When times are tough, it can be tempting to pursue dramatic change.
But how do you know when revolution is really the right answer instead of evolution?
I’ll explore that a bit later in this newsletter, but first let’s see what Jen has rounded up for us this week.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
Weekly Roundup
Below are some articles, blog posts, podcasts, and videos that we came across during the past week or so that provide useful perspective and information for PR and marketing agency owners. While we don’t necessarily endorse all of the views expressed in these links, we think they are worth your time.
— Jen Griffin, SAGA Community Manager
Latest from SAGA
- Handling early client contract terminations with finesse (Agency Leadership Podcast)
Articles & Blog Posts
- Talent Isn’t Enough: Lessons From The Replacements on Why Firms Fail to Grow (RSW/US)
- The Waterfall of Differentiation (Punctuation)
- How the PESO Model© Breaks Silos and Boosts Results (Spin Sucks)
- Scaling Your Agency with AI: Where to Focus Next (2025) (Sakas and Company)
Podcast Episodes
- Hits And Misses Of The Hot Mess Summer Of 2025 (Solo PR Pro)
- Structured Trust Is the New Currency of Reputation (Spin Sucks)
- When a Key Employee Wants Equity (2Bobs)
- Find Your Agency’s Profit Sweet Spot, with Mandi Ellefson (The Innovative Agency)
- Meeky Hwang, Ndevr – From Code to Courage: A Founder’s Journey in Tech (Agency Bytes)
- Achieving More Freedom as a Creative, with Matt Essam (The Agency Profit Podcast)
Video
AI in focus
- AI, Your Agency and Perpetual (Legal) Motion (Legal + Creative)
- Hacking AI Optimization vs. Doing the Hard Work (For Immediate Release)
Evolution vs Revolution
I know a lot of you are frustrated. The latest jobs report — and the associated doom-and-gloom news cycle that it kicked off — certainly isn’t helping.
Many businesses have been more conservative in their spending this year and that has impacted numerous small PR and marketing agencies.
Maybe your pipeline is slow to move or perhaps you have seen your client base shrink (in dollars or numbers or both).
As frustration begins to boil, I hear from some agency owners who want to blow things up and start over.
Could the solution be to offer a different set of services? Or maybe focus on a different ideal client profile? It could be a shift to productized pricing.
Some might be considering something even more dramatic, like selling, merging, or simply walking away from their businesses.
There are times when a significant and sudden change might make sense, so you shouldn’t rule that out.
But more often than not, it makes more sense to take smaller steps to test your theory.
If you think you want to become something different through a substantial change to your service offering, targeting, or pricing, then you could set up a separate agency brand to pursue that path without undermining your existing business.
Often you can make that change simply by putting up a basic website and filing a trade name form that allows you to keep legal operations within your existing business structure even though you market it differently to the public.
But you might not even need to do that much.
You could start talking with existing or former clients about a new service offering to gauge interest and try to make some initial sales. Or it might be a door opener for prospective clients.
But how do you know whether you should test the waters or swing for the fences?
If you have a stable existing business (even if it is smaller than you would like), I would most often suggest an evolutionary approach. Think of the physician’s motto: first do no harm.
Even if your business has shrunk, if you can still derive sufficient income to meet your needs, evolution may be the more reasonable approach.
If you find yourself shedding employees, cutting your pay, and there’s no near-term path to stabilization, a revolutionary approach might be more reasonable because you have less risk to consider.
But you also need to remember that it is almost always easier to grow an existing business with a positive track record over time instead of starting one from scratch.
So weigh the pros and cons of a revolutionary approach before jumping headlong into the idea.
Any time you can get real world feedback from the market — through actual signed agreements — you gain an edge in finding the right path forward.
Of course, revolutionizing your business can lead to big gains for your business, but it comes with greater risk for even more substantial setbacks. Only you know your risk tolerance.
Don’t stand still if you’re not satisfied with where things stand for your agency. Remember that tough times usually pass in business as long as you continue to adapt.
