Ep 66: How to Build a Small Agency with Megan Ingram

Problem: 

Megan Ingram has worked with both big agencies and is currently running her own smaller agency. Today, she talks about the difference between bigger agencies and smaller ones and what she does in order to make her agency run well.

The Steps to Starting Your Own Agency

Megan talks about the lessons she learned from working at a big agency and what she’s learned from running one herself.

The Difference Between a Big Agency and a Small One

Megan explains that sometimes, when working at a big agency, your experience is really a function of those that you’re working closely with, regardless of company culture. She also says there’s more of a chance that you will cross-train across various job traits and skills when you work in a smaller agency. If you like only working in your specialty or niche, perhaps a big agency is more of your style. 

I think there’s a lot of differences between a big agency and a small agency

Step 1: Do a deep-dive into your vision and your mission

When Megan and her team found that they’d have the opportunity to start their own small agency during COVID, they wanted to jump on the chance but they wanted to do it right. So they spent some time really thinking about what they wanted to do with their agency and how their agency can help others. They wanted to make sure they had their mission and vision set before moving forward.

That’s kind of how it started: just spending a month and really diving deep and saying, ‘Okay, what’s this agency going to stand for?’

Step 2: Staffing

Megan’s ideal staffing solution is to take peoples’ specialties and interests and fill staffing positions based on those things.

I do want brands to stand for being bold, being creative, being curious, being socially conscious. That’s how we’re identifying what brands we do bring on.

A Note About Freelancing

With a lot of people now transitioning to at-home work, the number of freelancers has skyrocketed. Because of that, people who are looking for contractors and freelancers have the choice of working with people who live within their home country or abroad. There are pros and cons to both and you need to look at your companies needs to figure out what would work best for you.

We don’t take on freelancers unless we have projects to back them. And so those are the types of things that you should think about when you think about how to keep your business model lean as we navigate very uncertain times.

Step 3: Research and Discovery first

You need to be able to do your research and look at your numbers in order to figure out what your next steps should be. Make sure you are fully informed on how your company is doing, what your best practices have been, in order to forge a path forward. Look at your audience and what their preferences are. Look at your mission and vision. This is the best way to figure out what your brand’s story is.