Felix Velarde, a digital marketing pioneer and serial agency founder who has led five award-winning agencies, chaired multiple “Agency of the Year” winners, and founded the 2Y3X Growth Acceleration Programme. As the author of Scale at Speed and a veteran of scaling over 40 agencies since founding one of the first web design companies in 1994, Felix shares proven strategies and key insights on overcoming growth barriers, driving sustainable growth, and maximizing agency value.

The Growth Lab Team: Your Secret Weapon

The traditional approach of founder-driven delegation creates a bottleneck. No matter how efficient you are at delegating, you can only effectively manage about 4-5 projects simultaneously. The solution? Create a Growth Lab Team.

This team consists of 4-5 top performers (AA players) from different levels and disciplines within your business, working alongside the founder. The key difference from regular delegation is ownership – these team members co-create the growth plan rather than simply receiving assigned tasks.

Making the Growth Lab Team Work

The team uses a strategy map framework to create an ambitious three-year plan, working backwards from goals like:

  • 95% staff satisfaction scores
  • Industry recognition (top awards)
  • £1 million EBITDA (enough for a £6 million exit)

By having the team co-create this plan, they develop genuine ownership of the initiatives. Each team member takes responsibility for specific quarterly tasks, with the team holding each other accountable.

Growing Client Revenue: The Two Essential Truths

There are two fundamental principles to remember about client relationships:

  1. Clients hire agencies for one reason only: to make more profit.
  2. Clients change agencies primarily because their current agency isn’t proactive enough with profit-generating ideas.

Systematic Client Development

To grow client revenue consistently:

  • Implement monthly client satisfaction surveys measuring:
    • Account management
    • Strategic input
    • Creative thinking
    • Proactivity
    • On-time/on-budget delivery
    • Value for money
  • Follow up with:
    • Internal review of feedback
    • Action plan development
    • Share improvements with clients
    • Regular progress reviews

The goal should be 50% year-on-year growth in client budgets. This comes from consistently identifying and presenting opportunities to increase client profit, whether through SEO, CRO, PPC, or other services that build upon initial successes.

Maximising Exit Value

If you’re aiming to sell your agency, understanding buyer psychology is crucial. Buyers aren’t just acquiring your current revenue – they’re looking at risk factors that could affect future growth.

Key Factors Affecting Valuation:

  1. Size and Multiples: Larger agencies command higher multiples because they’re seen as less risky
  2. Client Balance: Heavy reliance on a single client increases risk
  3. Consistent Profitability: Demonstrated stable growth
  4. Market Differentiation: Clear positioning away from competitors
  5. Scalability: Proven ability to grow systematically
  6. Succession Planning: Strong team that can operate without the founder

For example, an agency with £400,000 EBITDA might sell for 4x (£1.6 million). But if you can double the EBITDA and achieve a 6x multiple through systematic scaling, you could potentially triple your exit value to £4.8 million.

The Time to Start is Now

Remember, the time will pass anyway. In two years, you’ll either have systematically scaled your agency’s value or still be stuck in the feast-and-famine cycle. The choice to break through that growth ceiling starts with building the right team and implementing systematic growth processes.

What is the Better Agency Programme?

The Growth Programme provides crucial peer support alongside expert talks, events, and networking designed for agency leaders who want to take their agency to the next level, whatever that means for you.

Key features include:

  • 45-minute expert sessions with a 15-minute Q&A.
  • Optional 60-minute group discussions after each module.
  • Unified learning through video calls, with accountability groups based on agency size.

Find out more about the Better Agency Programme here.

Want to hear more from Felix?

Become an Agency Collective Grow+ member to access all the Better Agency Programme sessions. To explore membership, book a call with Rob or join a Find Out More session.

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The Agency Collective

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