The panic around COVID lockdown is plateauing. The storm has certainly not passed, but we’ve navigated out of the panic stage and now everyone is realizing they need to get back to business. Whether you live someplace that is still sheltering in place or you are figuring out how to get back to the office — we have to sustain our business through this and come out on the other side. If we do it well, we can not only come out on the other side but we can come on stronger and better than ever.

In this episode of Build a Better Agency, we walk through the five mini plans that I’ve been talking about in our weekly newsletter. I want to help you build them out.

They are:

• Operational/financial plan (how will you get the work done on time and on budget? Then, determine the minimum acceptable profit margin for your agency and use agency math to manage your way to never dipping below it)
• Team plan (how will you keep them motivated, efficient, profitable, and striving to serve each other and your clients)
• Client plan (you need to proactively guide each client into a position of readiness so that when they can step back in — they’re ready and more prepared than their competitors)
• Prospect plan (what can you talk about that will be valuable — based on what your prospects are ready to hear at any given moment in time)
• Vision of the future plan (what parts of normal are worth rushing back to and what could/should be different?)

The danger to every agency right now is that we get stuck in place and don’t shake the panic phase. If you and your team work through these plans it will propel you past the paralysis and into a future with a solid foundation. Don’t wait – get working on these plans today!

A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here: https://www.whitelabeliq.com/ami/

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

• How to build out an operational plan that enables you to continue completing work on-time and under budget
• Financial metrics that agency leaders should be paying attention to
• How to keep your team motivated, efficient, and profitable moving forward
• How to proactively guide each client into a position of readiness so they are more prepared than their competitors
• How to create a solid biz dev plan for your agency’s resurgence
• How to make difficult staffing decisions in times of crisis
• Different ways that agencies are successfully managing their teams
• How agencies are landing new clients in these difficult times

AMI works with agency owners by:

• Leading agency owner peer groups
• Offering workshops for agency owners and their leadership teams
• Offering AE Bootcamps
• Conducting individual agency owner coaching
• Doing on-site consulting
• Offering online courses in agency new business and account service

Because he works with over 250+ agencies every year, Drew has the unique opportunity to see the patterns and the habits (both good and bad) that happen over and over again. He has also written several books, including Sell With Authority (2020) and been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal called his blog “One of 10 blogs every entrepreneur should read.”

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Ways to contact Drew McLellan:

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/drewmclellan
• Website: https://agencymanagementinstitute.com/
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Resources:

• COVID Resource Page
• Brief video explaining the 55-25-20 ratio
• Blog post: Cover your agency in case your client pulls the plug
• Blog post: What to do when your client is stalled
• Sell with Authority
• Facebook Group for the Build a Better Agency Podcast
• Giving Your Brain and Your Body Your Best