Choose your crop

Over the summer, I stayed on a farm deep in the French countryside.

Having grown up in rural England, I expected my hosts to be tied up in a bustle of hard work. Tractors out from dawn 'til dusk. Barely a moment to chat.

But everything was very quiet. The family was at home, enjoying the summer, and relaxed.

Because this was an asparagus farm.

Their harvest finishes in early June, and by then they've sold most of their crop (at a high price, because it's a delicacy), and preserved the rest in jars which get sold throughout the year.

So they take the summer off, when most other farmers are at their busiest.

What you choose to produce and sell for your clients has a direct effect on your quality of life — in an agency just as on the farm.

So many agencies end up running around like crazy, responding pronto to ad-hoc client requests for all sorts of services. If they were a farm they'd be a patchwork of fields growing different low value crops, keeping them busy and stressed all year.

But the calm, healthy ones have mindfully designed their service offering to fit around how they want to work. They focus on one or two high value crops, where the work can fit around their ideal life.

Choosing your crop is choosing your life. And so it's one of the key ways the founder needs to steer the sales part of AgencyOps. What exactly is it that you sell? And what is it you won't sell?