2 Common Mistakes to Avoid While Growing Your Agency

<p>Have you made these common mistakes that hold back your agency? Our guest, Sandy Smith is the President of <a href= "https://www.smithpublicity.com/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">Smith Publicity</a>, has grown her agency for over 25 years and she shares lessons learned from 2 common mistakes she made over the years. Sandy's agency is focused on book marketing and author promotion services publicity. At first, a one-person shop they have grown to more than 30 employees with offices in Los Angeles, New York, and Canada. Sandy and her Senior VP, Marissa Eigenbrood, are on the show sharing how their expansion process led them to open an office in London that ultimately brought more problems than business. They also share why you should act fast when an employee just doesn't fit with the company and why you need to find someone you trust so you can transition from owner to agency CEO.</p> <h2><strong>3 Golden Nuggets</strong></h2> <ol> <li><strong>Identifying the source of customer service problems.</strong> Although the agency is US-based, it used to have a London office. Susan later identified this as the source of 95% of their customer service problems. London was an important market for the agency and held 10% of its business. However, it took too much work to get their UK clients to understand how the business worked in the US and get them to a place where they saw the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OARTLqBX2j0" target= "_blank" rel="noopener">value in the agency’s work</a>. In the end, these clients just weren’t the right fit for the agency, and closing the London office was an important step to move forward.</li> <li><strong>Waiting too long to do what’s best for the team.</strong> Hanging on for a little too long after seeing someone just <a href="https://jasonswenk.com/firing-all-employees/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">isn’t working out in their role</a> is a common problem for small business owners who try to avoid these decisions. Sometimes the person is not a good culture fit for the age