The Scaling Fastlane: Strategies to Scale Your Agency at Speed

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#9 - Navigating the Financial Landscape: The 5 Phases of Funding Your Business

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1 year ago

41 minutes 40 seconds

The Scaling Fastlane: Strategies to Scale Your Agency at Speed

In this episode of The Scaling Fastlane, we delve into the vital topic of funding for business growth, exploring the five phases of funding. Our speaker, Scale at Speed CEO Tom Shipley, demystifies the journey from initial bootstrapping to venture capital and private equity complexities. Each stage is dissected to provide a clear understanding of its challenges and opportunities. This episode is invaluable for entrepreneurs at any stage, offering insights into navigating the financial pathways that lead to business scaling and success.

Key Takeaways:

Bootstrapping Essentials: The importance and strategies of self-funding in the early stages of a business.
Angel Investors and Seed Funding: Navigating early external funding, including finding and working with angel investors.
Venture Capital Dynamics: Insights into securing venture capital and the implications for business growth.
Private Equity Considerations: Understanding the role of private equity in later stages of funding and expansion.
Strategic Financial Planning: The importance of strategic planning across all phases of funding for optimal growth and success.

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#8 - The Art of Deal-Making: Peter Lang's Blueprint for Strategic Acquisitions

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1 year ago

27 minutes 55 seconds

The Scaling Fastlane: Strategies to Scale Your Agency at Speed

In this episode of The Scaling Fastlane, Scale at Speed Chief M&A Officer Peter Lang, a renowned expert in strategic acquisitions, delves into the intricacies of leveraging business broker networks and mastering the art of deal sourcing. He offers a deep dive into the dynamics of mergers and acquisitions, revealing how to navigate these complex waters. His unique perspective sheds light on the challenges and opportunities in business growth and expansion, making this a must-watch for entrepreneurs and business leaders looking to scale their enterprises effectively.

Key Takeaways:

Broker Network Utilization: The significance of leveraging business broker networks for sourcing potential deals.
Streamlining Deal Sourcing: Essential methods for efficient and effective acquisition processes.
M&A Mastery: Techniques for successfully managing the intricacies of mergers and acquisitions.
Scaling Through Acquisition: Strategies for utilizing acquisitions as a tool for business growth and development.
Entrepreneurial Strategies: Practical and actionable insights for entrepreneurs looking to expand and scale their businesses.

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#7 - Building Leverage Through Acquisitions w/ Tom Shipley

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1 year ago

42 minutes 32 seconds

The Scaling Fastlane: Strategies to Scale Your Agency at Speed

In this episode, serial entrepreneur Tom Shipley explains how acquisitions can provide leverage for rapidly scaling a business. He shares real stories of how strategic acquisitions enabled him to accelerate growth despite lacking substantial resources in the early days of building his companies.

Tom emphasizes that with the right vision, planning, and integration framework, acquisitions allow you to effectively shortcut the typical timeline for scaling up. Massive growth is possible by bringing in talent, technology, products, and funding through an acquisition.

Key Takeaways:

Acquisitions provide leverage and allow you to "shortcut the time" required for growth. They enable the integration of teams, products, tech, and funding.
If you lack resources, use resourcefulness - creatively pursue acquisitions even when capital is limited, through secured lending for example.
Surround yourself with people who add energy and challenge you. Curate masterminds and advisory boards to accelerate strategic growth.
Clearly define your values and vision for multiple successful exits over a career. Architect deals and companies accordingly.
Implement post-merger frameworks across finance, HR, and cultural integration to efficiently leverage and integrate acquisitions.

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#6 - Integrating a Newly Acquired Agency w/ Peter Lang

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1 year ago

16 minutes 46 seconds

The Scaling Fastlane: Strategies to Scale Your Agency at Speed

In this episode of The Scaling Fastlane, Peter Lang joins to provide an in-depth look at mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the marketing agency space. He discusses the current M&A landscape, including how economic conditions and interest rates impact valuations.

Peter outlines the steps for building a successful M&A program, from finding deals to integrating them. He covers different types of deals like tuck-ins and roll-ups. Additionally, Peter explores the drivers behind deal valuations, including profit margins, growth rates, and more qualitative factors like management teams.

Key Takeaways:

Now is an opportune time for buyers to pursue M&A deals due to economic uncertainty and falling valuations.
Build an M&A blueprint focused on finding, evaluating, negotiating, closing, and integrating deals.
Target deals that allow you to leapfrog the competition through new capabilities and revenue growth.
Structure deals to achieve quick break-even timeframes through healthy profit margins and consistent growth history.
Develop a portfolio company approach by aggregating multiple acquisitions under a single entity.

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#5 - Acquisition Hot Seat w/ Ashton Shanks & Peter Lang

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1 year ago

46 minutes 31 seconds

The Scaling Fastlane: Strategies to Scale Your Agency at Speed

In this live episode, Peter Lang takes the hot seat to answer Ashton Shanks' insightful questions on building an acquisitions company. They discuss different funding options like convertible notes, SBA financing, receivables financing, and mezzanine debt. Lang weighs the pros and cons of working with various capital sources like banks, private equity firms, and VCs when raising funds.

When building an acquisitions team, Lang emphasizes the importance of having an industry insider who can effectively communicate with sellers. He also advises on key roles like list generation and sales associates to support the high volume of outreach required. On the operations side, Lang recommends building in-house financial and accounting expertise rather than outsourcing so that institutional knowledge stays within the company.

Key Takeaways:

Convertible notes and SBA financing can help fund early deals
Mezzanine debt allows more control compared to PE or VC money
The head of M&A should be an industry insider who can build rapport
Need dedicated roles for list generation and sales associates
Keep accounting/finance in-house to retain knowledge

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#4 - Compress Time: Become the Transformational CEO Your Agency Needs in 5 Years, Now! w/ Tom Shipley

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1 year ago

21 minutes 10 seconds

The Scaling Fastlane: Strategies to Scale Your Agency at Speed

Serial entrepreneur Tom Shipley imparts his playbook for achieving exponential growth by questioning assumptions, surrounding yourself with possibility-minded people, and leading with resilience. By implementing mindset shifts and hiring A-players, agency owners can break through limits to rapidly scale their business.

Key Takeaways:

Question loops in your thinking by adding zeros to ideas - this expands creativity and possibility
Hire superstar team members even in times of scarcity to inject new energy
Prioritize high-impact initiatives with low resources needed and high probability of success
Surround yourself with generative people who give you energy to accomplish more
Communicate an epic vision to inspire teams through challenging times
Solve the real problems, not just the symptoms - ask “what’s the problem” five times to unearth the root cause

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#3 - Evaluating and Negotiating Agency Acquisitions Like A Pro

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1 year ago

46 minutes 19 seconds

The Scaling Fastlane: Strategies to Scale Your Agency at Speed

In this information-packed episode, self-described “deal junkie” Peter Lang takes us behind the curtain of agency mergers and acquisitions. Drawing on his extensive experience negotiating transactions, Peter outlines best practices for properly evaluating deals and structuring agreements that work in your favor.

Key Takeaways:

Learn how to calculate and negotiate company valuation based on financial metrics like pre-tax profit, recurring revenue, client concentration, and more
Discover the major “discount factors” that could decrease your valuation when selling your agency
Understand optimal deal structures regarding guaranteed payments, earn-outs, and equity rollovers
Get insight into building an acquirable agency from the ground up, from corporate structure to risk mitigation
Glean tactics and frameworks to command favorable terms and expertly navigate the evaluation and due diligence processes

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#2 - Future Forward Scaling: 7 Major Discount Factors in Agency Sales

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1 year ago

42 minutes 6 seconds

The Scaling Fastlane: Strategies to Scale Your Agency at Speed

In this episode, Scale at Speed Media CSO Felix Velarde outlines the approach to articulating 3-year goals and working backward to define the 1 and 2-year actions needed to get there. He stresses the importance of addressing "discount factors" like lack of differentiation or succession planning that could reduce your agency's sale value. He also notes that buyers care about your future trajectory more than past performance. Key Takeaways: - Define your 3-year goals at the outset - Articulate specific financial, culture, and vision goals for where you want your agency to be in 3 years. - Address "discount factors" that could reduce your sale value - Things like client concentration, lack of fame/differentiation, and poor financial rigor - The buyer is acquiring your future, not your past - Buyers care about your future trajectory. Your past success simply indicates potential. - Involve your team in designing the path forward - Getting team members to design the 3-year strategy map gives them ownership of the changes needed to scale, reducing resistance. It also builds your succession team. Join us for Scale at Speed Live: http://scaleatspeedlive.com/ Calculate Your Digital Agency's Valuation: https://scaleatspeedmedia.com/agency-valuation Free 21-day Programmatic M&A Training: https://digitalagencybusiness.com/ Follow Scale at Speed Media: Instagram ➔ https://www.instagram.com/scaleatspeedmedia Facebook ➔ https://www.facebook.com/scaleatspeedmedia/ TikTok ➔ https://www.tiktok.com/@scale.at.speed.me LinkedIn ➔ https://www.linkedin.com/company/93835279/ Twitter ➔ https://twitter.com/ScaleSpeedMedia YouTube ➔ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCByk61WyCcfWv8jAwro2uFQ Thanks for listening! Subscribe to stay up to date with strategies to grow your agency.

1 year ago

38 minutes 22 seconds

The Scaling Fastlane: Strategies to Scale Your Agency at Speed

#1 - Geometric Growth: Scaling Your Agency Through Mergers & Acquisitions w/ Peter Lang

Serial business investor Peter Lang shares his playbook for using M&A to achieve exponential growth. By acquiring strategically aligned companies, agency owners and business leaders can rapidly expand talent, capabilities, and offerings to catapult their agency’s success.

Key Takeaways:

Shift your mindset to view M&A as the fastest way to solve pressing business challenges holding you back from reaching the next level
Structure win-win transactions by first understanding the core problems faced by both parties, then crafting a deal that provides mutual benefits
Design your agency as an M&A engine, with serial acquisitions compounding your capabilities and opening new opportunities
Commit 80% of your focus to dealmaking activities to consistently execute 1-3 strategic acquisitions per year
Start small with bite-sized deals minimally disruptive to your culture, then rapidly ramp up deal size and integration expertise
Solve the same problem multiple times over by acquiring companies with complementary strengths and weaknesses

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