Our Agency For Women-Owned Businesses Generates $600K/Year
Note: This business is no longer running. It was started in 2014 and ended in 2023. Reason for closure: Shut down.
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
Hello! I’m Pam Foley, the Founder of AOU Creative Group, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. I created the business in 2014 to help women build businesses and visibility online after I realized that women-owned businesses don’t succeed at the same rate as those started by men.
That’s changing - and I am proud to be a part of the evolution.
At AOU, my team and I focus on strategic brand management for our customers - most women over 40 seeking to build a business or personal brand.
We have three core done-for-you (DFY) offerings; brand strategy, social media management, and SEO with blog content. And for law firms and lawyers, we offer specialized DFY services. We also offer a done-with-you program called the Digital Village, where we work with cohorts of 15 business owners monthly to assist them in creating digital marketing.
This wasn’t always the case. When I started this company nine years ago, I intended to help women build businesses through a combination of coaching and website design. It was just me and my dog working daily from my home office.
Soon, I realized that I needed to expand my services to help women grow businesses to the extent that they wished them to grow. That’s when AOU moved away from coaching and into full content and branding services.
My team has expanded to 7 people, most of who have deep experience in their field or advanced degrees (I’m a former Attorney, but more on that later). Now, we help clients across the nation in industries as wide-ranging as a specialty coffee roaster in Illinois to small women-owned law firms to a mergers and acquisitions specialist in Hawaii.
For most of our clients, our services happen every month. I built AOU with the core belief that visibility and online success can happen organically, but that it takes a consistently implemented strategy to do it.
AOU Creative Group has grown from a business that lost money for the first two years I owned it to one that was barely making a profit for a period of time - to a $50,000 MRR in 2023. We are on track to double revenue in the next 12 months.
There are bigger agencies to be sure, but at AOU, I am proud to work with the people we do business with and feel that as a boutique agency, we can help our clients in a more personal and customized way than many larger firms can.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
My journey has been one that I once heard a recruiter call “non-traditional.” At the time, they meant that I didn't fit into any corporate mold – despite a pretty deep resume and even an advanced degree.
From the start, I always knew that I wanted to be a writer.
I never imagined myself as a business owner until it happened.
In college, I studied marketing and communications, though, in those days, the focus wasn’t on online marketing as much as print. After graduation, I worked for large non-profits like the Boy Scouts of America, the American Cancer Society, and the American Heart Association, running programs and creating marketing campaigns for local events.
I even worked as a trade show manager and graphic designer for a software company in Nevada for a short bit.
Eventually, I decided to “get serious” about a career and enrolled in law school.
I worked as a practicing Attorney in the Seattle area for a few years. At first, I worked for a firm focusing on environmental law. It was interesting, though demanding work, and I enjoyed it for the most part.
That is until the day the managing partner suggested that to get ahead, I would have to do more than just come to meetings (if you know what I mean - it was a #METOO moment).
When I said no, I was laid off.
Frustrated with the legal world, I decided to open my own law firm. In three years, I built it to dozens of divorces and three locations. It was financially successful, and I could choose my own clients.
But I wasn't the person or parent I wanted to be.
So when the opportunity came to leave the practice of law and start something new, I jumped at it.
Closing my practice, I began writing blogs for other attorneys and publishing them. Before long, I was writing 40 blogs a week – and optimizing them for SEO (a skill I learned on the fly at first but later got certified by several groups, including Yoast and SEMRush).
That’s when the idea of AOU Creative Group, an agency focused on helping women be independent and successful business owners, came about - and I opened it in 2014.
It began slowly, and I decided to self-fund the business. I’m sure my partner was less than thrilled about the cost of starting the business up, but seeing how happy I was made it easier for him to handle the stress of me leaving the law and starting a new business.
For a time, I sold real estate to help fund the agency but learned that you couldn’t divide interest and make a business work. In 2018 I turned fully to AOU, and that is when it began to grow.
Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.
Getting started, at least the legal steps to do it, was the easiest part for me. As an Attorney, I understood many of the things that needed to happen to kick off a new business. Licenses, entity formation, tax id – these weren’t things that I worried about.
What scared me was the idea of creating a service that someone would pay me for, that wasn't being a lawyer. And finding people to be clients.
At first, the most significant issue was feeling that the service I offered was valuable. I didn’t realize that there were plenty of other people who didn't know how to do things I did know how to do.
Like many other women (and men), I had to learn to believe that my skills had value.
I started with a coaching program where I offered women help with strategy and the steps to setting up and growing a business. In truth, it was a struggle to get coaching clients. I had never had to sell my services before, and I had to learn how and where to do it.
It's hard to think about how many hours I spent networking in the “wrong rooms” with people who were not my ideal clients and didn't see the value in what I offered.
It was an “aha” moment when I realized that I needed to be speaking to people who saw value in my experience. That's when I moved from traditional in-person networking to Linkedin and other virtual communities.
In a few months, I added website design and worked with many clients crafting copy and creating offers. Soon I was writing blogs and social content. I built the business to a comfortable pace of $5,000-$7,000 per month and stayed there until the pandemic hit.
When everything in person closed in 2020, the need for online visibility exploded.
Suddenly, businesses that had been in-person or had brick-and-mortar operations needed an online presence. Not only that, they needed to build brands that would drive sales and customer loyalty.
My phone started ringing, and it hasn't stopped.
Since 2020, I have added 7 team members, including an amazing Creative Director who acts as our project manager as well, several talented writers, a social media manager, and an SEO expert.
All of my team are 1099 contractors, but we have solid relationships built on trust and mutual respect that keep the unit together.
One offer, one business, one ideal client is the formula for business growth, especially when you start.
Describe the process of launching the business.
As I started to take on more clients, I realized that there were more offers that I could make than just writing website copy and designing offers for clients.
First, I created a new website on WIX because it was easy for me to update regularly. Until then, I had used WordPress, but as business began to increase, I wanted a site that would give me quick and easy access to make changes. It was a little different than what many businesses do, but it worked well for me as AOU began to grow.
That’s also when I began to add SEO and blogs into the mix in a larger way. Beginning in mid-2020, this addition helped clients get found on Google, making the copy I was writing for websites much more effective.
Soon, people asked for social media management as well. That’s when I brought on my Creative Director, Christine Melaas.
Bringing her on was a stroke of luck! I found her after presenting a National Institute of Social Media (NISM) course. The course was on editing copy for websites, and I enjoyed the 100+ people who attended.
The group was so great that I presented to them again and became online friends with the Director of NISM, Jennifer Radke.
When I knew it was time to launch social media, I asked Jenn for a referral, and she suggested Christine. The rest is history!
Putting together a solid team has been one of the most challenging aspects of the startup process - and in the end, the most rewarding.
That, and the initial funding, where I mainly used credit cards and personal funds.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
Like so many other founders, I have tried it all when it comes to marketing. Well, all except paid ads which haven't been something I've tried because of the costs associated with them.
Many people would say to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on paid ads to grow faster, but I just either didn't have the funds needed or wasn't ready t grow at the pace that ads might have driven.
Most of my business has come from three areas: referrals, SEO, and social media.
I work with clients to build a referral relationship right from the start of an engagement. Recently, I started a program where I pay a client a percentage off of one month’s service when they send a referral that becomes a new client. It has started to pay off, and I have at least one new customer in the pipeline as a result of that incentive program.
On social media, I focus on Linkedin. I try to post every workday – though I am not 100% perfect in that effort. The biggest success has come from engaging with others’ content. When I do that, I also reach out to DM’s to connect. That has led to relationships and new business.
Of course, I am a big believer in the power of SEO to help drive people to your website. The trick is to convert them once they get to the site. Frankly, as I was so busy with clients' sites before I started to build a team, for the longest time, I didn't work on conversions.
Now I have CTAs that inspire action and a blog strategy that helps my website rank for the keywords I want it to.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
I am happy that now I am in a place where I can say no to the business if the prospect isn't a good fit.
AOU Creative Group is doing well on a year-over-year basis. We had a slow start to 2023, but things have improved in the 2nd quarter, and we onboarded several new clients.
We’ve also recently launched both the DWY Digital Village and community and AOUlegal.com for solo Attorneys and small law firms. Both of these show promise and are helping to increase the rate of growth here at AOU Creative Group.
As a small boutique agency, we run at a fairly narrow profit margin. Typically, costs run at 15% monthly for tech tools and operations (including the Creative Director and admin help) and 25% for writers/SEO and social media management.
The contractor costs are high, but I’ve worked to build a solid team with deep experience to ensure that my clients get great content that produces results. It's a trade-off that is worth it for my business in the long run.
The Digital Village has a lower operating cost and is expected to produce higher returns after initial investments and monthly costs.
We expect to double our 2022 MRR this year. This will come from legal, Digital Village, and our typical monthly clients. We are on track (and slightly ahead) of schedule to achieve this goal.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
As someone who has built a law firm sold real estate, and now owns an agency, I feel like I could give more advice about what to do and not do than anyone would care to hear.
I’ve tried it all - and done some things well and others not so much.
That said, there are a few things that I would do if I had to start over again that I think would save me time and money:
1) Choose a “lane” and stay in it
2) Hire fast and fire faster
3) Dont say yes because you are afraid to say no
1) Stay in your lane. When I started out it was hard to say no to any project. That meant that some days I was personally writing website copy, creating social posts, finding keywords, and building websites on multiple platforms.
Afraid to lose business, I kept adding services until I couldn't possibly do everything I offered well. Now, I see that happen with some of our clients. They want to keep trying new offers instead of staying with one and letting it grow. I get it!
But a mentor once said, “One offer for one ICP (ideal client persona) for one year.” I tried it, and it worked! After that, I never went back to selling it all. After all, no one can be everything to everyone. I wish I accepted that sooner.
2) Hire fast and fire faster. It sounds harsh, and letting people go is tough. That said, I have learned that the people on my team who haven't worked out – I knew that was the case months before I let them go.
My reticence to move people off the team slowed growth for a long time. Now, I give people a “trial run” before adding them to the team - and when the energy or work ethic is up to the standards we have built as a unit, I let them go. It’s hard but has made a huge difference in the team's strength and the work we offer clients.
3) Don't say yes because you are afraid to say no. Have you ever met with a prospective client and had a feeling in your gut that there wasn't a fit with your offer - but you couldn't say no because you were afraid to lose business or you simply needed the money? I have.
Especially when I was newer as an entrepreneur, I said yes when I should have said no. Like hiring and firing, it hurt the reputation and growth of AOU. That happened because you can’t force someone to fit into your system – they just have to be the right fit.
When they are, it's magic; when they aren't, it's costly and painful. I learned this the hard way a few times – and I am happy that now I am in a place where I can say no to the business if the prospect isn't a good fit.
I have made many other mistakes, mostly around spending money I didn't need to spend on coaches and advisors who sounded good but knew less than I did about business growth and software I didn't need.
The bottom line is that you have to trust yourself and believe that you will make good decisions for your business. Then, get educated about business growth. And work to build your confidence.
Both will help your business grow without making the mistakes I did.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
There are so many tools that I have tried over time, but now we use these to help run AOU Creative Group:
Wix.com – I use this for my website. It is so easy to make changes, and I don't need to ask my website designer to handle them. Plus, the SEO is great, and people find my site organically every month. Couldn't ask for more!
Monday.com - We use monday.com for project management to keep track of tasks, due dates, project deadlines, new ideas, and so much more. It is the heart of what we use to run AOU Creative Group.
Canva - We use Canva to create social media post graphics, blog headers, newsletters, and more. It is an easy-to-use option for simple graphics.
Adobe InDesign - We use this for flyers, brochures, handouts, slide decks, and more. Adobe is a powerhouse for graphics; when we need something professional fast, this is what we turn to.
Stripe - We send invoices and create subscriptions through Stripe to collect payment. It makes reporting easy, and I can track income monthly.
Quickbooks - We might not need both, but my accountant loves QB, so we use that to report and balance the books monthly.
Slack - The AOU team would not be able to communicate without Slack! We use it to organize conversations and keep the chat about projects and ideas. It's a daily part of my life.
Social Pilot - We schedule social media posts and report metrics using Socil Piolt. I like that you can track multiple platforms and clients in one place. The content calendar is also amazing for clients to see!
AHREFS - We use this for SEO and reporting.
Google Workspace - Gmail, Google Calendar, and more. We use the G-Suite daily to communicate internally and with clients.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
I am a huge business book reader and have several authors who are favorites:
Seth Godin – really, anything he has written will be helpful to people starting out
Dr. Robert Cialdini - Persuasion is one of those books that anyone interested in effective copy should read. I turn to it at least once a year as a review.
Carol Pearson – The Hero and the Archetype is a groundbreaking brand book. Worth reading to learn about how your brand fits in the world.
As for podcasts, I love:
Glennon Doyle & Abby Wombach - We Can Do Hard Things
Freakonomics – Always an interesting take on the world
Smartless - It’s a hilarious mental break
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
I would say that you should choose a business and do it. The biggest thing that I see holding people back – myself included - is the desire to run multiple businesses at once. I’ve tried - and it can’t be done. Well, at least not, and grow both to the potential their highest potential.
So many people say they are multi-disciplined; believe me, I get it. But if you focus on one business offer and spend time building it out, you’ll reach your goals.
I spent years chasing the next closed deal - offering whatever I thought the prospect needed.
It ended up with frustration and slow growth. It wasn’t until we streamlined our offer to manage brands using SEO, content, and social media that things got better. Now we can tell clients what we will do for them - and anticipate the results.
Plus, the service I offer now is monthly rather than transactional, making it much better for me and the client in the long run. And I can predict monthly income, which helps make being an entrepreneur less stressful.
One offer, one business, one ideal client is the formula for business growth, especially when you start.
Where can we go to learn more?
- Website
- Lawyers
- Linkedin: @aoucreativegroup
- Pam Linkedin
- Instagram: @aoucreativegroup
- Facebook:
- Twitter: @pamparkerfoley2
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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