How Our Agency Survived Year One

How Our Agency Survived Year One – Moz

Moz logo

Menu open

Menu close

Products

Moz Pro

Moz Pro Home

Moz Local

Moz Local Home

STAT

Mozscape API

Free SEO Tools

Competitive Research

Link Explorer

Keyword Explorer

Domain Analysis

MozBar

More Free SEO Tools

Learn SEO

Beginner’s Guide to SEO

SEO Learning Center

Moz Academy

SEO Q&A

Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides

Blog

Why Moz

Agency Solutions

Enterprise Solutions

Small Business Solutions

Case Studies

The Moz Story

New Releases

Log out

Products

Moz Pro

Your All-In-One Suite of SEO Tools

The essential SEO toolset: keyword research, link building, site audits, page optimization, rank tracking, reporting, and more.

Learn more

Try Moz Pro free

Moz Local

Complete Local SEO Management

Raise your local SEO visibility with easy directory distribution, review management, listing updates, and more.

Learn more

Check my presence

STAT

Enterprise Rank Tracking

SERP tracking and analytics for SEO experts, STAT helps you stay competitive and agile with fresh insights.

Learn more

Book a demo

Mozscape API

The Power of Moz Data via API

Power your SEO with the proven, most accurate link metrics in the industry, powered by our index of trillions of links.

Learn more

Get connected

Compare SEO Products

Free SEO Tools

Competitive Research

Competitive Intelligence to Fuel Your SEO Strategy

Gain intel on your top SERP competitors, keyword gaps, and content opportunities.

Find competitors

Link Explorer

Powerful Backlink Data for SEO

Explore our index of over 40 trillion links to find backlinks, anchor text, Domain Authority, spam score, and more.

Get link data

Keyword Explorer

The One Keyword Research Tool for SEO Success

Discover the best traffic-driving keywords for your site from our index of over 500 million real keywords.

Search keywords

Domain Analysis

Free Domain SEO Analysis Tool

Get top competitive SEO metrics like Domain Authority, top pages, ranking keywords, and more.

Analyze domain

MozBar

Free, Instant SEO Metrics As You Surf

Using Google Chrome, see top SEO metrics instantly for any website or search result as you browse the web.

Try MozBar

More Free SEO Tools

Learn SEO

Beginner’s Guide to SEO
The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.
Read the Beginner’s Guide

How-To Guides
Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.
See All SEO Guides

SEO Learning Center
Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.
Visit the Learning Center

Moz Academy
Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.
Explore the Catalog

On-Demand Webinars
Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.
View All Webinars

SEO Q&A
Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.
Find SEO Answers

August 7-9, 2023
Lock in Super Early Bird savings for MozCon

Snag tickets

Blog

Why Moz

Small Business Solutions
Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.
Grow Your Business

The Moz Story
Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.
Read Our Story

Agency Solutions
Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.
Drive Client Success

Case Studies
Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.
See What’s Possible

Enterprise Solutions
Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.
Scale Your SEO

New Releases
Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.
See What’s New

New Feature: Moz Pro
Surface actionable competitive intel

Learn More

Moz Pro

Moz Local

Moz Local Dashboard

Mozscape API

Mozscape API Dashboard

Moz Academy

Avatar

Moz Home

Notifications

Account & Billing

Manage Users

Community Profile

My Q&A

My Videos

Log Out

By: Bill Sebald
May 22, 2014

How Our Agency Survived Year One

SEO Basics

The author’s views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.

There are some things in life you don’t truly understand until you experience them. I was given plenty of parenting advice when my son was born, but it only took me so far. Nothing prepared me for the first time our baby decided to roll over… right off the bed onto the floor (luckily we had a pile of laundry serving as a cushion). If you’ve never been a parent, you simply don’t have a lot of personal experience to draw from. It’s a complete trial by fire, full of missteps, emotions, and anxiety.

In a way, starting Greenlane was a similar experience. Greenlane Search Marketing, LLC is my startup boutique SEO agency. It started in 2005 as a sole proprietorship consulting practice. It was my baby, and I had to let it grow up. Now it’s a partnership between myself and a long-time colleague Keith Urban (not the singer). However, differing from the parenting example, I did have some practical experience to guide me this time. I ran an SEO department in a major digital marketing agency. Regardless, it became very clear we didn’t know a thing about truly running an agency. We were new parents.
What to expect when you’re expecting

We expected to be busy. We knew we’d make mistakes, and we thought we had a solid business plan in place. In the end we were busier than expected, made more mistakes than we care to admit, and our plan fell apart on a weekly basis. But I’m proud (and relieved) to say we’re successful. We have a great staff of smart SEOs and digital marketers. We have happy clients. We have a great network of people to tap into. We’re profitable, targeting half a million in fee revenue by the end of 2014. We survived year one, where 25% of startups crash. We’re on yet another phase of growth, with our legal and taxation items well managed, our employment under control, and the company as a whole being positioned to overcome year two.

For me, that’s an enormous win.

Specifically, what was our secret? Hell if I know. But I think it’s this fuzzy formula: Take what you hear, mixed with what you’ve experienced in life, multiplied by your best guess, and divide by quick, brave decisions. But we also had a motto, one that became our backbone: “Always make it better!”
Making it better for you and your clients

This is a post about some of the more conceptual, “outside the normal” things we implemented to constantly improve our company from the start. These are based on my life experiences and recent business victories. My hope is that this will serve as fodder for your own company, even if you’re not the proprietor. This post is not about tax management, or accounting, or filings—this is about the day-to-day behavioral things that can make your digital marketing company a great place to be, to the benefit of you and your clients.

And to sprinkle in a little fun, since I said life experience fed into many of our first year decisions, I’ll supplement each section with something from my own awkward photo album.

On to the tips…
#1 – Think about your group experiences

For those who played team sports, remember when your parents said, “One day this will make you better at your job!” Go tell them they were right. Working as a team is an invaluable skill, improved only through experience and introspection. We’ve all engaged in group experiences, from grade school to our earliest jobs. Everyone has some kind of group or department participation to draw on. Maybe it’s as simple as cub scouts, a yearbook committee, or in my case, a rock band.

Additionally, we’ve all either seen—or have been—the flunky in the group, doing the least amount to make the group as a whole succeed. There’s also the opposite—a “Johnny-Come-Lately” who shows up with good intentions but sticks a giant crowbar into the gears, grinding progress to a screeching halt. We’ve seen the drama and anger that comes from personalities that just don’t mix. Nothing slows down momentum more than an unfocused crew rowing in different directions. An agency is no different. You will always have bosses, clients, and employees that behave or think differently than you. You simply need to learn how to overcome.

Someone once told me you can’t be a boss and a friend. I’ve never disagreed with something so hard in my life. A friendship presents an amazing bond of trust. At Greenlane we’ve carefully selected co-workers who we enjoy being around. We all have different talents and roles in the company, but you see virtually no instances of “pulling rank” over anyone else. There’s a respect that drives each of us to do a good job for each other. It creates more open and creative dialogue. If you don’t feel like you have anything to prove, you can more easily pause, listen, and learn. We don’t want to let each other down, but we all feel empowered to counter an idea without fear. The best idea wins, and our clients (as well as ourselves) become more educated. We’ve nurtured a really powerful environment. The bigger your group, the harder this is, but certainly not impossible.

We take the same approach with bringing on clients. We call them partners—a term I took from an old gig. Just as we are being paid to help businesses be successful, their actions have a lot of bearing on our success as a vendor—not to mention our own happiness. I’ll often tell a prospective partner, “just as you’re auditioning us, we’re auditioning you too.” That could come off cocky, but any prospects we lost for that statement were probably not going to last in the long run. In fact, I ask all prospective clients to first read our website, where we openly talk about the kind of clients we’re looking for. About two-thirds return super qualified, with the remainder vanishing forever. Those that return often say, “you are exactly what we’re looking for.” It’s a bit like online dating.

I wish we could say we’ve never lost a client due to poor performance. We have. Two of them actually. But in retrospect, this provided good lessons on where we needed to improve. In one case it was due to never being on the right wavelength to begin with, and the other was simply based on poor communicating. We largely (and swiftly) pivoted internally to make sure we never make those mistakes again. As a company, we were all just rowing the wrong way. Catching it early allowed for a very quick adjustment.

By the way, I’m well aware that some internal hierarchies don’t allow you to have a say on the clients that come in. While that is unfortunate, it is also common. But what’s to stop you from climbing the totem pole and pleading your case?

The TL;DR tips:

Don’t just act like you’re interested in every word of your clients and employees, truly be interested. This is their time to talk, and your time to pause, listen, and ask valuable questions. Work together!
Ask your clients questions. Let them understand it’s your job to pull information out of them. Don’t be a yes man; be a friendly challenger in order to get everyone nodding in the same direction.
Work with your team, not against them. If you’re not actively on the account and their day-to-day work, be careful not to break the flow of the meeting throwing out ideas that counter the direction the account managers want to go. Get yourself on the same page, even if you’re the boss.
Have a postmortem on every lost employee or client account, and drop your defenses. Try to figure out what could have been improved as a group.
You’ve been an SEO for over 15 years? Good for you. Now sit down and listen to everyone else’s ideas. Be an equal.
#2 – The people you meet could become important

I’m often asked how we perform lead generation. Our primarily lead source is our network. Keith and I are very lucky in that regard, both coming from the big agency world. Big agencies seem to organically create seedlings that go off to start new companies or work with other established businesses. From former clients to former co-workers, developing serendipity every chance you get, should be a 24/7 goal.

You never know when someone you’ve met will hit it big. If you leave a good impression, they may invite you to their next party.

Digital marketing is one of those rare industries. There are millions of lawyers and accountants, as well as designers. There are relatively few SEOs, PPC experts or affiliate marketers. Make the right impression and your name will get passed around quickly. If you have a bad reputation, or are generally unliked, the word spreads just as fast. I’ve picked against vendors for my clients (or when I worked in-house) simply based on how phony they came off. I’ll probably have this put on my tombstone because I say it so much, “Perception Is Reality.” Let that one sink in. It doesn’t mean “fake it,” but be genuine and supportive.

I wrote a post that I still think about often. It was called ”
Create Your Own SEO Serendipity.” I don’t know how, or where, or why I started doing it, but I’ve been in the “serendipity” game for a long time. “Karma” might be a possible synonym. Building up your network is one part of the puzzle, but building it so you’re memorable is a whole other piece that may require a bit of introspection on your end.

In hindsight, I spent my entire professional career mirroring my personal life—be good and helpful to everyone you meet. Sure you get burned if others take advantage, but when a referral comes in from an old colleague, I’m thrilled. It’s that warm feeling that makes “doing business” pretty damn fun.

The TL;DR tips:

Stay in touch with everyone you can by any means necessary. The tiniest little gestures—like endorsing a skill or expertise on LinkedIn, or buying someone a beer at a convention—can sometimes bring you top of mind when you need it most.
In my experience job titles don’t necessarily mean everything. Personality and kindness go further. Always be willing to support someone’s little needs. Free advice or work can turn into major opportunities.
Answer everyone’s emails, tweets, texts, whatever. Very few of us really can’t find the time.
Don’t just wait for people to call you. If you generally feel good about all your encounters, there’s nothing wrong with reaching out and saying, “Thanks for the great talk at the meetup last night. I wanted to see if I could help you solve that problem we were talking about.”
Create serendipity every day.
Create serendipity every day (worth mentioning twice!!!).

#3 – Hire people smarter than you

Around 2009, I remember the
CEO of GSI Commerce said this at a company meeting I attended (paraphrasing)—”I built this company by hiring people smarter than me.” This off-hand comment was a real wake-up call for me. He’s since sold his company to eBay, and moved on to restart something new. If this tip helped make someone a billionaire, there must be something to it

My partner and I didn’t read many business books. Personally, I tried, but rejected most of them. I stubbornly refused to buy into some of the concepts. However, there were a few where I recognized common threads. Books like
Good to Great, How To Think Like A CEO, The Outsiders, and The Corner Office didn’t have a “fake it until you make it,” or “kill or be killed” lesson. Instead, they highlighted leading by example, taking calculated risks, being human, and learning from everyone around you.

We candidly tell our prospects that we hire people with unique experience for the sole purpose of supporting the clients. We reveal that Keith’s background is in data and analytics, Mike’s is in design and development, Jon’s is in PR and outreach, and so on. We’re not all experts at everything. We’re very clear that any of our team may work on an account dependent on a given strategy. It’s honest and realistic, and goes over well with prospects. Meanwhile, in the office, we have a lot of co-mingling, where each teammate may join another to work out a specific problem. I’m the old dog in the group, but I’ll tell you the honest truth—I learn something every day from this team.

The client wins, my company improves, and my own personal development grows. What more could anyone want out of a job?

The TL;DR tips:

Let smarter (or more experienced) people help guide you. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.
Don’t act like you know it all. Your employees and your clients will see right through this.
If you don’t know the answer, let your clients know that you may have someone in your fold that might have the answers. When your company is hired, so is your entire organization. There’s nothing wrong with this!
Encourage your team to speak their mind, take a chance, and kick your ass. When they do, give them a high-five.
#4 – Don’t be so serious

Last but not least, have fun.

Keith and I don’t need to remind ourselves why we took this risk. It’s fun every day. Business is a game, and we’re enjoying our time on the field. No more toxic relationships, no more loss of control, and no more sitting in the “peanut gallery” watching other people do it wrong.

Be serious enough to hit your deliverables, make your marks count, and help your clients win. But why not do it with a smile? I’ve always heard that working in marketing and advertising is one of the most stressful jobs you could have. It doesn’t have to be.

We didn’t build our company with a textbook or a degree. The more I experience, the more I see most people in our field didn’t follow a rule book either. Great businesses are managed by CEOs who take chances, with varied personality traits and levels of intelligence—something school doesn’t necessarily teach anyway. For years I thought I’d have to be an “American Psycho” type business-genius with an MBA, a big vocabulary, a clean haircut, and a country club membership. I have none of those. In the end, I honestly believe we were guided by our own experience, serendipity, and common sense. It’s been a great ride so far, with a lot more learnings—and laughs—to be had.

Besides, if the business folds tomorrow, at least I achieved the biggest thing on my bucket list. So there’s that.

About Bill Sebald —
I’m the owner of Greenlane Search Marketing in Philadelphia, PA (www.greenlaneseo.com). I ride a Harley, play in a band called Algorithm and Blues, and write about SEO and digital marketing. One of these statements is false.

With Moz Pro, you have the tools you need to get SEO right — all in one place.

Start your free trial!

Content Gating: When, Whether, and How to Put Your Content Behind an Email/Form Capture

The Nature of Online Communities

[Survey] Small Business Marketing Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Spiders and Engines and Ferrets…Oh My!

Approaching the End of the PageRank Era

What Is a Digital Marketing Agency?

类似文章