Twenty/Twenty pairs rising industry leaders with some of the most respected and esteemed figures in design. Taylor participated five years ago, and he’s clear on the long-term impact: “100%, it’s helped to shape my thinking about how we can continuously look to improve the business at every juncture.”

Brandon today is a very different proposition “to what we were a year ago, let alone five years ago,” says Taylor. “We are fast approaching 50 people across our London and Manchester studios, working with multinational brands across the globe and producing the best work of our lives. Plus, we’ve managed to have a lot of fun and games along the way.”  

Taylor signed up to Twenty/Twenty in 2019 seeking new thoughts, ideas and provocation from the mentoring programme. “We often live in our own bubbles and as leaders in a design business it’s bloody hard to make decisions without the context of others who’ve lived and breathed similar challenges. The Twenty/Twenty programme delivered that for hardly any investment at all,” he says, “I couldn’t recommend it more highly.” 

It’s a decade since Andy Sexton, Executive Creative Director at 2LK took part as a mentee – an experience which was “genuinely pivotal” he says. “It was a time of fast change for me personally and professionally – and to be able to take outside inputs along the way was powerful, I learned a lot – far more than I expected.”

At the time, Sexton had been on the 2LK Board for a few years and held a minor shareholding, but things were changing in the business, and he was anticipating becoming co-owner. “At 31 years old I had spent most of my career in one agency and I really felt that I needed some external guidance and inspiration, some input and support that came from a different context.”

With a significant milestone approaching, it was a less usual route into Twenty/Twenty for Point 6’s Managing Director, Sally Forsyth Spark. “I applied to be a mentee having previously been a mentor,” she reflects. “My 60^th birthday was coming up in a few years’ time, and I wanted to explore complementary or even different career paths in a safe space, and with someone who could help me realise what I wouldn’t be able to see for myself,” she says, citing David C. Baker’s mantra “you can’t read the label from inside the jar” as the inspiration to join 2022’s cohort as a mentee.

For Forsyth Spark, the match making between her and her mentor was spot on: “My mentor also had experience in psychological testing which was a useful underpinning for understanding some of my motivations (and realising some of them were not very true to my real self).” Reflecting on the personal impact of the mentoring, “I’m definitely more comfortable with uncertainty and change, both in the present and the long term,” says Forsyth Spark. It’s also meant she doesn’t need to feel that she had to have her entire future planned out, “I can shape-shift around a rough goal and be fine if that moves. For a growing business this has been invaluable,” especially now, with the trajectory the agency is on, “We’re in a period of rapid growth, driven by recommendations from our existing clients. It’s the most exciting time I can remember at Point 6,” she says.

To his knowledge, Sexton was the first person at 2LK to take part in any form of ‘official’ mentoring. Paired with Darren Bowles, he’s still in touch with his mentor 10 years later and they’ve had the chance to collaborate along the way too. “For me, the access and exposure I got to another creative business through the programme was as impactful as the relationship I built over the year. I came away from the experience with a whole network of new contacts and learning, many of whom I am still in good contact with today.”

Since his participation in the programme, 2LK have embraced mentoring agency-wide, with lots more of the team taking part in DBA Twenty/Twenty both as mentees and mentors (including Sexton who’s had the chance to “pay-it-back four times over the last decade” as a mentor), while they’ve also supported other programmes like Elevate and BIMA too.

“We’re a different business in lots of ways,” says Sexton of the agency today compared to ten years ago, citing how 2LK has a tighter positioning, an increased commercial confidence, a better sense of what a great (and terrible) client looks like, stronger finances and a much greater sense of its purpose within the wider creative industry.

“My (and our) involvement in the DBA has been a big part of lots of this growth and clarity,” says Sexton, “The future for 2LK is full of optimism, we’ve just wrapped up our first year as an Employee-Owned business which has been an incredible journey, being able to transition the company in this way is something I’ll be forever proud of.”

Since 2011, the DBA’s Twenty/Twenty Mentoring programme has transformed the careers of nearly 600 design leaders and the impacts are long-lasting. For Taylor, “it made me realise that there were a lot of people who’d lived and learned through similar challenges I was facing,” he reflects, with the programme providing “empathy to help navigate challenges” and a clarity of direction that “I was missing” he says, “Sometimes you need a running mate to bounce ideas off. They delivered just that.” 

International work is on the up, but how do you build your profile overseas?

With a sluggish UK economy, many agencies are exploring opportunities overseas. Of the businesses responding to this year’s DBA Annual Survey, 16% earn 75% or more of their income internationally. In fact, the share of income generated overseas has increased from 20% to 34% across the last ten years.

“UK design agencies are well aware that there is far greater opportunity and less competition overseas than there is at home. The UK’s design sector is respected and sought after, but individual agencies need to build a profile if they want to win work in these markets,” says Claire Blyth, DBA Expert and founder of PR agency, Red Setter.

“The agencies we work with who do this see huge benefits when they grow their reputation and client base overseas,” says Blyth, who recommends:

• Identifying what overseas clients will find interesting about your agency.
• Showcasing your work and expertise in the publications that overseas clients read such as Fast Company, Forbes and Entrepreneur in the US
• Speaking at conferences in your target countries; it not only helps build your profile but also to make direct connections at the events.

“Opportunity is out there but you need to tell the right people about your work, so they’ll come to you,” adds Blyth.

'The Big Stay' and why it pays to hold onto staff

During the last three years, respondents to the DBA Annual Survey had voiced concerns relating to people and talent, especially during the 2021/22 ‘talent war’, which many agencies found themselves in. But this year’s Report shows staff turnover has decreased on average across all agencies from 17% to 15%. 

“We have seen a shift towards the ‘Big Stay’ in 2024, whereby employees are prioritising stability over the unknown,” says JourneyHR’s co-founder and DBA Expert, Aliya Vigor-Robertson, who cites the combination of “the uncertainty experienced in recent years” and “the work that agencies have put into retaining and engaging their talent”, as key factors behind this.  

However, with only two-thirds of agencies planning to give payrises in the next twelve months, what should businesses be mindful of? “The true cost of losing talent has many implications, not all of which are financial, though this aspect cannot be overlooked” says Vigor-Robertson. “We know replacing talent costs, on average, £25K per employee,” she reports, highlighting that this includes recruitment fees and lost productivity and that for senior hires, “this figure can be significantly higher”. 

Vigor-Robertson is clear that beyond the financial impact, losing talent can also negatively impact the culture and productivity of an agency and that in order to truly engage and retain teams, agencies must look beyond pay.

“Successful agencies have taken a holistic approach to this, recognising that employee needs are individual and there is no one size fits all approach,” says Vigor-Robertson, who recommends understanding the needs of your people through engagement surveys, which can “help to create tailored retention and engagement strategies, focusing on transparency, recognition, progression, and work-life balance – all of which are essential, in addition to competitive pay, to drive retention.”

“With employee departures, comes knowledge gaps and a sense of decreased morale within the remaining team members. Particularly when working with clients, there is an additional pressure of maintaining the relationships that often take a significant amount of time to establish,” adds Vigor-Robertson, but by “actively listening and actioning employee feedback, agencies can reduce their turnover and strengthen their culture.”

Hybrid working - how's it working out for you?

Although return-to-office mandates continue to make waves in the news, hybrid working remains a large part of business practice in the design industry, with 80% of agencies responding that they have a hybrid working policy in place. But how can you tell if this is working well at your agency?

DBA Expert, Joanna Anthony of The Client Service Person, suggests examining the impact of hybrid working on culture, people development and workloads at your business by asking these questions:

• Are people working harmoniously or do some people feel like they are bearing the impact of other people not being available?
• Are people getting access to the same learning and development or do they feel excluded from opportunities and feel a lack of progress?
• Are people able to disseminate workloads and delegate work effectively, or do they feel like they are carrying the load?
• Are the numbers booming or suffering? If billable utilisation, productivity and client satisfaction is up, projects are delivered on time and overspends are down then the policy is working.

Anthony recommends these three tactics for hybrid working success:

• Have a clear and published policy which sets out what the mandatory in-office days are, and seek to have “all-in company days” at least one day per week in order to build ‘teaminess’, and define what the mandatory working hours are ie. do people have to be in-office or at-desk between set hours.
• Be clear that hybrid working doesn’t mean flexi-working, which has its own contractual agreement. For flexi-working to be successful, people should make it very clear in their diaries and “out of office” auto-responses when they are working and when they aren’t. 
• Upskill people on briefing and delegation skills. These need to be outcomes-focused with an agreed schedule of check-ins and final deadline. Without this, the problem of trust and micro-managing behaviour rear their head and relationships can easily break down. 

And the main thing to avoid? It’s “filling people’s diaries with endless, back-to-back meetings and simply using all day to talk, says Anthony, people need time “to produce actual work”.

The most crucial barometer of business health?

While profit and revenue metrics are important business measures, the Report highlights how, “ultimately cashflow is the most crucial barometer of health.” Even profitable businesses need careful cashflow management.

 “At its simplest, most ‘people businesses’ including agencies, have to pay their people at the end of each month for the work they did, and often have to wait until a month later to get paid by their clients,” says DBA Expert Peter Carter of Backstop Consulting, “so there’s always a disjoint, and usually in an unfavourable direction, between the happy P&L and the sad cashflow forecast or bank balance.”

Carter adds that “conversely there’s also a tendency, if businesses judge their performance by their bank balance, that upcoming VAT / PAYE / corporation tax payments are a shock and feel like a loss when they happen, so looking at the big three (P&L, balance sheet and the cash flow) together is essential.”

Carter’s topline tips for successfully managing cashflow include: 

• invoice as early as your contract allows, when you hit milestones – don’t wait for the end of the month, start that payment-terms clock ticking now
• don’t be embarrassed about credit control; getting paid on time is part of your contractual relationship, and if your client respects their work then they need to respect the need to pay for it on time
• don’t get into paying all your suppliers earlier when your bank balance is high, it’s not required and sets a precedent. They’ll expect it when times get hard too, when you can’t do it
• when cash flow forecasting, don’t get tied up with whether the phone bill is £143 or £144, keep it approximate and make sure you hit the big stuff; you’re looking for major peaks and troughs in the future, not trying to predict your bank balance to within £1.

To B or not to B

There has been an increase in agencies holding the ‘B-Corp‘ certification, while others forms of accreditation – such as signing up to the ‘UN sustainability goals‘ and ‘1% for the Planet‘ – have also seen a significant uplift amongst DBA members over the last year.

It won’t be long before all companies are required to report on their impact on the environment and the active contribution they are making to reduce their carbon footprint. Ahead of potential legislation coming into play, agencies should think about how they might deal with future requirements on things such as UK energy use and carbon emissions, which large companies already have to report on. Certification future-proofs an agency, keeping it in sync with evolving industry and regulatory standards. But there are other reasons to consider accreditation too.

“Design agencies tend to attract a more liberal demographic workforce than most industries,” says DBA Expert, Future Shift’s founder Will Powell. “This, combined with the fact 75% of the workforce will be millennials in 2025, mean communicating that your agency is placing sustainability at its core, will help to align your business with the morals of new recruits, ensuring you can attract and retain the very best talent.”

Powell adds, that for design agencies, “sustainability certification reflects a commitment to creating with purpose and reducing environmental impact”, something he cites will be vital as clients and consumers seek partners who prioritise the planet. 

“Sustainability certification can be the deal clincher for a design agency,” reflects Powell. “With certifications like B Corp, you bring a trusted, third-party framework to clients who increasingly view sustainability as non-negotiable. For design agencies, where the footprint may seem minimal, certification provides a roadmap to boost responsible sourcing, reduce waste, and adopt forward-thinking practices, aligning with clients’ values and differentiating your agency in proposals,” he adds.

When it comes to choosing the right certification for your business, Powell recommends selecting a certification that can effectively quantify and communicate sustainability, like ‘B Corp’ or ‘The Butterfly Mark‘, which provide rigorous standards applicable even to low-footprint industries. “Choose one that supports continuous improvement, ensuring you’re not only meeting but actively advancing sustainable design,” he says.

DBA Experts are accredited expert consultants who have sustained and relevant experience in supporting the design industry. Browse the Register of Experts and get in touch >

Your team, headcount and pay rises:

• With 92% of DBA members regularly making use of freelancers – the importance of matching your resource to work in the door is always a fine balance for agencies. 
• If future income is uncertain, be decisive; freelancers are an expensive but flexible resource.
• But if your staff costs (including freelancers) to fee income ratio is below 60%, it might be time to make a permanent hire. If you don’t have clear visibility on future workload, you need to carefully consider if now is the time to make the leap of faith, or continue with your freelance resource. 
• While some on the call were cheered with pay rises not being quite as high as in previous years, remember the additional NI you have to pay following the Budget last week. We’ve got an NI calculator tool that can work out how much that will cost you.
• If you’re ready to hire an external Finance Director – get someone adaptable, that understands design, client and employee contracts and can support your account management team on charge-out rates. 

Overseas income and working internationally:

• We’ve seen a steady increase in income from international clients over the years, with close to 50% of member income coming from overseas and this is a key trend we’ve explored in a previous Members’ Forum and in this Design Week article.
• Lots of exciting innovations are happening in different markets – it’s an opportunity to learn something new and bring that knowledge back to your home market. 
• One key piece of advice shared that could save you thousands was to check your bank’s fixed contract terms to buy currency in advance and always know what you’re going to receive. 
• Watch out for RFP scams, especially if performance bonds are being requested, and be aware payments can be withheld if taxes aren’t paid on time or the proper paperwork has not been completed. 

Client servicing and new business development 

• With more businesses looking to grow their income in 2025 without the supporting headcount – we delved into how you can do more with less – and client servicing was highlighted as a way to achieve this.
• Tapping into your existing clients is often an overlooked, cost-effective way of getting more business through the door, how can your client services team upskill to sell more?
• Talk about outcomes in context if you want to recover more client servicing staff costs, and explain the value for money of good project managers and account handlers. 
• If your relationship with your client is strong and there’s a clear value proposition, they’ll do anything to keep working with you – including fighting your corner with procurement.  
• Add a ‘fees to be reviewed annually’ on any fixed fee contracts.

Coming up

There was much, much more covered in the hour – I hope you find these notes helpful. Join our next meeting on Tuesday 3 December, 4-5pm GMT, look out for an email with the details in a few weeks.

We’ve captured the conversation highlights from all the Members’ Forums which have taken place and they can all be found here.