Johna Burke, Global Managing Director of the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC), joined to discuss Measurement Month and the challenges and opportunities for communicators.

In this week’s episode, Chip Griffin and Gini Dietrich discuss how important it is to find — and use — a good lawyer and accountant to advise your agency.

The mere thought of lawyers and accountants may give you a shiver. Or it may cause your eyelids to begin to feel heavy. But the value they can provide to your business should not be underestimated.

From reducing risk to increasing profit in your pocket, good legal and accounting advice can make a big difference in the success of your agency business.

Automated Transcript

The following transcript has been automatically generated. Please listen to the audio to confirm before quoting.

Chip Griffin 0:02

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the agency leadership podcast. I’m Chip Griffin

Gini Dietrich 0:06

and I am Gini Dietrich

Chip Griffin 0:08

and we’re here to talk about legal and accounting issues. So don’t fall asleep.

Gini Dietrich 0:14

Don’t leave just because of that topic.

Chip Griffin 0:17

But before we get into the topic, a few shout outs this week. The first one is to Cheryl and Starkey, who tweeted a couple of times about the podcast said the just listening to your new podcast, lots of value. Great initiative that always always nice to see you.

Gini Dietrich 0:33

Yes.

Chip Griffin 0:34

So we get another listener. I mean, we’re gonna have to just start keeping a list. We

Gini Dietrich 0:37

were up to four now. That’s amazing. Yeah.

Chip Griffin 0:39

And it’s, it’s amazing. We are really, you know, on all cylinders. Right now,

the unfortunately there were no new iTunes reviews this week. So I have no shout outs there. So it would be great. If you’re listening and you’re enjoying what you’re listening to. Maybe you can leave a nice iTunes review, because those are always helpful and very growing. audience. Yes, the app, we don’t

Gini Dietrich 1:00

charge them.

Chip Griffin 1:02

Yeah, I mean, this is free, right? for free for people. So you know, a little payment for a nice, nice tweet, a nice iTunes review. We always appreciate it. We do appreciate that. And if you missed it. Recently, I had a post on spin sucks that actually spun out of the finding focus episode that we had a few episodes back. Yep. So talked about differentiation and my sort of journalistic approach

Gini Dietrich 1:28

to finding a holistic approach. I love it.

Chip Griffin 1:31

Well, thank you. And it seems to have been fairly popular. There is actually a follow up question. And I’ve now done a post on the agency leadership hub answering that question. So, you know, we’re just spinning around in circles on this and providing great resources all throughout. So it’s, it’s nice when, when different paths can all intersect together?

Gini Dietrich 1:49

Yes, I love it. I love it. I love it.

Chip Griffin 1:53

So do you have any other shout outs or things you want to plug? Before we jump into the topic

Gini Dietrich 1:58

you do not. So I’m going to avoid one topic in particular. So let’s just move on. Excellent.

Chip Griffin 2:05

And everybody who has been listening, the last five episodes knows exactly what you’re talking about. If you don’t know, go back and listen to those five episodes. And you’ll figure it out very quickly. So moving on the topic today is getting and using good legal and accounting advice. So this is this is not the sexiest of topics, it is not, you know, it’s not the kind of thing that most agency owners want to spend a lot of time thinking about. And yet, it can be critically important to the overall success of the agency.

Gini Dietrich 2:33

Yeah,

John Wall, co-host of Marketing Over Coffee with Christopher S. Penn and partner at Trust Insights, joined this episode of Chats with Chip to talk about podcasting, marketing technology, and more.

In this episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast, Chip Griffin and Gini Dietrich discuss what to do when the business revenue isn’t enough to meet payroll or personal obligations.

The topic was inspired by a post in the Spin Sucks Community where an agency owner asked about doing freelancing to supplement agency revenue during a rough patch.

Chip and Gini explore several aspects of this topic including:

* Figuring out the real reason why revenue is lagging — and making sure to address that issue, regardless of any short-term fixes that may be available.

* Finding a way to make any freelancing or other income-supplementation efforts fit into the overall story that the agency tells.

* Identifying when a revenue dry spell is actually a new reality for the agency.

* Avoiding the urge to panic and engage in short-sighted decision-making.

* Knowing when it is time to throw in the towel.

Automated Transcript

The following is an automatically generated transcript. Please consult the audio for accuracy.

CHIP

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin

GINI

and I am Gini Dietrich

CHIP

and we are back with you this week to talk about another exciting topic but before we do a couple of Thank you sir in order first to thank you to Jenny your co host Joe Thornley on inside PR he gave a real nice shout out on the most recent episode to this podcast and we definitely appreciate that

it’s always it’s always good to know we’ve got someone who listened to at least I think we have a couple people we gotta get we gotta

GINI

we have like five five is probably right Don’t you think

CHIP

hey you know i’d be happy with five you know I you know I have done podcast before I’m pretty sure you know Brian person was the only person listening in so

but that you know any case another shout out john wall he left us a nice five star review on iTunes. So thank you for that john, another friend of the show. So we got at least you know, another listener their ears to we’ll just keep finding them

GINI

my mom. Listen, there’s three.

CHIP

Your mom listens to this.

GINI

She might I’m not sure I asked her. But yeah,

CHIP

I can guarantee you. My parents do not listen to this. They don’t know what I do. I they alternately think that I’m in the CIA or the mafia. So and the answer for anybody listening is neither. Just so we’re

GINI

clear answer was yes. to both.

CHIP

Yeah. No, I don’t. I don’t really want the kind of visits. That would be an order. I think if people thought those were true. So anyway,

another shout out. Congratulations to the Red Sox on winning the World Series. Yeah, yeah.

GINI

Although if the cubbies don’t do it, I would prefer the Red Sox over anybody else. So

CHIP

well, and, you know, I feel the same way about the cup. So unfortunately, this was not the year for your cubs. And

GINI

no, it was not. But you know what? Good for the Red Sox. That’s awesome.

CHIP

Yeah. And, you know, we’ve had a nice five episode run here of talking about baseball. But we’ll have to find something else to move on to shoot. I don’t know, I just have to find your next pain point to drill right in on it.

GINI

That’s all right. I’m learning yours as well.

CHIP

Fantastic. This is going to be a great show. Everybody’s going to love this. And then. And then finally, in the shout outs department. A shout out to the spin sucks community that you put together. There was a great conversation as follow up to our episode where we talked about working ...

Tim Hayden of Brain+Trust Partners joined me to talk about business transformation through the use of data and digital innovation.

This week Chip Griffin and Gini Dietrich discuss how you can figure out how much revenue your agency should have in order to support hiring a new employee — whether it is your 1st or your 101st.

This is a question that was asked recently in the Spin Sucks community, and it is something that many agency owners struggle with solving.

Chip also expresses his disdain for rules of thumb, while Gini explains why they do have value.

The duo also explore the risks of hiring (and firing) at the wrong time, as well as the differences between staffing models based on “W2” payroll employees and those relying on “1099” subcontractors.

And be sure to listen in to the end and let us know what you think of the new sign-off.

Automated Transcript

The following transcript was automatically generated. Unfortunately, this week the AI seemed more “A” than “I” and decided that Chip and Gini sound the same. We’re not certain who should be more offended.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the agency leadership podcast. I’m Chip Griffin and Gini Dietrich and we’d have your radio voice on today. I am trying, at least, it’s not my, you know, for packer lay smoker voice that I get when I have a cold. The emphysema voice. Yes, yes. No, I’m, but I am. I am trying to sound a little radio like I guess why not, I mean, this is podcasts are like, you know, today’s radio. Well, it sounds very radio like I liked. Thank you very much. Thank you. I appreciate that. Uh, we are now on the fir podcast, network radio and networks and all that kind of stuff. So the thank you to Shel Holtz for, uh, agreeing to allow us to become part of his storied network for communicators. Very nice about us too. I was like, thanks buddy. He did. Um, although I was, I was quite disappointed that he decided to listen to the dodgers in his car instead of listening to our first episode.

So, I mean, really shallots. Let’s have a conversation about this. Yeah, I mean I think we need priorities are really on the other hand, he can still listen to his team. So funny boy. Well I mean you can listen to them now until the red sox to feed them in the world series and of course by the time folks are, are listening to this, a few days after we’ve recorded it will have a better picture for how those world series are going. But again, sadly we do not have the ability to predict the future so we’re not going to. We could try,

we could and then we’d probably get even better reviews on itunes, but I have to say a little shout out to uh, Matthias, he gave us a nice five star review on Itunes, said, this podcast really fills a void. It’s great to see a show that focuses on the business side of running an agency is awesome. I couldn’t have written it better myself. Did you write it yourself? I did not write it myself. Matthias is not my alter ego. I am not spamming itunes with fake reviews. That that’s not how I do things. Now. I’m not sure how much it would help anyway. I mean, you know, I’d have to spam a lot of all. I did see there was some story about some spammers who were taking over, um, the itunes top listen, blissed or something. I didn’t read the whole story. Yeah, I know some.

Someone, uh, because they wondered why there was some, I think it was a real estate podcast that was suddenly number one on the most listened to podcasts or on apple podcast, which seemed a little unusual and it wasn’t like cereal or something like that. Yeah. Interesting. Anyway, in any case I’ll be gained. Absolutely. But one thing that you can’t game is the expenses and profits of your agency. So that’ll be something that we’re talking about in today’s episode. Segue. Uh, you know, I, I, I try know,

This episode of the Chats with Chip podcast features CC Chapman, an expert storyteller, passionate explorer, and committed humanitarian. CC currently serves as a Visiting Instructor of Business and Management at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. He is a prolific writer and frequent keynote speaker who authored Amazing Things Will Happen and co-authored Content Rules. CC discussed his role […]

Gordon Platt of Gotham Media Strategies joined me to discuss how he came to start his own agency, including the impact of his previous experience in broadcast journalism.