We’re selling about $40,000 in new monthly recurring revenue each month at Proxa. Yet we’re behind on our growth goal for the year.
I walked the company through those numbers when I presented our priorities for the final quarter of 2026. I also connected them to our vision: creating unlimited opportunity by building a $100 million portfolio of agencies.
As the company grows, I want our people to have more room to advance, take on responsibility, and build their careers here. Our financial goals help us build the business that can sustain those opportunities.
We started the year at $8.2 million in annual recurring revenue, with a goal of reaching $10 million by year-end. By October, we were behind the pace needed to get there.
Although sales has averaged $40,000 in new MRR each month, that’s been offset by lost MRR (clients who exit). In July alone, we lost about $50,000 in MRR. In September, we lost another $20,000.
We are bringing in business, but too much of that forward momentum is being offset by revenue leaving the company. That reality shaped what we’re focusing on between now and December 31.
Our annual goals include expanding beyond digital services, operating as one agency, and reaching $10 million in annual recurring revenue. We’ve completed the expansion goal, with departments covering public relations, brand management, social media, and business development. This quarter we will finalize strengthening how the company operates and improving much revenue we retain.
We operate two marketing brands—Array Digital for law firms and Rival Digital for home services companies. Each developed largely independently. In mid-2025, we started merging redundant teams and processes, with that effort culminating throughout 2026. It has required reworking our tools, workflows, and our teams. It’s been a big change and has required a massive amount of clarity and communication.
An encouraging example of the One Agency goal came up during the same company meeting when I presented our Q4 priorities. Our Technology & Innovation team reported reducing more than 50 automations supporting Array Digital’s content process down to two shared with Rival Digital, ready for client testing.
Separate processes accumulate as teams solve the problems they are confronted with. Eventually, someone has to step back and examine what can be shared. Internal integration has been our core focus for this entire year, and we’re almost done.
This quarter, we’re combining the Array Digital and Rival Digital content teams under a single director. We’re doing the same with our web teams. Each merger requires clear reporting relationships, leadership responsibility, and team membership. People need to know where they fit and who owns the decisions.
We’re also consolidating our two HubSpot accounts and implementing a lead rotation algorithm across account executives. The sales team will operate as one unit, with leads assigned regardless of brand or source.
Those changes move our One Agency goal into daily operations. They also help establish how we can operate a larger portfolio without rebuilding every process inside every agency. It was crucial for us to merge our own two agencies, and it serves as preparation for when we begin acquiring agencies. (Reach out if you’re thinking of selling your agency one day → [email protected])
Retention is where the financial urgency is greatest. We’ve set a goal to reduce the rate of lost MRR by 25% this quarter. Our account management team has begun examining client cancellations to understand why clients leave. I’ve asked the team to focus on what we can do about those reasons.
A client may cite budget, expectations, changed business needs, or results. Regardless of what they say, or the story we’ve told ourselves about those clients, we have to deeply examine what we could have recognized earlier, communicated more clearly, or improved in our delivery that would have retained them.
Once we understand the true reasons, we can prepare our response. It will become a written retention plan, followed by implementation and weekly measurement.
We’re also examining pricing and service costs as we prepare our 2027 pricing plan. I’m accountable for that work. We’ll review clients paying below list price, retention projections, and the gross profit required to support our operating income targets.
Alongside that, we’re establishing our annual budget for 2027. The budget will include monthly reviews of planned versus actual performance and contingency plans when we fall short. After operating this agency for ten years, this will be the first time we’ve had a legitimate financial plan for the year. That was only made possible by the investment we made much earlier in the year to hire a Director of Finance; one investment compounds into future investments.
We’ve historically maintained monthly profitability, and still do. The next step is making our financial decisions more deliberate. Profitability gives us the capacity to invest in the company and the opportunities we want to create for our staff and clients.
Finally, supervisors will define three metrics demonstrating the quality and results of their teams’ work. Our Technology & Innovation team will build a heatmap showing performance at the client, team, and specialist levels. Each metric will be color-coded red, yellow, or green to indicate if everything is on target or if something needs our attention. When a client perceives poor results, we need enough visibility to examine the work and respond with something more useful than reassurance. But the real goal is to be proactive by identifying and improving deficiencies before our clients feel the effects.
Every priority has an accountable owner. Our project management team is coordinating execution, tracking progress weekly, and will verify completion.
Building a $100 million portfolio requires us to retain more clients. That will only happen if we perform well, communicate often with clients, keep them happy, operate together more effectively, and make deliberate financial decisions.
This quarter’s work is part of making that vision achievable. It’s also about setting us up for 2027. I’m already planning for 2027. I’ll share more about those goals in a future newsletter.
Where is revenue slipping away in your business? It’s usually either in sales or in retention. Reply directly to me at [email protected] and tell me what you’re seeing.
~ Erik
About
Erik J. Olson is the Founder and CEO of Proxa, where he builds and operates multiple marketing agencies focused on predictable, system-driven growth. He has scaled agencies across multiple markets by replacing fragmented execution with structured systems that drive consistent revenue. Erik is the author of Million Dollar Journey and writes The Business of Agency newsletter. He is building Proxa into a $100M platform with a planned private equity exit.