Books and tools Erika recommends for operations in a small agency.
3 resources
Managing the Professional Service Firm
David Maister
Still the clearest map of leverage, utilisation, and why talent systems beat slogans. Dense, but worth keeping on the shelf.
Best for: Founders building delivery structure for the first time.
Notion
Notion Labs
Flexible enough for ops docs, proposals, and light CRM. Dangerous if everything becomes a wiki nobody maintains.
Best for: Teams that need one shared workspace without enterprise IT.
Asana
Asana
Clear ownership and timelines for client work. Stronger than a chat thread; lighter than enterprise PM suites.
Best for: Studios of 5–20 running parallel projects.