Part 8 (1/2)

Make Decisions That Fit Your Growth Goals

In h our ith hundreds of clients, I have learned that opportunity is everywhere for unique and innovative co real value to custo if you do not adapt to changingdemand, and build a scalable infrastructure capable of effectively accorowth

Intro to Infrastructure

Infrastructure refers to structures and systeency services Basically, it includes any physical or organizational eleency Core coy, rowth's sake, without a profitable business o boost Expansion in prototype agencies is driven primarily by the desire to attract and retain talent They opt for controlled growth, often resisting the urge to accelerate business develop a stable operational foundation with niement systems that enable them to execute and adapt faster than the competition They , partnershi+ps, advisors, and office space designed to support their foreseeable future needs, while hest levels of service quality, efficiency, and productivity today

Making decisions too far ahead of the growth curve can cost you valuable resources now, but not planning for the contingencies of growth can be detrimental to your ability to profitably build your business in the future

Goals, Trends, and Tiuide infrastructure investrowth trends For sorowth of 5 to 10 percent per year, whereas others rowth prospects of 50 to 100 percent or encies must be incredibly smart about their infrastructure choices It is easy to spend thousands of dollars on a phone systeement platform that becomes obsolete as you expand

You also have to consider your ti infrastructure I tend to look at business decisions as current (next 12ter should account for current and short-tere velocity principles dictate that trying to plan for anything beyond three years is an exercise in futility Have a vision for the long term, but make infrastructure decisions based on current and short-term realities

For exaan working on a 2x3x scale This meant that for every decision I made, I would consider whether or not the solution would be viable at 1015 employees At that ti up to 15 employees in 23 years, but we also included an option on the adjacent space that would fit up to 25 employees in 35 years We installed a sophisticated phone systeraded our Internet bandwidth, and set up a new server and internal computer network

All told, we invested more than 50,000 to build out an infrastructure that was capable of handling up to 15 employees, but extendable to dozens of employees if needed We acco ourselves, and put a contingency in place for future expansion Does that mean it was a perfect solution? Absolutely not, but we had the funding to comfortably make the investments and buy ourselves a few years until we had to revisit these core pieces

Keep inwithin 12the iPhone, and more than two years before they released the iPad, so we did not have afiles, information, and applications from multiple devices Plus, the metaphorical cloud was still in its infancy as a mainstream business concept In other words, just three years later, the decisions I wouldour infrastructure are drainally made in 2008

Lessons from the Inside I started PR 20/20 in Nove It was thetime of my life Fueled by a powerful cocktail of youthful exuberance, adrenaline, and caffeine, I spent what see ency) building a dreaency I came from, but I had become convinced there was a better way I feared that if I stayed where I was and continued to follow traditional ret not taking a chance on so in which I so passionately believed Besides, what did I have to lose? I was young, anda h money to pay our bills, put away a few dollars in a retirement account, and have a little left over for travel The worst-case scenario if the agency did not flourish was that ould struggle financially for a while, but at least I would have given e of 27, I left the comfort and security of my career to turnservices accessible and affordable to the mass h the business model was sound, and we still function on the basic principles of the plan, my financial forecasts were overly ambitious, if not absurd Forecasts called for 19 million in revenue and 140 employees by year five I showed my business plan to a number of advisors before launch, and even sube Response was always positive, but I never got the feeling that anyone saw the potential I did in building a technology-driven hybrid agency, and no one really see to do

With li agency model focused on the small business market The first few months were easy when le phone line, a MacBook, and a Pale

Let's take a look at five of the critical agency infrastructure lessons we have learned through the years

Lesson 1 Prepare for Perpetual Change I launched PR 20/20 with 25,000 in loans from the friends-and-fas to fall back on, so this gave me a six-month runway to cover basic start-up expenses, health-care benefits, and a paycheck I worked out of local cafes, and developed a particular liking for Panera, which offered free Wi-Fi and coffee refills, both of which were vital in the early days

Although I had lofty aspirations for growth, the agency began with just three nonpaying clients-a barter deal, my wife's art business, and my parents' cookie franchises The first few uide, which had more than 100 standardized services e published it online in January 2006

The 20/20 Standard

The 20/20 Standard service and pricing guide was the original core concept behind PR 20/20 In essence, it was built as an online marketplace for a la carte, project-based services There were 19 categories with 102 services when it was first introduced in 2006 In most cases, the standard services, such as press releases, brochures, logo designs, print ads, and websites, featured set prices

Soon thereafter, we started getting calls froned for small businesses, friends and business associates at these corporations iencies they were used to engaging They loved the transparency in pricing, the si y world, I pivoted the agency I set the s the er enterprise needs

In March 2006, we hired our first ean the baptis a scalable infrastructure Wereserves on nuot screwed by countless vendors, and battled some deadbeat clients as we fine-tuned our financial syste in e set out to achieve

I knew from day one it would be an iterative process, and it still is today The velocity of change, especially in technology, is relentless You ile infrastructure that positions you to continually evolve

Lesson 2 Build through Trusted Solution Providers Whereas large traditional agencies are often bogged down by legacy syste firms have the flexibility to experiment with product innovations and hot new start-ups when building their technology infrastructure

Change velocity in essence dictates that so sooner than later Often, the breadth of options can be overwhelencies There are endless providers to evaluate, with see in one platforle pain points Researching, evaluating, and selecting the right solutions for your agency can be aexperience This also y infrastructure decisions

A service that is here one one the next For exa platform It was feature rich, yet intuitive, and exactly e needed to transfer large files over the Internet and collaborate with clients on projects We began integrating it into account-ement systems, and clients seeht the company to acquire its talent, and within a one

The lesson here is always test innovative solutions froanizations when it coanizations with track records of performance, transparency, stability, continuous innovation, and exceptional customer/community support There will always be risks when you rely on third parties for key pieces of your infrastructure, so do your due diligence and find partners that give you confidence and peace of h there certainly are viable competitors you should consider in each area, here are some of the providers that we have co shown is accurate as of July 2011) Ti Company: FunctionFox (FunctionFoxco: 20/month and up

Notes: A nu features as part of their products, but we have always preferred Timefox It is intuitive and reliable, and easily scales as new eh it is designed to accommodate billable hours, ere able to custo

As discussed in Chapter 1, it is i model does not eli actually becomes more essential in order to monitor efficiency and productivity, evaluate employee perfor

Project and Canalsco: 24/month and up

Notes: Basecaement system Every project, task, and n-based clients are given dedicated client centers

These online group hubs are designed to foster coency and its clients They let businesses track caress, share files, view coreat iPhone ht available for 999