The Early Days Podcast by DULO
Technology:Podcasting
Discussing how to building a design agency from scratch with Matt Ellis, founder of Honcho Agency
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https://weardulo.com
Matt Ellis is the founder of Honcho, a design agency specializing in web design and development.
Matt’s built Honcho from scratch and without knowing much about the agency world. He simply learned to dive into new opportunities head first and figure out how to do things as he’s going along. It’s a piece of advice he shared a few times during our conversation. We also talked about hiring first employees, pricing strategies, finding clients, running a remote company and much more. It’s an episode rich on resources and tools that will help a lot of you to automate and facilitate processes around your own businesses. If you work at a small agency or run a remote team, this is a very useful episode to listen to.
Topics we cover in this episode:
01:50 - Who is Matt Ellis and what does he do
02:34 - How Matt got into web development
05:49 - Saying "Yes" to things even if you don't know how to do them
07:23 - Learning to do web development properly
08:30 - From freelancer to founder of a design agency
10:30 - Learning how to build an agency
11:40 - Hiring the first employee at Honcho
12:55 - Freeing more time for learning and business development
15:40 - Finding clients in the early days and financial security
17:18 - Balancing a financial forecast with hiring
19:00 - Switching from a product focus to a sales and business development one
20:30 - Tools to help with automation to free up more time
23:30 - How to choose which prospects to approach
29:55 - Where does conversion happen
31:00 - Pricing strategies: project-based vs. retainers
35:00 - Providing more value to others by learning more about your own business
35:20 - Working remotely
36:20 - Running a remote company - the process and tools
40:10 - Fluid processes and trust
41:50 - Getting new clients
42:46 - Acquiring new clients through Adwords
44:10 - Future plans for the Honcho agency
48:05 - Links and handles
FULL LIST of Useful Resources and Links: https://weardulo.com/blogs/the-early-days-podcast/say-yes-first-figure-it-out-later
S2E28 - Jackie Fast: How to ask for help when you are just starting
S2E27 - 6 lessons from 12 months of building DULO
S2E26 - How to protect your IP, patents, and going door to door
Slog 54 - Influencer efforts continue
Slog 53 - Influencer Campaign
Building a Product vs. Building a Business
Slog 52 - IG live question, merch and a cool podcast.
Finding Joy In Work Through Play And The Importance Of Quitting
Slog 51 - It's been a confusing week
S2E23 - Skip the gatekeeper and go directly to your audience
Slog 50 - A bit monotone, but important
Slog 49 - Do you like the background music?
S2E22 - How a passion grows into a business, Dale Spoonmore
Slog 48 - DULO at the Emmys
Slog 47 - Birds and new prices
S2E21 - How to grow at your own, comfortable pace
Slog 46 - Nearly forgot to record this one
Slog 45 - Busy Saturday
S2E20 - How to decide when to leave or stay in a job?
Slog 44 - Some new ideas brewing
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