When agency owners hit $100K in revenue, they typically start to optimize the wrong thing.
They look at their numbers and think, “I need to get more efficient. Tighten operations. Systematize delivery.“
They’re not wrong. But they’re not right either.
Here’s what I’ve watched happen dozens of times:
An agency owner hits $100K, gets serious about “running a real business,” and spends the next 18 months building systems for a company that doesn’t exist yet. Elaborate SOPs for a team of two. Project management setups designed for 50 clients when they have 8. Pricing models with 17 variables.
Meanwhile, revenue flatlines. Usually dips too.
The trap is mistaking infrastructure for growth.
I see this a lot with agency owners who finally get a little breathing room: some cash in the bank, a few months of runway. Instead of using that calm to sell without desperation, they treat it like permission to stop selling and start tinkering. Brand refresh. New service lines. Overhauled systems.
Six months later, they’ve burned half their runway and still have the same pipeline problem. Just with a nicer logo.
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If your outreach is working—even a little—pausing and building infrastructure is the wrong move.
When something is working, don’t stop doing it. Do more of it!
Too many agency owners use success as a signal to let off the gas and try to coast off the momentum. But if you do plan on growing and scaling, the best time to accelerate is when you already have momentum. It’s significantly more difficult to do that from scratch.
What about all that infrastructure you’re tempted to build? That Notion OS you fantasize about having? The automations you could wire up? The new website you want to launch that none of your prospects actually asked for?
Don't solve problems you don’t have yet.
By all means, find a little time to fix some things that are slowing you down. But remember: process gets forged by doing the work, usually during the work, not by theorizing in advance. There’s a fine line between the systems you need now and the systems you need later, and most agency owners can’t spot when they’ve crossed it.
The systems you build before you need them usually get torn down anyway, because you built them for a business that doesn't exist yet.
At $100K, you can’t optimize your way to $500K. You have to sell your way there.
The systems come after the revenue that demands them, not before.
I don’t know of many agencies that have gone out of business because their operations were messy. I know of many agencies that have gone out of business because they didn’t bring in enough revenue and create enough profit.
Are you building infrastructure because the business demands it or because it feels more comfortable than selling?
If you’re honest and the answer stings a little, hit reply and tell me what you’ve been building instead of selling. I’ll tell you whether it’s actually premature.
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