Well, that didn't work. Lessons learned from running an agency.

Well, that didn’t work.

Jason Siffring @siffring

Treat your business like a science experiment.

• Hiring (and firing)

• Managing a (Remote) Team

• Sales & Marketing

• 8 year old web development studio

• Based in Chicago

• 7 employees + 4 contractors

• Completely remote team

Hiring(Always be doing it.)

Does this sound familiar?

• Your new contractor started off strong, but has missed every deadline.

• They over promise and under-deliver.

• When the going gets tough, they go silent.

• They stop returning phone calls.

I can’t find good people!

If you start looking for help when you need it,

you waited too long.

You had me at Trello

Your first hire

Your first fire

People don’t change(Generally)

Take Action

➡ Start a Trello board, Google Doc, etc. to track potential hires

➡ Brainstorm three people you might like to work with

➡ Schedule coffee, lunch or phone call with one of them “just to catch up”

Hiring Resources

• Trello board we use for hiring

• Trello board we use for on-boarding

Managing a (remote) team

Force communication that would happen

naturally in an office

How do you know if they’re working?

Daily Virtual Standup

1:1

Weekly Pair Meetings

(This is our hallway conversation.)

Monthly Show & Tell

Delegation is easier with documentation

You’re already delegating!

• Amazon Subscribe-n-Save

• Photoshop Macros

• Scripts and reusable code libraries

• DRY code

What works for 3 people doesn’t always work

for 5, 10, etc.

Take Action

➡ Schedule a monthly 1:1 meeting with each of your team members

➡ Put it in the calendar!

➡ Identify one thing you’re spending time on that you can train someone else to do

Management Resources• “What to Expect when You Start Having 1 on 1s

with Your Team”

• “The 12 Week Year” -Brian Moran

• Surprise Highway Playbook

• Thoughtbot Playbook

• Zirtual - US based virtual assistants

Sales(Always be doing it)

We don’t have enough work!

Sell, sell, sell

We have too much work!

Work, work, work

Repeat

20 emails 6 meetings

1 client $120,484

Use a CRM• Spreadsheet

• Highrise

• Trello

• Contactually

• Pipedrive

• Close.io

Follow up!

–The Magic Email by Kurt Elster

“Since I have not heard from you on this, I have to assume your priorities have changed.”

Recurring Revenue is Magic

Recurring Revenue is Magic

Recurring Revenue is Magic

surprisehighway.com/website-maintenance

Take Action

➡ Block out 1 hour in your calendar every week for sales.

➡ Early in the week. Early in the day.

➡ surprisehighway.com/website-maintenance

Sales Resources

• “Million Dollar Consulting” -Alan Weiss

• Boomerang for Gmail

• Productize course -Brian Casel

• 30x500 course -Amy Hoy

• Wheelhouse productized services directory

Marketing(Always be doing it.)

Take your own advice

windy.io

Outsource your weakness

Content Creation philipmorganconsulting.com

Designshapingthepage.com

Development(cough) surprisehighway.com (cough)

Marketing Resources

• “The Positioning Manual” -Philip Morgan

• Drip simple marketing automation

Let’s get real

You have all the skills you need to be successful.

You “just” need to change your habits.

Surprise!(This talk is really about habits.)

Three things can change behavior in the long term:

1. Have an epiphany

2. Change your environment

3. Take baby steps

–BJ Fogg, Stanford PhD tinyhabits.com

How to Form Tiny Habits

• Pick something you do frequently

• Identify a trigger

• Reward yourself

My New HabitsWhen my feet hit the floor first thing in the morning…

I tell myself, “Today is going to be a good day.”

After I brush my teeth… I floss one tooth.

When I sit down at my desk in the morning… I identify one thing I need to get done that day.

Accountability

Take Action

➡ Choose one thing you’re going to do differently next week to improve your business

➡ Tweet, email or text me your one thing

➡ I will follow up on Friday to see if you did it.

@siffring [email protected] (415) 305-1992

surprisehighway.com/peers