i'Ve gOt nO eXpErIeNcE, cAn i sTaRt aN aGeNcY? OPEN YOUR EYES, kids!

[fraankfrnk]

Let me tell you a short backstory about myself. I am 27, M, from Romania, a country in Europe but with a 3rd world country economy, prices are western european and salaries are SHIT.

I have been working since i was 16 in the marketing field, internships, agencies, corporations, you name it. I have started in 2015 with a salary of 400 USD per month as an intern marketing specialist as title said, but in reality, i was an assistant manager doing chores like mowing the company's lawn.

The biggest salary/position in my career i reached 3 years ago, 1200 USD per month as a MARKETING MANAGER for a big 4 corporation in Romania. Imagine getting 1200 USD per month and managing a team of 12, i felt miserable.

I started by freelancing on Upwork on PPC, i was really good at it, i started earning 2000 USD per month from upwork besides my salary, that's when the thought that i could be earning more and enjoying life more kicked in.

I started my own PPC agency two years ago, started small and reached out to people on linkedin telling them about my services, in 6 months i went from 0 to 15 clients paying me between 650 and 1500 USD per month. It felt like heaven.

I was earning 10 times more than my previous position as a marketing manager. I had clients from the US, UK, Romania and rest of Europe.

Now, i have 25 clients, most of them from the beginning because i have a great retention rate as i deliver great results in terms of PPC. I mostly serve e-comm stores and multiply their ROAS in the first months.(i don't want to brag about how good i am, this is not the purpose of this post)

So, now to get to the point, 1 year ago i started seeing lots of guru's on youtube and instagram. Iman Gandhzi, Neil Patel, you name it. All of them telling young people how easy it is to build your own marketing agency and get millions fast.

Now, the market is fucked. There are tons of "marketing agencies" that started overnight, with people with 0 experience. I'm auditing potential clients ad accounts and everything is fucked there, results are below 0 and it's easy for me to get them on the right path and get profit on their account, but....

Clients don't trust agencies anymore, because of the bad experiences they have with all these shitty agencies its been getting harder and harder to sign clients.

So, guys, before "STARTING YOUR OWN SMMA AND EARNING MILLIONS" please learn some fucking marketing in the first place, you're ruining the market and client expectations.

L.E a lot of you asked for my contact details to manage ads for you, this is my website or you can directly book a call with me here

 

[richardfulham]

@fraankfrnk I don't work in marketing, per se, but this inflow of digital marketers that are taking a fee without providing a return has been making my job easier to pick up new work.

I also learned from your post that I can get exceptional talent in romania, who speak English natively, for cheap, so thank you for that.

 

[fraankfrnk]

@richardfulham Ye, romania is known for high education but cheaper pricing than the US.

You can get top notch talent for low price, but without the low quality work.

 

[mybrokenlessthenthree]

@fraankfrnk I’m a child of immigrants (LatAm) in the US who met a ton of immigrant kids growing up. I’ve always felt like Romania might be the country with the biggest discrepancy between a culture which would be relatable to Americans - the language, for people reading this, has been called “the forgotten Romance language” since it is Latin derived like Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese- and the actual knowledge level the average American has of it (zero).

 

[filu63]

@mybrokenlessthenthree Romanian: Imagine a Russian speaking Italian.

 

[ryantee]

@mybrokenlessthenthree Romanian is just like Italian language with random Slavic words thrown in.

You’ll hear beautiful Italian sounding words like: foarte, portocale, lare vedere

Then in the middle of nowhere they’ll just throw in: SCUMP

 

[filu63]

@richardfulham My dad said every day at work was like Christmas after he discovered Bulgarian and Romanian freelancers. Better work for a quarter of the price, and their kids never got sick.

 

[growlinglions]

@fraankfrnk Preach!

A few years back, I knew a person who left her corporate gig to start her own social media marketing business. I gave her a shot and all the things she was suggesting (like timing when to post, etc) were things that just about anyone can google.

Posts were low effort Canva compositions, she couldn’t follow proper design principles (like proper line spacing, etc) and actually resulted in a drop in followers.

This person, along with so many others, have been convinced by all these online gurus that since the all the resources are out there, anyone can do it. The only difference is one’s ambition. But no, as you articulated, it isn’t just a matter of drive; you have to be refined by years of actual experience.

Thankfully, I eventually hired a team that had actual qualifications, quoted the same price, and garnered real measurable results.

 

[rae23]

@growlinglions What do you guys mean by marketing experience? Like SEO and email campaigns? Maybe I can start an agency. Jk.. but I do want to know what services you are expecting from these agencies.

 

[jmb1031]

@rae23 Usually whatever the SMMA promised them

 

[castiel]

@fraankfrnk The best advice I can ever give is that people work at a start-up in the field they want to enter before starting their own thing. People want to rush to be an entrepreneur without the requisite skills or reality check of what it's going to take.

 

[pete2]

@fraankfrnk I've seen people with100k followers on linkedin running marketing agencies but they don't know about the basic fundamentals. Reposts the same content like, Do these 5 free courses blah blah.

Man, fr is this what you call marketing ? even your content doesn't align with your Profile.

 

[saxonity]

@pete2 If someone posts on LinkedIn (especially as a LinkedIn influencer) I immediately want nothing to do with them.

Both career-wise and personally, it’s such a sellout look.

 

[rae23]

@saxonity What looks the most professional these days?

 

[straitlacedanglican]

@pete2 They even get published on Forbes?

 

[erinny]

@straitlacedanglican Forbes, along with many other massive websites, has routes to post your content on their sites. You need to be a great writer, and you sometimes still need to pitch your idea, but it's not as hard as it seems and it's how these linkedin gurus are able to say "AS SOON ON FORBES, TECHCURNCH, BUSINESS INSIDER"

 

[pete2]

@erinny i know a guy in my network, showed up in Forbes 30 under 30.

He shared it's hard to get a spot in Forbes with your hard work, but I'm happy for him.

He made it to that all by himself. One of the genuis guy i ever came across till now

 

[pete2]

@straitlacedanglican i think it could be a paid PR over there, saw some internet gurus buying space over there.

 

[djaycobb]

@fraankfrnk Just stopped by to say congrats on your achievement.
From a fellow Romanian

 

[andrewsmith]

@fraankfrnk The best clients.

Most high-paying clients.

Most loyal, and reliable clients.

Come from referrals.

Get out in person, go sponsor an event, go shake hands, and close deals.

This won't change for big contracts.