Tips on how to run a more healthy design company
Healthy agencies that shoot at all cylinders do a great job. But what does a resilient business look like and what are the red flags as things fall south?
Project management software company Streamtime prides itself on "making software that doesn't give a shit". It has defined several signs that your agency is in poor health: In addition to healthy profits, you need healthy people and healthy work processes, a healthy approach to parking spaces, healthy customer relationships, and healthy pricing models.
These are all interconnected: the wellbeing of your team is not a problem in itself. Healthy people are the driving force behind a profitable agency. If your team is burned out, overworked, and struggling with mental health, it should come as no surprise that productivity is falling at the same time. And the quality of the work will suffer as well.
"If you try to relieve someone of the last drop of work, everything falls down," warns Tom Tapper, co-founder and CEO of the creative agency Nice and Serious, which regularly uses Streamtime products. "As an industry, we are very good at pushing people to their limits."
All of the above health indicators are currently under heavy pressure. It's not rocket science that your agency's profits can drop during difficult times, whether because there are fewer projects or because client budgets are tight.
If you try to take the last drop of work off someone, everything will eventually fall over. As an industry, we are very good at pushing people to their limits
And if the pandemic forced you to take people off leave or layoffs, those left behind are likely to work harder to keep the ship afloat. Bottlenecks can arise, especially when you're trying to deploy resources alongside live projects.
Without taking into account the greater burden on people's mental health in 2020, the year Streamtime is certainly not just referred to as “cluster fuck”.
With that in mind, here are a number of ways to improve your agency's health:
Build a realistic business model
According to Tapper, improving your agency's health can mean rethinking your business model. "It's completely unrealistic to rely on people to be billable 95% of the time," he says.
Running a creative company is a complex balancing act of many different elements. Streamtime is well positioned to help agencies of all shapes and sizes step onto that line. This includes functions such as order planning, time recording, planning, preparation of quotations, invoicing and reporting.
This includes setting red flags for persistent overload to help managers address the problem early and avoid burnout. You can use surveys to track how happy your team is working on a project instead of just keeping track of how many hours it has clocked.
You need to know that they got 12 hours done that day and not sweep those hidden costs under the rug. Create a business model that actually enables employees to work
Part of this is being honest about the time that is spent on pitching in particular. "Get into the mindset to consciously pay for this time instead of expecting people to bill a customer for eight hours and then conjure up a suggestion in their spare time," says Tapper.
"If so, you need to know that they worked 12 hours that day and not sweep those hidden costs under the carpet as we do so often in this industry." Build a business model that actually enables people to work. "
Free pitching can be a particular problem. Streamtime software will help you steer your agency through this familiar black hole in the procurement of resources. This ensures that you capture the progress of an order the moment it begins as a conversation, and not just win a project as an approved offer.
Promotion of a "founder mentality"
At the branding agency Ragged Edge, which is also a Streamtime customer, the culture is to enable everyone to think more like a founder and thus to invest more emotionally in the agency's successes.
This includes educating the entire team about the importance of economic accuracy and profitability, and about great work. "It's the foundation of business: when we're profitable, we can be more creative," says co-founder Matt Bland.
And when everyone feels empowered to influence the overall image of the company, this has a positive effect on people's wellbeing and the agency's creative performance.
Share the whole picture
When Nice and Serious was forced to take employees off leave, Tapper campaigned for transparency with everyone involved, including those who stayed in their roles and needed to keep things going.
When profits drop, the point is not to squeeze the team harder, but to accept the fact that another aspect of your business is not working
"We were honest and open about our finances," he says. “That included how much revenue we made and how much our loss was. In such situations, it is better to be realistic. "
That kind of transparency can be demotivating, however, and Tapper adds that it was tied to the uplifting message that everyone in the agency had some influence on improving the situation – attracting new business, for example.
"When profits go down, the point is not to squeeze the team harder, but to accept the fact that another aspect of your company is not working," he continues. "Projects may not be managed efficiently and you need to address that."
Take a more holistic view
Ragged Edge is unique in that its People and Culture Director, Lisa Mitchelmore, is also responsible for resource management. This allows them to have a holistic view of how a project affects the health of all aspects of the company.
"It was a pretty transactional process in the beginning – that's the job I need these many days," she recalls.
Over time, she developed a much better understanding of the pressure points and is well positioned to monitor Ragged Edge's daily health from different perspectives. Bland now describes her as "the beating heart of the agency".
Watch out for red flags
Both Ragged Edge and Nice and Serious are closely watching the early warning signs of the development of an unhealthy agency culture.
As Tapper points out, there are certain direct indicators – like increasing absenteeism and sick days, or specific reports of mental health problems. Just telling people to take your time off is just “putting a band-aid on,” he adds – you need to address the root cause and provide real support.
If you don't have enough time to think, you probably have too many projects … you need a healthy mix of customers for a sustainable business model
Other signs are more subtle. “You sense it in the atmosphere of meetings: a more negative mood; People feel vulnerable and blame others, ”explains Tapper. "The dynamic is changing: instead of a team working together, the balance shifts to individuals."
Bland adds that when an agency is under pressure and its operational health suffers, reduced thinking time and a general lack of clarity are common symptoms.
"If you don't have enough time to think, you probably have too many projects," he says. “You may not be producing to the standard you want. You need a healthy mix of customers for a sustainable business model. "
Beware of "Scope Seep"
A key factor in running a healthy agency is awareness not only of the amount of time it takes, but also of the perceived value of that time to the client.
“Projects often have a 'scope creep' where a customer demands more than we originally thought,” says Bland. "But there is also an area where we decide to show them more than they wanted to see."
Because they didn't expect it, they don't appreciate it. You may still want it, but you don't pay more
As he points out, there is a risk that the team will pile extra hours into a project – possibly late into the night and on weekends – to deliver work that the client did not expect.
"Because they didn't expect it, they don't appreciate it," he adds. "You may still want it, but you don't pay more. This not only affects the morale of the team, but also the profitability of the project."
If you give the entire creative team a smarter commercial perspective, the focus shifts: "Now they see the leakage of scope as an opportunity to sell added value to the client and get fair fees for doing so."
Indeed, Streamtime has its procurement departments everywhere in its sights, striving to steer the entire industry towards a more value-driven pricing model – one that will hopefully bury those dreaded timesheets once and for all.
The philosophy is further supported by the company's support for Never Not Creative, the community initiative focused on improving mental health as well as providing graduates and value-driven outcomes for creatives around the world.