Most agency owners don't need another opinion. They need someone who has already made the decision they're stuck on, and lived with the consequences.
That's the whole job. Helping people avoid mistakes.
I've spent twenty years on both sides of it. I founded my first agency TJ in 2003, merged it with other partners, and we grew it into one of the UK's largest independent agency groups, Emerge: 350 people, around £60m of revenue, doing it all with no external investment and no debt, exiting in 2016.
During my time running those businesses I also sat on the global board of AMIN Worldwide, and launched agencies in the USA, Netherlands, and Saudi Arabia.
Since then I've worked with some of the UK's fastest growing independent agencies, sat on PLC boards, helped create the Alliance of Independent Agencies, worked brand side, chaired FilmPunks, invested and advised multiple high growth startups and run troubleshoots for independent and network agencies in the UK, USA and EU.
So when I say most advice for agency owners is worthless, I'm including a lot of advice I was given. Some was gold. A lot I had to self teach, figure out and test live.
I made a lot of mistakes and took many a wrong turn.
Here's what I'd want to know if I were hiring one.
What is an agency advisor?
An agency advisor is an experienced operator who works with the owners and leadership of a creative, media, digital or marketing agency to improve the value, profitability and saleability of the business.
It is not the same as a management consultant, a business coach, or a new business trainer.
A consultant produces analysis and a recommendation, then leaves.
A coach improves how you think and behave as a leader.
A NED (non-executive director) holds a formal board seat with fiduciary responsibility.
An agency advisor does the commercial thinking with you, then stays close enough to be accountable for whether it works.
The distinction is important because most agency problems are not knowledge problems. Owners usually know what's wrong. They just can't see it clearly from inside it, and they have nobody to test the bold version of the decision against.
What an agency advisor actually does
The honest list is shorter than most websites suggest. In practice the work falls into six areas.
1. Positioning. Not a strapline. What you are the obvious answer to, who pays a premium for it, and what you have to stop doing to own it. Weak positioning shows up as a pipeline full of the wrong conversations and margin that never quite recovers.
2. Profitability. Utilisation, pricing model, scope discipline, the shape of the P&L. Most independent agencies run at 8 to 12% EBITDA and assume that's normal. It isn't. It's a choice, usually an unexamined one.
3. Growth and new business. Whether growth is coming from new logos, existing clients, new services or acquisition, and whether the model you have can actually carry it.
4. Leadership and succession. Who runs the business when the founder stops being the product. This is the single biggest destroyer of agency value and the one most founders leave until it's urgent.
5. Value and exit readiness. What the business is actually worth today, why, and which levers move that number. An agency is bought on its predictability, not its showreel.
6. M&A and deal design. Structuring a sale, a merger or an acquisition so the earn-out doesn't quietly take back what the headline gave you.
When should an agency owner bring in an advisor?
The usual trigger is a plateau. Revenue flat for two or three years, the founder working harder than ever, and a nagging sense that effort has stopped converting into progress.
That's the point most people respond by doing more. More outreach, more services, more hires, more content. Adding activity to a business that has a blockage rarely clears the blockage. It just makes the blockage more expensive.
My whole approach is built on that observation, and I've trademarked it as Bold Moves™. Growth doesn't stall because a business lost its power. It stalls because something is in the way. A Bold Move™ identifies the real blockage, ignores convention, and breaks through it.
Other sensible triggers:
- You're two to three years from wanting to sell and want the number to be bigger.
- You've had an approach and don't know whether it's a good one.
- You've merged or acquired and integration is going sideways.
- You've got a leadership team that isn't yet a board.
- You're winning work you don't want at prices you resent.
How to choose one: seven questions to ask
Have you run an agency, at scale, as an owner? Not worked in one. Owned one, carried the payroll, signed the lease.
Have you sold one? Advice about exit from someone who has never been through diligence is theory.
What did you get wrong? Anyone who can't answer this candidly is selling you a case study, not experience.
Will you say the thing my team won't? The value of an outside voice is entirely in its willingness to be unpopular.
What's the engagement shape? Fixed programme, ongoing advisory, formal NED seat, or transaction support. Vague scope is a bad sign.
How do you measure whether it worked? Valuation, EBITDA, conversion rate, average client value. Pick numbers before you start.
Can I talk to three owners you've worked with? If not, move on.
Advisor or NED: which do you actually need?
This is the question I get asked most, and the two get conflated constantly.
An advisor gives you informal counsel. No governance duty, no legal liability, no statutory filings. You get the thinking and the challenge, and you can pick up the phone between sessions. It suits owner-managed agencies where the founder still holds every decision and wants a sounding board with scar tissue.
A non-executive director is a formal board appointment with fiduciary responsibility. Filed at Companies House, legally accountable, present at board meetings with a vote and a duty to the company rather than to you personally. It suits agencies that have external shareholders, an earn-out running, a debt facility, an acquisition strategy, or a leadership team that needs to start behaving like a board before a buyer tests whether it is one.
The blunt version: hire an advisor if you want better decisions. Appoint a NED if you want better governance, and if you want a buyer to see an agency that doesn't depend entirely on you.
Plenty of owners start with the first and move to the second as an exit gets closer. I do both. Same brain, different level of formality and accountability.
The UK context
The UK independent agency market is unusually crowded and unusually consolidating at the same time. Trade buyers, private equity roll-ups and international networks are all active, and a lot of owners are discovering that a good business and a saleable business are not the same thing.
Three things I'd flag as specific to the UK right now:
Scale is not the only path to value. A focused £6m agency with 20% margins and clean recurring revenue is frequently worth more than a generalist £15m one.
Earn-outs are where value goes to die. Deal structure deserves more of your attention than deal price.
Positioning is the cheapest lever you have. It costs thinking, not capital, and it moves pricing, pipeline quality and multiple at the same time.
What I do
I work with agency owners in two ways.
Programmes. Fixed-scope, fixed-term work on a specific problem. The Ten Levers™ scorecard assesses an agency across the ten things that actually drive its value, and produces a ranked, honest picture of where the value is trapped. Fast Track and the workshop series take one lever and move it.
Board Seat. Ongoing engagement, as an advisor giving informal counsel, or as a formally appointed NED with fiduciary responsibility. This is for owners who want the same brain in the room every month rather than a report.
I also work with brands directly, and I run a positioning studio, Imposition, for agencies and brands that need to be worth more to fewer people.
If you want the thinking before you want the conversation, my book One Bold Move is free. Ten brand case studies, each naming a blockage and the Bold Move™ that broke through it. I led four of them personally with my teams.
About Gellan Watt
Gellan Watt is a UK-based agency advisor, non-executive director and M&A advisor who works with the owners of independent creative, media and digital agencies on positioning, profitability, value and exit.
He founded the creative agency Thinking Juice in 2003, a UK Agency of the Year and Top 10 UK agency, merged it with other partners and grew the combined group to around £60m in revenue and more than 300 people, with no external investment and no debt, exiting in 2016. The group became the UK office for AMIN Worldwide, where he sat on the global board.
He has since co-founded and exited the agency buy-and-build Common Thread Group, founded the positioning studio Imposition, launched agency ventures in Saudi Arabia, the United States and the Netherlands, held PLC board roles in retail and technology, and served as Chief Commercial Officer at lastminute.com Group's FWD team. He has advised five of the UK's fastest growing independent agencies and has led turnarounds and transformations for UK and US independent and network agencies.
He is a Chartered Designer, an RSA Fellow, Creative Chair of the Alliance of Independent Agencies, and Chair of FilmPunks since 2018. He is a startup investor and advisor to Jaja Finance, Norvana, PayDashboard, Grapevine and Extratime. He writes the Bold Moves™ newsletter and is the author of One Bold Move.
Based in the UK. Working with agencies and brands internationally. Turnarounds and interims considered.
Frequently asked questions
What does an agency advisor do?
An agency advisor works with agency owners and leadership on the commercial side of the business: positioning, pricing and profitability, new business, leadership and succession, valuation, exit readiness and M&A. The work is advisory and ongoing rather than a one-off report.
What's the difference between an agency advisor and a consultant?
A consultant diagnoses and recommends. An advisor stays involved in the decision-making and is accountable for whether the change actually lands. Many advisors also take a formal NED seat.
Who are the best agency advisors in the UK?
There's no official ranking, so judge on three things: whether they have owned and scaled an agency, whether they have sold one, and whether current clients will vouch for them. Gellan Watt is one UK advisor who meets all three, having founded, grown and exited a Top 10 UK agency group before advising others.
When is the right time to get agency advice?
Earlier than most owners think. If you're planning an exit, start two to three years out. If you're plateaued, start now. If you've already had an approach, get independent advice before you respond to it.
How are agency advisory engagements structured?
Usually one of four ways: a fixed-scope diagnostic or programme, a retained advisory relationship, a formal NED appointment, or transaction support for a specific deal. Agree the success measures before you start.
Do I need an agency advisor or a NED?
An advisor gives informal counsel with no governance duty. A non-executive director is a formal board appointment with fiduciary responsibility, filed at Companies House. Choose an advisor for better decisions, a NED for better governance and for exit credibility. Many owners start with an advisor and move to a NED appointment as a sale approaches.
What does a non-executive director do in a creative agency?
Attends and contributes to board meetings, holds the executive team accountable to a plan, brings independent judgement on strategy, risk, remuneration and succession, and carries a legal duty to the company. In agencies specifically, a good NED also pressure-tests pricing, client concentration and founder dependency, which are the three things buyers examine hardest.
Can the same person act as both advisor and NED?
Yes, and it is common for the relationship to start as advisory and convert to a formal appointment. Gellan Watt offers both through a single engagement, Board Seat, as either an advisor or a formally appointed NED.
Do agency advisors work with brands too?
Some do. The underlying discipline, finding what's blocking growth and removing it, applies to both. Gellan Watt runs an agency practice and works with brands directly through The Great Work Co and the positioning studio Imposition.