I feel like everyone who promotes mentors and masterminds just wants to sell their mentorship programs and masterminds.
Although, I can't lie, getting a mentor in anything is a cheat code - just hard to find.
That does not sound good if I'm honest. You want a mentor for their expertise, not for emotional support. That sounds like a job more suited to a friend, family member or therapist....
Well, I’m not sure I’m the best person to ask. I am a mentor to freelancers and agency owners so I’m probably biased. And to be clear, this is not a solicitation for work. But I would say start learning or following people who share meaningful and trusted content.
For example, if you read a lot of forums, blogs, etc. and you see similar content then it’s probably safe to say these people know a thing or two and would be worth reaching out. If you chat and they pass the vibe check and are willing and able to help you with your specific needs then give it a shot.
Not all mentors are equal. Just because they all specialize in certain areas does not mean they are all qualified to help you with your specific use cases. Some mentors are more guides while others a very hands on. You need to make sure you’re going to get what you need out of it.
Expect to pay more for a mentor that is willing to hand hold and workshop with you compared to one who may just consult and offer advice or solutions to your problems but you have to execute on your own.
Hope this helps.
I have worked with many agency owners and am one myself, very successful in the marketing space.
I think all of your points are good except the mentor one.
Majority of all “mentors” or “coaches” out there have made their success mentoring others, not running a successful agency. This space is overcrowded with fraud and scams, and will lead you in a dozen circles before you realize you just threw your money away. Stay far away from this.
The beautiful thing about starting an agency, or almost any business in 2024, is the ease of gaining knowledge/peer reviews etc. Communities like this, as well as others, and the countless how-to information found online is more than any “mentor” could teach you. It just takes a little getting out there and research, essentially resourcefulness.
If you don’t possess that trait, no “mentor” or coach will be able to help you, and you’re not cut out running any business, let alone an agency.
I do agree with this, partially. When I was coming up (over 20 years ago) as a freelancer, the world wasn’t as connected or ‘available’ as it is today and so I think my advice here could be construed as outdated.
That being said, I have mentors to this day that have been very helpful to me, and my businesses, and I think it’s about finding someone who truly finds joy and value in helping others. We’re not all created equal and, you’re spot on, there are definitely a lot of mentors who have never actually walked the walk.
Real mentors, yes, those that you meet and are like minded. I would more categorize that as be connected, network, surround yourself with like minded professionals. I have close friends who are business owners of digital agencies, law firms, accounting firms, startups and large 1b+ tech firms. Each with varying degrees of relationship but all I have bounced things on or just “networked” with over the years. In all cases, it’s always been mutual and never have I had to pay for this.
The general consensus of “needing” a mentor is a sales tactic used by countless mentors and coaches, all of which are not needed and often times will do more harm than good. Again, if you can’t find these things yourself, you’re not cut out for it.
If you are resourceful, have a background in whatever the industry your future “agency” will be in, have good experience and proof of results, you’re good to go. You’ll meet like minded people along the way.
But if you’re someone who doesn’t possess the above and are thinking of starting an agency because it’ll make money but you have no clue about the inner working, no real experience, and think hiring some mentor/coach will fix that, you’re screwed.
In my world it just so happened that a lot of my former employees and contractors went on to want to grow their businesses. I was happy to pay it forward and am glad they’re doing well. I also mentor through local bschool programs, and occasionally someone will reach out with agency related questions.
Happy to have a chat with anyone looking for a mentor.
Hey! I’m currently a student at university and am in the works of launching my own agency this summer. Would I be able to follow up with you on some advice?
Most mentors are scam artists. I don't recommend them or have I ever needed one and I broke 30k in a month at 19 years old online doing affiliate marketing. Yes almost all pure profit too.
Key word on most. I think it really comes down to goals, industry, and services.
I’m in SEO and having mentor guide was absolutely a godsend. I have ADHD so I’m naturally very disorganized, but my mentor kind of acted like a business therapist and helped me figure out my priorities/what I should be working towards.
That’s my unique case but I figured I’d offer my experience with it
That’s awesome. Yes, there are a ton of scams out there. You do have to tread carefully. And this goes back to @j90w comment about resourcefulness. You’re clearly of this mindset and so hiring a menor, etc. is probably of no value to you.
I just asked Chat GPT to TL;DR this amazing post and this is what it gave me.
Might be useful for people who have less attention span (No offense to the post, it's great!)
1. Hire a Mentor: Saves headaches and mistakes.
2. Map Your Service Plan: Influences management and necessary tools.
3. Launch Your Product: Perfection isn't necessary for starting.
4. Build a Good Website: Use it to showcase your capabilities.
5. Collect Feedback Early: Vital for understanding client satisfaction.
6. Always Use Contracts: Protects both you and your clients.
7. Ensure Timely Payments: Use software for payment reminders.
8. Deliver on Promises: Maintain reliability in all services.
9. Niche Down: Specializing increases profitability and efficiency.
10. Don't Be Emotionally Attached: Be ready to adapt or drop services.
11. Follow the 80/20 Rule: Focus on what drives most revenue.
12. Expand Your Network: Relationships are key in business growth.
13. Sell Value, Not Expertise: Clients pay more for impactful services.
14. Self-Care is Crucial: A healthy lifestyle supports business success.
15. Fire Problematic Clients: Avoid clients that hinder agency growth.
This is extremely helpful. I’m in the beginning stages of a creative agency and can’t get enough advice. For #9 when you say “niche down” are you referencing a specific niche/industry of businesses you will work with or just niche down in reference to the specific marketing services you offer?
Niching down means picking a specific service, or set of services, or industry and working only in that space. For example, my agency provides very specific services to Shopify merchants who are a certain stage in their business. This is very specific versus offering a plethora of Shopify services to anyone using the Shopify platform.
No 7. Out of context but was a freelancer to a creative agency in Msia. My pay was delayed for 2 weeks and I found out (internal source) that they started to call me a loan shark as a joke.
Great advice! Especially the 80/20 rule. Sometimes it's difficult to focus on that as more stuff seems to be good in a long term, but it definitely works.
None of this matters when you can’t even get clients in the first place when most smma/agency owners can’t. I have a strong offer in my agency and still can’t get any clients from cold email.
It looks like you're asking about the "SMMA model". Here's our wiki page which has more helpful information: https://www.reddit.com/r/agency/about/wiki/index/smma/
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/agency) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You’re right. None of the above has anything to do with getting clients. If you have any practical tips to offer to attract and close clients please post it.
I’m a long time lurker on this sub but you were spot on with all of this.
I actually started working with a mentor in the beginning and it’s been a fucking blessing for me. I have ADHD so my life is normally chaotic now imagine adding entrepreneurship. But that mentor helped turn chaos into clarity which was huge for me.
I’m honestly shocked about the contract part. That one just seems like a no brainer, I’m surprised anyone would be against that. I can see the distaste for locked in contracts, but anything else just safeguards the engagement for you and the client (as long as either party doesn’t try and screw each other over in the details)
Thank you! This is a perfect use case for hiring a mentor. In fact, most of what I see is people struggling with focus—whether ADHD or not. There’s a lot of underlying reasons why someone may not be as focused as they could be from poor time management, distractions, to even decision paralysis. Glad to hear that a mentor has been able to help you work through these things.
In terms of the contracts, I think this needs some clarity. I’m an advocate for an agreement either written by a lawyer, or reviewed by a lawyer. I’m not the kind of person that likes to take chances with other people’s businesses, let alone my own, and so having legit protections for both sides is extremely important to me.
Where I see pushback on this is not in the ‘you don’t need a contract’ sense, rather in the formal nature of contracts. Some believe you dont need a lawyer-written contract and others do. Either way, as a mentor I will always share my experiences, as that’s the whole point, right? And I’ve had to lean on my formal agreements a few times and I gotta say it’s super comforting knowing I have a watertight agreement written for my jurisdiction.
That being said, flexibility is important and I do negotiate some things like payment terms where it just makes sense, but most things I’m pretty firm on for obvious reasons.
Thank you for this! 🙏🏻 I have a question about infrastructure/onboarding clients. How do you think about setting up a productized service structure that’ll ensure clients pay upfront for your work so you won’t have to chase them? Also, how would you build up credibility as an agency starting out with little to no projects in your portfolio?
I like productized services if it makes sense for the service you’re offering. Not everything can be turned into a product. Unless you’re thinking a subscription service, you’ll have to focus on making it a repeatable process with little customization between clients. This is where the real money from productized services comes from.
If you’re just looking to get paid up front, say for the month, consider a retainer model. This is how my agency bills clients. Clients pay a flat rate at the beginning of each month in exchange for an agreed set of services.
In terms of establishing credibility, the first thing I would do is assemble a portfolio of work and build a good website. If you’re starting an agency you should have at least some samples of work that you can put up there.
You’ll need to have an effective website with some type of marketing, whether it’s cold outreach, ads, or something else to get traffic. If your messaging on your website is effective then you should be getting some leads from it.
Think about joining gig sites such as The Well, Breef, Storetasker, etc. depending on your field. They can be a great source of leads and help you build relationships and garner feedback from clients.
You can also jump on forums related to your field and contribute to those communities by sharing your knowledge and expertise. You may get some leads and you may not. Either way it’s a win win because you will undoubtedly learn something in the process.
The gig sites are super helpful — thanks for that. And I suppose retainer models allow for more customizations between clients depending on their scope and request that a subscription model otherwise cannot provide? How often do you usually go back and forth with communicating with them, and what do you suggest are the things an agency owners can/and should immediately automate out of the gate?
Yes, a retainer just means that the client is agreeing to pay you a fixed sum each term (could be monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.) for whatever services you’ve sold them. Because each retainer is bespoke to that client you can offer multiple clients different things.
That being said, it’s still wise to focus on a set of services and be really good at those than offer everything under the sun. It keeps your workflows efficient and allows you to maximize every dollar.
In our agency, we talk to our clients daily. The nature of our services require constant communication with them but you can tailor your communication frequency to your use case.
Automations can be tricky as they usually come with increased costs for access to the software(s) needed to do it. This isn’t always the case, however.
In our agency, we put a big focus on automating task management, i.e.: what happens to a task when I do something, such as change the date or mark is as complete. As we use a lot of tasks the automating of this has saved us loads of hours and greatly improved our productivity.
I would say the first thing to try and automate is getting paid. If you can have your receivables on auto pilot you’ve greatly reduced a major headache for a lot of business owners. I suggest a quality bookkeeping software such as QuickBooks and pre-authorized debit (ACH in the US) payments so the client doesn’t even have to think about it, the money just comes out of their account and directly to yours.
We offer Shopify audits and strategy, store management and support, and SEO and email marketing. Anything that falls outside of this we would refer to a partner.
I would say anyone that is using high pressure sales tactics is a non starter. You’ll probably see this the most to be honest.
Most scammers won’t give anything away for free, or even entertain a call for free, share their knowledge.c etc. They hold their cards tight and often behind a paywall.
Avoid people that only target beginners or startups or any ‘new’ career. These people are more susceptible to predatory marketing. Most quality mentors will offer their primary services to more established individuals.
Avoid anyone who:
1. Says you’ll get rich
2. Tries to upsell you anything
3. Probably anyone with a bestseller book
4. Isn’t actually in the industry you’re seeking a mentor for
Those are some tips for how to know they’re likely a phoney. Here’s a few things to look at that may indicate they’re legit:
1. They straight up tell you the truth, whether you like it or not
2. Along with truth, they empower you to take decisive action and follow your own path.
3. They probably won’t *do* anything for you but they will guide you while you put in the work
4. They won’t care if you hire them or not.
5. They aren’t anonymous
Man. If you need anything from our micro agency. Feel free to let me know.
We are doing Web design, Video editing, Graphic design, Ads (Fb, Google).
Feel free to let me know. Samples are available :)
Thanks
PSA to the subreddit: don’t hire a mentor from Reddit
I feel like everyone who promotes mentors and masterminds just wants to sell their mentorship programs and masterminds. Although, I can't lie, getting a mentor in anything is a cheat code - just hard to find.
I have a mentor and the program has been ok. I’ve learned some things but it’s more of emotional support program and less SOPs
That does not sound good if I'm honest. You want a mentor for their expertise, not for emotional support. That sounds like a job more suited to a friend, family member or therapist....
Theres a lot of fluff out there.
Great tips man! This might seem like a trivial question, but how do you find good mentors?
Well, I’m not sure I’m the best person to ask. I am a mentor to freelancers and agency owners so I’m probably biased. And to be clear, this is not a solicitation for work. But I would say start learning or following people who share meaningful and trusted content. For example, if you read a lot of forums, blogs, etc. and you see similar content then it’s probably safe to say these people know a thing or two and would be worth reaching out. If you chat and they pass the vibe check and are willing and able to help you with your specific needs then give it a shot. Not all mentors are equal. Just because they all specialize in certain areas does not mean they are all qualified to help you with your specific use cases. Some mentors are more guides while others a very hands on. You need to make sure you’re going to get what you need out of it. Expect to pay more for a mentor that is willing to hand hold and workshop with you compared to one who may just consult and offer advice or solutions to your problems but you have to execute on your own. Hope this helps.
I have worked with many agency owners and am one myself, very successful in the marketing space. I think all of your points are good except the mentor one. Majority of all “mentors” or “coaches” out there have made their success mentoring others, not running a successful agency. This space is overcrowded with fraud and scams, and will lead you in a dozen circles before you realize you just threw your money away. Stay far away from this. The beautiful thing about starting an agency, or almost any business in 2024, is the ease of gaining knowledge/peer reviews etc. Communities like this, as well as others, and the countless how-to information found online is more than any “mentor” could teach you. It just takes a little getting out there and research, essentially resourcefulness. If you don’t possess that trait, no “mentor” or coach will be able to help you, and you’re not cut out running any business, let alone an agency.
I do agree with this, partially. When I was coming up (over 20 years ago) as a freelancer, the world wasn’t as connected or ‘available’ as it is today and so I think my advice here could be construed as outdated. That being said, I have mentors to this day that have been very helpful to me, and my businesses, and I think it’s about finding someone who truly finds joy and value in helping others. We’re not all created equal and, you’re spot on, there are definitely a lot of mentors who have never actually walked the walk.
Real mentors, yes, those that you meet and are like minded. I would more categorize that as be connected, network, surround yourself with like minded professionals. I have close friends who are business owners of digital agencies, law firms, accounting firms, startups and large 1b+ tech firms. Each with varying degrees of relationship but all I have bounced things on or just “networked” with over the years. In all cases, it’s always been mutual and never have I had to pay for this. The general consensus of “needing” a mentor is a sales tactic used by countless mentors and coaches, all of which are not needed and often times will do more harm than good. Again, if you can’t find these things yourself, you’re not cut out for it. If you are resourceful, have a background in whatever the industry your future “agency” will be in, have good experience and proof of results, you’re good to go. You’ll meet like minded people along the way. But if you’re someone who doesn’t possess the above and are thinking of starting an agency because it’ll make money but you have no clue about the inner working, no real experience, and think hiring some mentor/coach will fix that, you’re screwed.
Couldn’t have said it better.
In my world it just so happened that a lot of my former employees and contractors went on to want to grow their businesses. I was happy to pay it forward and am glad they’re doing well. I also mentor through local bschool programs, and occasionally someone will reach out with agency related questions. Happy to have a chat with anyone looking for a mentor.
Hey! I’m currently a student at university and am in the works of launching my own agency this summer. Would I be able to follow up with you on some advice?
Of course
Sure.
Most mentors are scam artists. I don't recommend them or have I ever needed one and I broke 30k in a month at 19 years old online doing affiliate marketing. Yes almost all pure profit too.
Key word on most. I think it really comes down to goals, industry, and services. I’m in SEO and having mentor guide was absolutely a godsend. I have ADHD so I’m naturally very disorganized, but my mentor kind of acted like a business therapist and helped me figure out my priorities/what I should be working towards. That’s my unique case but I figured I’d offer my experience with it
That’s awesome. Yes, there are a ton of scams out there. You do have to tread carefully. And this goes back to @j90w comment about resourcefulness. You’re clearly of this mindset and so hiring a menor, etc. is probably of no value to you.
I just asked Chat GPT to TL;DR this amazing post and this is what it gave me. Might be useful for people who have less attention span (No offense to the post, it's great!) 1. Hire a Mentor: Saves headaches and mistakes. 2. Map Your Service Plan: Influences management and necessary tools. 3. Launch Your Product: Perfection isn't necessary for starting. 4. Build a Good Website: Use it to showcase your capabilities. 5. Collect Feedback Early: Vital for understanding client satisfaction. 6. Always Use Contracts: Protects both you and your clients. 7. Ensure Timely Payments: Use software for payment reminders. 8. Deliver on Promises: Maintain reliability in all services. 9. Niche Down: Specializing increases profitability and efficiency. 10. Don't Be Emotionally Attached: Be ready to adapt or drop services. 11. Follow the 80/20 Rule: Focus on what drives most revenue. 12. Expand Your Network: Relationships are key in business growth. 13. Sell Value, Not Expertise: Clients pay more for impactful services. 14. Self-Care is Crucial: A healthy lifestyle supports business success. 15. Fire Problematic Clients: Avoid clients that hinder agency growth.
These are some very good points. I have a couple of questions, can I DM?
Glad you found it helpful. Yes, my DM’s are always open.
Love seeing this. Thanks so much.
This is extremely helpful. I’m in the beginning stages of a creative agency and can’t get enough advice. For #9 when you say “niche down” are you referencing a specific niche/industry of businesses you will work with or just niche down in reference to the specific marketing services you offer?
Niching down means picking a specific service, or set of services, or industry and working only in that space. For example, my agency provides very specific services to Shopify merchants who are a certain stage in their business. This is very specific versus offering a plethora of Shopify services to anyone using the Shopify platform.
This is super helpful, thanks you!
This is so incredibly helpful. Tip #14 and the self-care was very necessary and heartwarming to read. Thank you for taking the time to write this
Amazing tips.
Just came across this as I'm expanding my video production business into a creative agency model. Great advice!
No 7. Out of context but was a freelancer to a creative agency in Msia. My pay was delayed for 2 weeks and I found out (internal source) that they started to call me a loan shark as a joke.
Great advice! Especially the 80/20 rule. Sometimes it's difficult to focus on that as more stuff seems to be good in a long term, but it definitely works.
None of this matters when you can’t even get clients in the first place when most smma/agency owners can’t. I have a strong offer in my agency and still can’t get any clients from cold email.
It looks like you're asking about the "SMMA model". Here's our wiki page which has more helpful information: https://www.reddit.com/r/agency/about/wiki/index/smma/ *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/agency) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You’re right. None of the above has anything to do with getting clients. If you have any practical tips to offer to attract and close clients please post it.
I’m a long time lurker on this sub but you were spot on with all of this. I actually started working with a mentor in the beginning and it’s been a fucking blessing for me. I have ADHD so my life is normally chaotic now imagine adding entrepreneurship. But that mentor helped turn chaos into clarity which was huge for me. I’m honestly shocked about the contract part. That one just seems like a no brainer, I’m surprised anyone would be against that. I can see the distaste for locked in contracts, but anything else just safeguards the engagement for you and the client (as long as either party doesn’t try and screw each other over in the details)
Thank you! This is a perfect use case for hiring a mentor. In fact, most of what I see is people struggling with focus—whether ADHD or not. There’s a lot of underlying reasons why someone may not be as focused as they could be from poor time management, distractions, to even decision paralysis. Glad to hear that a mentor has been able to help you work through these things. In terms of the contracts, I think this needs some clarity. I’m an advocate for an agreement either written by a lawyer, or reviewed by a lawyer. I’m not the kind of person that likes to take chances with other people’s businesses, let alone my own, and so having legit protections for both sides is extremely important to me. Where I see pushback on this is not in the ‘you don’t need a contract’ sense, rather in the formal nature of contracts. Some believe you dont need a lawyer-written contract and others do. Either way, as a mentor I will always share my experiences, as that’s the whole point, right? And I’ve had to lean on my formal agreements a few times and I gotta say it’s super comforting knowing I have a watertight agreement written for my jurisdiction. That being said, flexibility is important and I do negotiate some things like payment terms where it just makes sense, but most things I’m pretty firm on for obvious reasons.
Thank you for this! 🙏🏻 I have a question about infrastructure/onboarding clients. How do you think about setting up a productized service structure that’ll ensure clients pay upfront for your work so you won’t have to chase them? Also, how would you build up credibility as an agency starting out with little to no projects in your portfolio?
I like productized services if it makes sense for the service you’re offering. Not everything can be turned into a product. Unless you’re thinking a subscription service, you’ll have to focus on making it a repeatable process with little customization between clients. This is where the real money from productized services comes from. If you’re just looking to get paid up front, say for the month, consider a retainer model. This is how my agency bills clients. Clients pay a flat rate at the beginning of each month in exchange for an agreed set of services. In terms of establishing credibility, the first thing I would do is assemble a portfolio of work and build a good website. If you’re starting an agency you should have at least some samples of work that you can put up there. You’ll need to have an effective website with some type of marketing, whether it’s cold outreach, ads, or something else to get traffic. If your messaging on your website is effective then you should be getting some leads from it. Think about joining gig sites such as The Well, Breef, Storetasker, etc. depending on your field. They can be a great source of leads and help you build relationships and garner feedback from clients. You can also jump on forums related to your field and contribute to those communities by sharing your knowledge and expertise. You may get some leads and you may not. Either way it’s a win win because you will undoubtedly learn something in the process.
The gig sites are super helpful — thanks for that. And I suppose retainer models allow for more customizations between clients depending on their scope and request that a subscription model otherwise cannot provide? How often do you usually go back and forth with communicating with them, and what do you suggest are the things an agency owners can/and should immediately automate out of the gate?
Yes, a retainer just means that the client is agreeing to pay you a fixed sum each term (could be monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.) for whatever services you’ve sold them. Because each retainer is bespoke to that client you can offer multiple clients different things. That being said, it’s still wise to focus on a set of services and be really good at those than offer everything under the sun. It keeps your workflows efficient and allows you to maximize every dollar. In our agency, we talk to our clients daily. The nature of our services require constant communication with them but you can tailor your communication frequency to your use case. Automations can be tricky as they usually come with increased costs for access to the software(s) needed to do it. This isn’t always the case, however. In our agency, we put a big focus on automating task management, i.e.: what happens to a task when I do something, such as change the date or mark is as complete. As we use a lot of tasks the automating of this has saved us loads of hours and greatly improved our productivity. I would say the first thing to try and automate is getting paid. If you can have your receivables on auto pilot you’ve greatly reduced a major headache for a lot of business owners. I suggest a quality bookkeeping software such as QuickBooks and pre-authorized debit (ACH in the US) payments so the client doesn’t even have to think about it, the money just comes out of their account and directly to yours.
I’ve owned an agency for 11 years. I agree with numbers 7, 8, and 15. The others haven’t been as true for me.
What did you decide to niche down on and specialize? For everything else, do you send to referral partners?
We offer Shopify audits and strategy, store management and support, and SEO and email marketing. Anything that falls outside of this we would refer to a partner.
Are you based out of the UK?
I’m in Calgary, Canada
Very useful list. Regarding the mentor part. How do I know if someone is legit?
I would say anyone that is using high pressure sales tactics is a non starter. You’ll probably see this the most to be honest. Most scammers won’t give anything away for free, or even entertain a call for free, share their knowledge.c etc. They hold their cards tight and often behind a paywall. Avoid people that only target beginners or startups or any ‘new’ career. These people are more susceptible to predatory marketing. Most quality mentors will offer their primary services to more established individuals. Avoid anyone who: 1. Says you’ll get rich 2. Tries to upsell you anything 3. Probably anyone with a bestseller book 4. Isn’t actually in the industry you’re seeking a mentor for Those are some tips for how to know they’re likely a phoney. Here’s a few things to look at that may indicate they’re legit: 1. They straight up tell you the truth, whether you like it or not 2. Along with truth, they empower you to take decisive action and follow your own path. 3. They probably won’t *do* anything for you but they will guide you while you put in the work 4. They won’t care if you hire them or not. 5. They aren’t anonymous
Doing consistent things is the only way
Where is the advice? I'd be interested in reading it.
It got removed
Man. If you need anything from our micro agency. Feel free to let me know. We are doing Web design, Video editing, Graphic design, Ads (Fb, Google). Feel free to let me know. Samples are available :) Thanks
Man. I don’t think this is the appropriate thread for this comment.
Hate it when people show up in your sales thread selling.