Agency Productivity Is Slipping—Solo Creatives Can Win

Agency leaders rarely admit this out loud: since 2020, some teams have needed more people to deliver the same amount of work. In a recent Creative Boom discussion, agency founder Joy Nazzari described holding turnover steady during the pandemic while profit vanished, because productivity “tanked” and delivery required extra headcount.

If you’re a UK solopreneur, that story isn’t agency gossip. It’s a warning. Because when agencies slow down and scopes inflate, clients don’t magically become more patient—they start shopping for speed, clarity, and predictable outcomes. A one-person business can absolutely beat a 20-person agency on those three things.

This post is part of the UK Solopreneur Business Growth series, so we’re going to translate the agency productivity debate into something practical: how a solo creative can build a workflow that’s fast enough to compete, structured enough to scale, and marketed well enough to bring leads in without living on discovery calls.

The “productivity crisis” isn’t laziness—it’s friction

Answer first: the problem isn’t that creatives forgot how to work; it’s that modern delivery creates more handoffs, approvals, and decision latency than it used to.

Multiple voices in the piece point to the same reality: distributed working can slow teams at an organisational level. Not because individuals are idle—often the opposite—but because work becomes more dependent on:

• calendar alignment (meetings booked weeks out)
• written documentation for everything
• waiting for decisions across Slack/email/time zones
• additional coordination roles just to keep projects moving

That’s why some studios are pulling people back together for most of the week: proximity compresses decision time. Frankie Guzi’s point lands: speed comes from solving problems “as a unit,” not from piling on more people.

What this means for solopreneurs

You don’t have to “return to office” because you are the office. Your advantage is that your project doesn’t require five internal approvals to change a headline or ship a concept.

But you can still suffer from the same friction if you don’t systemise how you:

• capture briefs
• scope work
• collect feedback
• manage revisions
• handle sign-off

If clients experience drag in any of those places, they feel like you’re slow—even if you worked all weekend.

Complexity inflation is real (and clients are underpricing it)

Answer first: branding and design work now ships with extra layers—design systems, motion rules, accessibility, multi-channel rollout—often without budgets rising to match.

Max Ottignon’s observation is one I agree with: older case studies can look “quaint.” A “rebrand” used to mean a logo, some guidelines, and a few touchpoints. In 2026, it commonly includes:

• design systems and component libraries
• motion behaviours and social-first variants
• scalable illustration systems
• custom type or typographic rules
• testing across many devices and contexts

Tanvi Jadhav’s line is the cleanest summary: “Clients want 2026 complexity on 2019 fees.”

The solopreneur move: package complexity instead of absorbing it

Agencies often absorb complexity to protect relationships, then wonder why profit disappears. You don’t have that luxury. Your calendar is your inventory.

Try this instead:

1. Create a “minimum viable scope” for each offer (logo refresh, landing page design, brand sprint, etc.).
2. List add-ons openly (motion rules, extra templates, additional audiences, multi-language versions).
3. Put a hard revision policy in writing (example: 2 rounds included; further rounds billed or traded).
4. Tie deliverables to outcomes (“three landing page sections designed to improve conversion clarity”) not vague effort (“branding support”).

A one-liner that helps in sales calls:

“I’m fast because I’m structured. Structure is what keeps your scope from silently doubling.”

Hybrid work exposed a bigger issue: decision-making is poorly designed

Answer first: many teams still run projects on pre-2020 assumptions, but the work has become more iterative and emotionally demanding—so the old management system doesn’t fit.

Stephen Painter’s point is sharp: headcount creep is often a symptom of a mismatch between pricing/staffing models and how creative work actually moves now.

Solopreneurs feel this mismatch too, just in a different way:

• you price a project as if the client will decide quickly
• the client runs it through three stakeholders
• you spend your margin chasing clarity

A simple “decision architecture” that speeds up solo projects

You can’t control your client’s organisation, but you can control the rails your project runs on.

Use a 3-gate system for every client project:

• Gate 1: Brief locked (one-page summary + success criteria + constraints)
• Gate 2: Direction approved (one chosen route; not “we like bits of both”)
• Gate 3: Final sign-off (delivery checklist + handover)

Each gate has one required behaviour: a single decision-maker signs it off.

If the client can’t provide a decision-maker, you can still proceed, but you should price for the additional latency.

The over-delivery trap is killing margins (and confidence)

Answer first: over-delivery feels like care, but it behaves like scope creep—your profit is what it eats first.

The article calls out a pattern: in a competitive market, “getting it over the line” can mean quietly adding 20% extra work to impress. Owen Williams and Alex Dixon describe the same cycle: squeezed budgets, procurement pressure, inflated scopes, undercut rates, then over-delivery to protect relationships.

Here’s my stance: over-delivery is only smart when it’s strategic and repeatable. If it’s emotional (“I just want them to love it”), it’s a tax you pay forever.

Replace over-delivery with “productised generosity”

A solo creative can stand out without donating labour. The trick is to bake in small, high-value extras that don’t increase production unpredictably.

Examples that work well:

• a short Loom walkthrough of the final files
• a “how to use this” one-pager for non-designers
• a ready-to-post social template set (fixed quantity)
• a brand checklist for the client’s next quarter

These feel premium to clients, but they’re repeatable. You can template them.

Automation isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s your competitive advantage

Answer first: for solopreneurs, automation tools are how you deliver agency-level reliability without agency-level headcount.

The agency debate often centres on location (remote vs office). For a one-person business, the bigger lever is workflow design—especially in marketing and client ops.

Where to automate first (the “lead-to-cash” chain)

If your goal is leads (and it is), the fastest win is automating the steps between interest and payment.

1. Lead capture

   • A single services page with one primary CTA
   • A short inquiry form that filters out poor fits

2. Qualification + booking

   • Auto-email: “Here’s pricing guidance + next steps”
   • Calendar booking with pre-call questions

3. Proposal + payment

   • Proposal templates (3 tiers max)
   • Stripe/GoCardless invoice links and deposits

4. Onboarding

   • Auto-send brief form + folder structure + timeline
   • Client hub or shared dashboard for assets and approvals

5. Feedback + approvals

   • One place for comments (not email threads)
   • Clear deadlines for feedback windows

Even if you implement only steps 2–4, you’ll feel the difference immediately: fewer DMs, fewer “just checking this landed,” fewer stalled starts.

A realistic January workflow reset (15 minutes a day for one week)

It’s January 2026. People are back at desks, budgets are being released, and “quick turnaround” requests are starting again.

Here’s a reset you can do without blowing up your client work:

• Day 1: Write a one-page scope template (deliverables, timeline, revisions)
• Day 2: Create 3 proposal packages (Lean / Standard / Priority)
• Day 3: Template your onboarding email and brief form
• Day 4: Set up a client feedback system (single tool, single rule)
• Day 5: Build a “start here” page on your site (CTA + booking)

That’s not busywork. That’s building the infrastructure that makes marketing actually pay off.

“Is remote work the problem?” and other quick answers

Answer first: remote work isn’t the villain; unclear decisions, scope drift, and coordination overhead are.

Why do projects seem to need more people now?

Because more deliverables are expected (systems, motion, multi-channel) and more coordination is required (stakeholders, tools, approvals). The work has more moving parts.

Does AI fix productivity in creative work?

AI speeds up certain tasks, but it also inflates expectations. If clients assume AI makes everything instant, you’ll spend time on perception management unless you set boundaries and explain what’s actually being automated.

Can solopreneurs compete with agencies on larger accounts?

Yes—if you’re clear about what you do, how you run projects, and how fast you deliver. Many clients don’t want “an agency,” they want a result without drama.

Your next step: build a solo business that doesn’t rely on heroics

Agencies are wrestling with productivity because their systems were designed for a different era: fewer channels, simpler deliverables, and more in-room decisions. Solopreneurs don’t need to inherit that mess.

The opportunity in 2026 is straightforward: be the structured, fast, low-friction option—then back it up with online marketing that consistently brings in good-fit inquiries.

If you look at your last three projects and think, “I did great work, but the process drained me,” that’s your signal. Where’s the friction—scope, approvals, onboarding, feedback, or marketing?

What would change in your business if your next client project ran 20% faster with the same quality—and you didn’t have to be “always on” to make it happen?