PIVOT Agency is a full service sports marketing agency, built at the nexus of brands and culture, and forming alliances between consumer brands, athletes, sports, the arts, causes, business and media.
PIVOT Agency
PIVOT Agency is a full service sports marketing agency, built at the nexus of brands and culture, and forming alliances between consumer brands, athletes, sports, the arts, causes, business and media. There I served as the Director of Business Operations.
Formed PIVOT Travel, LLC
One of PIVOT Agency's four business verticals is corporate travel. When I started at the agency we were just getting into it and learning as we went along. One thing that had been a consistent source of frustration was getting our contracted accountants to properly capture revenue distinct from pass-through revenue. The books were a mess and our travel team was annoyed. So it was decided that we would make the travel division its own legal entity and I was tasked with making that happen. I set up a new LLC, PIVOT Travel, and migrated all business over to it. Beyond securing the initial licenses and registrations, I worked with our clients, accountants, and bank managers to navigate the transition without disruption to our service.
Created Tiered Commission Structure
When I joined PIVOT the company had three sales representatives and their salary negotiations usually came down to "give me more money or I might leave." As the company grew it became apparent that entertaining this form of compensation discussion wasn't sustainable. So, I created three different tiered compensation and commission structures that I presented to our CEO. With his chosen structure I revised employment agreements and updated our organizational structure so that every sales reprepresentative had clarity on their current compensation and what to expect with upward mobility.
Formed PIVOT Foundation
My first event I attended with PIVOT Agency was the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Man & Woman of the Year event. Our CEO was being honored with the Man of the Year award. For the following three years I worked with the LLS to host numerous fundraising efforts, the most significant of which was a two-day tennis fundraiser at Round Hill Country Club in Alamo, CA. This event included celebrity appearances, a mobile auction, and advertising opportunities. I have to give credit to our CEO for securing amazing auction items, but everything else that went into hosting this event was managed by me. I negotiated the contract with the event space, arranged catering, secured sponsorship agreements, organized the mobile auction, set up the event space, and served as the primary point of contact on the day of the event. And I'm happy to say we earned $100,000 in two days that we donated to the East Bay Chapter of the LLS.
Updated Employee Handbook
In 2019 the original version of the agency's employee handbook, drafted in 2013, was severely outdated and no longer represented our commitment to, and expectations of, our employees. So over the course of six months I worked with an HR consulting company to update our handbook with the most current state and federal regulations as well as our newly-adopted PTO policy and tiered commission structure.
Implemented Unlimited PTO Policy
I frequently hear "Unlimited PTO is a scam." And under certain circumstances, I understand why people feel this way. But when you're a start-up working with people who feel like family, an accrual policy can be extremely costly. Often there's no formal process for submitting and approving PTO requests and when there is, it's rarely followed. After all, we're all family, right? So PTO balances just keep accuing and you're left with balances that inaccurately reflect actual time taken off as well as thousands of dollars in payouts. That didn't sit well with me, so I encouraged my CEO to let me implement an unlimited PTO policy. It didn't result in employees changing the way they used their PTO, it just kept us from paying them for time taken if they decided to pursue other opportunities.
Improved Employee Health Benefits
A year into my time at PIVOT, our CEO asked me what I thought of our health benefits and whether I thought people were taken care of in the event of a health crisis. Since we had a PPO with a narrow network specific to California and no vision insurance, I had to honestly tell him that I thought we could better in this department. So he gave me the freedom to source a new broker, new PPOs and HMOs, and restructure employer contributions. Nothing makes me happier than taking care of hardworking employees, and introducing new and improved benefits plans to our staff felt incredible.
Set Up Employee 401(k) Plan
It was a fulfilling moment for me when I was able to annouce to our staff that we were now offering employees the option to contribute to a 401(k) plan. I worked with a TPA to identify which plan would work best for our company and managed distributions with bi-monthly payroll.
Secured Expansion Loan
PIVOT has long had a goal to be the largest sports agency in America. But we all know start-up growth isn't always organic. As the person who managed A/R, A/P, and payroll it made sense that I would work with our CFO to secure an expansion loan and revolving line of credit. We spent many months working with the bank to deliver our pro forma financial statements and I spent many additional months gathering the supplemental documentation that would eventually result in us securing a loan.