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Why You Should Start Your Own Digital Marketing Agency

Careful research and planning, along with understanding and connecting with your audience are the keys to your success. Let’s create together!

1. To Make More Money

One of my business mentors really said it best: “The only way to make real money in this world is through entrepreneurship.” Unfortunately, unless you are the CEO of a major corporation or get really lucky, it’s hard to make the kind of money that some entrepreneurs make. But, on the flip side, there is also a long line of entrepreneurs who don’t make a penny from their ventures, so there is some risk involved here.

2. You Know SEM Better Than Your Boss

In reality, you are the product of the agency or company you work for. You can do what you do for the masses very easily and provide a ton of value doing so. This is pretty much how every agency begins. People who are the product go out on their own and start offering their services to other businesses. Then they hire employees, and those employees will go through the same process, and their employees will too, eventually. This is just the natural progression of agencies.

3. You’re Ready for a New Challenge

When I was in college, I was working for a company full time. I started to notice that the VP of product development wasn’t around much. I then learned that was because he was watching Netflix in his office half of the day. Now, as much as I love Netflix, I also love a challenge. I couldn’t imagine myself sitting around and watching television all day. I want to be challenged and doing something productive. Owning your own agency is a great challenge and is rewarding for the aggressive personalities out there. If you are more or less just bored with your current position, it is also a great opportunity to do what you do for new companies, different situations, and other promising ventures.

4. You’re Tired of Your Current Work Culture

Once I quit that job, I next moved to a marketing agency where the owner would make the interns go get ice for him — and then would yell at them if the cup didn’t have enough ice in it. “Not the best work culture” would be an understatement. Sometimes we hate our work cultures and think that we can build better ones. A change of scenery is always a good thing and, with the increases of coworking communities, being a solo practice is a lot more rewarding now than ever before. I worked out of coffee shops before WeWork or Industrious ever became big in Atlanta.

5. Be Your Own Boss

This one is kind of misleading. Although you trade working for one “boss” (the person who signs your paycheck) you’ll actually end up having a lot more “bosses” – namely, your clients. You are theoretically your own boss and can do whatever you want to do, as long as you can pay the bills.

6. The Juice Is Worth the Squeeze

Once you get your agency off the ground, it is fun to build a work culture and a team and to enjoy the benefits of the hard work you put into it. As with any business, the startup is the rough period, and it usually becomes easier after it is off the “runway.”

Cons of Starting Your Own Digital Marketing Agency

In addition to the pros, there are also many cons to starting a digital marketing agency. Here are the main ones, in my opinion.

1. You Get No Vacations or Sick Days Starting Out

At one point, when I was starting out, I got majorly sick and couldn’t kick it for about a month. It was awful trying to go out to sales or client meetings — but that’s part of the game. When you are starting out, there aren’t any sick days, or vacations, or even time to sleep. I knew of entrepreneurs who had full-time jobs and would work from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. before they went to work for the day. If you want to get to the top, you have to put in the work, even when you don’t want to.

2. You’ll Face Fierce Competition

You’ve probably gotten an email from an overseas company that promised you they could get you on the first page of Google. Whether that’s true or not is somewhat irrelevant. As long as Google is a major customer acquisition channel for businesses, there will be other agencies around, and the competition will be fierce. You will have to go into sales calls ready to sell them on why you are better than other industry professionals, companies, freelancers, etc. … and, a lot of times, it could mean more than five pitches for the same client.

3. The Workload Will be Intense

When you are working for an agency, you probably have one job — maybe you’re a project manager. You would then have co-workers who are doing other jobs — business developers, marketing, production, etc. When you’re on your own, you take on all of those roles. This can create a hectic work schedule and an intense workload for the owners of agencies just starting out.

4. You Will Be Selling

I hated sales and never envisioned myself in sales during college or any point in my career. Now I have accepted that I am a full-blown sales professional. Even Kevin O’Leary from “Shark Tank” considers himself a salesman. If you want to start an agency, get used to the fact you will be selling constantly. The good news? It doesn’t have to be sleazy sales. I enjoy selling for my own company because we get amazing results for clients, and I believe in the service we are offering.

5. You Don’t Get a Manual

Before I started out, I asked one of my good friends who had a successful IT company how to start a marketing agency, and he said, “I don’t know. Google it.” Those words were a catalyst for me to actually Google it and figure it out. There isn’t a lot of information out there on how to do what I did besides reading some good books and piecemealing information together to make a solid plan. Plus, by the time anything is published, it is usually outdated. Making an agency is about innovation, so there isn’t really a manual, book, or anything out there to help you succeed, except for trial and error.

6. Say Yes to the Stress

Starting out can create a lot of stress for you, your family, and friendships around you. I highly recommend fitness and other stress-reliever activities. Stress can have a lot of negative consequences and, if you thought your job was stressful before, add “no predictable income” to the equation, as well as a larger workload, and the pressure can be incredible. Just remember, diamonds are formed through pressure.

7. Your Income = Unpredictable

Speaking of no predictable income — when you start out, it’s tough to get a predictable income through contracts due to a lack of company experience. If you can get contracts, great; but the majority will not, so your income will not be predictable, which can create a lot of stress and uncertainty concerning revenue for the company.

8. It Will Be Risky

You take a big risk striking out on your own when you could be climbing the corporate ladder. This is something you should weigh — whether the risk is worth it to you. The good news: digital marketing agencies can produce revenue right out the gate and be profitable on a small scale. So it’s less risky than trying to build the next great tech startup.

Conclusion

I hope this helps you on your journey. There are no right or wrong answer when deciding to start an agency, and there is nothing wrong with not doing it. You just need to weigh the positives and negatives and make the decision that’s best for you.

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