 website that looks like $ 3000 and so on. Constantly raise the bar for yourself and your clients. We started making websites for $ 100. Now we only undertake projects from 15.00 $.

Monitor the employee market

It is necessary to monitor the employee market, to know who works where, how much they receive. You need to know the mood of people - perhaps someone wants to leave from somewhere or, conversely, wants to come to you. This will allow you to always have the necessary specialists at arm's length, and will save you from problems if you need to quickly bring more specialists to a new project or if someone suddenly wants to move or part with her husband (as we had) and quit overnight. There are also many tricks in the area of ​​working with employees, which we will talk about in the following articles (so as not to forget, subscribe to our updates in the email newsletter on the right).

Build a portfolio and monitor your brand awareness

An internet agency or web studio has essentially nothing but a portfolio and its own brand. No buildings, factories, steamships - no tangible assets of any kind. Only a good and honest name. Even customers and employees can change (unfortunately). Therefore, you need to take your reputation and your brand reputation very seriously from the outset. Work out all the negativity, follow the mentions on the network, talk about yourself and explain the difficulties when such arise to your clients and other interested people.

Money in marketing and at the gas station

The point is that the potential income of an agency must be understood even BEFORE its opening. Many people mistakenly think that the agency's income is obvious: if you sell a service, here's your income. However, this is not true! Not knowing the niche you are trying to climb is a dubious approach. For example, you decided to open a gas station. Where is the money and what does your income depend on? Most people naively assume that money is the difference between the purchase and retail price of fuel.

Yes, I swam there. In this business, fuel prices are so regulated by analogs of the RRTs (recommended retail price) that just don't worry, Mom. There you will not be able to play strongly with retail value, and the difference between purchase and retail is so insignificant (after all taxes and salaries have been paid) that you want to cry.

So what do columns do and how do they make money? On cross-sales! Sale of soput, food, snacks and coffee. A significant part of the profitable part of this business lies precisely in the soputka.

I do not pretend to be well versed in the gas station business and will not bother with the evidence base. But I think that the example is clear enough and at least corresponds to reality.

Marketing Agency Revenue

In the chapter above, I led the reader to a logical conclusion: in marketing, money is not on the surface.

The market situation and competition do not allow every newcomer to come and set their prices from the bulldozer, or at will. Of course, you can put any check. But they will buy strictly in the price range corresponding to your level, even though the whistle.

In my experience, I see newcomers entering the market at a lower price in the hope that they will be able to capitalize on volume. The scheme is as old as the world. You lower the price, think that by reducing it by half from the market, you will receive twice as many orders.

The answer to the misconception above is shit! When the price is cut in half, you are guaranteed not to sell twice as much. You will grow by 15-20 percent and that's it) This means that more orders will be processed, and the profit will be less.

So we are back in social media to turn out all the guts of a great marketing agency

Someone knows us, some don't. To devote an entire article to our calves is too bold. In the course of a dull and, less often, driving narration, you will learn our story.

Being the owner of marketing agencies is such a pleasure. The author of the text does not have a split personality. We just do business together. The agency sometimes resembles not a team, but a platoon. The regiment in the battle for the client, and then in the battle with the client.

As we saw marketers:

In general, we looked at all this and lit up to itching and burning. Moreover, we had a good background.

Behind the back is the building of predatory sales departments in telecommunications in the b2c segment. We definitely called you with great news that you have the opportunity of a lifetime. One might even say the only chance. The chance to buy right now is a window into opportunity. The most innovative and fastest internet in the country.

They taught to sell even schoolchildren and breathless old people. There was only one risk - that by the evening the department would not naturally decrease.

What did the company give us for sales? Phones. All.

The department worked for the cheeseburger and gummy. And he generated so much dough that they carried us in their arms. Carried on hands and hated. Hated all departments. Hated all adjacent units. This is because we brought oxygen to the company in the form of bags with headstock and forced everyone around to work. The work-for-hire epic ended at the moment when the company ceased to have time to evaluate our contribution. With our small and quirky team, we merged together in even more disgusting adventures (for most of our readers).

Years before the opening of the marketing agency ...

Yeah, beibe! These were direct sales. Household visits in order to find a frightened and sleepy doe and sign a compulsory pension insurance contract. Of course, Mandatory with a capital letter.

My name is Bogdan Staritsyn. I am the owner of the SmartDirect contextual advertising agency www. martdirect. iz

This group is about how to make money from an agency.

Here I share my experience in sales, marketing, service delivery. render completely.

I started working closely with the agency in 2021, before that it was not the main project.

My income from the agency is 263,000 rubles / month.

In order to grow, find like-minded people and structure my knowledge and experience, I decided to write articles, lead a group.

I also launched a training program for those who also want to make money on their agency (it has only practice and a squeeze from experience).

This program is for those who want to build a business in the growing advertising market and earn money from regular customers with monthly payments.

The niche is absolutely environmentally friendly. You give results to clients, and they pay you money for it.

To learn more about this business, study the articles in the group, as well as the landing page, or ask questions in messages.

Money in marketing and at the gas station

The point is that the potential income of an agency must be understood even BEFORE its opening. Many people mistakenly think that the agency's income is obvious: if you sell a service, here's your income. However, this is not true!

Not knowing the niche you're trying to get into is a dubious approach. For example, you decided to open a gas station. Where is the money and what does your income depend on? Most people naively assume that money is the difference between the purchase and retail price of fuel.

Yes, I swam there. In this business, fuel prices are so regulated by analogs of the RRTs (recommended retail price) that just don't worry, Mom. There you will not be able to play strongly with retail value, and the difference between purchase and retail is so insignificant (after all taxes and salaries have been paid) that you want to cry.

So what do columns do and how do they make money? On cross-sales! Sale of soput, food, snacks and coffee. A significant part of the profitable part of this business lies precisely in the soputka.

I do not pretend to be well versed in the gas station business and will not bother with the evidence base. But I think that the example is clear enough and at least corresponds to reality.

In the chapter above, I led the reader to a logical conclusion: in marketing, money is not on the surface.

The market situation and competition do not allow every newcomer to come and set their prices from the bulldozer, or at will. Of course, you can put any check. But they will buy strictly in the price range corresponding to your level, even though the whistle.

In my experience, I see newcomers entering the market at a lower price in the hope that they will be able to capitalize on volume. The scheme is as old as the world. You lower the price, think that by reducing it by half from the market, you will receive twice as many orders.

The answer to the above misconception is net ???? ‍♂️! When the price is cut in half, you are guaranteed not to sell twice as much. You will grow by 15-20 percent and that's it) This means that more orders will be processed, and the profit will be less.

It's not about greed. It may seem that this is not a problem.