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
The Early Days Podcast S2E2 - Armin Ghojehvand
The Early Days Podcast S2E1 - Konstantinos Synodinos
Origins #44 -- DIY Product Photography
Origins #43 -- Sticking to who you are
Origins #42 -- Taking time off in December
Origins #26 -- Practicality
Origins #25 -- Commitment to quality
Origins #24 -- BrandCraft
Origins #23 -- Planning our first collection
TDS 20 -- DevLifts
Origins #22 -- The DULO Show
Origins #21 - New vlog gear & first original segment
TDS 19 - Lynne Tye, Key Values
Origins #20 -- On a Call with Our Supplier
Origins #19 -- Good Ideas and Opportunities
Origins #18 -- Setting Up Shop
TDS 18 - Chris Rasker, KANE
Origins #17 -- Initial Product Feedback
TDS 17 - Peter Larsson, The FLAWD podcast
Origins #16 -- Julian Back Home
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