New Business Is a Steam Train, Not a Light Switch.

One of the things I've always found interesting about the advertising, media and creative industries is our obsession with the new and shiny.

When a new agency launches, particularly one with experienced founders and a strong reputation, there's often a groundswell of interest. People want to meet you, former colleagues get in touch, and recommendations, referrals and your little black book open doors.

In my experience, that initial momentum can take you a long way. In our business, it probably sustained us for the first three to five years.

And it's easy to get used to. Recommendations, referrals and your little black book can feel like a light switch. Pick up the phone, call someone you know, and you've got a meeting. But eventually that initial buzz fades, your network becomes well worked and those opportunities become less predictable.

That's when the real discipline of new business begins.

I've always compared it to a steam train. To keep it moving, you have to keep putting coal into the engine, even when it's travelling at full speed.

And that's where agencies can easily come unstuck.

You win a couple of decent accounts, the pitch pipeline is busy, the teams are stretched and everyone's focused on delivering the work. Naturally, prospecting slows, outreach takes a back seat and developing new relationships slips down the priority list. It doesn't feel like a problem because the agency is busy.

But you've stopped putting coal into the engine.

A few months later, the projects finish, the pitches have been decided, and you turn your attention back to new business.

Only now, the funnel has dried up.

And getting that train moving again takes an enormous amount of time and effort.

Being Busy Is an Opportunity to Scale

This is where I think the real opportunity lies.

Rather than taking your foot off the new business accelerator when things get busy, why not lean in?

Invest in additional capacity. Strengthen the delivery team. Keep prospecting, marketing and building relationships. Give your new biz people the artillery and ammunition they need to generate leads, create opportunities and convert them into revenue.

Of course, that takes confidence in your proposition, conviction in your ability to win and a willingness to invest ahead of demand.

It also takes commercial discipline. You need to understand the risks, the margins and the likely return.

But with the right investment in people and infrastructure, the additional business you generate can ultimately pay for the capacity you've created.

That's how you begin to move beyond the natural limits of recommendations, referrals and your little black book, and build a business capable of sustained growth.

Because the best time to invest in new business isn't when you've run out of it. It's when you've already got plenty.

Keep putting coal into the engine.

So, where are you on your new business journey? Are you keeping the engine running, or finding yourself having to rebuild momentum every time the agency gets busy?

I'd be interested to hear how other founders and agency leaders approach this.