Agency owners review 2024 performance, assess outlook
In this episode, Chip and Gini discuss the latest quarterly SAGA owner survey, which provides a mixed bag of results for agencies. They explore key findings, including the cautious optimism displayed by respondents, concerns about economic conditions, and the impact of government policies. Despite the varied performance of agencies, many are still managing to move forward. The discussion also delves into the benefits of project work, the size of client bases, and the lack of mergers and acquisitions activity. Chip and Gini encourage agency owners to stay informed about macroeconomic trends but also to focus on positive strategies to navigate uncertainties. Key takeaways Chip Griffin: “It is certainly helpful to be looking at the big picture, but at the same time, it is important to recognize that the circumstances for every agency are very different, because their clients are different.” Gini Dietrich: “Don’t stick your head in the sand, but also don’t let current affairs completely overwhelm you so that you can’t get anything done.” Chip Griffin: “Despite the struggles, a lot of folks are doing well, which means you can too.” Gini Dietrich: “If revenue is down and you’re kind of struggling, this is a good time to start to market your agency. Start to do your own thought leadership. Start to do the things that you would do for clients to help your business stay afloat and build awareness and stay top of mind.” Resources Small PR and marketing agencies face economic uncertainty with cautious optimism Related What the Q4 SAGA Survey tells us about agency talent SAGA’s Q4 Small Agency Owner Survey finds continued optimism, reveals talent trends Q3 agency owner survey shows overall optimism, but dissatisfaction with state of business development View Transcript The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy. Chip Griffin: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin. Gini Dietrich: And I’m Gini Dietrich. Chip Griffin: And Gini, you’re a little under the weather today. Yeah. So we’re gonna, we’re gonna try to plow through this, but. I appreciate you. Gini Dietrich: This has been a rough, it’s been a rough couple of weeks. Whew. Chip Griffin: I’m glad that you have enough of a voice to actually, you know, participate in this. Gini Dietrich: Yeah. I had to cancel LinkedIn live with Martin Waxman and Deidre Breckenridge last week ’cause I got on and they were like, yep, nope, it was not happening. Chip Griffin: Well, that, that is commitment and I, I do appreciate it. And today we’re gonna, we’re gonna talk about the latest quarterly SAGA owner survey, that we had out in the field, in March. And so we’ve now got the opportunity to take a look and, and see what the results are. And so this particular survey had the usual quarterly outlet questions, where do people think, see things headed? How satisfied are they with their agency? But then we also took a deep dive this quarter on looking at last year’s performance. And I think the, the headline really was that it was sort of a mixed bag mm-hmm. For agencies last year. Mm-hmm. There was no clear trend as far as up or down. It was roughly evenly split amongst the respondents as far as who had good years and who had bad years. But there’s a, there’s a lot of other nuggets in there that I think we can dig into as well. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, I thought it was interesting. I, I, I always think it’s interesting to see the, the quarterly report just because it’s, it’s good to get a sort of pulse on, you know, what we see as well and what we’re hearing and, and I think it, it validated much of what we’re hearing and what we’re seeing. I do find it interesting that there was such a mixed bag, of responses this, this quarter, which doesn’t typically happen. So it’s, it’s curious if it’s industry related or if it’s service related. But it was, it was a pretty good mixed bag, which was, which was interesting