The ‘Hire When It Hurts’ Shift: 23 Years of Agency Growth
- Oct 8
- 2 min read
By Dwight Zahringer
Founder, Perfect Afternoon
After 23+ years in the digital agency game, the single move that transformed my business, Perfect Afternoon, was shifting from “hire when we need help” to “hire when it hurts.”
In the early years, I used to scramble to find talent only when projects piled up. This reactive approach often led to rushed hires and, unfortunately, cultural misfits. I learned that lesson the hard way—letting go of three people in just six months who looked great on paper but were toxic to our team dynamic. Not only was this costly, but it also created internal chaos that spilled over into client delivery.
The turning point came when I made a conscious decision to hire proactively—bringing people on board as soon as my existing team started feeling the strain, even if it temporarily hurt our margins. It wasn’t easy, but it completely flipped our growth trajectory.
We built a rigorous culture-fit process that goes beyond resumes and technical skills. Today, every potential hire goes through a gut-check with the entire hiring team. This ensures we bring in people who strengthen—not strain—our culture.
The results have been transformative. We’ve retained clients through multiple business changes; in fact, one client has taken us along to three different companies because of the trust we’ve built. Our ability to deliver consistent quality, without being derailed by internal staffing issues, has dramatically improved our client retention and referrals.
With the right people in place, growth started to feel natural. We scaled without breaking service quality, and revenue followed. What once felt like an impossible balance between growth and culture became our greatest strength.
Looking back, the power move wasn’t just about hiring earlier—it was about valuing culture, patience, and foresight over short-term gains. That decision has allowed Perfect Afternoon to serve international clients from the U.S. and Mexico with the consistency and quality that fuels long-term relationships.
For me, building websites, developing software, and helping businesses improve their online presence has always been more than a job—it’s my passion. Over the years, I’ve created and sold multiple web-based software programs, acquired utility patents, and had the opportunity to speak at national conferences about SEO and online reputation management. But none of these achievements would have been sustainable without the team I’ve built by making the tough call to “hire when it hurts.”
That’s the power move that changed everything.
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