Getting Out of a Rough Financial Spot to Build a Successful Agency

Hello! What's your background, and what are you working on?

Hello, my name is Andres Aguerrevere and I'm the founder/CEO at Wegacha.

Wegacha is an online marketing agency located in Miami, Florida. We offer a good number of services to businesses of all sizes from all over the world, especially those who want to penetrate the U.S. market. I think they choose us because they realize we are behind many brands who have faced marketing-related problems and we have helped them become big.

We love working with small businesses and entrepreneurs but we've had many big companies come to us with a challenge and together we have succeeded.

At Wegacha we are thinkers, dreamers, doers, storytellers and hackers with a cause. That will guide you through this new journey into the digital world.

So, let's dive in!

When I first started Wegacha I was making roughly 30k a year. After making the decision to work full time at Wegacha and dedicating myself 100% to my company I'd say I make about 120k a year.

What motivated you to get started with Wegacha?

I was going through a very rough financial and personal situation when I decided I needed to do something to change my status. At that time I was working as a pizza maker at Vapiano where I wasn't getting enough room to be creative or give suggestions, much less add new ideas I had.

I knew that the market was already flooded with marketing agencies, but somehow I noticed that their interest wasn't in helping businesses be successful. So I wanted to start my own agency. I knew what I wanted and what the market was lacking but I didn't know where to start. I went to some colleagues but they thought that the idea was overused.

With how everything was at that time of my life I just began to doubt a lot and consider changing my profession to focus on something simpler since I wasn't getting much support from those around me. But then, one day I met this visionary guy who worked in marketing just like me. He happened to feel just like me, so we went on talking about the idea for days to comprehend where exactly others in the industry were failing.

So I took the first step. I started to work with the image that I wanted to create for the audience to draw attention and make the difference, to study trends, and to attract the right people to form a team. Little by little the audience began to notice and contact us, so here we are now.

What went into building the initial product?

My idea was to create a service that could go beyond people's money. Of course I wanted to make a profit, but ideally, I wanted to guarantee people that their investment in us would make a difference in the reality of their businesses. I wanted them to know that we offered them the tools to get closer to success together. That last word became the foundation of Wegacha; the fact that we want to be present for them and take them into account when doing projects for them.

As I said before, taking that founding step wasn't easy. It took about a year until I finally could give structure to what I wanted to emphasize, and another year plus to give this vision a solid basis. I needed to work so I could keep myself going, so that made the whole process slower, but I never surrendered.

After a certain period of gestation, the project helped me attract some people to invest in it and help me bring it to life. My wish was to create a win-win situation for both customers and the company while still becoming a profitable business.

How have you attracted users and grown Wegacha?

I understood that there was a process ahead when I wanted to launch. I was able to attract the right support but still, one never must take anything for granted. If you don't know how to do marketing and to present your brand online then it doesn't matter whether you have money or talent behind you.

We launched in place, time, and channels used, and the reception wasn't what we were planning. Nevertheless, we invested some time and money in social media ads, we built an SEO-friendly website, and a blog. We also participated in forums to increase brand awareness (most of which we still do) and little by little clients started to ask questions and approach us. Not long after that, we were able to begin helping mostly entrepreneurs who needed tools in order to get into the local or national market.

Most of those strategies had a positive impact on our target audience. However, we tried outbound marketing and it didn't do that well for us. I'd say it was because we were just starting and we needed to build trust and a solid image for customers to feel comfortable.

One of the most important tips I can think of for new entrepreneurs is to always be in touch with the audience, regardless of the channel. Have a welcoming attitude online as much as you do face-to-face. Don't limit yourself because of the digital world. You still can have a smile online, if that makes sense.

Don't be afraid to establish a bond with the audience because that's what will attract people. That should be reflected in every marketing strategy you plan to use. Also, you're doing business, and in order to be successful at it, you must treasure human interaction.

What's your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

Wegacha works under 2 business models:

1. The traditional agency format where people go to the site, look at your work, book a call and then hire you.

2. Our second model is rarer. We offer pre-packaged services for a faster conversion. We sell them as products on a marketplace. You buy them directly on our site via the payment platform of your choice including cryptocurrency payments.

We launched our platform in July 2017 and it took us just a couple of days to convert our first lead (which is rare).

We started with a very aggressive SEO strategy and did some Google ads from time to time. Also, friends and family became one of our best traffic sources.

TIP: Starting an online business with little or no money is very hard! It could take weeks or even months to make your first sale. Don't let a horrible start ruin your entrepreneurial spirit. Take advantage of 2 free ways of getting traffic to your site. The first way is SEO (search engine optimization). The second way is friends and family (ask them to share, like, post, etc. about your new business).

What are your goals for the future?

Right now we are investing time and money in growing. We know our potential and we want to reach out to a bigger audience, not only in the U.S. We have helped foreign brands have success within this market as much as we have with American business owners. We're looking forward to becoming a renowned agency and to increase our numbers regarding the team, finances, physical space, and the number of clients we can handle.

There are still many small businesses with lots of potential that get easily stuck. Those are the entrepreneurs we'd love to keep focusing on because there's still room to grow for good ideas.

What are the biggest challenges you've faced and obstacles you've overcome? If you had to start over, what would you do differently?

I have spent a LOT of money on tools and subscriptions I never used. So, what I want to teach new entrepreneurs is to read a lot (blogs, magazines, videos, etc.) to get a feel for what the best tools truly are for your needs.

Have you found anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

I didn't read that much before, but a friend of mine encouraged me to read a few entrepreneur-related books. He actually gave me a few. There was one in particular called Manage Your Day-to-Day by Jocelyn K. Glei which helped me understand that I could improve my routine and make time my best friends. In this book she basically talks about productivity.

I know I'm not the only one who has had an idea that is difficult to materialize because of the factor of time. In fact, that was my excuse to not go the extra mile I needed to. It didn't matter how good I thought my idea was. It wasn't until I read this book that I realized that investing time in my time was going to make a huge impact in my life.

As for those things that were out of my hands, I believe I was at the right moment to want to start a business like this. The market needed it, so maybe I was lucky to get it running before it was too late. But in the end, luck doesn't compare to the force of perseverance.

What's your advice for indie hackers who are just starting out?

There is something I have seen in many others as well as myself, and that is trying to do everything by yourself even if you have a team. What's the point in having a team if you can't trust them with your tasks? We are human beings with normal limitations, so asking for help doesn't mean you're a failure of an entrepreneur. It may be hard to accept, but we must work together if success is what we want.

Find people you can trust, that are fit to work with you. Delegate tasks and invest time in more important things that are the priority in order to grow your business.

Where can we go to learn more?

We'd be glad to help by answering any questions. If it's regarding marketing, business development, or anything you have in mind, don't be afraid, ask away!

You can check out more about what we do and get our contact info via our website. There, we also have a blog where we always talk about interesting digital marketing topics and the marketing business.

You can also find us on social media:

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• Facebook
• LinkedIn