In today’s episode of the Niched Agency, we’re joined by Evan Lazarus. Evan is the owner of Simple Impact Media, and he’s an exemplary owner. After spending twenty years on Wall Street, he had the benefit of getting involved with many online education companies. His purview in marketing came as a result of that.
He left Wall Street in 2014, partially due to burnout. He felt it was time to move on. He brought his unique understanding of tactics and their functions to the digital marketing world and is able to relate to business owners on an experiential level.
Simple Impact really started when Evan made fast friends with another dad—a dentist—at one of his son’s softball games. He was asked to help this dentist grow his business, which had various locations at that point. It was mostly about operational infrastructure and how to make it better. This investment in growth was successful for the business, and they ended up selling to a larger dental organization.
Evan never sat down to make a formal business plan. It just happened, and then it evolved. If he can credit his success to anything, it would be two things: surrounding himself with people who are smarter than him and being an easy-going, relatable person who can simply convey what it means to build a successful business.
One of the things people don’t realize is that when your business has a sound digital foundation, it’s worth more money to a potential buyer. If you’re building a business with the intent of selling it, you need to have certain things in place. Attracting more clients to the business is one part, but you also need to assess operational deficiencies. If your phone rings and you don’t know how to turn it into a scheduled appointment, you’re missing out on a crucial aspect of building a business.
A lot of agency owners will take any client, but Evan emphasizes how much he doesn’t want to be like that. His goal is not to work with thousands of dentists. Keeping his work more intimate allows him to effect change. He needs to evaluate and choose his clients as wisely as they would him.
Evan believes every successful business owner has experienced a little bit of luck, and it’s been a secret ingredient in helping them get to where they are today. He himself began simply by being in the right place at the right time. That said, he prides himself on being able to choose right-fit clients. For him, these are people who are ready and willing to invest in their business their people, and know that patience is part of the process.
His business model has two pillars: working in the house and working on the house. This is a key differentiator of his agency. He has coaches work directly within the business to support different areas. They have multiple touchpoints, and those touchpoints are sticky. You can’t impact a business unless you immerse yourself in the business to understand how it really works.
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