One throat to choke
Why you should choose a boutique agency every time.
“One throat to choke” is a fabulous line I heard from Naval Ravikant. He mentioned that he always prefers to work with a smaller agency or firm because if he has access to the owner/founder — he only has one throat to choke when troubleshooting an issue.
I also read recently in Alex Hormosi’s book $100 Million Leads that his main complaint with agencies was that he would be sold by a senior member of the team, served by senior members at first, but soon passed off to junior members.
He also pushed against the typical agency retainer model, which would have his company tied to the agency for a long period of time while they provided services instead of training his team to eventually take that work internally.
Both of these points are valid. The old agency model is broken and seems antiquated to our modern systems.
I’ll break down why these two theories are true in my experience after thirteen years of agency ownership:
When you work with a smaller team, you are also likely to get stellar customer service. This goes hand in hand with high-touch management. There isn’t a lot of bureaucracy on a small team, and it’s likely the owner/founder is going to know if things are going off the rails. (and if they are, you’ll be able to reach them with a simple request)
The agency's reputation is still very much tied to the reputation of the ownership. (very motivating!)
When you work with a small team, junior members get high-touch management. Your account will be overseen by a senior member naturally because everyone will touch your account in a small firm. You might have a junior member POC, but strategy and execution will still run through more experienced employees.
Culture is often easier to manage on a smaller team. Working for a small business definitely has its challenges, but one of the pros is that each employee is so valuable culture will stay a top priority.
We like to say that we’re in the business of getting fired. We don’t want anyone handcuffed to our team because they don’t know their logins or have access to their own brand files. That’s why we’ve been handing over all brand assets since we opened our doors in 2010. Everything we do for you is owned by you, forever, period.
We should be working towards an end goal of paying someone less than you can pay us to execute on-brand content for your business. Once the Brand Being process is complete, it might make sense to continue working together for a year or so to launch your rebrand or get your communication off on a more strategic footing, but the end goal is definitely for your brand to be managed in-house.
