Our Agency Melted Down in April. Here’s a Brutally Honest Look at What Broke.

Let's just say April was a month of… growing pains. I’m building my agency, WSC, because I'm obsessed with creating systems that help businesses succeed online. The irony is, this month our own systems completely fell apart. We learned some hard lessons about what it really takes to scale.

The Cracks Begin to Show

Our process for getting work done didn't just bend; it shattered. I looked at our project board at one point and realized a single team member was juggling 12 different projects. Twelve. That’s not a workflow; it’s a one-way ticket to burnout and mediocre results. It was a complete miscalculation on my part.

Predictably, with everyone stretched so thin, quality control went out the window. We have great QA checklists documented somewhere, but they were just gathering digital dust. The standard was supposed to be 100% QA before delivery, but we were moving too fast, things slipped through, and we shipped work that, frankly, I wasn't proud of.

Digging deeper, the real issue was staffing. We totally misjudged our capacity. We had one developer whose workload planning went sideways, resulting in no effective output. To make matters worse, two new hires left before they even started on a single project. We were in a very tough spot.

The Guy in the Mirror

When I traced all these threads back, they all led to one person: me.

I had become the dreaded bottleneck founder. My fingerprints were on everything, which meant everything moved at my pace a pace that turns glacial when you're pulled in a dozen directions. In my clumsy attempt to control quality, I was actually destroying it.

I talk a big game about empowering people, but I wasn't walking the walk. I failed to delegate, failed to trust, and failed to empower my own team. This forced a new, hard rule for myself: if a task takes less than five minutes, do it immediately. Everything else must be delegated. It was a critical lesson in letting go to move forward.

Finding Some Wins in the Wreckage

But it wasn't all a dumpster fire. Amid the chaos, we took some huge steps toward building a real foundation. We finally got all the boring-but-critical stuff in place standardized emails, NDAs, and contracts. It’s the unglamorous work that prevents major headaches down the road.

The biggest win? We finally, finally moved all project management out of WhatsApp (I know, I know) and into ClickUp. The collective sigh of relief from the team was almost audible. Suddenly, everyone knows what they're supposed to be doing and when. We also started using a few simple new tools, like Markup.io for design reviews and link-checking extensions to tighten up our QA process.

Most importantly, we addressed our biggest problem head-on by bringing on three talented new contractors to help carry the load.

Building for People, Not Just Projects

The other big realization was around our team structure. I was seeing a massive difference in output between a superstar developer and others who were struggling. Paying everyone the same just didn't feel right. So, we're shifting to a performance-based model that actually rewards the folks who are consistently knocking it out of the park.

It also became painfully obvious that we need specialists. We’ve been asking developers to wear too many hats project manager, QA specialist, and probably part-time therapist. The next big step is bringing on a dedicated Project Manager and a QA Lead. People need to be able to focus.

On a fun, experimental note, we also got our first-draft Content AI Agent up and running. It’s a small win, but it’s a peek into how we want to work smarter in the future.

So yes, April showed us exactly where we break. It was humbling, frustrating, and honestly, a little embarrassing. But now we know what to fix. It's time to build an agency that's as strong as the systems we promise our clients.