Why do we do Agency work?

People are often surprised when they hear that we do work for other Agencies. Including some in our own industry.

The common way of thinking is that we are all competitors. Well, we don’t see it that way. This is not a zero sum game – where if another company gets a project, we don’t. In fact, in the last eight years, we only once worked on a project for a partner that we had quoted on, and didn’t get. In most cases, we did not even know that a project existed, so we couldn’t have bid on it.

What’s in it for Cheeky?

So what are the benefits to us? After all, in most cases we are not allowed to tell anyone about the projects we work on for our web development partners. It is easy to dismiss them as being just a money grab.

1. Increased revenues – by increasing our revenues we are able to make other strategic moves. Attend more conferences, hire more staff, basically make the entire business stronger.

2. Exposure – like I said in the intro, we are not invited to bid on a lot of projects. And truth be told there is only so many proposals that we can actually put out in a year. By teaming up with other companies, we vastly extend our exposure.

3. Experience – by working with larger, more established Design, Marketing, Ad and Web agencies, our team gets exposed to projects many times larger than what we would have through our own clients. We strongly believe that this makes us a better company.

What’s in it for our partners?

A web development partnership is supposed to bring benefits to both parties. So why would another company partner with us? After all, working with us is typically more expensive for an Agency then using their internal staff…

1. Flexibility – Most managed services companies are always selling. This means that their Sales pipelines are usually larger than their capacity. Fairly standard practice as it allows them to keep their people working while accounting for a few lost projects.

However, sometimes you land more than you can handle. This may sound like a good thing, but if you have ever had to onboard a ton of people for a new project, then you know how much of a nightmare it can be. By bringing on a partner, you can manage the ebbs and flows of business better.  

2. Expertise – This is in direct correlation to the third benefit to Cheeky. We gain a lot of tech skills and exposure from our partnerships and because of this our partners directly benefit. Our team is able to bring a vast wealth of knowledge and experience to any project.

3. Cost – This may seem a bit counterintuitive. After all, our hourly rates will be higher than salaried employees. The difference is that Agencies only pay us when they have work, or in other words, they are paying when they are guaranteed to make money. All employees have down time, but the way we engage with our partners puts that burden on Cheeky.

In Conclusion

This is a business model that has worked for Cheeky Monkey Media for nearly eight years. We are good at it and we enjoy it, and our partners enjoy working with us as well. We are always looking to work with new web development and design partners, so if you are interested drop us a line: 1.800.818.4564 or [email protected]