Digital Position™ Update: We're On Track To Hit $5M This Year
This is a follow up story for Digital Position™. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published about 3 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
Hello everyone! I’m Roger, the founder of Digital Position, a digital performance marketing agency. I last posted Digital Position’s Starter Story a year ago. Marketing changes so damn fast, so 1 year is quite a long time in my world!
Since my last update, Digital Position landed on the Inc. 5000 fastest growing companies in the US! We came in at number 1,581 with 402% growth over the last 3 years.
My original goal when starting Digital Position was to cross $1mm by the time I was 30 and grow a culture where employees love working at the company. I’ve been so blessed to be able to have accomplished both of those things.
In the past year, we gave every employee $2,000 and extra PTO days toward a vacation of their choice in 2022. Seeing amazing pictures come in throughout the year has been a really cool experience. We’ve continued to invest in our team and are going to be close to $5mm this year. November/December we’ll hit our first $400k+ months (projecting $440k-ish) which is a new barrier we’ve been pushing for.
Now my objective has been to continue to grow a special brand and eventually hand the brand off to the amazing people who helped us get there. The ultimate fulfillment would be to hand this off to these amazing people someday. For now, we’re eyeing $30mm in revenue over the next 5-7 years!
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
Since my last update, Digital Position was at a really important inflection point. We had a ton of operational challenges we had to conquer, particularly getting the right people into leadership roles. There are interesting inflection points when you grow a service business. Hiring your first couple of employees is an adjustment. Getting over the hump of 10-12 employees is a big one. But getting over 20 employees was a huge inflection point, this is where you really figure out how to run an organization. We crossed that threshold during my last update, and are now almost at 30 employees full time.
I wasn’t a proper CEO until this year. Now that I’ve stepped into this role, truly, I can’t even begin to describe how much my life has improved.
We’ll be close to hitting $5mm this year, but in reality, we had to pause on growth initiatives to really scale the organization in the first half of 2022 (which you can see reflected in the below growth chart except the 1 spike from holiday 2021). New processes across the board, elevating a leadership team, improving the org chart, rebranding, forming a new support department, etc. were all part of this inflection point.
We grew simply through continuing to network with other agencies who provide services that we don’t and by doing our own blog content. We drive 1 lead per day from our website on average, and we also get an intro from a network connection 1-2x per week.
Here’s what a really unique 30+ person digital marketing agency org chart looks like:
We’re finally at the point in our organization where we can properly launch new services. Thus, we’re currently working on branching into TikTok & creative to support our PPC initiatives. When we launch a service, we want to make sure we do it right. We’ve got Google Ads & SEO nailed down so well at this point that it’s made more sense for us.
Lastly, I’ve also invested in a small business Digital Marketing agency called SparkLaunch (in process of….launching). We’re getting 1-2 leads per day at this point with Digital Position and weren’t monetizing all the leads we didn’t want, so this second agency will be geared toward getting smaller brands some traction so they can be ready to hop to Digital Position down the line. This has been really exciting as well!
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
In a service business, people are always the biggest challenge. Humans are inherently emotional, their needs change over time, they’re influenced by perceptions & media they digest, and in short are constantly changing. People are your product in a service business, relationships are really important.
Adapting to the organization's changing needs, maternity leaves, training new hires, removing toxic relationships, etc. are all a key part of the job.
The Peter Principle is really difficult in a rapidly growing company. Everyone in an organization tends to rise to their level of incompetence. Someone who makes a GREAT PPC or SEO Account Lead just may not make a great PPC or SEO Manager. These are very different roles and responsibilities. But everyone wants to grow, so how do you handle that?
In our situation, we had some really good pieces who rose to levels where they were not great fits anymore. This was really hard, because Digital Position almost never loses employees. However, we had to mutually part ways with some key roles and promote new people within those positions.
This was life changing for me. Prior to being able to let some pieces of the team walk and filling them in with better fits, I was still managing some clients / way too far in the weeds every day / managing operations / etc.
I wasn’t a proper CEO until this year. Now that I’ve stepped into this role, truly, I can’t even begin to describe how much my life has improved.
The hard part was having the heart to let these people walk and explaining to the team that we were going to be OK and then proving that. I care so much about every teammate, but now I’ve learned that I need to prioritize my whole team & culture over everything. No exceptions.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
I love a good bulleted list!
- Once you’ve developed a reliable gut, follow it.
- Move on from toxic relationships ASAP. Everyone is better for it.
- Personalize your org chart to your people, don’t cram people into roles.
- Have a rock solid leadership team around you.
- “90/10” rule, progress over perfection. Speed in marketing is everything.
- Nobody wants to fire a friend. Be authentic and you’ll attract people you want to work with.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
In the upcoming year, 3 priorities:
- Hire 5-6 more people
- Nail holiday for our clients
- Launch TikTok & creative as a service
In the next 5 years
- Grow to $20-$30mm
- Promote a new CEO from within
- Take a step back and become a board member
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
Network, network, network. The more people you know the more you can pick different things to learn from different people. There are a million gurus out there, so many are willing to chat with you and give you tips.
I had a woman who follows me on LinkedIn reach out to me and ask for a quick call to ask questions. She came prepared to ask 5-10 questions on how I would solve her complex challenges. I took the call for free and enjoyed my conversation helping her out. Very smart of her. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there!
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
We’re looking for 2-3 more PPC Account Leads and 1-2 more SEO Account Leads. These roles are our client facing roles that manage a book of business of 7-10 client relationships. They drive strategy and performance for the clients with our support team behind them to help get stuff done the account leads need help with!
One of my proudest accomplishments has been our Glassdoor reviews. You can check out how people like working for Digital Position here.
To apply, you can do so here.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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