The Top 5 Mistakes Agency Owners Make (and How to Avoid Them)
Owning a nanny agency can be an incredibly rewarding experience! With over 20 years of experience working with families and nannies, I have been told we have helped “marriages survive” and “single moms financially provide for their children.” We have created thousands of jobs in our local community and have positively impacted the lives of countless children. Yet, the journey into business ownership was not easy. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, and at MMC, we want to help our clients learn from those mistakes to more quickly and easily achieve success.
Here are some of the most common mistakes I see agency owners make and suggestions for how to avoid them in your agency.
1. Not knowing their target market intimately
Understanding the needs of your target market and how they think is essential to solving their problems. “Families in [your city]” or “Moms with young children” are not your target market because that is way too broad. Your target market needs to be as detailed as possible. Think about it like using a microscope instead of a telescope. You want to narrow down and learn as much as you can about a specific group of people.
To attract Ideal clients to your agency, you need to first identify who they are exactly, identify their problems, and provide a unique solution to those problems.
At Prefered ChildCare we have two target market clients, which we refer to as “Caroline” and “Kathie.” These two clients personify our target market. We know where they live, what they do for work, how they spend their weekends, the age of their children, and the schools their children attend. We know what is important to them and what their fears or hesitations are when it comes to childcare. We know which events they go to, organizations they support, and even what cars they drive! We even have learned to think like them. This information helps us meet their unique needs with a marketing plan that speaks directly to them.
So, how do you get to know your target market intimately? You have a conversation with them! If you are unable to ask for a short chat, consider speaking to the nannies that care for their children. Make sure to keep any NDAs intact but learn what you can about your ideal families’ (or target markets) problems and work to create solutions to solve their problems. They will come to you for the solution since it was made specifically for them!
2. Ignoring their “books”
Your financial reports are to your business what a score board is to football. You aren’t going to know whether you’re achieving your goals if you are ignoring the score. Having accurate books helps you determine what steps to take next. Ensuring each of your service lines has a gross margin of 30% or higher helps to ensure that you can pay for your expenses and still profit. Having your sales and expenses properly categorized can also help you save on your tax liabilities. Knowing your net profit helps you determine when you can make a new hire. Being a business owner requires you to make hundreds of decisions every day. Using your books to guide your decisions helps you make wise decisions quicker.
When you are first starting your business, the idea of bookkeeping and accounting can seem overwhelming. The terms feel foreign and there are so many numbers. Yet, there are also so many solutions out there to help you or teach you to understand your financial reports.
Here are some great resources to get you started:
3. Doing everything themselves
One of the most common mistakes I see agency owners make is lack of foresight. They are passionate, hard-working entrepreneurs who often start their agency out of a desire to help families and nannies find each other. They pour their heart and soul into their company but never think about building a business that works *without* them.
You may believe that you will do things better because you care more, but that is simply not true. I promise that the solo entrepreneur will eventually become exhausted and their “business” will be unscalable and unsellable.
The best path to success is to build repeatable, predictable systems so others can run the operations or day-to-day business. Once you make your first hire, your job will become leading your team in building the business, which means that the goal is not to work within it yourself.
It starts by just writing down the things you do every day: the way you answer the phone, the steps you take to screen a candidate, etc. Write that down, record it on loom, get it out of your head, and create a process. You can clean it up and perfect it later. Once the information is out of your head, you will be able to teach someone else how to do it the exact way you want it done.
4. Reacting Instead of responding
The passion agency owners have for their business is unmatched. They truly care about the families, children, and candidates they work with. It is an incredible thing to experience and be a part of. Taking things personally in your agency is not a sign of weakness, but a reflection of your passion, commitment, and deep sense of responsibility.
However, if that passion leads you to reacting from fear, anger, or stress, it may be a sign that you need to take a step back.
Often when families or candidates are upset it is not because of something you did but because they are stressed, upset, or worried. Their reaction to a situation may cause you to feel personally attacked or worth less. You should know that you cannot control their reactions, you are only responsible and powerful enough to control your own.
So, instead of allowing yourself to go into fight or flight mode and offer unnecessary excuses or apologizes, you should take a moment and a breath. Go for a walk and come back to the situation with a clearer head. The goal is to respond instead of react. Write the email response but save it as a draft. You’ll most likely be glad that you didn’t send it immediately.
5. Not having boundaries
Setting expectations and boundaries from the very beginning of your agency is incredibly important to establishing a successful work-life balance. You should communicate openly from the beginning with both candidates and clients. For example, ensuring your fees and policies are communicated in writing and signed by each client helps avoid any disagreements or surprises when it is time to pay. Also, communicating with candidates only by phone or email helps ensure you are not disturbed by a text in the middle of the night. If you start texting a candidate, do not be surprised when they text you back all hours of the night.
It is much easier to have firm boundaries from the beginning than to try to enforce them with someone who is not used to them.
Having stated business hours and sticking to them will help your clients and candidates know when they can reach you and when you will not be available. Using out-of-office automatic responses is also a great way to remind them when you will be available again.
If you are working late at night to get caught up on tasks, schedule your emails to send the next business day during your open hours. If you fail to set up boundaries or you continue to break them, the people you work with will expect you to be available anytime they need you and may get upset if you are not.
Failure to set boundaries at the very beginning will likely result in frustration, negatively impact the quality of your work, and eventually cause burnout.
Conclusion
We all make mistakes when we are doing something new–that is normal and you should be kind to yourself as you begin this journey. I wrote a blog about my mistakes, which might be reassuring and helpful: “5 Surprising Things I Wish I Knew.”
The important thing is that you learn from your mistakes, learn from others who have gone before you to avoid mistakes, and practice the tried and true methods to achieve success. If you are interested in joining a community that will help you make less mistakes and find success quicker, check out our Arise Community Group! You will be part of a community that supports, helps, and encourages one another along this journey of business ownership.
No matter where you are in your journey, we wish you success and happiness!
XO,
Megan
