The hole in your agency's bucket (and how to fix it)

Sometimes the most valuable work feels like you're standing still.

I watched an agency owner struggling last week with a tough decision. His marketing efforts were suffering because he was deep in the weeds fixing product problems.

He felt guilty about neglecting his own marketing, but I told him something that visibly relieved him:

"If you have a hole in the bottom of the boat, you've got to fix that first."

Here's how to know when to pause growth to fix your foundation:

1. Fix retention before acquisition. When clients are churning, adding more clients to a leaky bucket is wasteful. Speak to leaving clients, understand their pain points, and develop solutions that address the real reason they're leaving.

2. Develop solutions that scale. For this agency, the solution was creating standardized products (they named them "Lead Pulse" and "Intake IQ") that could be deployed across all clients. This temporary detour will create long-term efficiency.

3. Test with friendly clients first. Find clients willing to be "guinea pigs" for your new solutions. As one client told the agency owner: "I'll be a guinea pig, no problem at all." These early adopters provide invaluable feedback without the pressure of paying customers.

When you're riding a bicycle with a flat tire, stopping to fix the tire feels like giving up. But it's the only way to reach your destination faster in the long run.

CQ

P.S. Sometimes the best way to grow is to stop growing temporarily.