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Kurt Schmidt @KRTS

Former BMX pro. Former agency operator. Now I help agency founders build businesses that attract clients rather than chase them.

Joined March 2007
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Client work gets easier the moment you admit: it’s rarely a “scope problem.” It’s usually a “you agreed to things you didn’t define, can’t measure, and won’t enforce” problem.
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Raising prices is a fake move if your delivery stays chaotic. The real leverage is tightening scope, saying no faster, and teaching your team what “good” looks like so clients gladly pay more and you actually keep the margin.
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If your team “needs more accountability,” you probably need fewer priorities, clearer definitions of done, and one owner per outcome. Fix that first, then talk about discipline.
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The fastest way to grow a service business is to stop trying to “scale” and just become stupidly reliable: same response times, same quality bar, same process, every time. Predictability is more rare and more valuable than “innovation” in client work.
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Margin shows up on paper and disappears by end of quarter. Usually the culprit is unbilled hours nobody flagged, a contract that didn't account for revisions, or a client who got two months of unchecked scope creep. Track the leak before you raise the price.
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I’ve found the fastest way to raise prices is to fix the way you say no. No to “quick calls.” No to “small tests.” No to “can you just.” Every yes to a bad fit locks you into your old price tier. Your rate is capped by the lowest standard you still tolerate.
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Positioning gets real when you turn down work that used to feel like a win. Easy to say you focus on X. Harder to say no to a $40k project that doesn't fit. That's the actual test. Agencies fail it six times before they pass it once.
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Forecasting capacity by gut feel works until you hit month seven of a growth push and realize you've been one resignation away from a missed deadline for three months straight. Spreadsheet. Names. Hours. Confirmed, not assumed.
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I’ve found the fastest way to grow an agency is to stop trying to impress strangers on the internet and start obsessing over making 10 existing clients so happy they’d feel stupid not to refer you.
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Charge for the thinking. Strategies, frameworks, recommendations — agencies hand all of it over because it 'comes with the project.' That's where the real margin lives. And it's gone before the invoice is even sent.
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Running a 10-person shop is closer to solo operating than to running a real company. One or two people decide everything. Process lives in people, not systems. Growth stalls because the founder is still the product. Somewhere around 15 is where that breaks loudly.
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If you’re constantly “educating” a prospect, you’re not selling, you’re parenting. Change who you talk to or what you offer.
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Estimation gets better when you stop estimating tasks and start estimating decisions. Every deliverable has hidden decision points. Miss those in the scope and you're working free the moment the client changes their mind, which they will.
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Red flag I kept ignoring: the prospect who explains at length why the last agency 'just didn't get them.' Could be true. Often means they were impossible to work with and they've already decided this relationship will end the same way.
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The clients who scare me aren’t the loud or demanding ones. It’s the “totally chill, super flexible” ones. That’s usually code for no priorities, no deadlines, and no decision maker. You won’t feel the pain until you’re three months in and underwater.
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The moment you stop trying to “educate the market” and instead hunt for people who already feel the pain you solve, your sales cycle shrinks, your close rate doubles, and your team stops wasting months convincing the wrong buyers.
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If you secretly resent a client, it’s usually because you trained them to expect work, access, and speed you never priced. That’s not a “client issue.” That’s a boundaries and scope issue. Fix that and 80% of your “bad clients” disappear.
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I’ve found the fastest way to fix delivery chaos isn’t another tool, it’s deciding “we only sell these 3 packages.” Every custom scope you accept is a future headache you booked on the calendar.
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Make your project status updates boring on purpose. Boring means predictable. Clients who get predictable updates stop sending panic emails and start trusting the process. Drama in status updates means someone's managing perception, not the project.
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If your “busy” calendar is full of low‑stakes calls, you are hiding from real work. Block 3 hours, kill meetings, and do the one thing that would make the rest of the week easier.
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