Don’t hire a growth advisor for your DTC startup yet

Make sure you consider these 4 factors first

Hi there,

As much as I like people reaching out to me to work together, I have to turn down 90% of the requests. 

This is not me being a snob. I love the sound of their business, but they aren't ready for advice or it isn't what they need right now.

Too many DTC startups when struggling turn to an advisor and in some cases, it can be a great push in the right direction, it can teach your team,  change your thinking, and accelerate your growth.

But with other brands, they’ll spend quite a bit of money only to be disappointed.

So if the following matches you… please don’t hire a growth advisor (and this is coming from a growth advisor):

1. You don’t have the resources to execute on their advice. 

It may be hard to know what the focus will be before working with them (a good growth advisor will not blankly take your suggested focus point, but evaluate your business as a whole first). 

But even so, you need some executional resources to help you along the way.

2. You have a million other projects to work on at the same time

I’ve had clients try to launch a new website, new product lines, new channels, hire a full team, all whilst working with me. It’s a recipe for disaster.

There will always be other things to do, especially if you're a startup, but if you don’t prioritise the advice and that focus point as your number one priority, you're wasting your money.

3. You can’t measure success

No startup has a perfect attribution and data setup, heck no corporate does. But if you can’t measure the basics from acquisition to retention you can’t get the most out of them. They are going to want to know:

• What is your lifetime value?

• How is each channel performing? 

• What is the 1st to 2nd order drop off as well as 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 4th

4. You need a specialist

If you are confident in your pain point and the cause you might be better off getting a specialist.

A lovely founder reached out to me recently: they wanted to expand abroad with their startup.

Did I have experience with international expansion?

Yes, I have worked for multiple startups that had multiple markets.

But I told them I probably wasn’t the right fit. They needed an expert in that area, and my skills were too broad to help them.

Recommendation

Hiring is so key for a startup, but hard to get right. I’ve made my mis-hires and they were tough.

One area I’ve failed in when starting out is knowing the right type of resources, e.g., freelance vs. agency vs. in-house.

So for this week’s recommendation is my article comparing the three.

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As a growth advisor, if I could, I would work with everybody that approached me. I’ve seen some truly exciting DTC start-ups whose mission I would love to be a part of.

But being an advisor means I have to be realistic about what would be best for the start-up. And if they’re not truly ready for the collaboration, I don’t want to waste their time or resources.

Chat soon,

Daphne.