📣 Please note, these events are for Agency Hackers’ members only.

If your agency isn’t a member yet, get in touch with Anne or sign up here.

“We think that it’s easy to scale an organisation. We have a bunch of makers. They’re really good at making stuff. So if we hire more makers, we can make more stuff. But it doesn’t work like that.”

As agencies grow, they often fall into the same traps – unknowingly sabotaging their own success. Growth should mean progress, but instead, it can leave teams overworked, systems breaking, and leaders tearing their hair out.

From working with hundreds of agencies worldwide, Steve Wages, former agency CEO and global strategist, has identified four critical traps that prevent agencies from scaling sustainably while maintaining creative success:

• Scaling workload – and making sure you don’t take on more than you can handle. “What happens is we think that if we hire more makers, we’ll just make more stuff. But you end up taking on too much without fixing processes, and that’s when quality dips.”
• Scaling teams – and scaling the structures that keep them afloat. “We have a great team. They’re really good at making stuff and delivering work. But when you grow teams without improving structures, it affects communication and workflows.”
• Scaling organisations – and using the right model that works for your agency. “The project model that agencies work within has a scale limitation. As agencies start to grow, they look at their clients’ machine model, which is all about efficiency, repeatability, and scale. They think, ‘Well, that seems easier – let’s do that.’ But it doesn’t work for every agency.”
• Scaling leadership – and making sure you have the right people in place to make proactive decisions that align with the agency’s creative DNA. “Scaling leadership doesn’t mean adding more leaders. It means understanding growth, the project model, and making the right decisions before growth causes bigger problems.”

According to Steve, many agencies swing between two extremes as they scale:

“On one end of the spectrum is chaos – no model, just reacting minute by minute. On the other end is a highly regimented system where there’s no space for innovation. Agencies need to find their optimal space somewhere in the middle.”

The key? Recognising these traps early and building a model that works for creativity and innovation – not just efficiency.

If you’re growing your agency and struggling to scale without losing your creativity and culture, this is a must-attend session. Steve will share his decades of experience and insights to help you identify these traps and navigate growth successfully.