Copy This Blueprint If You Want to Build an Agency & Make Some Serious $$$
Take it away, Clara
Image from Clara Baldwin’s IG
Some entrepreneurs are quietly crushing it.
Clara Baldwin is one of those. I interviewed her in 2021 and remember being super impressed.
Despite a far-from-perfect childhood, Clara has founded two successful marketing agencies and a non-profit raising money for domestic abuse survivors.
Now, she’s an award-winning entrepreneur making six figures a year whilst travelling the world.
In a recent conversation, she shared her secrets to building a successful agency.
Here’s her blueprint that you can copy.
Step #1: Land Your First Client
Clara recommends Upwork.
Create a profile, look at the jobs, and follow your curiosity.
For example, if you have experience with Google ads, maybe you can apply to jobs like these:
Screenshot by the author
When sending client proposals, Clara goes above and beyond. Although it takes time, she deep-dives with every potential client and presents her findings.
The presentation highlights weaknesses and how her marketing agency can help:
“[Clients] want to know how you’re going to better their business.” — Clara
You’ll make mistakes when working with clients for the first time. I’ve made my fair share. So has Clara.
Things like knowing what to charge and managing client expectations come with experience.
The services you offer may also change. For example, Clara started in web design and now provides a suite of services, including social media management, graphic design, and web hosting.
If you want more tips on landing your first client, look no further. You can find details of how I landed $2,000/month of freelance work in 7 days in this article.
It’s worth noting that Clara did all the client work in the beginning. She didn’t outsource and was working 50–60 hour weeks.
It’s only in recent years that she’s built her team.
Speaking of which…
Step #2: Delegate, Delegate, Delegate
Clara is the face of her agencies.
She’s the direct line of contact with clients and delegates project-specific tasks to her team.
It wasn’t always like this. Clara used to work long, long days. Now, she gets to spend doing more of what she loves:
“I still have weeks where I work a lot, but my ultimate goal is to be the person who does the blueprints and vision, and then outsource (the work).
“Of course, I’m still monitoring constantly, but yeah, when I worked 50–60 hours (a week), I could never go back to that.
“I have a healthy relationship with my business, employees, and time management. I travel more than three-quarters of the year.”
How has Clara built her team of kick-ass freelancers?
Upwork.
She posts a job she’s hiring, people apply, and she filters for the top-rated freelancers. Then, after messaging and interviewing the top five, she hires someone.
It’s that simple.
As you can see, her team is growing:
Screenshots from Cure Medical Marketing
Step #3: Document, Document, Document
Your role as an agency owner is to translate your clients’ needs to your team. In some cases, you have to educate your client too.
Educating goes with all client work — not just agencies.
Here’s how Clara educates her clients without wasting time:
“It got to the point where I was constantly trying to explain things via email and over the phone, like, ‘What’s an algorithm?’ What’s SEO?’
“Every time I do something, I explain it in an email or text […] So I have whole documents with explanations of my processes.”
Clara also recommends helping clients learn beside you:
“One problem in the industry is that clients go dark. They go rogue and don’t talk, and then suddenly, [they’re gone]…
“I quickly learned that I can’t let them not talk. I have to pull them out of the dark and ask, ‘What would you like to do? What do you want to see from me?’
“If you don’t do that, the retention rate is 1–2 months.”
As the adage goes, your most valuable customers are your existing ones.
Step #4: Employ “Growth Clerks”
This is one of Clara’s secret weapons.
Rather than reaching out to potential clients all the time herself, she’s hired five virtual assistants who work with her full-time.
As “growth clerks”, their job is simple: they get Clara fresh leads.
“It gets tiring going on Upwork and Freelancer and just depending on that, and you don’t want to rely on one stream for your clients.
“What happens if that goes out? You’re dead in the water.
“So I hired five growth clerks […] They’re people who work for me full-time and send messages to get leads, based on the target audience [of business owners]…
How do they do this?
Clara instructs them to go on LinkedIn and Instagram, find business owners, and like their top five pics. They then comment on one of the pics, “I messaged you.”
If the business owner goes to the trouble of finding the DM — either in their primary or junk inbox — and messaging back, Clara jumps in:
“I really hone in on the personal aspect with a voice note […]
“I’ve found it works well or at least gives you the time of day to jump on a call with them […]”
Step #5: The Free Sales Call
Note: I’ve inserted this step here from Sam Laliberte. She’s a digital nomad who has built a six-figure podcasting business over the last five years.
People are booking calls.
Now, it’s time to convert.
Sam scheduled 20 minutes for each sales call but gave herself a 10-minute buffer. She hadn’t thought of it as a tactic. It just worked out that way.
It’s something she now advises.
“You can make the person feel like wow, she’s going above and beyond with the value she promised… (They) feel taken care of and supported…
“I want to acknowledge this was a sales tactic that worked, but it was the truth. That’s how I am with all of my clients. If we have an hour call and they need more time, they will feel fully supported by me…
“It was an authentic preview of what it would be like to work with me…”
Sam positioned these calls as free consults. There wasn’t a formal presentation. “I treated it as a conversation where I could help them out on the spot.”
Sam conducted the calls over Zoom, where they could see and hear each other, and she talked to them like friends. She was genuinely curious about their podcast ideas or a current show they wanted to grow.
She asked them about the following:
Their podcast goals
What’s challenging them
What’s holding them back from launching
She gave them advice and tactics on the spot and even took notes for them. She sent these after the call.
Towards the end, she would tell them, “of course, these are just a few things I can teach you on the spot. It’s only 20 minutes. I can’t teach you everything I know about podcasting in this time, but I have a ton of great ideas. I know I can help you.”
She asked for their permission to tell them about her programme. Once they said yes, she went through a short presentation.
She shared her screen and went through four simple slides.
This entire time, nobody knows the price of the programme. She doesn’t put the investment price on the sales page.
She knows it’s controversial.
“I’ve debated this back and forth with different friends of mine […] but I believe that if you’re selling a programme over $1,000, it should have a sales call […]
“ I believe you should withhold the price until you can truly showcase the value.”
Sam walked them through the programme’s features and the value they would get.
She tried to attribute the value to dollars.
Some features were easy. For example, Sam charges $200 for one-hour consulting calls. Potential customers could see how many calls they were getting and extrapolate the value.
The same goes for her videos.
For other features, she had to estimate.
“And then I said, ‘but I’m actually selling it for this price,’ and showed them the total number. So this is less than the value.
“Then I would pause. ‘What do you think? Is this higher or lower than you expected?’”
To Sam’s surprise, many people told her the price was much lower than expected!
Seeing this surprise gave Sam the confidence to raise her prices for the second cohort.
Step #6: What Are Your Goals?
This is one of the most important steps.
If you want to go down the agency-building route, think about why. Is it so you can work with fantastic clients? Is it so you can make lots of money? If so, how much money would you like to make?
Getting clear on these makes everything else easier.
To this end, you may find my 5-step plan helpful.
Takeaways
Clara is crushing it.
She’s built two successful marketing agencies that make her six figures a year while making time for the important things in her life, such as travelling and seeing friends.
Here’s a quick summary of how she’s done this:
Step #1: Land your first client — Look for jobs you can do, and go above and beyond with your proposal.
Step #2: Delegate, delegate, delegate — Again, use platforms like Upwork to find talented freelancers. Then, hire the best and feed them work.
Step #3: Document, document, document — Translate your clients’ needs to your team and educate clients as you go. It’ll help boost retention.
Step #4: Employ “growth clerks” — Work with assistants who can get you fresh leads. You can then swoop in to add those personal touches.
Step #5: The free sales call — This is your time to shine. Understand your potential client’s needs and show them how you can help.
Step #6: What are your goals? — I’ve put this step last, but it’s arguably the most important. Why do you want to build an agency? Get crystal clear on this before you start.
Want to ditch the 9–5? Get my free 19-page guide: Everything I Did to Quit My 9–5 Job & Transition Into Profitable, Sustainable Solopreneuring :)
