Agency Growth Plan – The SeekThem Formula

As a business owner, here’s one thing you should always remember: You didn’t come this far to only come this far. 

Growth is the ultimate goal. And there shouldn’t be anything that stops you from achieving just that. 

Not the ballooning overheads. 

Not the high cost of onboarding in-house design experts. 

And definitely not the lack of guidance.

If you are a digital agency owner today, you are probably living in the best of times. Unlike a decade or two ago, you have the privilege of white labeling. 

And with expert white label design services, you can achieve everything you have ever dreamt of; because you, my friend, are not just a drop in the ocean, but the entire ocean in a drop. I know this because SeekThem is the trusted white label partner for half a dozen design companies, who can now punch above their weight, because they know they have support. 

 

Ways to grow your digital agency – A look at all the options

You cannot automate things when you are in a creative field like digital design. You definitely need more minds to come up with more user-centric designs. And that happens when you grow your digital agency. 

White labeling is hands down the best way for design agencies to grow in 2022. But that’s my experience-based opinion.

And I want you to come to that conclusion yourself. That’s why below I have elaborated on all the 3 ways in which you can grow your digital agency. 

Decide which one is the best for yourself.

 

1. Hire experts in-house

If you have tons of cash available, you can definitely hire designers in-house and grow your digital agency. But remember:

• Hiring experts takes time. Your customers might not wait around for that long.
• In-house experts come with overheads. Funds that you could have spent elsewhere. Also, the average cost of hiring an employee, according to Glassdoor, is $4000.

It definitely gives you more control over the processes and a sense of security though.

2. Hire freelancers

If you are a fan of patchwork and don’t mind onboarding different people every now and then, you can hire freelancers to steer your growth.

With freelancers, you can grow your team faster than by hiring in-house experts. And freelancers come with a lower price tag.

The stability and commitment levels are shady though. I am not saying all freelancers are flaky, but you have to stay vigilant.

Also, 70% of freelancers work on 2-4 projects at a time. So exclusivity is something that you can definitely not expect here.

 

4. Find white label agencies

White label agencies are the golden goose. You get the gold eggs without much effort. 

The key benefits include:

• Access to a team of experts in a jiffy.
• Quick scaling up and down.
• Minimal overheads.
• No stability concerns as B2B partnerships last long.
• End-to-end solution.

And you get all this while still being able to add projects and customers to your portfolio. 

Now I understand that in-house experts and now freelancers to some extent are the conventional options for growing agencies. But as Rumi said, “Conventional opinion is the ruin of our souls.”

And not to exaggerate, but staying stuck to conventional growth paths might ruin your progress. 

With that, I hope you are on board with white labeling. So now let me walk you through the 3-step process of leveraging white label services. The SeekThem way. 

 

The 3-Step white labeling process 

1. Perfect your proposition

Let’s understand this with an example. Say your digital agency is focused on just web design. You start off well, with the customers that your sales team brings in being serviced by your in-house team of web designers and UI-UX experts. 

Soon, you start getting more clients than you can handle. Or your client’s appetites are larger than your spread and they start asking you for graphic design services.

Now if you want to grow – via white labeling – to meet the needs of your customers, you need to first define and perfect your business proposition. 

Your customers are coming to you for a reason. Maybe they love your individualistic approach. Or maybe they are a fan of the way you make sure your designs appeal to the target audience. Either way, you need to make sure that when you white label your services, these unique selling propositions (USPs) that draw clients to you don’t get lost. 

Find out what parts of the process you can outsource and what you definitely need to carry out in-house. 

Continuing the web design agency example here. Even if you find a website design agency that will be working on your client’s projects, you should make sure that you carry out the final usability testing before delivering the final mockups to the client. 

This is important because if the work has not been done as per your standards, your clients will consider you to be the culprit. They don’t know someone else did it. The fingers will point at you and your brand’s image will take a hit.

 

2. Seek a white label partner

Once you have decided what you’ll do in-house and what you’ll get white labeling services for, it is time to find the right partners. 

Here are 10 things you should look for in your white label design partners:

1. A team of designers with hands-on experience.
2. A portfolio of previously completed design projects
3. Satisfactory reviews from former clients on 3rd party independent review platforms. 
4. At least 3 references that you can talk to.
5. An NDA, which should be signed before you start discussing project specifics with the agency. 
6. The quality assurance process of the agency.
7. Bandwidth fluidity, meaning the scope for scaling up fast.
8. End-to-end project management abilities.
9. Pricing structure and communication channels.
10. Work culture and organizational processes.

Based on all these factors, you should find a white label agency that fits well with your budgetary and project needs along with being a cultural match with your agency.

 

Caution: Design White Labeling is no child’s play

While there are many design agencies, you cannot trust any Tom, Dick, or Harry. You need a team that is experienced and has the expertise, and the dedication to deliver design solutions that match the standard of your requirements.

Here’s how SeekThem fits the bill – 

1. Recognized by several independent, 3rd-party platforms like 99Designs, Digital Agency Network, Clutch, etc.
2. Leaders at SeekThem (AKA me!) have 8+ years of experience in the design field.
3. Straight 5-star reviews from former clients. 
4. End-to-end solution and effortless project delivery. 
5. A passion for designing creative products that not just please the eye, but also help you reach your business goals.

Once you partner with SeekThem, you can get on to the next step.

3. Kick-start your growth journey

Finding a white label partner is not the end of the process. It is just the beginning. Now you have clients coming in and a dependable white label partner to service those clients. 

Here’s how to do that – 

1. Get the paperwork sorted. If you don’t want to land into a legal hot soup later, it is better to sign the dotted line right before you start. Whether it is your client or your white label partner, sort the legal legwork before anything else. 
2. Establish communication channels. Do you want to be the one handling client communication? Do you want your white label partners to coordinate with the clients and represent you? Are you looking for a different sort of arrangement? Whatever it is, decide on how the communication will flow. And then ensure the concerned parties know whom to contact when, how, and for what. 
3. Fix timelines and deadlines. If you want to test the solutions that your white label partners deliver before handing them over to the end client, make sure you fix the timelines accordingly. Ensure there is time for revisions and edits without anyone having to burn the midnight oil.

Over to you now

Quoting Rumi once again, “Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.” 

Don’t just stop at being inspired by how others utilized SeekThem’s white label design services. Join the tribe of our clients and scale up today – the SeekThem way. Feel free to get in touch for a consultation call or share your briefs at hello@seekthem.com.