Starting an agency sounded like the perfect next step for me. I had clients, I had momentum, and I thought I knew what it would take to run a successful business.
But here’s the truth: my first agency cost me $45,000 in losses over two years (basically the price of two Hermès bags). Closing it was painful, but it also gave me the biggest business lessons of my life—lessons I now carry into my new agency, The Sell Well.
Let me break down what went wrong, what I’m doing differently, and the number one deadly mistake that I see most new agency founders making.
For context, my first agency was a talent management agency where I was working with Canadian influencers in motherhood and lifestyle niche and I helped them pitch to brands and get them paid partnerships.
In my new agency, The Sell Well, we do talking head and voice over video editing and offer content creation packages for service providers (like photographers, interior designers, makeup artists) so they can build a consistent social media presence to get more clients on social media. So the two business are different in services that we offer but the sales and client acquisition structure was very similar.
The 3 Mistakes That Cost Me $45,000
Looking back, there were three crucial mistakes that led me to lose so much money and eventually close the talent management agency.
1. I Didn’t Focus on Getting New Clients
I signed three influencers and built my entire business around them. I didn’t put energy into building new relationships, sharing about the business on social media, or creating systems to bring in more clients. I relied on referrals and hope, and that’s not a strategy for the business to actually grow.
2. Legacy Pricing
When I first started, I offered the lowest possible rates just to land clients and leave my 9–5 job. But I never raised those prices. For two years, I worked at the same rates, even as my experience and value grew. Eventually, resentment set in, and I lost all motivation to keep going. Which is also why I never looked for new clients for this business because I kept thinking “well, what’s the point anyway?”
For context, I had a full-time influencer marketing consulting client and I spend all of my waking time and energy focusing on my work with them, especially since they were the one who paid all of my bills.
3. Contracting Costs Exceeded Revenue
Because I was juggling influencer consulting client while I was running the talent management agency, I hired someone brilliant to take over the management side for the agency and focus on building relationships with new brands, day-to-day communication and pitching. She was amazing—but her monthly fee was higher than what I earned from my clients. For 18 months straight, I was losing $2,000 every month.
And I knew that this was the problem (I am not *that* dumb) but I always kept thinking that next month is going to get less busy with my influencer consulting client and that will be the time for me to look for new clients to grow the agency. The time never came, of course. The business just ran itself to the ground until I had to pull the plug and let go of my brilliant support person and leave all my clients (with a 2-month notice!).
That’s how I ended up with a $45,000 loss.
Why I Decided to Try Again
For a full year, I told everyone (especially myself) that I was done with agency life. I convinced myself I wasn’t cut out for it.
But then in March, everything changed.
At a business retreat in Palm Springs with The Founder’s Table, one of the speakers, Shay Bacani, CFO & Financial Strategist at Centure Financial, asked us to write down our financial goals for 2025. I wrote down $200,000. She then asked us to break down 3 key actions we would do to hit this goal this year, which was a pretty straightforward task: “I need to get X 1:1 clients and then X group coaching students to hit this goal”. Easy.
Then she asked, “What 3 actions would you take if that was your monthly goal?”
That question hit me like a brick wall. I realized that with just coaching, taking into account all the resources that I have right now, I couldn’t reach that kind of income sustainably. I was still running a one-woman show.
So I started thinking differently. What would it take to build something scalable, something that didn’t rely entirely on me?
That’s when I birthed The Sell Well — my second agency, but one built on completely different foundations.
What I’m Doing Differently with The Sell Well
The number one deadly mistake most new agency founders make is building a business that relies entirely on them.
They:
- Say yes to everything, then scramble to deliver
- Hire too late and without structure
- Become the bottleneck for every decision
- End up resenting the business they built
I’ve made all of those mistakes before with my previous agency, my consulting clients and my coaching business. And this time, I’m intentionally avoiding them (because it’s time to finally learn from my mistakes!).
My biggest focus is to build a founder-independent agency from day 1.
Here’s how I’m building a founder-independent agency:
1. Systems First
Before taking on any clients, I built SOPs, templates, workflows, communication best practices before I took any clients and I keep optimizing and adding on with the new clients we get
2. Smart Hiring Model
I hired a small but mighty team — 3 amazing contractors who work per project. That means no overhead I can’t afford, and no pressure to make payroll if a slow month hits.
3. Calculated Margins
I’ve priced every offer based on real numbers and not because I am trying to run away from my full-time job. I know my profit margin per service, including my own time and business expenses calculated into everything I offer.
And the best part is that I’ve been working 4 days a week and I just had my first $10,000 month in over 15 months.
What Losing $45,000 Taught Me
Yes, it sucked. Big time.
But I now treat that experience like I earned a Master’s degree in exactly what not to do when building a service-based business.
It taught me how to face failure, talk openly about it online, and rebuild something better.
And that’s the real reason I’m sharing this. Because I know I’m not the only one who’s made expensive mistakes in business — but not everyone talks about it.
Final Thoughts
If you’re starting (or restarting) an agency, learn from my mistakes:
- Don’t rely on a handful of clients.
- Don’t lock yourself into low prices.
- Don’t become the bottleneck.
And most importantly, don’t build something that depends entirely on you.
Because the truth is—your business should work for you, not the other way around.
If you’re curious about how I help service providers scale their social media presence and build profitable content systems, check out The Sell Well and see how we can work together.
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