As many of us head into the holiday break, we may take advantage of the slower pace (or even time off!) to think a bit about the year ahead.
New Year’s Resolutions will be a hot topic for some of you, but I would like to encourage a focus on asking yourself what you want from your business in the next 12 months.
Too often we allow inertia to guide our agencies. We address the immediate challenges and opportunities rather than taking a step back to look at the bigger picture.
I get asked all the time some variation of the question: “My agency is at XYZ revenue right now, what should I be focusing on?”
The reality is that we all have different goals and dreams.
I’ll talk a bit more about this later in this final SAGA newsletter of 2024, but first let’s look at what Jen has rounded up for us this week.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
Weekly Roundup
Below are some articles, blog posts, podcasts, and videos that we came across during the past week or so that provide useful perspective and information for PR and marketing agency owners. While we don’t necessarily endorse all of the views expressed in these links, we think they are worth your time.
— Jen Griffin, SAGA Community Manager
Latest from SAGA
- What the Q4 SAGA Survey tells us about agency talent (Agency Leadership Podcast)
Articles & Blog Posts
- Defining Success for Yourself (Punctuation)
- 5 PR Predictions for 2025 (Spin Sucks)
- Lots of Changes Coming to the Bureau in 2025 (Bureau of Digital)
- Why Are You Giving Up Too Easily? (RSW/US)
Podcast Episodes
- Preparing Your Agency for 2025: Lessons from 2024 and Future Trends, with Carson Pierce (The Agency Profit Podcast)
- The Art of the Exit, with Emily Green (The Innovative Agency)
- Ask Holes Are Everywhere, with Kerri Burchill (The Personal Brand Business Show)
- Valuable Friction: The Communications Secret Ingredient (Spin Sucks)
- The Barbell of Pricing Risk (2Bobs)
- Charge for Results, Not Hours: Transform Your Agency’s Mindset with Pia Silva (The Digital Agency Show)
- Brent Weaver on Embracing Specialization and The Power of Niche Focus (The Digital Agency Growth Podcast)
- Stop Being the Bottleneck! How to Delegate in Order to Scale Your Agency with Steve Phipps (Smart Agency Master Class)
AI in focus
- The Power of Storytelling in an AI World (That Solo Life)
- Agentic AI Tops Digital Trends for 2025 (For Immediate Release)
Are you getting what you want from your agency?
We are often told that as owners we need to strive to work on our businesses rather than in our businesses.
The reality is that we should really be aiming to have our businesses work for us.
If you aren’t getting what you want from running your own agency, why are you taking on all of the risk and stress that comes along with it?
As you close out the year and ponder 2025, I want you to ask yourself three questions:
1. How much do you want to work?
2. What type of work do you want to be doing?
3. How much do you want/need to make?
This is an exercise you should go through every year to make sure that your business is aligned with your personal goals. It’s a key part of the AIM-GET Framework that I use when working with agency owners.
You should structure your own role to give you the satisfaction and flexibility that you want. If you wanted to do a job that you hate without the ability to take time off, you would be working for someone else.
At the same time, you need to prioritize your own financial needs. Yes, you should be looking out for your team members, but you need to start by paying yourself fairly for the work that you do.
With the clarity that you get from the answers to these three questions, you will be in a better position to make good strategic and tactical decisions for your business in the new year.
By changing your mindset to one of expecting your business to work for you rather than one of accepting that you work for it, you will substantially increase your odds of future success and satisfaction.
