How I’m Going Avoid The Lean Startup’s 6 Grave Mistakes And 5x My Business in 2021
For those of you that don’t know, I have just begun my fourth year running my digital marketing business. First, as a freelancer, and more recently, flirting with the idea of transitioning into a full-service agency.
Growing a business comes with its own set of challenges. Expanding the services I offer. Hiring employees. Making sure the work we do for clients is still as high quality as if I am doing it myself.
These growing pains are good. I am grateful. I have been steadily growing 3–5x year over year since I started this thing. I’m actually on track to make more in revenue over the first 2 months of 2021 than I made the whole first year I was in business (2018).
But I have a bigger vision. Yes, of course, I want to help clients accomplish their goals on a larger scale. Yes, of course, I want to make more money. But most importantly, and what will keep me going every day, is the opportunity to provide people, specifically immigrants here in Israel, a high paying and stable job where they can gain invaluable experience.
The more I think about it, the more certain I am ready to take the jump.
But how am I going to protect myself from failure in the best way I possibly can? I am going to use principles I’ve learned from Eric Ries, author of Lean Startup, and guest lecturer at ThePowerMBA.
In his talk with the co-founder of ThePowerMBA, Borja Adanero Guinea, he goes over 6 habits to avoid at all costs. These mistakes, when I first heard them, seemed so obvious to me, but as I thought about it more and more, staying conscious of these principles will keep me grounded, objective, and I believe will ultimately help me steer my business toward success.
Mistake #1
Wasting Too Much Time In Thinking, Planning, Business Plan
The Lean Startup believes that planning is best spent doing 3 things: 1) Building a product 2) Talking to customers 3) Getting any feedback.
These things normally happen when you already have a basic product or service in my case, and you continue to modify and improve as you go. Without extensive deep-diving into data or a one hundred page business plan, you can build upon your existing product or service and improve as you go, using the truth — your customers and users’ behaviors — to dictate your next move.
As for my agency’s growth, I am going to spend less time planning and more time speaking to current clients, understanding their needs, wants, fears, goals, and concerns, and building a better, more scalable focused product that can better serve them in only ONE specific area, so I can measure their behavior of course.
Mistake #2
Don’t Fall In Love With Your Idea
I won’t. An advantage to running a digital agency is that startup costs are relatively low. So if it doesn’t work — sababa — I will evolve and adjust.
Mistake #3
Start with the execution before validation
I am not going to abandon my current structure before validating that the agency model can work for me. So I’m not going to change the website. I’m not going to look for investment. I am going to start executing it and getting the word out by making some content and putting out feelers.
Mistake #4
Getting Advice From Experts
I don’t think Eric means to not ask mentors or people who have been there before. I think he is stressing to get feedback from customers and not from industry experts. My client’s behavior and not industry experts will dictate my agency’s next move — but it is essential to know that I am seeking advice from fellow agency owners who have succeeded in growing their agency.
Mistake #5
Delaying Launch Date
So this one is hard for me. I know Lean Startup wants me to get a move on and start, but the first few steps are the most challenging. I have the most on the line. Hiring employees. Marketing spends. Reaching out to clients and potential clients. Spending on software. Obviously, it is a small investment, but delaying this as long as possible is definitely the easiest thing to do. I need to find the right balance between planning accordingly procrastinating. Only time will tell.
Mistake#6
Keep it a secret
I am not scared of keeping this a secret. This won’t be an issue for me. Heck, I’m talking about it now.
So here it goes. I plan on growing into an agency by offering one specific service, doing it really well, and offering it at the best price for value.
The service is as follows:
Booked appointments through personalized LinkedIn Outreach. I’ve been experimenting with it over the last few months with a few clients, and the results have been very impressive. I can definitely scale this without lowering the quality of the service.
Right now, I charge $2000 for the service, per account. Not one client has been unhappy with the service as of yet. They are filling up their pipelines and booking 3–5 discovery and sales calls per week, on average. However, if I scale to 25–50 clients per month, I will be able to lower my fee to $1250-$1500. Again, this is with ZERO in ad spend — just a creative personal message and laser-focused targeting straight the decision maker’s inbox — at scale.
Now, as we discussed with Mistake #3, I am not going to ditch the other services. I plan on executing this on my own until I hire at least 1 person by the end of Q1, which will allow me to keep my services provided the way they are.
I am very grateful to ThePowerMBA for keeping me focused on my journey to 5x my business by the end of 2021!
