Starting from scratch

"The best time to start an agency is in a recession," someone said to me this week.

I've heard this a lot before.

It's true that many agencies do get started in a recession — because that's when people get laid off from corporate jobs — but that doesn't mean it's a better time than any other.

There is a perception among seasoned founders, though, that it'd be so great to start with a blank page again — making decisions without all the responsibility and legacy factors to contend with.

Being a small nimble startup, rather than having to consider dozens of staff members, five-year leases, and long term relationships with existing clients.

Can you feel the freedom in those words?!

But an existing agency has massive advantages over a new startup: reputation, relationships, a team, ways of working, financial reserves and so on.

That is the best place to start from.

Every business needs regular rethinking and redesigning, and it's possible to re-inject that startup freedom and energy without starting from scratch.

Jeff Bezos famously says "It's always day one," and he's done okay for himself.

So this week, think about the agency you would design if you were starting up now. What would be your market, and your offer? What would you charge, and how?What roles would you hire? How would you win clients? What would your culture be? And so on.

Then compare that fresh start business to your current agency. Could you make some of those changes, or use some of those ideas, now?

What does your agency's new day one look like?