The Biggest Myths About Scaling Your SMMA

Author

Toussaint Gilbert
January 01, 2025

It’s Toussaint Gilbert

Today we’ll be addressing some common myths in the agency space.

(est 1.5 min).

Deep Dive

1. Addressing the Experience Myth

  • How do I know if I’m experienced enough to charge $3K+ retainers?

  • Won’t clients expect more from me if I charge high-ticket prices? How do I deliver on those expectations?

  • If I’ve never worked with a big client, how can I confidently position myself as a premium agency?

Your experience isn’t relevant towards the price you charge, your value is.

Now, that doesn’t mean you can go charging crazy prices if you don’t have viable case studies and proof that you’ve done it before.

However, if you have real proof that you can do what you claim there is no reason for you to price your services cheap.

The price you charge equates to how much value you offer, and usually the best way to confirm your value perception to a buyer is through price.

Yes, they will expect more however by charging higher ticket you can now afford the talent to deliver more.

The easiest way to position yourself as a premium agency is to cheap

2. Tackling the Saturation Fear

  • Isn’t the agency space already too crowded for me to stand out? How do I compete with established agencies?

  • What’s the truth about “saturation”? Does it really mean there’s no room for me?

  • How do I find a niche or angle that helps me break through the competition?

Whenever I think about starting a new agency for myself or for my clients/partners, I ONLY think of niches that are saturated.

Why?

Saturation doesn’t mean you can’t win.

Saturation means the best man wins.

All saturation tells me is that the demand in a market is proven. All I have to do is use my skill & expertise to tap into that demand.

If we think about this as pure economics… If something is considered “saturated” it means the supply identified a market with high demand.

Otherwise, it would have never gotten “saturated” in the first place.

So I would place less emphasis on the niche your in and more emphasis on improving your offer, lead gen, sales, service delivery, systems.

3. Overcoming the Systems Excuse

  • Do I really need perfect systems in place before scaling? What should I prioritize first?

  • How do I manage scaling when my agency’s processes still feel messy or incomplete?

  • Can I scale while still learning and building my systems, or will that hurt my growth long-term?

No, the funniest part about this is I hit $106k/mo without even having a CSM.

The thing is you don’t NEED systems, but your operations and team will literally be in chaos if you don’t have systems.

With every partner I work with in my 1-on-1 we scale them to $10k-$15k per month first to prove the business, then we slow down and systemize things before going to $50k/mo.

The thing with systems is you will never build them to perfection or completeness.

Having great systems is an ongoing learning and adjusting process that provides maximum efficiency do your biz and overall life.

Toussaint