🚨 3 silent agency killers

I recently got F’d over by termites.

A few showed up in our home, so we had a termite inspector come out to take a look.

After inspecting the attic, he had me come up with him and said:

“See the thousands of little droppings? It takes 3-5 years for this to happen. Your home is infested with termites.”

I moved into this home less than 12 months ago, not knowing I’d inherited this problem…

And now, it’s going to cost $10k to fix.

The crazy thing is, with proper inspection, this problem could’ve been caught before I moved in!

This got me thinking…

Where are the termites in your business?

Problems that build up over years until one day you’re overwhelmed with dealing with them.

I’ve identified the top 3 issues that can quietly build up over the years:

1. Talent

2. Culture

3. Accountants, Lawyers, Bookkeepers

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1. Talent

Pick the wrong talent, and it will come back to haunt you.

The talent you need at $1M is not the same at $5M, and definitely won’t be the same at $10M-$20M.

Founders often hire cost effective talent (C players) when they’re doing less than $3M/year, and build emotional ties to them.

I did this.

I promoted someone on my team a few times until he hit his ceiling.

He came on when we were doing $40k per month, and within 1 year we were at $2M per year.

He wasn’t able to hit the KPIs we needed him to at $2M/year, and had gotten promoted into a role because I tried to find a fit for him.

We had a major initiative he was running that saw ZERO progress over 8 months.

It became so toxic, that my COO had to really push me to let him go.

Ultimately, he stayed on 6 months longer than he should have.

Every company has these people.

That’s okay…

But they’re holding you back, and you need to let them go.

2. Culture

Culture is what your people say and do when you’re not around.

Most small businesses have horrible cultures.

A prime example of bad culture:

Team members going to managers to ask questions they could potentially solve on their own.

Managers solve the major problems. Managers and leaders drive improvement.

Great culture is built on core values and heuristics (simple rules) that are then trained from management into each department.

A key heuristic you must have in your business:

Identify a problem, create a solution.

Team members should not be able to come to you with a problem, they at minimum, need to have the proposed solution and have looked in the internal resources to see if there is an SOP/training for said problem.

If team members are going to come to you with a problem…

They first need to have proposed a solution, and checked internal resources to see if there’s an SOP or training that addresses the issue.

If no solution exists, I advise companies to build an FAQ form.

At the 8F elite client companies, the flow looks like this:

• Team members ID a problem

• They reference the internal documents

• If they don’t have a prior training, they research an answer

• They come up with an answer, and then submit an FAQ form

• Form questions:

  • What’s the question/issue?

  • Which department does this impact?

  • Which roles does this impact?

  • What are the key words related to this topic?

  • What is the proposed solution?

• Managers review the form questions at least 1x per week and create formal trainings if the proposed solution isn’t correct

• Trainings get put into the internal learning management system (LMS)

• Over time, answers accrue, team members become more self-sufficient, and the internal LMS grows

3. Accountants, Lawyers, Bookkeepers

I got F’d with this one recently (…I can’t catch a break).

Founders get used to relying on their specialized vendors.

But how often do you check to see if they do the correct work?

Last week, I found out my accountant/CPA did my 2022 taxes wrong because he didn’t audit my books (which were wrong) when he did them.

This is someone that worked at the IRS, and didn’t even bother to ensure he was doing the correct work.

My bookkeeper and accountant both totally failed me.

Fortunately, my CPA partner, Ben, audited my 2022 books and taxes before the IRS did to ensure I wasn’t screwed.

Now… ANY of these 3 issues can haunt you down the road.

But that doesn’t need to be the case.

At 8 Figure Agency, we can audit your business to ensure it’s strong and not built on a house of cards..

Here's how we can help you tackle these critical issues:

• Talent: We'll assess your team structure and help you identify and cultivate A-players who can scale with your business.

• Culture: Our proven systems will help you build a self-sufficient, problem-solving culture that drives growth.

• Specialized Vendors: We'll review your financial processes and connect you with vetted professionals who won't leave you exposed.

Don't wait for these problems to compound.

Let's catch your “business termites” before they come back to haunt you in the future.

👉 Just schedule a short call with our team here.

We’ll dig into your unique case…

Work on a plan to tackle your specific challenges…

And help strengthen your agency for a robust, powerful future.