Some years ago, we had a fresh out of college employee at Barrel who was sharp and smart. This was during a time when we had a very flat structure and whoever was available, regardless of experience, was staffed on projects as needed. We staffed this employee on a number of fairly important projects and told the employee to figure things out. That’s what smart people are supposed to do, right? Some weeks later, we […]
Client concentration isn’t a topic that comes up much when I chat with other agency operators. The most common references to client concentration I’ve heard are usually concerns from folks who rely heavily on a single client for most of their revenue. Agency business experts and 2Bobs podcast hosts Blair Enns and David C. Baker recommend that creative firms should have a roster of around 8-15 clients. This doesn’t matter if you’re doing $1 million […]
Some of the companies doing well in the public markets these days are the very businesses whose software we use at Barrel. What if, instead of just paying these companies for their software, we had invested that same amount into their stock? What would that be worth in today’s dollars? Ground Rules For this experiment, I pegged the “investment date” to the day we started paying for the software. For companies that were not listed […]
Corporate Turnaround Artistry: Fix Any Business in 100 Days by Jeff Sands was a timely read as we entered the coronavirus crisis because it outlines a number of valuable lessons on managing through a tough situation and what it takes to fight for a company’s survival. The book focuses primarily on the process of turning around a business that is suddenly unable to make its debt payments, therefore prompting the bank to seek action. Oftentimes, a […]
Note: I initially published on March 30, 2020 via AgencyDocs, a Barrel-owned website geared towards other agency owners who’re looking for templates to help run their business. I’ve reposted here and expanded some more to include some additional developments including the receipt of our Paycheck Protection Plan loan from the US government. As an agency, Barrel has been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis. Within a span of 2 weeks, we saw over 18 engagements–a combination […]
I started 2020 with a more rigorous tracker and game plan to keep up with some habits that I felt were vital to my wellbeing. Three months into 2020, it’s clear that a strong foundation of habits is more important than ever, especially during this COVID-19 quarantine period where many familiar routines are no longer viable. Reflecting on my Q1 2020 efforts, I can confidently say that holding myself to a more detailed tracking document […]
In this troubling and uncertain climate, I thought it would be a good time to review my personal finance stack head on and to share some of the moves I’m making. Like most others, there’s been a great deal of pain seeing my investment portfolio take some big hits. However, there’s opportunity to do some discounted buying in the coming weeks which may pay off in the long run. Then again, as a small business […]
I wanted to jot down and share some quick thoughts on running a small agency business during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) situation developing here in the United States. As an agency with offices in New York City and Los Angeles, we made the call last Monday (March 9th) to have the Barrel team go fully remote. In hindsight, I think we made the right call and acted fairly quickly. The biggest thing that I can’t emphasize […]
I decided to create a tidy table view of Barrel’s business performance for the past 14 years cleaning up some numbers and simplifying the view to focus on revenue, cost of goods sold (COGS), gross profit, and gross margin. I decided to keep owner’s compensation completely out and defined COGS as the sum of our payroll and any amounts paid to freelancers/consultants/other agencies to help us deliver work. One year immediately jumped out to me: […]
A digital marketing agency, design/branding studio, UX consultancy, web development firm and any other creative services business are all similar in that they are asset-light, people-intensive businesses that rely on successful delivery of work for clients. What constitutes a successful delivery? Client satisfaction, team satisfaction, and profits. I want to focus on the profits part in this piece and explore some examples of what a profitable engagement looks like and why the two biggest levers in […]
Blackstone co-founder and CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman’s memoir What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence is what you might expect from a successful billionaire who exudes self-confidence and knows he has achieved most anything he’s set his sights on. Unlike, say, Disney CEO Bob Iger’s memoir The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, Schwarzman doesn’t linger on internal struggles, moral crises, or any vulnerable moments. Instead, […]
I benefited greatly from reading Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. My only regret is that I didn’t read it years earlier when I first heard about it. My initial reaction to a book about a framework/methodology for getting things done was: “I’m pretty organized, I have To Do lists, and I get stuff done every day. No need.” Such arrogance, such missed opportunities to get better. But better late […]
Last week, our leadership team at Barrel spent 3 full days aligning on goals and priorities for 2020. We came away with some concrete assignments that will improve processes, enhance our service offering, and deepen relationships with our clients. A recurring theme that’s become clearer to us in the past year is that all the problems and all the successes of an agency business, when you get down to the root of things, really boils […]
I bought some single stocks this year for my personal portfolio. I’ve decided to revisit these purchases and make note of my thought process so I can do a better job the next time I decide to buy single stocks. Side note: when it comes to investing in public markets, I mostly stick with automated monthly purchases of index funds. I split some into a couple of no-fee funds from Fidelity, FZROX and FNILX. I’ll […]
It’s hard to believe that our son Grant’s first birthday is right around the corner. I didn’t know how parenting would impact my habits in 2019, but I’m happy to report that many of the habits I valued didn’t go away. There were a number of adjustments I had to make along the way, but overall, I’m incredibly grateful for how smoothly things have gone. I’ve adopted (and adapted) a number of different routines for […]
I came across this tweet by Gumroad founder Sahil Lavingia: Lavingia’s epic post “Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company” on his founder’s journey is worth reading. He also openly shares the progress of the business in both a public dashboard and in tweets like this, always fascinating to see as a business owner. I wanted to save his tweet about owning capital in a capitalist economy because it made me think about […]
Can an owner of a small creative/marketing/digital agency make decent money? The answer is yes, but like anything worthwhile, it takes discipline, hard work, and some luck. The business model itself is really simple: be great at sales, control costs (especially labor), do excellent work, and have a good CPA. I built a really simple model on Google Sheets to show the inner workings of a small agency’s business from the owner’s perspective. You can copy […]
Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday is a book about inner peace and how this “stillness” is the key to “unlocking all that we are capable of in this life.” Holiday references ancient philosophers, religions, historical figures, and other successful people throughout the book to lay out his framework for achieving stillness: mastering the mind, spirit, and body. I’ve been a long-time subscriber to Holiday’s monthly newsletter where he recommends books he’s read. It’s […]
Orphan X is a entertaining fiction series from author Gregg Hurwitz. The hero, Evan Smoak a.k.a. Orphan X, is a product of a government black ops program that turned wayward children into deadly assassins. Smoak is out of the program and has turned into the “Nowhere Man”, an invisible force who saves the helpless, dishing out punishment to sex traffickers, rapists, domestic abusers, gangs, and other nefarious characters. Think Jason Bourne meets the Equalizer. I’ve listened […]
The E-Myth Chief Financial Officer: Why Most Small Businesses Run Out of Money and What to Do about It by Michael E. Gerber and Fred G. Parrish focuses on the importance of the chief financial officer role in a small business and how, in the absence of a full-time CFO, the entrepreneur must be willing to play the role. It’s taken me well over a decade to truly appreciate the importance of how financial thinking […]