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6 Lessons from a 26-Year-old Agency Owner

What she learned and wish she knew.

By Urina HarrellPublished 3 years ago 8 min read
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I started my agency as an undergraduate in college. In honesty, I went from idea to implementation in a matter of days. I found something I liked, I figured out how to do it for people, and I built a free website on Wix overnight. It's fair to say I sleep-walked to my 7 am lift the next day. Sorry, Coach BJ.

In the beginning, I didn't earn any money. I worked for free, but I worked with intent. My training was the few classes I'd already start taking in Duke's Markets and Management Certificate, the 1.5 years of psychology classes I had under my belt, and intuition. My goal? I was going to learn through self-driven, on the job training one free project at a time.

Through this trial and error process, I learned an innumerable amount of lessons. Lessons that have subconsciously adjusted my behavior. Others I've consciously implemented through repetition, habit breaking, and challenging/confrontational conversations in my bathroom mirror. In this open letter, I share the things I wish I knew and the words I wish I held closer to my chest in 2013 when I started. I hope that dreamers, no matter their age, race, or gender, can find encouragement and peace knowing that they aren't alone in this crazy life of entrepreneurship.

Lesson #1: Perfect your response. Mistakes will happen.

This is probably my least favorite lesson. But it's also one of the most important. While I put this lesson first on the list, it is also the one I wrote last. Even now, I had to do some digging to get this out. Okay, here we go.

In business, mistakes happen. Perfection can be a goal, but you can't let it cripple you. I hate when mistakes happen. Every time I see one, it makes my stomach hurt. I physically sink, and I have to catch myself from doing what most perfectionists do when something goes wrong...talk through how ridiculous it is that I let that mistake happen in the first place.

Yes, mistakes are irritating. I hate them. But they are two things. They are lessons, and they are opportunities.

When a mistake happens, what you want to do is fix it as soon as possible and then go back to identify what's causing the mistake to happen in the first place. Is the mistake a disconnect in communication? Are there inconsistencies that need to be addressed? Can it be solved by putting a process for quality checks in place?

Don't focus on the fact that the mistake happened. Do put all of your energy into perfecting the response and reduce the chance of this happening in the future.

In the case of recurring mistakes, you do the same thing. Respond, analyze, and improve. Adjust internal players, implement higher diligence procedures, and keep problem-solving.

I make mistakes. My employees make mistakes. That part never gets easier. No matter what, we have to have a laser focus on how we respond when they happen...because we know they will.

Lesson #2: Build with the intent to scale in mind.

When I started my agency, I didn't know how to choose my business structure, the major difference between a sole-proprietorship and a limited liability corporation, how to do business taxes, the importance of tracking my expenses, and a host of other business-related best practices. I just knew I had found something I liked and that if I was going to make it happen, I had to go for it.

Since then, I've learned that picking your business structure is important early on. Establishing templates for what you do and how you do it is important when looking to scale, hire, and expand. Putting your thoughts around your brand on paper is important when deciphering whom you should work with and how you should work with them. (It's also important when deciding to say "no" to work.)

Imagining what your company looks like 5 years down the road is important, and so is leaving room to pivot and improve. Think not just about how you can get your idea up and going but also how you plan to expand it. For everyone, this timeline is different. For some, scaling can happen in several months. For others like me, scaling can happen over several years. Regardless of the timeline, think about scaling from idea conception, and be prepared when it happens. The plan will change but have one in place anyway. Build and do so with the intent to scale in mind.

Lesson #3: Don't overextend yourself.

I love helping. Seriously, my brain is wired to solve problems (even when they're not mine). This means that I try to do a lot. I promise a lot, and I spread myself thin...too thin. If I know I can help, I usually will. The problem? When you offer to do and be everything to everyone, you sacrifice quality for quantity and are only "kind of" helpful to everyone.

When you're like me and overextend yourself, you usually end up promising things and timelines that either don't happen or don't happen on time. For me, it's always the "don't happen on time" scenario. As a result, you reduce your trust and reliability. What Eric Thomas and his team would call "your credit score" takes a hit.

Even worse, you'll find yourself making mistakes. Lots of them. Why? Because you are spending so much time churning through tasks that naturally, things slip through the cracks. Now not only are you overextended, but you are likely making unforced errors and doing so repeatedly. Yikes.

So be protective of your time. Be careful with your promises. Most importantly, take note of those who willingly take your time and resources without ever saying, "Hey, does this fit into your schedule? Do you actually have time to take this on?"

If I'm honest, which I usually try to be, I am definitely still working on this. Don't wait until you're drowning in requests and demands to audit your time. Find ways to protect it now.

Lesson #4: Limit binge-working.

Sometimes I get a high from working. My heart starts beating really fast, my thoughts race a mile a minute, and in the pit of my stomach, I feel as if what I'm doing has the power to change the world. It's an amazing feeling. The closest feeling I've had to being an athlete again happens in those moments.

In love with that feeling, I stay there. Like a kid at a playground, I keep telling myself, just a little bit longer. I put off sleep. I put off eating. I put off working out, answering my phone, and even important yet less attractive work tasks. I'm in the zone, and I only leave once I physically can't see anymore. Seriously, I've put so much screen time in before that my eyes physically couldn't focus. Out of fear that I was going blind, I left my car where I was working and had my mother take me to the optometrist. The good news, I wasn't going blind. Also, good news, I would finally get to wear glasses, something that I'd always wanted but didn't need, thanks to 20/20 vision. (Yes, I thought wearing glasses was cool.) So here I am today with the equivalent of sunglasses for the computer sitting prominently on my face when I'm working. Working, but definitely with a more sobered version from that of the workers high.

While I love feeling the workers high, it's dangerous, and it's unsustainable. After a few months of crazy binge-working, I crash...hard. I can barely get out of bed, can barely think, and would sometimes sleep for an entire weekend. Not healthy. I've heard many of the same stories in the time I've spent talking to other entrepreneurs. I'm not unique in experiencing the downsides of this work derived high and have seen its effects hit people in some pretty unfortunate ways. To prevent me from going too far down that rabbit hole, I've learned that binge-working should be kept at a minimum, and I invite you to do the same.

Lesson #5: Take responsibility, even when it hurts, and particularly when it technically wasn't your fault.

I learned early in life to take responsibility for my mistakes. It sucks, but it's worth it. At times this ownership has caused people and businesses to walk away. In other situations, it has been what kept individuals and organizations around. More times than not, the ownership of problems has been appreciated.

Whether people decide to stay or leave is not the real reason you take responsibility. The truth is when you take responsibility; you also put yourself in the mindset to become the problem-solver. When a problem isn't "yours," it's usually easier to find reasons not to find a solution to it. Ownership makes you a stakeholder; it makes you a leader, making you a force on the outcome. I encourage you to take responsibility, even when it hurts.

Lesson #6: Your expertise is only as relevant as your curiosity.

In the marketing industry, the effectiveness of a communication channel is directly related to its saturation. As more people begin to use a channel, the ability for clear messages to be heard is reduced. Take social media, for example; being an influencer on social media was way more effective in 2010 than in 2020. Why? Because the number of influencers was smaller, their voices were louder, and the penetration of each message to an audience was 10 fold.

Why do I point this out? If you were an expert social media marketer in 2010, your tactics were much more effective. If you haven't changed those tactics in the last 10 years, you probably see pretty average, if not below average, results. The punchline? If you stopped being curious, stopped analyzing, and stopped iterating, you stopped being an expert as well.

The marketing industry isn't unique in its constant changes. Every business, startup and thought leader's role is to push the envelope, innovate, and shake up the status quo. Netflix did it to Blockbuster. Facebook did it to Myspace. Amazon did it to all of retail. Your expertise is only as relevant as your curiosity, so never stop being curious and be wary of those who use their past results as a reason to resist the "trends" of their industry.

Final thoughts...for now.

I hope that you save, share, and cherish these lessons from a 26-year-old agency owner. Like you, I'm still learning. Keep going; your progress only stops when you stop.

Cheering you on!

Urina Harrell

Founder of Vox Pop Branding , Vox Pop Kids & UrinaHarrell.com

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About the Creator

Urina Harrell

Urina Harrell is a marketer, creative, small business advocate, and children's book author who writes on a diverse range of topics. Visit Urina's website at urinaharrell.com or follow her on IG @urina_harrell or Twitter @justlikerina.

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