Agencies make money off media spend — 5% to 15% — meaning their incentives are aligned around spending the most money they can. It's up to you to find the right one.
One of my MentorPass clients was charged 3x market rate for their website, then told to deploy 6-figure budgets into 'reach and awareness' campaigns, only to turn on retargeting a month later. It's criminal.
If an agency is running traffic to your site but not talking to you about how to optimize website conversion, that's not an agency partner to help with growth.
When Black Wolf Nation first did 8-figures in revenue, it was with 2 employees. A good rule of thumb: allocate 1 employee for every $1M in revenue.
Always ensure you have a reasonable out-clause in contracts, along with favorable payment terms. I recently saw a brand sign a 2-year software agreement totaling $50k with no out-clause. There was no legal way out. Don't put yourself in that position.
Go through your credit card statements and Shopify statements and get rid of unused subscriptions. Do a full audit of your monthly 3PL bill — make sure you're not paying for BS fees like 'Technology fees' or 'Services fees' without knowing what they are.
Conduct monthly or bi-weekly audits of the business. Leave nothing up to 'chance' when running on tight cash flow. One founder suggested canceling virtual credit cards for subscriptions every quarter (except Q4) — it eliminates about 15–20% of expenses that recur with no usage.
For routine tasks with limited upward mobility — influencer outreach, report creation, cropping images, ad comment moderation — hire talent from overseas. Focus the internal team on strategic thinking, delegation, and innovation. It's a win-win for everyone.
An entrepreneur spent just over 7 figures to build a factory in China, saving 35–50% compared to using an external manufacturing partner. $2M for a fully functional factory to get lifetime 50% savings is a no-brainer once you're doing $20M+/year.
The best CX teams solve problems before they ever arise. If your CX leader has already thought through the full customer experience, they can proactively reduce tickets before they even happen — creating FAQ content, comparison charts, and proactive shipping updates before customers ever need to ask.
Most brands want to find unicorns who can do it all on social media; for the most part, those people don't exist. Instead, companies should be thinking about building out their organic social media teams, not just trying to hire a single 'social media manager' to run the show.
Once you learn how to do something, hire someone to take the process you've built and make it 10x better. Everyone on my team is better, smarter, more experienced than me in their role — but I can still call the BS when I see it. That's how you need to be with your own business.
Don't choose a 3PL based on ads, just like an agency — choose a 3PL based on what people in your circle are saying.
50% of people who I ask to answer written interview questions literally don't answer them and are immediately disqualified. Another 25% answer but lack effort. The final 25% write thoughtfully. Async written exercises are the best hiring filter I've found.
I hate when people do live 'gotcha' questions in interviews. Async written exercises let candidates respond on their own time with their best foot forward, and give someone the chance to apply without being judged on anything other than their replies.
At the end of the year, if someone hits all of their key results, they get a promotion. If they didn't, maybe they aren't ready yet. Tying job descriptions and the interview process to key results from day one makes managing and promoting much easier.
Every year in Q4, I do results planning for the year ahead. My top 3 results become what my direct reports align their results toward, and their teams do the same. It cascades down through the entire organization.
Red flags when hiring agencies: they guarantee a CPA target, have logos of clients from 2+ years ago, can't provide active client references, can't explain why clients churned, or propose contracts with no out-clauses.
One customer who ordered 2 deodorants ended up receiving 200 shipped to an international military base. How does someone calmly pack 200 deodorants going to an international country and think it's completely normal? This is why you vet your 3PL.
Jolie scaled to mid-8 figures with a full-time team of just 3 people — 2 co-founders and one employee. They use external vendors for everything: site, landing pages, ads, OOH, photography, logistics, product development, supply chain.
Want to make more money? Negotiate a 2-5% discount on bulk orders for your raw products. At scale, saving a few percent on cost of goods can mean millions in additional profit.
Shipping costs = weight + distance. You can't change the weight, but can you use 3PLs with warehouses closer to your largest consumer base to reduce cost per order?
Moiz built Native to more than $1M in annual revenue per employee before he sold. He was a decade early to figuring out that a hyper-lean team was how you win in DTC.
Beyond marketing or product costs, your 3PL might be the most expensive line item on your P&L. Many brands pay more to their 3PL than to their manufacturer or their own team.
Before you make your 3rd design hire or 2nd ops hire, always invest in customer service and training first. It's a massive lever for the longevity of your brand that a lot of early stage founders overlook.
Don't let an agency set up your ad account inside their business manager. You need to own everything 100% — your Shopify store, ad accounts, and pixels. Never have other companies own your vendor contracts or admin accounts.
The best CX teams build strong feedback loops which rapidly improve your brand. Out of any department in your org, your CX team likely has access to the most critical and relevant data that can help you rapidly improve.
I hate referring to these people as 'offshore talent' because once you find a fit, they're just remote employees like other remote employees.
I hired developers and a project manager offshore. Each lasted about 8 months, then I felt like they had little output. I later realized it was my fault — I didn't have a proper employee onboarding for them as I would have for someone in my New York office.
PetMeds' call center represents about 70% of their headcount and a massive amount of total sales. Not many brands utilize the call center model but more should. It's been a proven sales channel for decades.
As ad platforms become more automated, the creative strategist role has become essential. This person sits between the performance marketing team and the creative team — a creative-focused data scientist who understands what analytics are saying and translates that into briefs. This role is what the growth marketer of 2025 looks like.
Hiring talent offshore had a negative connotation, but today it's a secret weapon. The catch: you need systems and processes first. When I first tried it, there was no process for anything — it was all 'do it as it comes to me,' which is extremely hard to delegate.
When hiring offshore, have candidates complete a test project and record a Loom walkthrough — covering what they created, why, how they did it, the tools they used, and any roadblocks. It tells you everything about how they think.
Don't wait until you need a developer to find a developer. At launch and for the first 72 hours, have a developer who's familiar with your website on-call.
Swishables switched to Tondo Fulfillment and saved 40% overnight with a different shipping carrier. Do not let yourself overpay on 3PL — audit your storage, pick/pack, and actual shipping costs.
Tariffs tip: diversify manufacturing into Vietnam, Cambodia, and Egypt (zero tariffs on imports). Always get 4-5 shipping agent quotes. Chinese agents will try to overcharge you.
If you go to a premiere agency with clients like Nike or Pepsi, you're nowhere close to the top of their priorities. When the Nike CMO calls, they're rushing to fix Nike's problems, not yours. Make sure you're appropriately sized for your agency's client list.
Strategy and testing should be handled internally and handed to an agency to scale up. It is YOUR job as the brand to develop the strategy, and use agencies as extra hands to execute. Do NOT rely on your agency to give you the strategy, unless that IS their sweet spot.
Change your return process to improve cash flow: incentivize gift cards over refunds by offering 10% more value on a gift card. If they come back with a $100 gift card, your COGs might only be $30. That's better than sending $100 back out. Also try making refund payments 7-10 business days instead of 1-2.
At $100k in media spend and $10k in agency fees, having an agency team overseeing your account is worth it. At $800k in spend and $80k in fees, it doesn't make sense — you can build your own team in-house for half the cost.
If you're digital-only and bringing paid media in-house, you'll need 2 media buyers (social + search), a strategist/director, and a coordinator. For most brands doing $10M to $500M in annual revenue, you should aspire to be in-house for your always-on marketing channels.
The argument that an agency sees multiple businesses and can apply shared learnings is usually false. How many times has an agency come to you and said 'We're seeing this work really well with another brand, and we'd love to test it with you'? Probably once. Maybe never.
You don't need to go all agency or all in-house — do a hybrid. Have digital ad spend in-house and keep things with less scale outsourced, like TikTok, out of home, podcast, influencer. As you scale past $1M in monthly spend, bring paid media in-house.
The ROI of hiring an internal content creator is so high it's silly not to do it, especially if you're spending on advertising. This person doesn't just film TikToks — they can be a copywriter for on-site content or a videographer who creates new assets every day for owned and paid channels.
I like to call channel experts 'channel snipers' — people who know a specific channel's industry, people, practices, tips, tricks, strategies, and insider knowledge inside and out. When testing new channels like TV, hire a channel sniper before spending a dollar on media.
Cancel your virtual credit cards for subscriptions every quarter except Q4, and it eliminates about 15-20% of expenses that recur with no usage. This trick came from a $500M/year founder at Commerce Summit.
Every time you hit a new milestone — 1k, 5k, or 10k orders per day, or processing $500k/day in revenue — use that as leverage to renegotiate. Contract manufacturers, shipping companies, payment processors, BNPL solutions. Most people just don't ask, so they never realize the savings.
Weekly 4-minute 'What's keeping you up at night?' phone calls to your direct reports. By the end of 4 minutes, you'll know what to work on. You don't need the answer right there — just getting that data point ensures your time has the biggest impact on your team's results.
For every order generated, calculate how many CX tickets are created (even if it's 0.15 tickets per order), plus cost of labor, shipping, packaging, and team overhead. That number — not revenue — is what you should measure everything toward.
The ideal CX org chart per Jess Cervellon at Feastables: Head of CX (vision/strategy), CX Tech Lead (tools and automation), Customer Support Lead (ticket resolution), Community Team (social comments, surprise and delight, DMs), and CS Agents. Someone should build an agency around this exact framework.
CX should be part of the core founding team. The right CX leader optimizes every touchpoint from day 1 — manufacturing, ingredients, packaging, ads, emails, support. CX is the modern-day brand director, overseeing everything that goes out AND everything that becomes part of the brand.
Black Wolf Nation is 4 people doing over 8 figures in revenue. Jolie is a 3-person company — not just the DTC team, the entire company — and will eclipse $30M in year 2. Having a leaner payroll means you can be more aggressive with deploying capital to grow when the market requires it.
In job descriptions, replace 'requirements' with 'results.' Instead of '5 years experience in a similar role,' write specific KPIs: 'Document notes, date-bound action items, and accountability follow-ups in every meeting, and drive each to completion within prescribed timeframes.' Zero confusion on either side about the job to be done.
Start every job description by selling WHY someone would want to work at your company — recent growth, amazing clients, recent wins. Then list the RESULTS to be achieved, not years of experience. Then talk about the downsides and why the role might NOT be a good fit. Most companies skip that last part, and it's why they get bad culture fits.
Ben Yahalom's 'Marginal, Incremental, Contribution Profit' focuses on the efficiency of the last dollar you spend, not the average dollar. If forced to allocate your last $10K-$50K of budget, where would you get the most contribution profit lift? That's where you should invest.
Net Contribution Profit includes not just standard COGS and marketing costs, but payment processing fees, sale discounts, expected returns and exchanges, and every hidden expense. ROAS tells you revenue per ad dollar. Net Contribution Profit tells you actual profit on a product-by-product basis.
Moiz ran Native's ads himself past 8 figures in revenue. He was almost a decade early to figuring out that a hyper lean team was how you succeed in DTC — before the monster $50M+ growth rounds and multi-hundred-person DTC teams became a thing.
Keep all idle business cash in treasury bills that earn yield. It was a 2-3 minute decision that made me a lot of money. For a while, I didn't do this and realized I was throwing money away. One of the highest ROI quick decisions I've made.
Crown Affair's founding team was just 3 people: 1 designer, 1 copywriter, and 1 person for product and formulation. Dianna built it on nights and weekends while running her agency Levitate. If founders of billion-dollar brands are fine being scrappy, you should be too.
Nine times out of 10, predatory ADA law groups will give up the lawsuit if you simply fix the accessibility issues and sign an agreement to stay in compliance. The fix is proactive: audit your site against WCAG guidelines, add alt text, fix color contrast, and ensure font sizes are accessible.
I hired offshore developers and a project manager, and each lasted about 8 months with low output. Then I realized it was my fault — I didn't onboard them like I would a NYC employee. Write out every task, record Loom videos with written instructions, set quarterly targets, and list personality requirements. Treat offshore hires exactly like in-office hires from day one.
When hiring offshore, my main requirements were: understands digital marketing and CPG, has an iPhone for iMessage communication speed, is an aspiring entrepreneur who wants to get scrappy, and is comfortable with ambiguity. The personality filter matters as much as the skills filter.
When hiring offshore, I only hire through a recruiter — it's the most efficient method for speed, cost, and fewer mistakes. Your JD should feel like a brief: include day-to-day expectations, how they'll be reviewed, expected output, working hours, communication tools, and company background.
For offshore hiring, require a candidate video submission before any interview. Then give a test project with a Loom explainer video walking them through it. This filters for self-starters and communication skills before you ever get on a call.
When I first tried offshore hiring, it failed — not because the talent was weak, but because I had no process, no proper onboarding, and no formal interview to test skills. It was no different than improperly hiring someone in New York or LA. I was just doing it wrong.
Use credit cards strategically: if you need a 30/60-day float, use a card built for that. If you don't need a float, use a cash back card to get 3% back, tax-free. Two hours of finance hacking can meaningfully improve your margin.
BREZ's creative director built an extremely lean yet full-service internal creative team. Know what roles to hire first, where to leverage external contractors, and what photoshoots and videoshoots should actually cost before you over-hire or over-spend.
A healthy sign of a sophisticated marketing team: there's an internal fight between brand and performance over who gets extra budget. That fight means you have strong leaders in both spots. If there's no fight, one side is probably being neglected.
The speed of execution to find something new is only one ingredient. The other two are willingness to run tests fluidly without leadership approvals, AND having the DNA to be scrappy and resourceful. The category leaders — Jolie, Gruns, Lemme, ARMRA, Parachute Home — move fast, break things, figure out what works, and scale.
Most brands hire 'designers' but not 'conversion designers.' A designer makes things look beautiful. A conversion designer makes them sell. Expecting a single graphic designer to also master UX, analytics, and persuasive copy is like expecting your general practitioner to also be a cardiologist and a neurosurgeon.
Some of your favorite brands are running with 3-10 people, representing $20 to $200M in revenue per year. Brands get too bloated building big teams when you can do more with less.