How to Start an Agency Business with Just a Laptop

Sep 11, 2019

Do you want to start an agency and live the laptop lifestyle?

Starting an agency can be a simple process but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. It is so much easier to build a successful business when you have a framework to follow.

It doesn't mean that clients and money will fall into your lap.

You still have to figure out how to build your dream business following a framework. You still need to be passionate about your business and put in the effort.

You don’t need experience

Don't let your lack of experience stop you from creating the business of your dreams.

It’s possible because I did it.

I'm the founder of Jeneration PR which is a full service PR social media marketing agency. We specialize in promoting brands, particularly beauty and cosmetics, baby and kids' brands, and health and wellness.

And I have billion dollar clients in all of those categories. Billion dollar companies can work with anybody.

I made it my mission to learn everything I could, not only about providing the best service but also running the business in a way that I enjoyed.

How to price your value

When you work in a career with billable hours you work like crazy. You start to realize that work can be a complete drain.

You want to build a business and work in a way where you will love it.

After working in billable hours, I decided to put trading dollars for hours in the trash and never look back.

In my business we use retainer pricing which is based on the value we provide to our clients.

How to scale

With zero contacts and zero training, I started my own PR agency. I changed careers in order to work with brands I believe in and do work that I love.

It took me awhile to really figure out how to scale and how to have quantum growth in my business.

You can skip all that trial and error. Through mentorship and training programs, you can fast-track learning how to scale and leverage someone else’s expertise.

Work from anywhere

You can have a laptop business and work from wherever. I choose to run my business from home. If I have to be on the go I can work from a coffee shop too.

Working from home doesn’t make you any less qualified or capable. Don’t think you’re less professional or that you can’t demand top dollar for your services because you don’t have an office.

The reality is, you don’t have a huge overhead and you can pass those savings onto your clients.

All of my billion dollar clients know we run our business from home.

You can start with no experience

If you are looking for experience, you can offer your services below market value, or for free.

When I started out, I worked for one brand for free. I got my second paying client working below market. I ended up working for that client for 11 years. It helped me establish a deep expertise in the baby and kid space. We now represent a $3 billion publicly traded company in the baby and kids' world. This is one of my dream clients.

That's what starting small and growing can help you do.

Don’t be afraid to hire help

Successful entrepreneurs bring in help before they feel they're ready.

That doesn't mean you have to hire full-time help.

You can bring in a freelancer or a virtual assistant for a limited amount of hours and free up your time.

You can get help and leverage your time and make money on the effort that they're putting in. If you're paying somebody $40 an hour on something that they're doing, you can have a profit margin on their effort if you make $100 an hour or whatever it is.

Think about growing your team in advance. It's a little scary but it is the key to quantum growth in your business.

Hone in on your niche

One of the huge things that is going to allow you to scale in a way that brings in more money for you, without more time, is honing in on your niches.

Niching down scares a lot of people because they feel they won’t get enough work.

You can niche into what types of clients you serve. They can be experts or brands. You also want to niche into what services you offer. Because the more things you offer, the more you have to manage.

What do you want to be known for?

That is how you offer maximum value and command higher rates.

Because people will say I'm going to that agency. I'm gonna go see Jen at Jeneration because they're the best at promoting baby and kids' brands. Their clients are getting tons of press and I see them everywhere. We want to go to them for beauty because they're cutting through the noise and getting editors to pay attention to their clients. That's how we get our clients coming to us.

I don't advertise our services. I don't do any kind of promotion whatsoever. All of our clients come to us through our network, through referrals and people seeing our work for other clients.

And that happens when you establish a niche. You want to be known for something.

If you are a generalist you will be known for nothing and no one will ever think to come to you. You'll be scrambling around with small clients. You’ll have 10 clients at $2000 a month, rather than two clients for $10,000 a month.

When you know what to focus on, you can convert all of your conversations into clients. You can get top dollar for your services.

Find a good mentor

Find mentors who have similar values as you do and have the kind of business and life you’re looking to have.

The mentors I invest in have balance in their lives. Their priorities are in check. It's not all just about money. It's about building a business that absolutely lights you up every single day.

Those are the values I have in my business and that's the framework I teach people how to do in their businesses.

I teach you how to know which clients are going to be awesome and which ones are the red flag clients you should be running from.

I teach strategies for where and how to build your client base.

Follow the framework

Think big and dream big.

The benefits and opportunities are possible for you with this laptop lifestyle. You could have 60 to $100,000 a year as a baseline in your business following my framework.

That's my goal for everybody that comes into my program.

Building a business is simple when you have a framework to follow.