Half of the year is gone. The summer months are upon us in the Northern Hemisphere and a combination of exhaustion and warmer weather may leave us feeling the Summer Slump.
Even if your business is basically still chugging along, you may experience the feeling of fatigue and a desire to get away from the business.
So what should you do to make sure you set yourself up for success in the final sprint to the end of the year that will start in September?
I’ll share some suggestions a bit later in this week’s newsletter, but first let’s look at 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
- How to handle your team when they don’t love your clients (Agency Leadership Podcast)
Articles & Blog Posts
- Sales Cycles Are Longer – You Need a Follow Up Plan (RSW/US)
- How Successful Agencies Use Strategic Pricing To Win Big (Bureau of Digital)
- Beyond the whisper: When a desire becomes an invitation (Anchor Advisors)
- Why the PESO Model© is Right For High-Velocity Industries (Spin Sucks)
- Discovering Your Unique Ability (Punctuation)
Podcast Episodes
- Stop Churn for Long-Term Client Retention, with Chip Griffin (The Innovative Agency)
- The PESO Model© Is Your Marketing Operating System (Spin Sucks)
- The 3 Key Financial Metrics for Agency Success, with Jon Morris (The Agency Profit Podcast)
- Is Internal Communication Failing? (For Immediate Release)
- Clara Stedman and Ben Engvall, Palmer Advisors – The Dynamics of Agency M&A (Agency Bytes)
- Jared Gibson – Building Personal Brands That Actually Drive Leads (The Digital Agency Growth Podcast)
Video
- Harnessing the PM/AM tension (Bureau of Digital)
- “Should we hire a PR firm to promote our agency?” (The Sutter Company)
- Under The Hood Agency Interviews: Sam Littlefield (RSW/US)
AI in focus
- Bootstrapping With AI: The Startup Story Behind Omneky’s AdTech Success With Hikari Senju (The Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast)
How to get past the Summer Slump
When we were in school, many of us started checking out mentally even before final exams. By the time the last bell rang, we put all academic thoughts out of our heads until the fall.
Educators will tell you, though, that this cycle makes it harder to ramp back up when school is back in. So it may be a few weeks before you’re firing on all cylinders.
In the agency business world, starting the fall with our feet in molasses could hold us back from hitting our goals for the rest of the year.
So we need to find ways to manage through this Summer Slump to set ourselves up for success.
The first step is to admit we’re tired and need a break. Whether that means a big trip or simply a few long weekends, we need to do what works for each of us to recharge the batteries.
Oh, and we need to make sure we encourage our team members to do the same. We all need to be fresh for fall restart.
But the summer is also a great opportunity for all of us to explore new things professionally and develop our skills.
Perhaps you’ve been meaning to experiment more with AI tools or you have a business book or two on the shelf that you haven’t had a chance to get to.
If your inbox is a bit quieter as clients do their own recharging, you could invest in yourself (and, again, encourage your team to do the same).
But perhaps your business needs a more significant reboot.
The planning we do at the end of the year is often shortchanged by the fact that we’re crunching on lots of client projects (and their annual plans!).
So the summer may be a chance to look inward to your own business and develop plans for the future that accelerate growth, improve profitability, or reshape your team.
Maybe you want to schedule a retreat with your team to brainstorm ideas when you’re not all under the pressure of urgent client emails.
If you need a little help, the SAGA website has a wealth of resources on pretty much any topic you could want. Just click the search icon in the top right corner to find articles, podcast episodes, webinars, workbooks, and more.
And, of course, if you want a little more hands-on help, you can reach out to me and we can figure out if something like our Agency Business Checkup might help you power through the Summer Slump and into a Fantastic Fall.
Regardless of how you choose to handle it, you shouldn’t give in to the Summer Slump. Don’t let it frustrate you and sidetrack your progress. Come up with a plan to deal with it head-on.
