How He Turned His Social Media Agency into $1.5 Million in Revenue
Discover How Jason Yormark Turned His Social Media Agency Into Over $1 Million in Revenue
Name: Jason Yormark
Company: Socialistics
Employee Size: 10
Technology Tools: ClickUp, Slack, KumoSpace, Google Workspace, Shift, Zapier, Klayvio, Zoom, Gusto, Calendly, Pipedrive
Revenue: $1,500,000/year
Year Founded: 2018
Website: www.socialistics.com
Introduction
I am the founder of Socialistics (www.socialistics.com), a leading social media agency that helps businesses turn their social media efforts into real measurable results. I am a 20+ year marketing veteran whose prior work has included launching and managing social media efforts for Microsoft Advertising, Office for Mac, the Air Force, and Habitat for Humanity. I have been recognized as a top B2B social media influencer and thought leader on multiple lists and publications including Forbes, ranking #30 on their 2012 list. I've recently published the book Anti-Agency: A Realistic Path to a $1,000,000 Business, and host the Anti Agency podcast where I share stories of doing business differently.
You can learn more about me at www.jasonyormark.com.
The Inspiration To Become An Entrepreneur
I’ve been involved with social media marketing since 2007, and have pretty much carved my career out of that. It was a natural progression for me to transition into starting a social media agency.
From Idea to Reality
For me realistically, I had to side hustle something long enough to build it up to a point that I could take the leap and risks going full time on my own. For these reasons, I built the company and brand on the side putting out content regularly, and taking on side hustle projects to build out my portfolio and reputation. This went on for about 18 months at which point I had reached the breaking point of my frustrations of working for someone else, and felt I was ready to take the leap since I had the wheels in motion.
While balancing a full-time job, I made sure not to overdo it. My main focus was on building out the website/brand and putting out content regularly to gain some traction and work towards some search visibility. I only took on 1-2 clients at a time to make sure I could still meet their needs while balancing a full time job.
Attracting Customers
Initially I tapped into my existing network to get my first few clients. Then it was a mix of trade shows, networking events, and throwing a bit of money at paid directories and paid media.
This is really a long game. You have to plant seeds over time with people and nurture those relationships over time. A combination of being helpful, likable and a good resource for folks will position you to make asks in the future. If people respect and like you, it makes it much easier to approach for opportunities when the time comes.
Overcoming Challenges in Starting the Business
Plenty. Learning when to say no, only hiring the very best, and ultimately the realization that owning a marketing agency is going to have hills and valleys no matter what you do.
Costs and Revenue
My largest expense by FAR is personnel, comprising between 50-60% of the business’ expenses, and justifiably so. It’s a people business. Our revenue doubled from the years 2018 through 2021, and we’ve seen between 10-20% growth year over year.
A Day in the Life
I’ve successfully removed myself from the day to day of the business and that’s by design. I have a tremendous team, and a rock start Director of Operations who runs the agency day to day. It frees me up to pursue other opportunities, and to mentor, speak and write more. It also allows me to evangelize the book I wrote detailing my journey to a $1M business titled: Anti-Agency: A Realistic Path To A $1,000,000 Business (www.antiagencybook.com).
Staying Ahead in a Changing Landscape
You really have to stay on top of technology trends. AI is a huge impact on marketing these days, so making sure we are up to speed on that, and not abusing it or relying on it too much. You also have to embrace that technology and not hide the fact that it’s used. Non-marketers still don’t and can’t do the work regardless of how much AI can help, so we just need to be transparent and smart on how we integrate it, but the fact is, technology will never replace creativity. As an agency, it’s imperative that we operationally allow our account managers to have bandwidth to be creative for clients all the time. It’s how we keep clients and buck the trend of companies changing agencies every year or two.
The Vision for Socialistics
Continuing to evolve to cater to our clients through learning, education, and staying on top of the latest tools and technologies. Attracting bigger and more exciting clients, and providing life changing employment opportunities.
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