Introduction
Two quarters in, the agency has a foundation and an engine, and more clients than it had in week one. What it usually does not have is a way of delivering to them that does not route through the owner.
Every vendor is checked by eye, every contract is improvised, and every number is worked out on the night it is needed.
The frustration is structural
Most owners are quietly frustrated with their team by this point. Nearly always the fault is structural rather than personal: nobody has been told who decides what.
Fixing that is week thirty five of the year, where job levels go in alongside systems, skills and culture training.
Write it down once
Standardising most of your deliveries is week 25, so quality stops depending on your best person. Account management and delivery SLAs follow in week 32.
From week 33 every department reports weekly, alongside a review of the calendar, and the agency can be read from its own reports rather than from your memory.
Where process lives
Process belongs where a new hire can find it, so onboarding takes days rather than months. SOPs only work when people actually follow them, when they are stored where they will be found, and when somebody keeps them current.
