E178: The Keys to Scaling to 9-Figures with Jason Swenk
Build websites faster and make clients happier with Zephyr CMS (sponsored).
Unlimited WordPress tasks for digital agencies at a fixed monthly cost with UnlimitedWP, get 25% your first month with code “das2020” (sponsored).
Jason Swenk has literally written the book about growing an agency from nothing, to two eight-figure agencies with clients like AT&T, Hitachi, Lotus Cars, and eventually selling his agency. We’re going to talk to him about his new agency. If you remember he was on episode #14 here on the Digital Agency Show.
Episode Highlights:
- What to look for when acquiring agencies.
- How to have the right systems in place for your agency to scale without you.
- The five roles that you need to transition into when becoming the CEO of an agency.
- Understand the value to your prospects.
- Realize the true valuation of your agency by looking at the EBITDA.
- How to tell how efficient and profitable a business is and that it can be independent of the owner.
- Scale without having to do the extra work.
- Buying a company without cash is possible using fast, creative ways to purchase.
- Create three channels to grow your agency.
- Make sure your core team is all employees, the rest doesn’t matter.
- How to find and acquire companies the right way.
- Recommended books: Giftology and Talk Triggers by Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin
- Recommended podcast: Seth Godin’s Podcast
- Run time: 31:36
Links:
Quotes:
- “You’re charging too little, maybe because you don’t understand the value you bring to your prospects.”
- “I always promised myself that I would be a resource I wish I’d had.”
- “You don’t need to bring millions of dollars in cash. There’s multiple creative ways in order to do this.”
- “You need to know where you wanna go.”
- “Raise your prices!”
Takeaways:
- Understand EBITDA and how to use it to value a company.
- Stop pricing yourself so low.
- What matters is how you position your product and who the right people are that value it and can pay it.