Collaboration is popping up everywhere on today’s business teams.

Let’s face it—selling your agency on your own can be a full-time job and a challenge alongside running your agency. Before you jump into the deep end, there are a number of steps you can take that will help you make this process as smooth as possible. When you think you’re ready to sell your agency, take a few deep breaths, and they get ready to plan, plan, plan!

Marketing often feels like herding cats, doesn’t it? It feels that way to company leadership, and often it feels that way to many of the people working in your marketing department. Marketing has become a broad discipline in just about every modern business, responsible for a dizzying array of tasks, campaigns, and deliverables. And in an environment like this, it’s no surprise that tasks and deliverables start falling through the cracks.

Whether you’re practicing scrum or kanban, it’s all about pulling a team together with a variety of tools to create a high-performance environment that maximizes productivity. Backlog grooming is part of that — and it’s a meaningful way to keep product development organized and running smoothly. Where scrum meetings are concerned, it means doing more than hosting a simple sprint planning meeting to develop a product roadmap.

Successful projects require successful project planning and careful documentation. This is true in predictable environments like manufacturing, where a range of traditional project management practices dominates project planning. But what about creative environments? What does it look like to plan and document creative projects successfully?

After working with and interviewing hundreds of agency owners on my podcast Agency Life, one thing seems to ring true for all—the journey to starting an agency is often wide and varied. And while that path is different for everyone, their backstories are unanimously fascinating. Most agency owners I’ve spoken to had never run a business before starting their agency, but they had a deep passion for helping other businesses grow.

As a founder or leader at a small business, growth is incredibly exciting — it means the thing you’re building is working, gaining steam, and growing market share. But growth can be painfully complicated, too. You’ll inevitably reach a point where there’s more to do than you or your current team can get done — but is there enough work to justify hiring a new employee? In this quick guide, we’ll show you how to decide when it’s time to hire.

Knowing exactly when to hire project managers (whether your first one or another to join a growing team) is crucial but tricky. Wait too long, and chaos intensifies — cutting into productivity and profits. Yet, hiring too early can be a resource drain that could threaten profitability differently, especially for startups and small businesses. Businesses that have never had a formal project manager might have the toughest time with this decision.

“RFP.” These three letters alone can bring up a whole mix of emotions and reactions, and with good reason. If you work at an agency in particular, it's likely you’ve responded to many an RFP or “Request for Proposal,” and experienced both success and heartache with them, too (insert relationship status: It's complicated). Even if you got your first big client break with an RFP, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should always keep going back for more.