The order to grow an agency in, from niche to team

Stage 1: How narrow should your niche be?

Narrow your niche until few other agencies serve that group.

• Start broad, then narrow again and again, for example from small businesses, to one industry, to one kind of firm in that industry.
• Then write down your ideal client profile, or ICP. It's a short picture of your best client: the kind of business, its size, and the problem it'll pay you to fix.
• Keep the ICP where your whole team can see it, and check new leads against it.

Stage 1: Why pick only one pain point?

One pain point gives your marketing one clear message.

• List the problems your best clients bring you.
• Choose one of them, and make it the angle of your website, your posts and your sales calls.
• Leave the other problems for later, once the first message brings in clients.

Where do a business plan and a budget fit?

A short business plan fits right after your niche and your pain point are set, and a monthly budget keeps it honest.

• Write one page: who you serve, what you sell, how you'll find clients and what it costs to run.
• Change the plan as the agency grows, so it stays a tool you use.
• Track cash in and cash out each month, so you can see when the agency can pay for help.

Stage 2: Which lead source should you master first?

Master the one lead source your ideal clients already use, and put your effort there until it brings in clients steadily.

• A lead source is where new prospects first find you, such as referrals, search, social media, video, cold outreach or paid ads.
• Give it steady effort, and track what it brings in each month.
• Add a second source only once the first one works.

Stages 2 to 4: What are the three engines, and why build them in order?

The three engines are the revenue engine, which wins new clients, the client onboarding engine, which turns new clients into reviews, referrals and repeat work, and the operations engine, which runs the work without you in every task. We build them one at a time, in that order, because in our view doing them out of order slows an agency down.

1. The revenue engine, stage 2. Lead sources, opt-ins, follow-up and offers. The revenue engine page covers it.
2. The client onboarding engine, stage 3. Everything from a client's yes to their first review and referral. The client onboarding page covers it.
3. The operations engine, stage 4. Written processes, tools and a team that runs the work. The operations and systems page covers it.

Stage 5: When should you add a team?

Add help when the client work outgrows your hours, and hand off technical and support work first.

• In our view, the first roles to hand off are a developer, a graphic designer, a VA and someone who finds leads.
• You keep strategy, copy, sales and client care at first, since those shape what clients get.
• The four ways to get that help, and what each costs a California agency, are on the team building page.