2. Hire slow - take time to find best people for your team

When it comes to growing your team, hire slow and fire fast. Really take the time to assess whether you’re bringing on the best fit for your business and the team. If it doesn’t work out, communicate quickly and clearly what the issues are and whether you can put together an action plan to resolve them.

As your team grows, you will also better understand the personalities that make your company unique. Skills can be taught; that’s why we always consider work ethic, attitude and the ability to learn quickly almost as important, if not more important, than the skills themselves.

As your team grows, you will also better understand the personalities that make your company unique. Skills can be taught; that’s why we always consider work ethic, attitude and the ability to learn quickly almost as important, if not more important, than the skills themselves.

3. Know your numbers - Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity

You need to know your numbers inside out. You don’t have to be doing everything in your business, and there are many things you can outsource or get external advice on, but you need to have your eye on the money as a fundamental basis. You need to know where the money goes, how the money is coming into the business, and really understand all the basics around numbers and your profit margins.

Then you can make informed decisions about when (and who) you’re ready to hire, how much risk you can take, and what the future is expected to look like. We’re not talking about making plans for the next 3-5 years because that’s way too much in advance for a young business. It’s making plans over the next three, six, 12 months.

4. Don’t go it alone - delegate, and ask your community for help/advice when you need it.

When Nic started freelancing, he was trying to wear 100 different hats. We started CookiesHQ because he desperately needed help on the project management/marketing side of things, and the agency has grown from there. When we started bringing other people on board, it took a lot of practice to start delegating effectively and not trying to do everything just because we knew how to.

We’ve also learned the importance of community and reaching out to others for advice or just a listening ear. Bristol feels like such a supportive and friendly environment to build a business, and a large part of that is the fact that if you reach out to other startup founders in the city, they’re usually happy to have a call and offer some advice.

Make the most of the community around you, and be sure to feedback into it. What goes around comes around!

5. Research is king

You might have heard us go on about how important research is before, but for good reason! Research really is key to informing your product development, growth strategy and broader business goals.

You may have a hunch that your product will be successful, but you need to back that up with some research before you start spending money. If you’re hiring an agency to help you build or market your product, you’ll want some hard data behind you to ensure that the money spent is an investment, and not wasted on a gut feeling.

We’ve seen it with clients, and we’ve even made the mistake ourselves. With a decade’s experience in helping people build products and grow their businesses, we can say with certainty that research (or lack thereof!) can make or break your business.

6. Be human/be honest - with your team, your clients, and yourself

Honesty and transparency are part of our core values here at Cookies – they underpin every interaction we have with each other, with our clients and even with ourselves.

We make a point of regularly bringing the team up to speed on where the business is at in terms of numbers, targets and projections. Being upfront with everyone helps bring the team together and get everyone on board with working towards a common goal.

Our clients know that we will be honest with them about any product decisions or features they might be considering. That’s where we bring the true value of being a technical partner. We don’t just write code; we use our knowledge and experience of the web to advise them on the best ways to take their product forward.

And Nic and I make an effort to be honest with ourselves – about how many hours we can productively work in a day, where we want to lead the business and what role we want to play. It’s crucial to understand your own limitations. We’re not superhumans.

7. Know when to say no

As a growing agency, it can be tempting to say yes to every piece of work that comes your way. It can feel downright wrong and counterintuitive to turn down work.

But knowing when to say no to a client can be key in sustaining growth. Even if they’re paying their invoices, a client or project can be a drain on your resources – time, energy, team morale or even your integrity.

If a client or project drains your resources, your team’s energy or consumes too much time, there is no shame in respectfully referring them on. On the flip side, you may get along with them just fine but feel they could be getting better value elsewhere.

Ultimately, we started an agency to help our clients succeed. If you think you aren’t the right fit for that client at that time (e.g. if they would be better off working with a freelancer or an agency with a different culture) and that their money would be better spent elsewhere, maintain your integrity and have those difficult conversations.

8. Find the joy and share the success

One of the great things about agency work is that your clients’ successes mean just as much (or perhaps more!) than your own! Agencies are high pressure, hard-working environments, so it’s important to look for the joy in the work you do and really celebrate it.

At CookiesHQ, we encourage everyone to show off their work and share their successes at our weekly team meetings. It’s especially important as we’re still all working remotely. At times like this, extra efforts should be made by the management team to identify and acknowledge the small wins.

When all else is done, we do our best to share that success. Lending out our equipment, running Open Desk Days, creating resources for SMEs, mentoring and donating to charity are ways we give back to the community, online and offline.

9. Your growth strategy is valid - slow and steady or rapid and intense

Every person and every business is different. When you’re immersed in the startup world, it’s so easy to be tempted into comparing your growth and your journey with those around you. Resist the temptation as best you can!
Your growth strategy is valid – be it slow and steady or rapid and intense – if it’s what works for you. Of course, it helps to have an eye on the other businesses/agencies in your sphere but trying to compare where you’re at or make strategic decisions aimed at getting you to where another agency is going to be detrimental.
It’s a bit like employing caution when using social media – you only see the tip of the iceberg with what’s actually happening in other businesses. What works for them likely won’t be the best solution for you!

10. Make time to switch off

Running a business with your spouse doesn’t leave much room for ‘switching off’ from work, but it’s so important to carve out that time – and stick to it! When Nic and I started working together, I laid down a rule – no work talk after 7pm or on Sundays. It’s still in place ten years later and something we’re both mindful of for the kids as well as for ourselves.

Additionally, if you’re putting in 16,17,18 hours a day to work, that’s completely unsustainable and can lead you to a damaging burnout. When we started, I would leave the office just to come home and open my laptop and work into the evenings. But, my attitude has shifted massively since I realised that focusing on work for a short, set period of time is so much more productive than trying to work every hour in the day.