THE SUCCESS STORY

HARC CREATIVE

 

From startup to scaling up:
How Harc Creative laid the groundwork for their next big move in a custom consult.

 
 

THE CLIENT

Harc Creative

CREATIVE AGENCY

DIRECTORS:

Jarren MacDougall + Parker McLean

About

Harc is an honest creative agency that walks alongside human-centered organizations to communicate their impact in connective ways– authentically human, clearly genuine, and that inspire the change that they’re compelled to affect.

The Goal

With a growing team and client roster, Harc had outgrown its startup systems. Their success had been built on a highly personalized, values-centred approach, so they needed support creating repeatable processes and clear workflows that empowered staff without creating cookie-cutter outcomes for clients.

The Analysis

Areas Requiring Support:

Sales - 1/10

Services - 6/10

Project Management - 10/10

Operations - 7/10

Administration - 9/10

People Management - 3/10

Business Development - 3/10

  • Excessive project scope + budget creep

  • Struggled to create a replicable process for each client resulting in excessive admin

  • Team unclear on organizational structure, workflows + deliverables

  • Lacked clarity around staffing needs, roles + responsibilities and setting team up for success

  • Policies + procedures were not documented

  • Clear organizational structure + workflows

  • Systems aligned with their values and distinct approach

  • Increased project transparency for team + clients 

  • Standardized operating procedures 

  • Hiring, onboarding + training support

  • Templates + automations

THE PAIN POINTS:

WANTS & NEEDS:

“Looking for a consultant, we often felt like the person on the other side of the table wasn’t emotionally intelligent enough to be able to wrap their head around scaling an emotionally intelligent business – but Sara was. She had experience, was attentive to our relationship, and didn’t have a ‘leave your heart at the door’ mentality.”

WHY SARA?

The Solution

The Full Consult

Tailoring innovative solutions to a stand-out business

Client Needs

Over 6 Months

The Results

Clear + measurable organizational objectives

6-month roadmap

New client discovery process

Optimized CRM + PM platform setup

01

Clear workflows + deliverables

Clear operational structure

Clear deliverables

Clear roles + responsibilities for all team members

New + replicable workflows

02

Standardized Procedures

Structured feedback systems

New business dev meeting format

Sales projections for upcoming year

48 sales + project management SOPs

03

Empowered Team Members

04

Hiring + Training Support

New employee onboarding system

New employee training system

05

Templates + Operational Solutions

New project post-mortem process

new client sales and onboarding templates

Integrated project promotion process

The Process

Over 6 months, we created + conquered their business ‘to-do’ list

01

    • Kick Off

    • Started internal analysis

    • Collected existing working documents, financial figures, and other relevant collateral to aid with internal analysis

02

    • Charted out organizational structure

    • Completed internal analysis

    • Compiled results, identified key areas of opportunity and created tailored workflow and content for consult

03

    • Gathered team feedback to identify Sales pain points, synthesized results, created goals for new Sales workflow, and developed Sales SOPs

    • Clarified roles, responsibilities and timeline expectations

    • Created canned emails, forms and questionnaires to support new Sales workflow

    • Developed new client info discovery procedure

04

    • Gathered team feedback on Project Management pain points, compiled results, developed standardized work processes for each project phase, and created new Project Management SOPs.

05

    • Adjusted team roles and responsibilities to support new workflows

    • Identified tech required to execute new workflows

06

    • Walked through recommendations for optimizing existing CRM and project management platform set up to support new workflows

    • Reviewed existing employee docs and training materials

07

    • Built new, sharable onboarding portal for new hires

    • Created detailed training checklists and team ‘Goals and Check-in’ document

08

    • Developed staffing projections and clarified payroll spend to accommodate future hires

09

    • Created a 6 month timeline with clear, measurable objectives charted out to keep primaries on track following consult

The Takeaways

01

Organizational Clarity

“The SOPs and having a roadmap for creating them has been one of our biggest takeaways. Having everything written on paper for the team to reference is huge and it’s also helped us with our clients because we’re always clear on the next steps”

02

New Operational Outlook

“We’re big-hearted folks and sometimes it’s hard to make decisions because we’re leaning on the heart space. Sara empowered us to think about what’s important for the team and the business – she kept coming back to that. That’s shifted how we do things, especially as our team grows. We’re focused on protecting the team now. ”

03

Focused Roles + Responsibilities

“We’re clear on our roles and where we want to be putting our focus. Sara helped remind us that our energy drives the business and if we’re exhausted, we’re not able to do it. Now we do what we know and focus on what we’re good at.”

04

Successful Hiring Program

“Our team has grown and we now have a project manager. The personnel support we’ve always needed was empowered by the systems work we did with Sara. I think that’s one of the biggest payoffs from our time with her –  being able to make space for that within our organization.”

05

Aligned Systems

“Sara worked with us as we onboarded new CRM and project management tools and helped us build their functions out in a way that made sense for us”

06

Confidence to Lead

“Sara helped us internalize that we are the propeller of our business and showed us how to work with our own habits in a more meaningful way. So instead of us looking elsewhere for systems or processes, we’re realizing those calls are now coming from inside the house”

The Results

“Between Sales, HR, Ops, and Project Management, we were holding on to so much as Directors. Sara broke everything down into clear processes and procedures so now everything is clear for our team, our clients, and ourselves We don’t have to hold on to everything anymore. We had no idea how tiring doing that was until we didn’t have to do it anymore. 

Sara’s a real human who is adaptable, did an amazing job of leading the parade, and was responsive and meaningfully supportive to the ups and downs we were going through. She was focused on getting us where we wanted to be, not where she wanted us to be.”

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