Finding
Having 20-50 employees is a huge burden knowing so many people’s livelihood depend on you making the right decisions. Getting external help is a good idea, but finding the right advisors to help you run your agency can be tricky.
Traditional agency non-executive directors and peer communities
Right now agency founders are getting help to run their agency by either appointing a single traditional agency non-executive director or joining a peer community - and although these solutions have some benefits in specific circumstances, there are also shortcomings worth considering…
The shortcomings of
traditional agency non-executive directors (NED)
- Although there are great agency NEDs, they are rare - as such rarely available - we have some of them featured on our advisors page
- A single NED brings only one perspective and their bias - you miss the multiple perspectives required to cut through the bullshit
- A lot of NEDs base their advice on knowledge obtained years ago - some of which would make you more money on the Antiques Roadshow
- Some NEDs bring a cookie cutter and try to fit your agency into their “formula of success”. Please beware! That can cause your agency to go bust - we’ve seen it before
- In the process of exiting their company, some NEDs lose their identity. In those cases they often try to find their new identity in your agency - prioritising their needs over yours
The shortcomings of
peer communities
- While peer communities are great for support and perspectives from many people, most peer communities have 100s - 1000s of members. They lack a personalised support tailored to your agency needs - you end up wasting a lot of time getting advice that is not relevant to your agency
- If the community is agency-focussed, you end up in an echo chamber of similar advice. You lose your competitive edge and it’s hard to come up with innovative ways to build your agency.
- You meet people who yap on about their agency and that everything is going swell - while under the hood they’re probably struggling with the same challenges you have.
In a perfect world
Agency founders looking for external help to run their agency would be able to:
Access a wide variety of advisors
Including agency experts, experts from other industries & walks of life and agency peers.
Get tailored advice
The advice they would receive is relevant to their agency needs and size.
Have a peer support troop
They would get support and advice from peers who are running similar size agencies - likeminded and humble. People that wouldn’t be afraid to admit they’re struggling too.
Pick and choose advice
Agency founders would be able to pick and choose the advice from multiple advisors that works best for THEIR agency - rather than be dictated by a single person what to do.
This is how Polymensa
Traditional agency non-executive director (NED)
Advice from only one perspective
Peer community
Multiple perspectives from peers - but often irrelevant to your agency size and needs
POLYMENSA
Access to experts from within and outside our industry, be around humble agency peers of similar size and get multiple perspectives
Weekly ‘Theme’ calls
Get a competitive advantage to other agencies. In our calls you’ll get access to multiple top advisors from our industry / outside of our industry and all walks of life. Covering themes specifically relevant to the size of your agency - e.g. team structures.
This will not only help you get to grips how to run your agency like agency people do, but the multiple perspectives will also help you cut through bullshit advice that is out there - avoiding anchor and survivorship bias and other blind spots.
“I love the themed calls! The variety of advisors per theme helps me get a really good understanding of the topic. I also like that not all advisors are from the agency world, it lets me learn things from other industries that I can apply in my own agency.”
Dean Corney
Managing Director of Pull AgencyMeet the rest of our troop
Quarterly ‘Deep Dive’ meetups
No longer feel isolated in your role - get to know likeminded agency founders at our Quarterly ‘Deep Dive’ meetups. Build close relationships and get supported in times when you need it most - we promise humbleness and no egos. Plus we always include activities to make sure it’s not just serious businessy stuff - but also fun - to get your mind off the challanges of running an agency!
"Polymensa's Deep Dives have changed the way I do business. Being a leader can be isolating and lonely. To have a forum where you can openly share and learn from others has been life changing."
Domenica Di Lieto
Founder of Emerging CommunicationsMeet the rest of our troop
‘Peer support’ sessions
Work through your challenges together with peers who run similar size agencies at our ‘Peer support’ sessions - so you don’t have to repeat mistakes they’ve already made.
“My first Hotseat session blew me away. It’s invaluable to have this to challenge my thinking and encourage me to seek my own solutions in a constructive framework. Just brilliant. Simples.”
Carla Heath
Managing Director of WhippetMeet the rest of our troop
Peer groups for your 'Sales & Marketing', 'Operations', 'Client Services' and 'People Ops' leaders
Save time training your leadership team - freeing up your time to work on strategic tasks. Improve the skills of your whole leadership team by having them learn from their peers in other agencies of similar size in our Peer groups for your leadership. We host sessions for Sales & Marketing (or smarketing as we like to call it), Operations (Ops), Client Services and People Ops (/HR).
"The honesty in these sessions, and the genuine want to share and help each other is what makes this group invaluable. Sometimes you have all questions and problems, other times you have solutions and success stories, but you always end up learning something."
Liz Hemes
Client Services Director of 383