Enkel Helps VirtualAd Save Time, Optimize Performance, and Focus on Growth
VirtualAd is a premium Direct to Consumer (DTC) digital marketing organization that works with high ticket lead generation brands that drive between $10 – $100M in annual online revenue. VirtualAd was founded on the promise to bring transparency and better performance to advertising. Where the ‘traditional’ agency model is flawed – their goal has always been to redefine the status quo and bring value to brands in a way that positively impacts their bottom line. The VirtualAd Performance Methodology™ is a meticulously crafted 9-step process aimed at maximizing the performance of digital marketing campaigns while effectively achieving growth goals. In 2022, VirtualAd generated $55M in revenue for their clients and doubled in size.
Brendan Manley is the founder of VirtualAd. Following university (where he cut his teeth on entrepreneurship founding a skate sharpening business) he started working for an advertising agency where he honed his skills running multi-platform campaigns using different tools to track and analyze performance. From there he shifted gears into sales and client service at an adtech company in Toronto. With 10 years of experience in different areas of digital marketing under his belt, Brendan decided it was time to start his own firm and founded VirtualAd in 2019. In 2020, he took on his now partner, Martin Kocandrle, and together they built VirtualAd into the successful company it is today.
The Challenge
As any good entrepreneur will tell you, there comes a time when you have to work less “in” the business, and focus more “on” the business – driving strategy, growth, and building and leading the team. Brendan hit that tipping point in 2022, when he found himself buried in bookkeeping and other financial operations, and not spending enough time on building the business.
Brendan recognized early on that diligence around financial operations was important to a business, especially a startup. He dove hook, line, and sinker into managing the finances at VirtualAd including invoicing, expense categorization, monthly bank reconciliations, payroll, reporting and analysis, accounts receivable follow-up, and managing their contract accountant for tax filings. Simply put, he was the resident bookkeeper and he was out of bandwidth.
VirtualAd was thriving, but was struggling to stay ahead of the game with regard to hiring core team members, finding new clients, and servicing existing ones. The business provided a great service, had tremendous growth potential, but wasn’t able to scale.
The Solution
Once Brendan realized that his time would be better spent growing the business, he quickly pivoted to outsourcing non-core functions, namely financial operations. After reaching out to a US-based bookkeeping firm (who was unable to provide services in Canada), they referred him to Enkel. He quickly on-boarded with Enkel who now manages VirtualAd’s bookkeeping, payroll, accounts receivables functions.
When Brendan had to juggle back office functions and client work, he rightfully put the client demands first. The consequence was that financials and reporting started to slip, and consistently fell a few months behind. Today, he gets accurate monthly financials and reporting on time, right to his inbox.
Like all good entrepreneurs, Brendan and his team set regular business goals and targets and monitor progress against them. Having comprehensive financial reporting, the team is better able to monitor and assess performance against targets, communicate more effectively, and get more granular with their insights. Today, they can see clearly which service offerings drive the most revenue so that they can re-invest in those areas, and have the visibility to see where they are able to cut costs and better optimize cash flow.
Results
Being a business that drives big results for big clients, Brendan understands what it takes to grow. Working with Enkel has helped him create the environment that is enabling VirtualAd to expand. From streamlining processes, to focusing on client pitches, to hiring and building the team, his time is now focused on core growth initiatives. Some notable results from working with Enkel include:
- Considerable time savings from offloading day-to-day finance tasks
- Financial insights to optimize profitable service offerings
- Better performance measurement against goals and targets
- More streamlined back-office processes
- Timely payroll administration
- Better cash flow from timely account receivables management
Brendan’s advice for other business owners spending a lot of time managing finances is to start outsourcing today. “It’s a no-brainer.” According to Brendan, “once you are at the point where managing back office work is taking up a lot of your time, the opportunity cost is slow to no growth.”
Looking for a reliable bookkeeping or payroll solution?
We can help! Whether it’s bookkeeping, payroll, or other accounting back office services, we have the industry expertise and knowledge to manage it all. You can trust our team to keep your books up to date and provide you with accurate financial statements every month.