The pandemic that ravaged the world in 2020 has proven to be a crisis like none the world has experienced before. A pandemic in such an interconnected world, where global mobility is without precedent in human history, was bound to do damage to individuals, families, communities, even whole countries. Businesses didn’t fare all too well, either; the global recession caused by the pandemic is rivaled only by those caused by world wars and the recession of the 1930s.
But life didn’t stop, despite it all, and neither did business. Because of the nature of the pandemic and the response to it, digital businesses did very well. HighKey Agency, headed by brothers Luke Lintz and Jordan Lintz, knows it all too well. During the pandemic and through the lockdowns and other public health measures, HighKey managed to expand their business while not putting any of their team members in harm’s way. Here’s how the agency did it.
The Initial Response to the Pandemic
There’s no playbook on how to run a business during a global event like a pandemic. When it hit the fan and the levels of uncertainty about pretty much everything started skyrocketing, people’s response was to prepare to hunker down for an unknown period.
For HighKey Agency, this meant taking on as much business as would come their way. There was plenty coming, too; one of the eventual consequences of the pandemic would be the expansion of the digital space. Many people wanted to make their mark in it, and HighKey Agency was just the kind of ally to have for such an endeavor.
The team soon found themselves stretching beyond their means. One of the hallmarks of scaling too rapidly are issues with the quality of service, and that’s just the kind of problem the agency started having. When there are too many clients and too few people working with them, it becomes next to impossible to give every client the full quality of service the team is capable of delivering.
Righting the Course
Being the savvy entrepreneurs they are, the heads of HighKey Agency scrambled for solutions. The agency needed to transition to a remote model while adding new people to the team and ensuring everyone is on the same task and being held accountable.
The first step was finding new team members. For a digital agency, and one that’s in the business of content creation, marketing, and branding, tapping a global workforce is easy; businesses and talent from all over the world can come together online and forge working relationships.
The procedures that were in place gave the team a strong foundation for making sure that all the clients are happy. This side of the business was never a problem. The agency always knew how to do things; the issue was doing it at scale. They addressed that issue with additional talent.
Finally, the heads of the agency decided to put their existing team members into managerial roles. That way, the people who were there the longest and knew the HighKey way of doing things could ensure that all the new members were aware of the procedures and the workflow.
The pieces started falling into place soon enough, and the agency was adapting to the new normal. The remote work meant that all the team members could be more flexible with their work while staying safe. The additional workforce meant that things got done, and HighKey Agency was free to scale as much as they wanted.
To stay in touch with HighKey Agency, follow them on Instagram at @highkeyagency.
