Marketing agency
Retainer-based marketing delivery for clients, with a mix of employees and contractors and a lot of moving deliverables.
Six short steps. No email or account.
Family
Professional services and agencies
You sell expertise and time, delivered as engagements or retainers.
- Priority decisions
- 10
Operating reality
What makes this different
The realities that change which tools can actually work for you.
Retainers make monthly recurring billing and clean revenue recognition the financial priority.
Client work spans many concurrent projects, so project visibility is an operational necessity, not a nicety.
Passing through ad spend complicates the books considerably. Discuss the treatment with an accountant early.
Contractor-heavy delivery makes 1099 collection and payment a recurring January problem if not systematised.
Where to start
The decisions that matter here, in order
You do not have to take them in this order, and you do not have to take all of them. This is where most businesses like yours start.
- 1Accounting software
Track income and expenses so tax time is a report, not an archaeology dig.
- 2Project management
Track multi-step work and who owes what by when.
- 3Invoicing
Send the bill, and let people pay it without writing a cheque.
- 4Customer records and follow-up
One place for every customer, conversation and next step.
- 5Proposals
Send a proposal that wins the work and gets signed.
- 6Paying contractors
Pay 1099 help and collect the paperwork you need for January.
- 7Business banking
A business account, so personal and business money stop mixing.
- 8Business insurance
Cover the things that could end the business in one bad afternoon.
- 9Email and file storage
Email at your own domain, and files everyone can find.
- 10Documents and client portals
Keep files organised and share them with clients securely.
Your next step
Answer six short questions about your marketing agency business: your team, where the work happens and what you want to fix first. You get an operating plan in the order to tackle it, with the must-haves and comparison points for each area.
Answers
Common questions
- What software does a marketing agency business need?
- Retainer-based marketing delivery for clients, with a mix of employees and contractors and a lot of moving deliverables. The decisions that matter most are 10 areas, starting with the ones tied to how the work actually gets done and paid for.
- What makes running a marketing agency business different?
- Retainers make monthly recurring billing and clean revenue recognition the financial priority. Client work spans many concurrent projects, so project visibility is an operational necessity, not a nicety. Passing through ad spend complicates the books considerably. Discuss the treatment with an accountant early. Contractor-heavy delivery makes 1099 collection and payment a recurring January problem if not systematised.