Elke Westerveld

Elke Westerveld bootstrapped Social & Staple from a $20,000 personal investment, returned to work six weeks postpartum, paid herself $45,000 in year three and spent five years leaving every dollar of profit in the business. Six years in, she is still not paying herself market rate and has made peace with why.

Key Takeaways:

• Sacrifice isn't always a red flag. Sometimes it's the cost of not losing the window.

• Under pricing is one of the most common and most fixable profit leaks in service businesses.

• Hiring seniors costs more upfront and compounds faster. The maths is clearer than it feels.

• Knowing your numbers isn't an accountant's job. It's a business owner’s most important skill.

There are two moments Elke Westerveld points to when asked why Social & Staple exists the way it does today. Neither of them is a launch day or a revenue milestone.

The first: Six weeks postpartum, back at her desk, watching the business hit a growth window she knew wouldn't stay open. She showed up anyway. "Every hour away felt like something I couldn't get back," she says. "But I could see the legs this business had." She didn't walk away. Social & Staple kept moving.

The second: Five years later, a breaking point. The agency was performing. Elke was not. Burnt out and ready to walk away from everything she had built, it took a brutally honest conversation with her accountant to pull her back. He didn't comfort her, he told her what she needed to hear.

Social & Staple is a boutique performance and lifecycle marketing agency operating across paid ads, email marketing/SMS and creative strategy. Six years in, it holds a client roster Elke is proud to put her name behind, Australian and global brands, built through what she describes as a profit-first, creative-led strategy.

What the agency is most known for, according to its clients, isn't the deliverables. It's the communication, the presence, the investment in the client's business beyond the brief. "I don't chase vanity metrics, and I never have," she says. "I'd rather be honest with a client about what's working and what isn't than keep them comfortable with numbers that don't mean anything."

That values-led approach, she believes, is what attracts clients who want a real partner rather than an agency ticking boxes. 

For five years, Elke left every dollar of profit in the business. The initial $20,000 investment returned itself four times over in year one. She paid herself $45,000 in year three. Her accountant still tells her she is not at market rate.

"The business pays me in ways that matter more to me than a bigger number on a payslip. Flexibility. Freedom. The ability to do what I love, the way I want to do it."

The clearest financial mistake. The $20,000 content studio investment went nowhere. "I'm a firm believer that money comes back. I would always rather try and fail than let fear of the risk stop me from trying at all."

Underpricing is one of the most common profit leaks in service businesses and one of the easiest to fix. Elke knows this firsthand. A pricing audit earlier this year revealed Social & Staple were below market value in several areas. A targeted increase made a material difference to profitability almost immediately. The work did not change. The rate did.

Hire seniors, earlier. Elke is direct about this one. Training up juniors sounds economical. The cost is time and time is the one resource she never has enough of. "Since moving to senior hires, the return has been undeniable. The investment is higher upfront, but the impact compounds in a way junior hires simply can't replicate at the same speed."

If she had more capital available right now? She'd bring on a few more seniors and open the New York office without hesitation.

The two things she wishes she'd known from day one: separate personal emotion from business decisions, it affects how you price, who you hire and when you walk away. And know your numbers. "What you charge should reflect what you deliver. Not how guilty you feel asking for it, or how much you want someone to say yes."

Six years. A team she is proud of. A client roster she proudly puts her name behind. A culture still intact, and a New York office on the horizon. For Elke, that's the real measure.

Social & Staple is an Australian performance and brand marketing agency.