How I Consolidated Consulting Into a HubSpot Operations Agency

I had done different kinds of consulting on and off before deciding to consolidate the work into one agency: HubSpot marketing and sales operations. Starting that agency from zero did not mean I had no prior experience with the work.

I signed the first client at 7K a month within about four weeks and said the agency reached around 20K a month within about six months. Those were reported agency revenue figures, not profit. The first client was still working with us at the interview.

The service was the infrastructure behind the customer-facing work

We handled reporting, automations, segmentation and CRM cleanup. We could build emails and templates, but the service did not include creating content or sending the client’s actual campaigns.

I described it as the supply chain behind marketing, sales and sometimes customer success: the work that enabled those teams to operate. That made the scope more concrete than offering every kind of marketing consulting.

Acquisition came from several channels

Cold email was one channel, with work on copy, deliverability and matching the angle to the audience. Referrals from the Client Ascension community also brought business.

I started a new Twitter account for the agency and thought one deal had come through it. I was also building a system around video, threads and giveaways.

Client Ascension related reading: John’s email-agency account describes CRM follow-up, sales assets and delegated outreach.

The discovery call became a repeatable process

I could go into a call knowing the questions I needed to ask and what I was looking for, including how to disqualify a prospect. Each lead did not need an entirely different process invented from nothing.

That was different from the earlier consulting work, where LinkedIn conversations arrived sporadically and I had no system for creating more of them. I still liked seeing a meeting booked; having a repeatable process did not make the opportunity unimportant.

The white-label delivery arrangement was still a plan

I had made a hire through HireUA, then decided to work with a provider specializing in fulfillment for HubSpot agencies. The arrangement was due to begin the following week, not something already proven across all our accounts.

After that, I wanted an account manager to own client communication. I had notes on the job description and onboarding, but was still working out the day-to-day requirements for my own business.

Client Ascension related reading: George’s leadership-team account describes promoting leaders and using departmental metrics.

Communication needed ownership as the client list grew

Clients did not all communicate in the same place. I was moving between tools and wanted someone to have visibility across those conversations, with a daily breakdown of what was happening.

That was the next operational problem to solve alongside acquisition. I had a larger revenue goal for the year, but the immediate work was making delivery and client communication manageable as the business developed.

Adapted by Client Ascension with AI assistance from Connor's interview. The first-person narrative follows the source speaker’s account. Watch the original video