Learning from marketing expert David C. Baker, as the new Operations Manager at hesketh.com

Heather promoted me last month, from Project Manager to Operations Manager at hesketh.com. My job has expanded to include marketing, recruiting, and resource management, as our web agency continues to help non-profits and other mission-based clients.

Writing my new job description as Operations Manager

In short, my mandate is to optimize and grow the agency. As the company’s first Operations Manager, I took the initiative to propose and define the position.

My new role includes increasing utilization, recruiting team members to expand our capacity, creating a content marketing strategy, improving financial projections, and doing special projects to meet ad hoc business needs. It’s an exciting change, and I appreciate the opportunity.

Learning from marketing agency expert David C. Baker

If you’re on the business side of running a marketing agency, you probably know consultant David C. Baker as the expert on running marketing agencies. He’s consulted with hundreds of agencies and interviewed thousands of people to identify what does and doesn’t work when it comes to running an advertising, PR, marketing, or interactive agency.

In less than two weeks, I’m excited to be heading from Raleigh to Nashville to take Baker’s once-a-year operations seminar, “Resourcing the Creative Process: Managing Pricing, Deadlines, Budgets, Quality, and Capacity.”

It’s going to be an action-packed day, with the workshop building on Baker’s excellent Financial Management of a Marketing Firm book.

I already have two of his books, and I enjoyed his talk at AIGA Raleigh last year. He has great whitepapers, and his thought-provoking email newsletter is a weekly must-read. You can also follow him on Twitter at @ReCourses.

As you may have guessed, I love professional development.

Networking with fellow agency business operations people

Beyond the specific course material, I’m also looking forward to networking with fellow agency operations people from across the country.

I enjoy speaking with like-minded people in the Raleigh area — like Brooks Bell COO/CFO Robb Czyzewski and New Kind operations head Elizabeth Hipps — but the Triangle is missing a dedicated networking group for business operations folks at marketing agencies. Sounds like my next project!

Question: What’s the “must-visit” spot in Nashville to see before I fly back to Raleigh that night? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Tagged as: accounting, agencies, business operations, career updates, consulting, David C. Baker, finance, Heather Hesketh, hesketh.com, jobs, marketing, professional development, project management, promotion, ReCourses, resource management, utilization