In this month’s blog we will explore the ways that agencies can increase revenue and profit by taking on more projects without overloading their existing production team. We will discuss the ways in which agencies have traditionally augmented their production throughput from growing their inhouse team to adding freelancers and outsourcing your web design as potential solutions for scaling their businesses.
Production Limitations Can Prevent Your Agency Scaling
Whether it is a simple brochure site, a sprawling ecommerce store or a completely customised online experience, there is no doubt that most modern businesses see their website as the foundation that underpins all their marketing efforts.
For most digital professionals this is not a revelation. Depending on the length of time you have been in the industry you may have been involved in the design, construction, and deployment of dozens maybe even hundreds of sites.
That said, for all the sites you have worked on; you have probably walked away from twice as many as you have built. Maybe you were not able to schedule the job due to capacity issues or you could not take it on because it was outside the capabilities of your web team. Perhaps you considered the project as being too big or even too small to be a fit for your current workflow.
Whatever the reason, you left money on the table that could have been a valuable addition to your agency’s revenue.
Whilst there are few things in this industry that hurt more than walking away from a lucrative opportunity you should not feel too bad about it because you are not alone. Hundreds of agencies walk away from projects every day. But what if you could just say YES?
The Challenges of Herding Cats?
For many agencies, shortages of reliable talent, exorbitant recruitment costs, complex HR implications and significant increases in fixed overheads mean that onboarding permanent staff in the hope of securing more projects is not a viable option.
Because of this the practise of assembling a list of freelancers that can be bolted as needed onto a core implementation team has been standard operational procedure for agencies for decades. This is great in theory but under closer examination it can also be a recipe for disaster.
When the industry is quiet freelancers roam the streets in droves eager to secure a job but when things start to heat up (ie when you need them most) they will become like stray cats on a football field, utterly unpredictable and impossible to pin down.
If your resource base is the thing that underwrites your ability to deliver on projects, then a chaotic system of disparate resources is not something you want to use as a foundation for your agency.
Upwork Roulette
In recent years sites like Upwork and Fiver have made it possible to access an almost infinite number of available resources at the click of a button.
If you are lucky you may find a unicorn that is the capable, intuitive designer or developer of your dreams and this may be a good short-term solution for small, very specific production requirements.
However, unless you fancy becoming the ring master to the three ringed circuses of despair known as offshore people management, assembling a team of disconnected UpWorkers and expecting cohesion and cooperation both with you and between them is pure folly.
A Tale of Two Agencies
Partnering with other agencies is another common way to overcome a production shortfall. Like any relationship the honeymoon is wonderful and exciting for both parties, but it isn’t long before those little foibles you first thought were endearing become insurmountable differences.
If you think the site of two hobos brawling over the contents of a shopping cart is a disturbing occurrence you have not seen anything until you have witnessed a disagreement between a UX lead from one agency and the Creative Director of another.
No matter what the outcome, the client almost always loses in this scenario and is oftentimes forced into a position where they become the referee, ultimately, they will have to take the side of one agency over the other. Fair or not, the outcome will not always be in your favour and could see a valuable client leaving your agency with your former partner.
White Labelling
White labelling design and development services is something that has been available to digital agencies for some time. As any agency owner that has dipped a toe into these muddy waters will tell you, experiences vary greatly from one provider to the next.
Tales abound of offshore dev teams who, having fixed a list of 20 bugs, somehow manage to create another 30 to take their place. This process is usually repeated until a point where the agency and the client fear they will never see the site completed.
It is at this juncture that the agency will often receive what is essentially a ransom demand from the offshore dev team who claim that constant “updates” on the part of the client mean that they will not release the site without the agency’s agreement to pay an additional sum.
This type of negative experience can make agency owners wary of utilising white label web design and development services but thankfully not all white label services are created equal.
The Agency Stack Difference
At Agency Stack our web design and development processes are rock solid. We work with our agency partners to scope and document every detail of every project. We ensure that the job we scope is something that will not only deliver on your client’s requirements but exceed their expectations.
Our cross-platform expertise means that we can be platform agnostic. We can build sites in WordPress, Shopify, Big Commerce, Magento even custom PHP. We can build integrated apps for IOS and Android devices. We build on the platform that is best for the job and therefore the platform that is best for your client.
Once we have agreed on the scope we quote you a fixed price based that gives you room to add your margin and we set a development timeline that will get your client’s site live fast.
By partnering with Agency Stack, you save yourself time, energy, and expense searching for and vetting potential team members or offshore workers. We already have everything and everyone you need right here under one roof.
All you have to do is reach out to our friendly team today and we will take care of the rest.
