Episode Details

If you want to grow your agency like some of the big guys but you're not sure how to get there, you'll want to check out this episode. Our guest has grown four (almost five!) 8-figure businesses. He shares ways to increase your profitability so you can grow and scale too with the best growth model for your agency.

In this episode, we'll cover:

• 2 tips to building an 8-figure agency.
• The right way to create a growth model after the big agencies.
• 2 ways to increase profitability and eliminate scope creep.

Today's guest is on in the process of building his 5th eight-figure business. Vinnie Fisher is the authority on profitability and growth. He's an attorney by trade but left his law career to fulfill his dreams as an entrepreneur. Currently, he is the founder and CEO of Fully Accountable, a back office accounting and HR solution for service-based businesses. Vinnie shares the two big secrets he attributes to his 8-figure success with the right growth model, plus how an agency can become more profitable.

2 Tips to Building an 8-Figure Agency 1. Invest in developing people.

Vinnie says through out growing five different businesses he's come to notice that the company flourishes when he doesn't trap himself in a primary role. He spends time nurturing his team and trusts them to take the company to the next level.

2. Understand the marketplace.

We have an innate desire to be all things to everybody. However, defining an area expertise is imperative to growing your business. When you dive deeper into a specific target market, you can really zero in and get a comprehensive understanding of it. There is often resistance to specialize because owners are afraid of trapping themselves in their business. But those who don't specialize end up wasting time and money.

How to Create a Growth Model Like Bigger Agencies

Naturally, if you've got a growth mindset you want to model what the big agencies are doing. And that's a great idea, but you have to make sure you're looking at the right season of that business. The big agencies didn't always start with a broad business. Look at their early years and notice how they grew.

With his law background, Vinnie compared it law practices. He says all the successful law offices have specialize in a particular type of law: Family Law, Class Actions, Mergers & Acquisitions, etc. He says general practitioners can build a nice business but the big, well-known firms are the ones with an expertise.

[HOMEWORK] When you're looking at a bigger agency to model, I challenge you to do this exercise as homework:

• Select a couple big agencies you'd like to replicate and check them out on The Wayback Machine. Notice the evolution of their site and note the changes.
• Create a timeline of changes to their site and what might have been going on in the industry, technology, financial market, politics. See if you can draw connections between their online presence, their business growth and the outside influences.
• Don't actually replicate what they've done - remember, they made mistakes along the way, too. Instead, use this exercise as your inspiration and an agent of change.

Target Profitability Rate for Agencies

In the debate over growth vs. profitability, Vinnie and I agree. Growth doesn't mean sh*t if you're not profitable. As a general rule for businesses that operate strictly with a service model (for example, agencies without any productized business), the magic target is 33% profit. Vinnie quoted this statistic from US Census data. Generally, agencies should see their revenue equally split in these three buckets: ⅓ Overhead, ⅓ Expenses and ⅓ Profit.

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