5 Reasons To Build Your Online Service Agency

(Part 1 in a Series 5 about Building an Online Service Agency)

6 min readNov 30, 2023

You think you are ready to build your agency but want to be sure. There can be multiple symptoms indicating you are ready to build your online service agency. Today I will discuss 5 reasons to build your online service agency.

What Is An Online Service Agency

First, let’s discuss what an online service agency is before we plow ahead.

“An online service agency is a multi-team virtual online service business. A couple of examples include virtual assistant agencies, graphic design agencies, and digital marketing agencies.”
-Tammy

How Do You Know You’re Ready

Perhaps you have been feeling a bit anxious and overworked lately. And you think bringing on help is the answer. Even if you are overworked that alone may not be a reason indicating that it is time to build your agency. Let’s discuss reasons you may have been considering building your agency. I hope it will help you discern whether you want to build an agency.

There has been tremendous growth in the agency model over the last few years. Just take a look at this…

“Since 2021, there has been a 12% increase in the number of creative agencies.”
-Benchmark

Why Build An Agency

You are in good company if you are considering the agency model no matter your reasons. I want you to stop for a minute, however, and consider why you want to begin an online services agency.

Are you already an online service provider and are growing? Or perhaps you have not even begun yet but if you are going to be in the online service space you want to do it as an agency. These may be a few reasons why you want to move into an agency business.

This industry has truly boomed over the years, especially since 2020. Many newcomers entered it out of necessity while others decided they did not want to continue working where it was increasingly risky (at least during a Pandemic).

Reasons to build your online service agency

Also, remember everyone in almost any position had to learn to work online from home during the last few years. This meant that many, from executives to small and large business owners alike finally realized the value of working with those online. And the virtual industry exploded!

These people were not looking for just someone to be an admin, they wanted those who had the experience, the tech knowledge, and who could really help solve their problems. This meant that those with the skills got the work and suddenly had more than they could take on. What do you do from here if you cannot take any more clients?

The Solution

The solution is that you…

Start a Waiting List
Give Them a Referral to Another Virtual Professional
Start Your Agency

When I was in this position my choice was easy. I wanted to help empower other disabled professionals to work from home so I started my agency. That’s not to say that it was easy or that I didn’t struggle. I learned a lot during those years.

I learned what not to do, what type of team I needed, how to set up processes, and much more. Are you ready to begin your online service agency?

Let’s find out.

Indications You Are Ready

There are many indicators that you are ready to begin an agency. We’ve already discussed “#5 — Cannot Accept New Clients”, but there are other symptoms that will also indicate it is time to begin the process of setting up your agency.

Here are 5 Indicators:

1. Too Many Clients

You would think that having many clients would be a good thing, however, if you have too many you are doing a disservice to both you and your clients. You cannot off great service to too many clients. Knowing your bandwidth is crucial in the online service industry.

2. Overwhelmed and Overworked

Often being overwhelmed and overworked is an indication that something is out of sync in your life and/or work. It certainly is for service-based businesses. Because we try to offer the best services to our clients we can pull ourselves in multiple directions. If you are feeling overwhelmed and overworked — STOP — take a breath and do a brain dump.

A brain dump is simply downloading (whether on paper or a digital notebook) all of the thoughts twirling around right now that are pushing in on you. We can often figure it out but we have to step back for a minute to realize that we cannot keep going like this. For you, it could be an indicator it is time to start that agency.

3. A Heart and Desire to Scale

Did you begin your business with all intentions of developing an agency from the start? Maybe you truly have the heart and desire to scale. This alone is not enough but if it is paired with some of the other indicators here then you may be ready.

4. You Have Processes In Place & Ready

If you are one who has all of your processes and systems neatly recorded so that anyone could step in and do the work you are doing, then you are off to a great beginning. This alone, much like heart and desire, is not enough, but this is a huge hurdle for many of my clients trying to build their agency. Be sure that you have all processes and systems recorded. You will need it for your team members.

“There’s a culture in today’s age of startups that extreme growth is the only marker of a successful business. There’s a lot of pressure when it comes to taking on more clients and you may discover that you can be financially satisfied with a certain number of great clients.”
-Brett McHale of Wordstream

5. Cannot Accept New Clients

As we discussed earlier, this is a key reason to start building an agency. Many agencies begin because they are so busy as solopreneurs and need help. If you have no room for new clients then you need access to what your next step will be in business. Having clients knock on your door is great but being able to provide extraordinary services is another thing altogether. Consider what you would like to do next.

If it is not building an agency, perhaps begin setting boundaries and deciding how to grow and increase revenue without accepting new clients.

Final Thoughts

Owning an online service agency can be very rewarding. Remember that it can also be very frustrating, depleting, and time-intensive as you build it. There can be many benefits including more freedom, flexibility, and time to do more of what you want to do. Getting to that place, however, takes much work.

If you need help building your team and starting an online service agency please reach out, I’d love to help you.