The mastermind, third quarter
Mastermind Quarter 3: Systems And Delivery helps your team run the work as sales grow. If every vendor check, contract, financial report and client problem still needs you, delivery depends too much on the owner. This quarter helps you document the work, assign responsibility and manage it through reports and systems.
Quarter three of four
How the team runs the work without you
Mastermind Quarter 3: Systems And Delivery covers the systems your team needs to manage a growing agency. It is part of a twelve month programme for digital marketing and software development agencies. After the foundation and sales quarters, the agency has more clients to serve. Delivery can still depend on you checking every vendor, writing each contract and preparing financial figures only when someone needs them.
Owners often become frustrated with the team when nobody knows who can make each decision. Clear responsibilities, training and job levels help address that problem. This quarter works on those systems so the team can take responsibility for the work.
You document vendor quality standards, internal and external contracts, and delivery service level agreements, or SLAs. You set up profit and loss statements, a balance sheet, weekly departmental reports and expense dashboards. Automation sends leads and support tickets to the right people. You also review the sales team’s structure, job levels and employee retention.
The quarter applies Building Effective Systems, the systems section of 7-Figure Agency Mindset A-Z by Hamid Mahmood. It covers clear reporting relationships, documented processes, consistent consequences and responsibility for results. The agency’s reports help you assess how it runs. The final quarter then reviews those systems and results.
The rules, written down
Vendor QA and compliance, internal and external contracts, and service levels for account management and delivery.
Regular financial reports
A P&L, a balance sheet, weekly departmental reports and expense dashboards help you compare costs and benefits before making decisions.
The work, routed without you
Leads and support tickets handled by automation, and project management rebuilt around time tracking.
Clear job levels and training
You develop systems, skills and cultural training, job levels, and a plan for retaining good employees.
Sales managed by the team
You follow up sales management and structure, with cold calling, spoken English and value added phrases.
The coaching tracks this quarter draws on
What owners say at this stage
Quarter 3 suits an agency that wins clients but still needs the owner to manage delivery. Open any statement that describes your agency.
What it usually is
The team depends on instructions only you know. This quarter documents vendor standards, contracts, service levels and weekly reports so others can follow them.
What it usually is
Usually nobody has been told who decides what. This quarter settles it, with training and job levels.
What it usually is
People need a reason to stay that is not loyalty, and replacing them costs more than keeping them. Employee retention is on the roadmap here.
What it usually is
Your financial reports arrive too late to help you make decisions. This quarter develops a P&L, a balance sheet and dashboards you can use.
What it usually is
There is no service level for the team to answer to. That is account management and delivery SLAs, both in this quarter.
What it usually is
Sales still depend on you. The quarter reviews how the sales team is managed and organised, alongside cold calling.
If you do not yet have a regular flow of leads and sales, review Quarter 2 first. It covers building that sales process. Quarter 2: Sales Engine
Here are the systems this quarter helps you build.
The systems your team will use
This quarter covers vendor checks, contracts, reporting, automation, team management and sales systems. Each row compares work that depends on you with the process your team can use instead. The curriculum page lists the whole year.
The coaching tracks this quarter draws on
You check every vendor’s work yourself, every time.
Your team checks each vendor’s work against a documented quality standard.
You put off writing contracts until a dispute makes them urgent.
You put written agreements with clients and the team in place before work starts.
You rely on a feeling about whether the month made money.
Every new lead and every support request routed by hand, usually through you.
Leads and tickets that reach the right person without passing through you.
The sales team performs only while you supervise it.
Calls that only go well when you make them yourself.
Callers who can open a conversation in confident spoken English.
A sales process that is simply how you happen to sell.
Clients who call you, personally, whenever something slips.
Service levels the team answers to, and an account manager clients call first.
Nobody is responsible for measuring results or explaining them.
Each department produces a weekly report, with a calendar reviewed alongside it.
You learn why good employees are leaving only when they resign.
You are frustrated with the team because nobody knows who can make each decision.
Job levels explain who makes each decision, with training to prepare people for those responsibilities.
Financial reports arrive after you needed them to make a decision.
You keep a P&L and a balance sheet current enough to guide decisions.
You do not know how the team spends its working hours.
You manage projects in one system and record the time spent on them.
Costs that rise without anybody deciding that they should.
Decisions made on instinct and defended afterwards.
Sales conversations that depend on your own way with words.
Departmental spending seen only when the bill arrives.
Spending by department, visible on one dashboard.
These topics belong to the third quarter of the fifty two week year. Use the list to see the systems you work on during that quarter.
Your sessions and your agency’s weekly reports
The programme continues with Friday sessions, monthly roundtables and one to one coaching booked when you need it. Use Basecamp, the members’ online workspace, for daily discussion. This quarter also develops weekly agency reports to help your team manage work between programme sessions.
Basecamp, the members’ online workspace
Discussion, progress and KPI posts, and the coaches answering questions.
A live session
3:30 to 5:00 PM Pakistan time, on one subject.
The roundtable
In the Friday 3:30 to 5:00 PM slot. Two hand picked owners take the hot seat, about forty five minutes each. Other members and trainers help work through their challenges.
One to one coaching
With a subject matter expert, booked when you need it, on your own agency.
A retreat
One night together and three workshops.
An international trip
Two to three nights abroad, for exposure to the latest trends in the digital industry.
Your agency’s own report
Each department reports every week, alongside a review of the calendar, once you have set up the reports. Agree a format and a person responsible for each report. Your team can keep producing them after the programme ends because the reports are part of how your agency runs.
Between sessions, document the processes your team will use: contracts, SLAs, job levels and report formats. Share each one in Basecamp for discussion. Your agency continues using them after the quarter ends.
One price, two ways to pay
The yearly mastermind fee includes the third quarter’s work. Both plans are a yearly commitment, with a choice of monthly or yearly payment.
Monthly
$750a month
A yearly commitment, paid month by month.
Yearly
$7,999for the year
A yearly commitment, paid once. Saves $1,000.
The mastermind is capped at twenty agencies.
Everything the year coversWhat the fee includes
Not included
What this quarter adds inside the fee
Meet the trainers
The mastermind is coached by experienced trainers including Hamid Mahmood, Asim Naeem and Umair Amjad. They use these approaches in their own companies. Bring a contract draft, report format or job level to a Friday session or your one to one coaching.
Hamid MahmoodCEO, author of 7-Figure Agency Mindset A-ZHamid has used every agency model in his own companies. The advice on branding, finances and leadership comes from running those businesses.
Umair AmjadSales and staffing coachUmair built the staff augmentation practice taught in the programme. The advice on pricing, closing and staffing comes from running that business.
Asim works on defining your ideal client and reaching them through LinkedIn and email. That experience also covers the automation supporting your outreach.
Alongside the Friday sessions, members book one to one coaching with a subject matter expert whenever they need it, on their own agency.
Read what owners say about improving how their agencies run.
Owners on operations, processes and ethics
Owners describe finding the problems that slow work, building processes, choosing a team model and running the business ethically. These opening reviews relate to the quarter’s work on operations and contracts. More reviews follow.
01 of 26
The terms, in plain words
Joining means a yearly commitment, paid monthly or yearly, followed by onboarding. The summary below sets out the price, group size and starting steps before you reach the form.
The mastermind agreement, summarised
Term. A yearly commitment, paid monthly or yearly.
Price. $750 a month, or $7,999 for the year, which saves $1,000.
The group. The mastermind is capped at twenty agencies.
Onboarding. Basecamp access, the intake questionnaire, and your KPI baselines set at your first roundtable.
This summarises the agreement. You read the full document before making a payment.
About the third quarter
It covers the systems your team needs to manage delivery, finances, people and sales. Topics include vendor QA and compliance, contracts, lead and ticket automation, account management, SLAs and EOS weekly departmental reports. You also cover retention, training, job levels, P&L, balance sheets, project management, time tracking, expense dashboards, cost benefit analysis and sales without the owner.
The delivery systems need to support the work your sales process brings in. Quarter 2 develops sales and reviews cash flow against profitability. Quarter 3 then helps your team manage that client work. Building systems around real demand makes them relevant to the agency you are running.
Yes. This quarter works on whether the sales team can sell without the owner on every call. You follow up sales management and structure, then cover cold calling, spoken English and value added phrases. These help the team start and continue sales conversations themselves.
Your agency keeps the documents and reporting systems it developed. These include client and team contracts, vendor standards, service levels, job levels and weekly departmental report formats. You also keep the P&L, balance sheet and expense dashboards. Assign someone to maintain each report so the team can use it after the programme ends.
Yes, if your agency is winning clients but still needs you to manage delivery. This quarter helps the team manage that existing work through systems. If you do not yet have regular leads and sales, review Quarter 2: Sales Engine first.
The owner steps back
Use the third quarter to document how your agency works, set up regular reports and clarify who makes each decision. These systems help the team manage delivery as the agency grows.
The mastermind is capped at twenty agencies.
