“Build relationships based on value” is one of the first lessons Sylvia Schutte, founder and Managing Director at Stratitude, a Johannesburg-based full-service marketing agency, says she learned in her early years running the business.
“I’ve learned not to compete on price, there are simply too many small agencies and freelancers in the industry. Whenever I see a potential client comparing our proposal against a smaller agency or contractor on price alone, I immediately know they aren’t the right fit for us.”
Schutte started the agency in 2009 with four employees. It has since grown into a team of close to twenty staff and interns, and remains the exclusive South African member agency of Advertising & Marketing Independent Network (AMIN) Worldwide, an alliance of more than 50 independent marketing agencies globally.
The idea for Stratitude came from a gap Schutte spotted: clients were frustrated at having to brief and manage multiple separate agencies. “I saw a gap in the market for an integrated agency that could develop a communications strategy for a client and then offer all the marketing services in-house, from digital and direct marketing to advertising, PR and social media.”
Lessons from over fifteen years running an agency
1. Be optimistic
A positive outlook makes a genuine difference when facing obstacles. When you lose a pitch or hit a rough patch with a client, ask why, take an honest look at what happened, and use it to improve next time.
2. Surround yourself with people you like, not people like you
Complementary skills matter more than similarity. People who share your values, whether they work for you, supply you, or are your clients, are the ones who help you build something lasting.
3. Create space for people to take ownership
Some of the best work comes from someone taking genuine ownership of an idea and running with it. Consistently asking “why are we doing this?” keeps the bigger purpose visible, which makes the how come naturally.
4. Keep learning, and admit what you don’t know
Admitting mistakes and asking for help when you need it, rather than pretending to know everything, keeps you open to better ways of doing things. Ongoing exposure to industry talks, training and a global network of peer agencies continues to pay off years later.
5. Don’t decide in haste or while emotional
Sleeping on a big decision consistently produces a better outcome than reacting immediately. The same advice works well passed on to clients weighing a new creative concept or strategy.
6. Care shows in the work
The difference between adequate work and genuinely good work is usually whether the person doing it cares. When that care disappears from someone on the team, it tends to show up quickly, and a resignation or a hard conversation usually follows.
7. Stay focused on your original vision
It’s tempting to question whether specialising in fewer services would be simpler, but remembering the original client frustration the business was built to solve keeps the broader offering worth defending.
8. Treat clients as an extension of your team
Never take a client relationship for granted. Measuring success by whether you’re genuinely making an impact on their business, not just delivering the brief, is what keeps long-term client relationships intact.
9. Hire people you can actually trust to decide without you
Trying to control every operational decision yourself eventually caps how much the business can grow. Building a proper structure, hiring deliberately against it, and then trusting the people in those roles frees up the time needed to grow the business further.
10. Make time to love what you do
Running a business demands real hours, but finding balance and time for your own life outside it is what sustains the energy needed to keep going for the long haul.
Frequently asked questions
Is it a mistake for an agency to compete purely on price?
Often, yes. Competing on value and fit tends to attract clients who are a better long-term match than clients chasing the lowest quote.
How important is company culture to an agency’s long-term success?
Very. Hiring for shared values, not just skill, and giving people real ownership of their work, are recurring themes behind agencies that last well beyond their first few years.
What’s the biggest risk for a founder who tries to control every decision?
It caps the business’s own growth. Building proper structure and trusting the people you hire into it is what actually allows a founder to scale beyond what they can do alone.
A decade and a half on
Stratitude’s growth from four people to a full team, and its long-standing global agency partnership, reflect lessons that hold up well beyond the year they were first shared: value over price, genuine culture, and knowing when to let go of control.
Originally published in November 2019. Updated September 2026 to confirm Stratitude is still operating and refresh the framing beyond its original ten-year milestone. The underlying business lessons are durable and not tied to a specific period.
