🤡 Think You Want An Agency?

I get a lot of emails from subscribers about selling local SEO and starting an agency.

And I always try to keep things realistic cause while the revenue can be good, there’s a lot of bullshit, too.

And not everyone is built for the bullshit.

People Can’t Read

If I had to pick one thing about running an agency and having clients that you probably won’t expect it is the inability of people to be able to read.

Actually I don’t know if it’s a reading problem or a reading comprehension problem.

I try to anticipate issues like this, which is why I pre-answer people’s questions when they start working with us.

For example, I tell them when to expect a report and let them know that we’ll be busy working on their project until it’s report time.

Without fail, I get emails asking ‘when report?’ and ‘I want a status update.’

I also make it clear that no one is scheduled to work on weekends or American holidays. Though I have one guy who sometimes does, but still, people shouldn’t expect it.

Right now we’ve got the bonus of it being a holiday weekend, meaning no one is working until Tuesday.

You know where this story is going, right?

Last week a client emailed ‘when report?’ and I replied with the answer and, anticipating the next question, I gave that answer.

This morning, another email from this client with the question I’d already anticipated….and answered.

I could have responded, but I try to avoid answering emails on weekends and holidays because I can’t set the expectation that someone will answer on weekends and holidays.

This person has now emailed every single email address that was discoverable for me (and probably a few that aren’t mine) ….demanding that I reply.

For a non-urgent question that was actually answered last week.

And this isn’t the first time a client has pulled a stunt like this.

I have a feeling this happens more to women-led agencies than male-led agencies. But since people are generally asshats, I assume it happens at every agency.

Usually when this happens, I raise my rates cause it’s always someone paying very little causing all the nonsense.

Sometimes I just refund money and fire the client cause life’s too short to deal with nonsense. That’s what will happen on Tuesday with this one.

Coming up…

More on what I’m working on and how it’s going.

Stay awesome,

Shawna

P.S. If you’re looking for high level discussions or tips on things like local SEO and Rank & Rent, I highly recommend Jacky Chou’s Advise community. I’ve been in it for over a year now (I think?) and there’s tons of value in it, including a SOP for local SEO.

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