Podcast: Agency Highway

006 – Quitting an agency to double income in 6 months with Toni Taylor

Agency Highway
006 - Quitting an agency to double income in 6 months with Toni Taylor
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Just wow.

I jumped on a call with Toni because she told about some wins she’d had in her business. Little did I know how well she has done to be able to double the income that she received working for another agency, in such a short time.

This call blew me away and there’s a lot you can take away whether you’ve been doing this for a few days or a few years.

1:50 Why big agencies often aren’t as good as they look
2:50 How that can give you the confidence to go out on your own
3:55 Discussing confidence, starting your own agency
7:15 Why small agencies often have the advantage
8:00 Are you trying to be everything to everyone
10:00 Doing work that you like
11:30 GOLD -> Running a business how YOU want to run it. Setting up client boundaries.
14:50 Avoiding the feast or famine cycle that most designers face
16:00 GOLD -> Packaging your services into retainers. Toni’s mindset here is amazing. The best part of this video. She covers what services she packages, how it’s packaged, how she sells it and how much for
23:17 Educating your clients
24:28 What’s in Toni’s packages & price points
30:40 Toni has doubled her income
32:00 Picking a niche (by saying no to clients you’d rather not work with)
36:00 Summary
36:30 How Toni has learned so fast

Resources

For Toni's resources and a full transcript, check out the video interview and post here.

Connect with Toni

005 – Get more clients by specializing with Troy Dean

Agency Highway
005 - Get more clients by specializing with Troy Dean
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I interview Troy Dean, the founder of WP Elevation, on how to position your web design agency to get more clients.

To jump onto the next WP Elevation intake and get a bunch of free training, visit this page.

01:25 What WP Elevation do
02:00 Intro to Troy
05:30 Bursting the bubble
06:00 The most important thing you can do
08:25 WHY it's so important to specialise
11:10 Specialisation, FOMO and commitment
17:35 Breaking into an industry
21:30 You're not just “building websites”
23:00 The 5 Whys, Do wide go deep
27:20 Getting your first clients & the right way to do Facebook ads
30:00 Networking & connecting people
33:40 What if you don't have a portfolio?
35:20 Book recommendation

Find out more about Troy and WP Elevation

004 – Write amazing proposals with Adam Hempy

Agency Highway
004 - Write amazing proposals with Adam Hempy
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This is an interview with Adam Hempy from Better Proposals.

Turns out the owner of proposal software knows a lot about writing proposals. Who knew it!?

You'll learn:

  • How to make writing proposals suck less
  • A very important question to ask BEFORE writing the proposal
  • How to find things that your client is worried about (so you can address them early)
  • The most important part of any proposal
  • The difference between small budget and big budget proposals
  • How to stand out from every other company
  • How to really find out what your client wants and use that to win the project
  • What you should include at the end of every proposal
  • Justifying higher prices in terms your client can understand

Find out more about Better Proposals

Web | Facebook

003 – Work Less Make More with James Schramko

Agency Highway
003 - Work Less Make More with James Schramko
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Get James' Book Here

In this interview, James Schramko talks about working less and making more, which also happens to be the title of his new book.

I've been following James for 7+ years and his advice has pushed me in the right direction on many occasions.

We discuss a bunch of topics like how to calculate how much you *really* earn, delegation, hiring a team, and being more effective in your business.

Web designers, freelancers and agencies are often some of the most overworked people on the planet. James' advice is especially helpful here.

01:00 How we met
03:00 Intro to James' book & what I liked the most
05:25 Calculating what you *really* earn
07:35 Eliminating things to increase your rate
09:20 64/4 rule
09:55 Why “take action” can be bad advice
12:20 Bad clients costing more than they pay you & how to identify them
14:50 Why tracking your time is important
15:40 Finding out what you should delegate
19:00 The hardest stuff to delegate
20:30 An extra benefit of trimming parts of your business
23:10 Contract vs full time
24:00 Ease the transition to a full time hire with this tip
25:20 Hiring professionals for high skill tasks
28:00 Outsourcing the smaller tasks
30:20 A hidden benefit of working with top level contractors
32:00 Why recurring revenue takes the risk out of business and reduces stress
36:00 How to build recurring revenue in a design business
37:00 Using resellers (white labelling)
38:00 An extra income boost with almost no work
40:50 How to find suppliers
43:20 Learning or progressing things more quickly
45:00 How to know if business coaching is worth it
49:35 Where to get James' book – Work Less, Make More

Find out more about James at Super Fast Business.

002 – Pricing websites with Corey Dodd

Agency Highway
002 - Pricing websites with Corey Dodd
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Corey and I talk about pricing websites including:

  • How to set prices when you are just starting out
  • What to do if you don't have a portfolio
  • Raising your prices over time
  • Using price anchoring to encourage your client to select the best value option and not shop around with other designers

Corey Dodd is a designer with almost 20 years experience working with large companies such as Nova Radio, national advertising agencies and boutique design studios. His background in working as a creative in digital and tech companies has given him a broad skill set that covers design, strategy and coding. He's passionate about helping others in the design community, especially when it comes to topics around money, pricing and processes. He currently runs Elk Creative, a small design studio from Geelong Victoria, that focuses on delivering custom branding and digital solutions with SME's across Australia.

Resources Mentioned

Dan Mall – Pricing Design
Blair Ennes

Chris Do – The Futur

Get in touch with Corey

Web | Facebook | Instagram

Other resources

001 – Intro

Agency Highway
001 - Intro
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Agency Highway is a podcast for digital agencies who want to grow, earn more and work less.

Episodes are a mix of quick wins, interviews with people who are doing amazing things, tools, tips and resources that will help you grow your agency and build the life that you want.

This episode is a quick intro of what to expect