Planning to start a
Marketing and Advertising Agency of your own? As a successful Marketing and Advertising Agency owner you wish to add services to your existing portfolio so as to cross-sell them to your current client base and increase your revenues.
In either of the scenarios let's see what you would need if you wish to focus on your core activity of servicing your clients and building ideas and campaigns for them. You would need:-
- Manpower
- Infrastructure
- Software Packages and other Overheads
- Capital for Salaries, Infrastructure, Overheads and Training Costs
- Backup Resources
- Marketing and Sales Plan
Day by day, with competition intensifying and trimming bottom lines for most of the businesses, it would not be prudent to invest your hard earned money and venture into the risky oceans of the business world. Also, add to this the constraints of a tight budget, turning around or adopting a new business and service delivery model due to change in market requirements and economic conditions would be virtually impossible.
So, what would be the perfect risk-mitigated plan to tap into the business opportunity and yet avoid squeezing chunks of cash out of your modest budget? The best and most cost-effective solutions for doing so are:-
1. White Label Solutions:- Using a
White Label Solution you can leverage the capabilities and product offerings of a vendor who has been successfully delivering the services that you wish to sell/market. You can also look to package them with your existing services and build cost-effective packaged solutions for your existing and future clients. The biggest advantage of a White Label Solution as compared to a Reseller Program is the ability to determine the prices at which you wish to sell the services which you deem fit for the situation and opportunity. Also, you would be able to give a tremendous boost to your brand name in your client and peer network. The success of working with a White Label Solution provider deeply lies on one factor that they relieve you of all background tasks like Pre Sales, Content, Design, Visualization, Technical Support etc. and let you focus on your Core Competencies i.e. Client Communication, Client Servicing and Strategizing.
2. Virtual Back Office:- For those who don't wish to be tied in the shackles of a product offering and service delivery model of a vendor delivering White Label Solutions, there is an alternate: they can tap into the opportunity of hiring a virtual back-office to support all Client Servicing functions. You have the flexibility of developing your packages, package offerings, pricing, delivery model and designing customer servicing and support systems. It's almost like hiring an employee except you are at liberty to choose the number of hours for which you wish to hire the employee, as per your changing work requirements. Along with that, you are also freed from spending on employee overheads like benefits, training, leaves, etc. Such a model also ensures availability of resources at all times without having to worry about replacements in case the resource leaves, or substitutes when the resource is on long absence from work. Most vendors charge for these services on hourly basis. To a large extent, the success of such a model depends on vendor capabilities which comprise their team size, their talent pool, skill set of their talent pool and backup resource plan. Companies with a talent pool having multiple skill sets are ideally in the best position to deliver you such services.
3. Subcontracting or Hiring Independent Contractors:- Rated as one of the cheapest methods without having to incur the cost of hiring full-time or part-time in-house employees. Though this model is the cheapest, it is highly manpower-centric and contractor dependent. Turnaround and service deliveries are highly dependent on contract availability and again, this method lacks a backup strategy in case the contractor wishes to terminate working with you.
There is an old saying, "Make hay while the sun shines," so when you see an opportunity to take a plunge into the business world to make your business work, all you need is a partner who could assist you in building the enterprise of your success and is a catalyst in your growth plans.
As an agency, to see how you can partner with someone for your success, please see the presentation at