Agency adds more than £500K revenue in 12 months
Boydens MD Philip Boyden tells The Neg how his agency transformed the way it worked and watched its revenue rocket.
An independent family-run agency in Essex has outlined how it added more than £500,000 in revenue in just 12 months.
After more than 50 years, Boydens, with its head office in Colchester, decided to completely transform the way it approached the business.
Internal bootcamp
A new strategy included investing in training for managers, an overhauled of its systems and processes, and its own ‘internal bootcamp’ to encourage better communication, and fresh ideas.
And it paid dividends because while the number of managed units dipped slightly, income rocketed. In just 12 months, the firm generated an additional £504,000 in revenue and savings.
It’s clear we’ve come a very long way.”
Philip Boyden, MD at Boydens (main picture), told The Neg: “Compare that to pushing leaflets through doors, hoping for one or two leads—it’s clear we’ve come a very long way.
“It wasn’t until we made a conscious decision to challenge the way we’d always done things that we saw real change.”
Traditional
The company was founded 58 years ago by Boyden’s grandfather, Desmond Boyden, in Colchester, and it was the definition of a traditional agency.
His father, David, took the reins and ran the business for over 40 years, and he now serves as Chairman.
“Despite our strong foundation, when I took over as Managing Director, I quickly realised that simply adding more staff or increasing fees wasn’t going to drive the growth we needed. In fact, that approach would likely send clients elsewhere,” Boyden says.
That’s when we decided to do something different.”
“That’s when we decided to do something different,” he says.
“We knew of Sally Lawson and Agent Rainmaker, so we took a leap of faith and attended one of their one-day optimisation courses. We made a few simple changes and immediately generated £40,000 in extra revenue.
“So, we went all in and joined Agent Rainmaker’s ‘ARX Bootcamp’. They challenged us to build a four-year growth plan that projected an additional £2.4 million in revenue.
“Suddenly, we were asking ourselves: Why didn’t we do this sooner?”
We have such a vast range of agency styles in the UK, with many of their managers simply doing what their own boss told them to do decades ago. So how will they ever thrive when they are surrounded by change? It’s great to see agents like Boydens picking up the ball on external training and recognising there is good money to be made in this industry when you move away from a reliance on what you thought you knew! Nice work!
A great business – with keen and motivated staff. Great to read.