I don't have the energy to grow the agency myself but I want to see it grow, what are my options?

I've lost the drive but I still care about the business and the team

Build or buy the leadership that has the energy you've lost: install a CEO or strong MD to drive growth while you step back to chair, or bring in a growth-minded partner. You don't have to choose between grinding it out yourself and selling up. The key is being honest that the business now needs an engine that isn't you, and getting one in.

The Long Answer

This is a more common and more honest place to be than founders admit, and naming it is the start of solving it: you still care deeply about the business and the people, but you no longer have the appetite to be the one driving it forward, and that's created a quiet stall, because a business led by a founder who's run out of road tends to drift. The trap is thinking there are only two doors, force yourself to keep grinding (which rarely reignites and often ends in burnout or a slow decline), or sell up and walk away (which you don't actually want). There's a third door, and it's about decoupling the agency's need for energetic leadership from your willingness to personally supply it. Bring in the engine.

That usually means hiring a CEO or a strong, growth-minded managing director who has the drive you've lost, and moving yourself to chairman, where you set direction, govern, keep the key relationships and protect the culture, while they push the business forward. You keep your ownership and your dividends, you get your energy and your life back, and the business gets the leadership it needs.

Alternatively, a growth-minded partner or a partial sale to private equity can bring in both capital and the hunger to scale, though that comes with new masters. Whichever route, the unlock is the same honest admission: the agency now needs an engine that isn't you, and the most caring thing you can do for the business and the team is to go and get one rather than letting the place coast on your fading drive. That's not failure, it's the mark of an owner who's grown up about what the business needs.