E205: The new rules of running an agency with Maggie Patterson

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Maggie Patterson is the editorial director at Scoop Studios and the creator of Small Business Boss. With two decades of experience, Maggie has spent her entire career in client services and has been a successful entrepreneur for 15 years. Today, she works with freelancers and agency owners to help them implement smart strategies for business growth. She has also worked with clients like Microsoft and HP. Her work has been featured in Entrepreneur.com, Fast Company and Virgin.com.

Episode highlights:

• Do you have a micro-agency? Maggie fills us in on what they are and how they should be treated differently.
• What valuable insights Maggie found from working IN an agency – a rarity for agency owners.
• What the biggest challenge is for owners of a “micro-agency”.
• How much an agency owner can make.
• What the new rules are in the world of running an agency.
• What basic moves are recommended to grow (it’s the “chicken or the egg” problem!).
• What is your risk tolerance? And what that has to do with hiring.
• Best advice: On hiring: it’s going to take longer to get someone up to speed than you think.
• Habit that contributes to success: Rituals around creativity – preserving sacred time in the calendar.
• Recommended tool: Grammarly
• Recommended book: First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
• Run time: 27:56

Links:

• Small Business Boss
• Podcast: The BS-free Service Business Show
• FB
• Insta

Quotes:

• “It’s a stepping stone.”
• “It always comes down to a leadership challenge.”
• “If you don’t have those foundational pieces, everything is just so much more challenging.”
• “The potential for small agencies has grown exponentially.”
• “They’re willing to gamble on a smaller agency.”
• “What are the actual strengths I bring?”
• “For you to grow, you cannot have all those hats.”

Takeaways:

• “Learn to walk before you run” – get control of leadership basics with a small team before trying to move up to a large team.
• Owners: hire for a skill set that you lack in, and get out of the way!