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AgencyHabits

AgencyHabits provides learnings, ideas, and templates for agency operators drawn from Barrel Holdings companies. Barrel Holdings incubates, acquires, and grows agency businesses.

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The Growth Issue

This Week's Agency Insights Every week, we share content to help you run your agency business. What's Top of Mind Planning for growth in 2026.? Start here. - Before you set that 30% revenue goal, read this. In this article, Peter Kang breaks down exactly how to work backward from your topline target to the deals, leads, and actions it actually takes to get there. 9 leadership mistakes that cost time, money, and trust. - From missing milestones to mismanaging teams, this post from a former...

Risk is one of those topics agency founders rarely sit down to think about. In this week’s AgencyHabits Podcast, Peter and Sei-Wook slow the conversation down and walk through what risk actually means in an agency context: exposure to uncertainty that can materially impact the business. They organize risk into clear categories - people, clients, finances, operations, and strategy - and focus on the ones that can genuinely put an agency at risk of shutting down. Some of the most important...

This Week's Agency Insights Every week, we share content to help you run your agency business. What's Top of Mind Profit isn’t luck. - It’s not just pricing. From timeline to templates, these are the overlooked levers that drive profitability (or kill it). The real opportunity? Deliver what you sell. - This post by Annabelle Cochrane calls out the real reason clients churn, and the massive opportunity for agencies who actually deliver what they promise. What We're Talking About This week’s...

There’s a reason so many agencies hit the same wall between $1–2M. The symptoms are nearly identical: founder burnout, quality inconsistencies, rushed hires, client churn risk, financial blind spots, and a general feeling that everything is harder than it should be. This week, in The AgencyHabits Podcast, Peter and Sei-Wook unpack why that happens, and what it actually takes to scale beyond this plateau. Here’s what’s inside: → Why the founder becomes the bottleneck→ What typically breaks...

This Week's Agency Insights Every week, we share content to help you run your agency business. What's Top of Mind Project Size ≠ Profit - Most agencies get this wrong. This post helps you decide what kind of work actually works for your business. “We made a mistake. Can we come back?” - That’s what a longtime client wrote 2 weeks after leaving. Sara Nay shared why they changed their mind (and what it teaches us about client relationships). What We're Talking About Retention is a System -...

Most agencies obsess over dashboards.Charts. Graphs. 47 KPIs. It feels productive, but it rarely leads to better decisions. In this week’s The AgencyHabits Podcast, we narrow it all down.Peter and Sei-Wook talk through the handful of metrics that actually help you run a steadier, clearer, more predictable agency. Here’s what’s inside: The difference between lagging metrics vs. leading metrics Why recurring revenue matters more than project spikes What gross margin really signals (it's two...

This Week's Agency Insights Every week, we share content to help you run your agency business. What's Top of Mind How Top Agencies Stay Top of Mind - It’s not about more posts. It’s about smarter plays. These 6 examples show how agencies build awareness before the pipeline dries up. Your Client Got Hit with Layoffs. Now What? - Most agencies absorb the extra work. But there's a different approach. This LinkedIn post from Miriam Bookey explains both why and how. What We're Talking About Tired...

Most agencies treat marketing like a fire extinguisher: something you grab only when the leads slow down. And by the time they start posting, emailing, or cold-outreaching, they’re already "on fire." This week on The AgencyHabits Podcast, we break down why that happens, and how to flip the whole mindset. Marketing can’t be reactive. It has to be a long-term investment. Inside the episode, we cover: Why marketing is really about building reputation and awarenessNot leads. Not quick wins....

This Week's Agency Insights Every week, we share content to help you run your agency business. What's Top of Mind No blog breakdowns or frameworks today because something bigger happened. We hit pause on our usual content this week. Why? Our first-ever AgencyHabits Knowledge Share brought 27 agency leaders together. 🎥 Watch the full recording📂 Grab the slidesInside, you’ll hear how they navigate time, team, and growth, plus: The 4 high-leverage areas founders should actually spend time on How...

Hey, just a quick reminder: we’re going live in 1 hour for the first-ever AgencyHabits Knowledge Share. Topic: How Are You Spending Your Time? Founder roundtableTime: 12:30 PM ETDuration: 60 minutes If you’ve ever felt stretched thin, stuck in the weeds, or unsure where your time is going, this session will hit exactly where you need it. More importantly, it will help you create time for "forward-moving” work. ⏰ Join the FREE session here See you soon, The AgencyHabits team Who are we? Hi,...