Starting an agency is a huge decision that needs a lot of thought processes. Whether it is a creative agency, design agency, or social media marketing agency, the process is time-consuming and needs the right set of tools to begin an agency. 

If you’re worried or stuck somewhere then this article is the right place where we will guide you with information you need to know before starting an agency. We will also help you with the right tools that will make work easier for you and share a few tips on how you can attract new clients. 

What does an agency mean?

“An agency is a business, firm, or organization that provides a specific service. “

Agencies vary from service to service. Some agencies specialize in a single type of service like:

• Content Writing
• Web Development
• Logo Design

And some agencies provide an overall package of services like:

• Social Media Marketing
• Creative ad agency
• Digital Marketing services like Facebook ads, Google ads

Before diving deeper, let's explore the most important steps one should keep in mind before starting an agency.

How to Start an Agency?

A. Decide the niche

Determining the niche is the most basic and important step before starting an agency. Before beginning an agency you should ask yourself all the questions like:

• Why start an agency?
• What services are we going to provide?
• How to start an agency?

Asking these questions will give you clarity about the type of industry you want to work in, what clients you need to attract, what kind of marketing channels you need to advertise on and the services your agency is going to offer.

 B. Networking

Do you often get stuck on questions like:

• How to find clients in the niche?
• How to outsource your projects to people of expertise?
• How to advertise your agency?

The answer is Networking! You’ll have to network extensively for finding potential clients & employees. And for companies to hire your agency they need to know about you first. There are several ways you can network among people:

Online Networking

Start by creating an online presence for your business. Today with many people using digital products, it has become relatively easier to reach your potential clients from where you can get business from. Develop your agency’s website and start creating profiles on social media platforms like Linkedin for your business. Just like a resume, you need to mention clearly and briefly the type of services you provide, your agency’s expertise, and previous work experiences.

Once you have begun to develop leads it might get tiring to keep a record of them in various places like docs & excel sheets. To facilitate this, you can easily keep a track of your leads through Pletox. It is an all-in-one platform to manage your leads, proposals, expenses in one place. 

Joining Marketplace

Marketplaces like Upwork and Freelancer can provide you with a client base where many companies and people post about their work requirements. If any client fits in your area of expertise you can approach them and lock a deal. This is another great way of finding your clients. 

 Offline Networking

As the name suggests, Offline Networking will require you to meet people physically by setting up meetings with them. Although in the growing digital era this seems to be an old way of communicating with people, offline networking has a higher rate of client conversion. By setting up meetings you can ensure trust among your clients, showcase that your company is authentic and also clear doubts before starting any project.

 C. Remote VS Office

Today, in the era of an ongoing Pandemic, most multinational companies have opted for remote work. Doing this will determine your cost structure and many other things associated with it.

When beginning an agency, business owners usually decide to work remotely as the team is small. But as the company begins to grow many decide to shift to a physical organization. Both of these have their pros and cons. 

A few Advantages of going remote are:

• Save costs as you won’t have to pay your office’s rents and other utilities
• You won’t be a location-based company. Your employees will have the flexibility of working from anywhere
• Saves time in commute and ensures higher productivity of employees 

One of the few challenges of working remotely is you need to decide how your team functions the best. Hence, you can use Pletox where you can easily keep a track of your projects and tasks assigned to your employees. The two best features of pletox are Project management & Task Management where you can:

• Assign & manage tasks to your employees and track their progress 
• Get activity updates for each task performed in the system
• Prioritize tasks and group them using custom labels 
• Task-based discussion with file-sharing capabilities
• Get real-time task update notifications via email  

Using this tool will give you a brief understanding of what works the best for your team and you can find an arrangement that suits your needs. This tool will ensure you and your team are on the same ground and work seamlessly on multiple projects.

D. Decide your Business Model

The next step is to decide what kind of Business model you want to set up in your Agency. Some of them are:

Flat rate

Setting a flat rate means that you are offering your services every year for a fixed amount of price. For this kind of service, you need to analyze the client’s needs and the amount of work your team will need to do to get the job done. To attract your clients, you can create a detailed proposal using images, tables, charts, and graphs using Pletox tools. You can share those proposals easily with your clients and employees with a link using a single click.

Hourly Rate

In this kind of business model, you charge your clients depending upon the number of hours you have worked on a project. Although manually tracking the number of hours can be difficult, you can use Pletox to keep a track of the time you have worked on a particular project. Also, before getting into any kind of contract it is necessary to get your proposals e-signed. Using pletox, you can keep a track of your proposals and estimates with just one click.  

Once you have started an agency the next big hurdle is to generate invoices, company auditing, and accounting, manage payments and expenses of your company. For this, you will need to hire a tax consultant, a chartered accountant who, according to his/her flexibility of time, will generate several excel sheets to manage your business.

But what if there is one platform that provides all-in-one services and a lot more under a single roof so that you don't need to manually keep a track of all these things? Well, Pletox is the solution! This platform provides Invoices and Accounting services that:

• Generates Branded invoices with the required company details
• Easily create and manage taxes and create GST invoices
• Share invoices easily with a link and attaches file to invoices until paid
• Send automated payment reminders to clients with multiple options to pay online
• And also generate detailed reports and statements after in details analyzing your business finances

How cool is that? And not just invoicing and accounting, pletox also provides tools that help manage your Payments and expenses by:

• Helping record payment transactions from your clients and employees
• Stopping inefficient budget spending by tracking your expenses
• Easily finding your transactions with the filter payment & expense records

Conclusion

Starting a business is never easy. But if you are determined to start an agency and be successful in your venture, you will need the right strategies and tools. Following the steps mentioned above and using the right tools, it won't be long to convert your agency into a successful Business!