Building an agency takes more than a strong client roster and a steady stream of new business. Below, founders share the hard-won lessons that have shaped how they lead, from knowing when to say no and protecting culture to hiring with intention and earning trust through the work itself.
Melissa Rosenfield, Founder, IFP Communications
“One of the hardest lessons I've learned running an agency is that not every client is the right client. When you're responsible for keeping the lights on, paying salaries, and making sure there's enough business coming through the door, saying no to a contract can feel almost impossible. But I've learned that the wrong client can cost you far more than the revenue they bring in. Sometimes walking away from a relationship, even one you've invested years in, is the best business decision you can make. It doesn't make it any easier, but knowing when to walk away is just as important as knowing when to say yes.
“I've also learned not to confuse the appearance of success with actually being successful. It's easy to get caught up in the impressive client roster, the big office, the industry awards, and everything that makes an agency look successful from the outside. But none of that matters if the work isn't good. Your clients aren't hiring you for your office or your Instagram feed. They're hiring you for your ideas, your experience, your relationships, and ultimately your ability to deliver. I've always loved doing the work, and I think it's important not to lose sight of that as you build a business.
“And finally, relationships are everything. PR is a relationship business, but I think that's true of almost every industry. The people you work with today may be your clients, collaborators, employees, or competitors tomorrow, and you never know when your paths will cross again. I've had relationships come full circle more times than I can count. Be generous with your time, celebrate other people's successes, own your mistakes, and don't burn bridges just because a relationship didn't work out the way you hoped. People remember how you made them feel, especially when things weren't going well.”
Michelle Huff Elliott, Co-Founder & Partner, Strategic Heights Media
"Starting a business is NOT for the weak. Maintaining and growing a business takes an entirely creative and open-minded leader and professional. The biggest lesson I've learned running an agency is that the focus is the business. Early on, I said yes to almost everything, and I learned the hard way that every yes is exhausting and limiting. Now, I'm much more disciplined and strategic about what we take on, in what order, and how we execute.
“The second thing I come back to is that your reputation is built in the follow-through, not the pitch. Anyone can write a beautiful plan; the trust comes from doing what you said you would do, when you said you would do it, and closing the loop when something changes. In this work, so much runs on relationships — with clients, artists, venues, and partners — and those
relationships only hold if people know you'll show up prepared and you'll tell them the truth, even when the news isn't what they wanted to hear.
“And finally: don't try to carry it all yourself, take care of the team AND take care of yourself! I used to think asking for help meant I wasn't handling it, but the opposite is true — the work gets better when you have the right second pair of hands, and when you let people own their piece of it. Encourage people/your team out loud, give credit where it's due, and support them when the week is hard, not just when the work is good. Build the team before you need them, not in the middle of the busiest week of the year, invest in their growth, and protect a little space for yourself in the schedule too. You can't run a good agency on empty — and neither can they."
Garland Harwood, Founder & CEO, Catamaran
“Make it effortless to work with you. There’s an old Gartner study that found the best way to reduce customer disloyalty is to reduce how much effort they have to spend. That holds in any industry, but I think it’s especially relevant for agencies. So, I regularly push our team to look at the small things, like how we report, how we hand off, and how fast we answer, and to ask where we’re creating friction. We also look for services a small agency can bring under its own roof so clients don’t have to manage another vendor.
“Hire for range, not just experience. We made a deliberate choice not to hire entry-level employees here. Everyone at Catamaran has at least five years of experience and is a versatile comms pro rather than a specialist in one lane. That lets the same account team make more confident recommendations and deliver a wider range of support, which is better for clients and a big part of keeping things effortless for them.
“Learn to say no early. A lot of young agencies chase every piece of growth they can find. I learned early to turn down work that isn’t a fit and recommend someone better suited, to walk away when a first call is full of red flags, and to avoid stacking too many accounts on one person. Those traps are tempting when you’re starting out, but bad projects and overloaded teams make people miserable, and eventually they leave. For a young agency, that turnover is enormously disruptive. Protect your people and your existing clients instead: challenge your people with new opportunities, invest in their training, and give them room to grow.”
Alexis Knapp, Principal, RockawayMore
“One principle that serves as our North Star at RockawayMore is creating a shared sense of ownership. Naming the agency RockawayMore rather than putting a founder’s name on the door was intentional: the business exists because of the people behind it, and our successes are a collective effort. That belief shapes how we lead, giving people autonomy supported by clear accountability. A founder’s reputation can open doors, but it can also become a ceiling if clients believe the founder must lead every account. When a client specifically requests a team member because they trust that person’s judgment, it reflects the strength of the agency as a whole.
“Leading this way encourages everyone on the team to take ownership of their client relationships and gives them confidence to lead with thoughtful counsel. Clients retain an agency for its expertise, and the team should feel empowered to bring recommendations to the table. Rather than asking how many media tastings a client would like to host, recommend an approach grounded in their business goals and explain why it makes sense. Our responsibility as the agency is to guide the strategy with the same care we would bring to our own business.
“Thoughtfulness is the throughline across every aspect of an account. It is easy to settle into a cycle of pitching and reporting, with placement counts becoming the default measure of success. Staying focused on the client’s goals requires understanding how PR works in today’s marketing landscape, including the role of coverage in search and AI discovery. Five relevant placements may accomplish more than fifty with little connection to those goals. The strongest measure of agency growth is a team that takes ownership of both the work and the thinking behind it.”
Bruno Solari, Founder & CEO, SolComms
“The biggest lesson I’ve learned building SolComms is to hire for hustle and protect the culture. At the entry level, I care less about polished résumés and more about whether someone has really worked, like the barista who held that job all through college. At the senior level, I want leaders who can command a room and still get their hands dirty. And don’t take yourself too seriously. It’s PR, not ER. A team that enjoys the work will always do better work.
“Second, be a real partner, not a yes-man. PR gets a bad rap because agencies overpromise and never push back. If someone on a first call wants the cover of The New York Times, I’ll tell them that won’t happen, explain why, and lay out what we can do to work toward it. If they can’t accept realistic expectations, we’re probably not the right fit. The best results come from challenging clients to think bigger. We just got a client on a magazine cover after years of coaching them to get comfortable sharing their numbers.
“Finally, growth only counts if it’s smart. Early on, it’s tempting to say yes to every client who’ll sign. But the clients worth taking are the ones you truly believe have a great story to tell, and only when your team has the room to do the work well. We plan hiring three steps ahead of where we are today. That’s a big part of how we grew past 50 people in under four years without the culture or the work slipping.”
Clare Goodwin, Founder, CGC
“The principle I come back to above any other is that culture comes first, above a client win, above a growth target, above almost any decision that feels urgent in the moment. I've learnt that your values are really tested when they force you to make a trade-off. Look after your people, protect your culture, the work gets better and the right people stay, in that order. It's the slower way to build something, but it's the only way I've found that actually lasts.
“I often say that CGC has been shaped more by what we’ve said no to than by what we’ve said yes to, and intuition is what I lean on to make that call. A high retainer can look appealing on paper, but if the values don’t align, I don’t do it. The way I see it, growth isn’t only about winning more business, it’s about protecting the integrity of the business, the quality of its relationships and the values that shape the work. The wrong client, however commercially sensible it looks in the short term, can cost far more in energy, focus, culture and ultimately reputation.
“The lesson that took me the longest to learn is to hire slowly. Wait for someone who will genuinely raise the bar, even when a role has sat empty for months and the pressure to fill it is mounting. A brilliant hire raises a team's ceiling and sets the standard. The wrong hire, made out of impatience, can lower it, and you feel that cost for years, not weeks.”
