Your agency is not 'like a family'.
I know this common analogy is well-intentioned, but it's a path to frustration and disappointment for everyone — especially founders.
But, at the same time, it’s useful to have a way to describe how much more open, human and close-knit agency working relationships are compared to corporate life.
So I prefer to say that an agency culture is like a good neighbourhood.
It’s a group of people, choosing to live (work) closely, who can have a big impact on each other’s quality of life.
You live in separate homes and have private lives. You’re primarily interested in having a nice home, protecting it, and growing its value.
But in service of that you help each other out, work on improving the neighbourhood, socialise, and so on.
You may have the occasional bit of friction that needs to be dealt with. To minimise that you must treat each other with respect and care, as it’s problematic to fall out.
People will most likely move out one day — and that’s not a problem. You can celebrate that they’re progressing in life and have found the next home on their journey.
If you’ve all made it into a really good neighbourhood, you’ll then attract great new neighbours to the house, on their own journey.
No analogy is perfect, but a bad analogy sets up the wrong dynamic, and leads to a mismatch in expectations.
So rather than working with your ‘family’ today, spend it with your ‘neighbours’.