Things I Hated Most About My Brand Consultancy (And How I Fell Back In Love With It)
Owning and running an agency or consultancy can be a dream come true. But certain choices can make it a nightmare. Here is a snapshot of my 15-year journey, and what you can learn.
Back in 2008, following the financial crash, I finally made the jump into entrepreneurship. The timing was terrible, but I could not handle the self-deception any longer. I needed to set myself free.
I was a partner at a large marketing agency and "had it all". But if you have the entrepreneurial itch, it just gets worse. The itch turns into internal pain and turmoil. Maybe you have experienced the same.
Fast forward a few years, and I was living my dream.
I had great clients. I got to do brand strategy work for the most coveted brands in my region.
Penthouse office in an old warehouse overlooking the city.
Vanity points. Check ✅
Yet, on the inside, I was living in constant fear and anxiety.
Certain things just made me hate parts of the business and the industry I loved so much (still do).
Not dislike. Not “ugh, another Monday.”
I mean full-on, why did I do this to myself?
Honestly. I felt like I was running a circus, not a business.
The Lowlight Reel 🎢
Cash flow was a roller coaster — salaries and rent went out like clockwork while enterprise clients took their sweet time paying. 🐌
Summers in the Nordics meant 4–5 dead weeks of exactly zero revenue (but, yes, all the same expenses). And while people took off for their well-deserved vacation, I was left with a six-figure salary slip to worry about. ☀️
I was involved in pretty much everything (too much), and I kept reinventing decks and proposals for each prospect, pitched non-stop… and still lost too many deals. 📉
I thought the "goodwill model" was something you could not avoid. You know, doing literally whatever the client asked for, even if that was outside your positioning, or the workweek. "Want me to flip burgers at your garden party? Sure..." Well, kind of.
Growth? That just amplified the chaos: higher overhead, thinner margins, more sleepless nights. 💤
Worst of all, the company had no resale value — because it all depended on me. 🙋♂️
It was the classic story. Yet in a perverse way, I loved those years. But rather than making my business work for me, I was enslaved by my business.
The Root Cause 🔍
I’d built a fully custom service shop: any client, any problem, endless tailoring.
Variety looked impressive from the outside… but it created crippling complexity, unpredictable costs, and a business that couldn’t scale or sell.
It was like running a restaurant where every customer ordered something off-menu. I used to call us a "Michelin star agency". How stupid of me, come to think of it. 🍽️
Sure, they loved it. I was exhausted. 😵💫
The Turnaround 🔄
I stopped being all things to all people and started acting like a business owner, not a magician (or co-dependent). 🎩
To be honest, there was not that one massive breakthrough moment. It was gradual, thanks to a few ideas I decided to implement.
Chose one narrow client segment with a single, painful problem I could solve better than anyone. 🎯
Go all in on the 80/20 Rule - simplify and focus, weed out the bottom 80% (it was painful but worked really well, including firing some nasty clients).
Productising and standardising. Aah...this was the real breakthrough.
Created fixed-scope, outcome-based packages — priced, promised, and delivered in set timelines. ⏳
Documented every step so the team could execute without me hovering like a stressed-out seagull. 🐦
The Results 📈
The impact surprised even me:
Gross margins jumped above 80% 💰
Net profit settled around 45% — with a brick and mortar office and staff 🏢
Net profit settled around 45% — with a brick and mortar office and staff 🏢
(Yes, that was deliberate. Read that again.)Revenue smoothed out, stress plummeted, and life was good again.
And I… fell back in love with the business I’d built. ❤️
But it took me seven years to learn this. Auch.
I wish I had learned from people ahead of me.
(Which is a strong reason why I created Original Minds - the collective)
How You Can Do the Same 🛠️
Simplify – ruthlessly cut bespoke offers that drain focus. ✂️
Systematize – turn know-how into checklists, templates, and repeatable workflows. 📋
Productize – lead with clear packages; keep custom work as premium add-ons. 📦
Scale – high-margin, repeatable work frees time, reduces risk, and makes your business a true asset. 🚀
I turned a cash-strapped, unpredictable agency into a profitable, sellable company — and rediscovered why I started it in the first place.
If you’re in the middle of the chaos right now:
Simplify. Systematize. Scale.
It's the only way to regain your sanity, if you are where I was.
Do that, and you might just fall back in love with yours too. ❤️
In closing
Creative businesses have too many moving parts. And the worst part is, they keep changing. When you focus only on the highest-yielding stuff and weed out the rest, and you productize, package, and build an operating system around it, you have a real business, not just a lifestyle business.
...and that's why we built SimpleOS™ - a simple operating system for the AI age.
If you want to learn more, or set up a call, email me.