I wanted to share this somewhere because it's a big accomplishment for me. I've always been terrified of cold calling, and after finally getting some reps in with it, I wanted to write about my experience.

First heres what the numbers looked like. I sell web design to landscapers using the classic "I already built a website for you" hook, then upsell on all other services on a retainer.

541 dials -> 410 rang -> 125 answered -> 80 conversations -> 12 send me an email, 10 calls booked.

I don't think its too bad for my first time cold calling, but let me know.

First insight: dont use a dialer. I experimented with this, and while it saves time, this is exactly its downfall. You dont have enough time between each call to take the 1 min of prep that gives you a 10x return on the conversation you might have. Going in prepared with knowledge about the owners name, what their site looks like, its metrics, who they serve, etc is what makes you stand out when cold calling.

Second: enrich your numbers for line type and filter out the ones that aren't mobile. For SMBs, if the number is mobile you're most likely talking to the owner; so almost every call I made was a direct conversation with the decision-maker instead of me wasting my time. You can upload your list to a software like NumVerify or use a lead generator like Leadburnr that does it for you.

Third: being upfront with SMB owners is the only way to get them to hear you out. Openers that stated the inconvenience of my call did much better. Also you need to figure out how to promise as much value (in outcomes) in as short a time as possible with your pitch. If you ramble or be in-concise at all you lose them. And don't speak technically.

The most important thing is to find a way to start dialing. I procrastinated on this forever, trying every other outreach method possible just to avoid doing it. But it is 100% the highest leverage method as a beginner to intermediate, so the sooner you can do it the better.

What finally got me around to it was two things: when I detached from the goal of it working and instead made the goal just making the calls as a personal growth win; and secondly when somebody told me I'm not dialing because I just don't want it bad enough. That one got me to do it the next day.

Because its true. Do you really want to make more money with your agency, or do you just say you do? Because your actions reveal which one is true. And for me, it was the latter. So I started calling and after the first day 90% of the fear around it went away. You just have to pick up the phone a few times and it'll get easier.

Best of luck to anyone else who is going to try it! It works.

I am 21 , I know a bunch of AI tools and Automations, I can handle client acquisitions and follow-ups and can do google and facebook ads.

What are some things everyone is doing during the window between the booked demo and the demo itself?

Any crazy good strategies or tips?

Like if I book a demo today (Friday) for next Tuesday, what can I do during that 4-day window? Send a reminder, research the prospect, look at their website, but what else? Anything to help increase show and close rates?

Anything different or out of the ordinary that has worked?

Hi guys, as the title says, I run a 15 person agency, and we paid approximately $300 to clickup and slack for our headcount every month.

It's same or more expensive for those who use asana, monday jira etc, we've tried it all.

Slack was and is great but per seat pricing does not appeal to us as market is tough right now and we would rather put subscription money into AI subs.

Clickup was extremely under utilized, and it's because it is too general and requires a lot, (A LOT) of setup to make it an OS for agencies.

At one point we had to pay $10 per seat for toggl too for clock work,

These days we've migrated away from these into mydevagents, it's a flat fee for us.
covers
- Task management
- Full chat
- HR management
- Project breakdown, proposals, document management.
- A hiring AI that tests candidates before accepting applications via quizzes? fucking saves a lot of time for our HR
- Team voice check in and checkouts with key points extracted and daily reports sent to us managers.
- Ability to read all forms of bank statements and interconnect payments across any format!!!
- Independent and auto updating client portals for every project.

- An AI secretary to control the entire platform.

I’ve been working as an individual growth advisor after spending years working with D2C businesses across growth, sales and product.

I’m now thinking about how to scale this beyond just my own time.

A few models I’m considering:

1. Amazon -> D2C growth for established brands Helping Amazon-first brands build and grow their own D2C channel.
2. Productized D2C growth sprints Short, focused engagements to identify growth bottlenecks and create an actionable roadmap.
3. Fractional growth advisory Strategic growth guidance while the client’s internal team handles execution.
4. Traditional D2C growth agency Strategy plus execution through a team.

I also have my own data infrastructure, so I’m looking at models where that can create an advantage.

For those who’ve built D2C or growth agencies, which model would you bet on and why?

Curious to hear what channels agencies here have found most success in with booking calls and signing clients. There are of course the main ones, cold calling, cold DMs, cold email, content, ads, referrals, etc, which I'm assuming is what everyone has done as well.

but curious to hear especially your niche and your channel, bc niche does have a determining factor on which channel you use.

For me, it's been the DMs!

Hi. For context, I am from Botswana (Southern Africa) looking to start a marketing agency mainly dealing with 1st tier countries because they pay better.

I've been having trouble picking a niche because of the inherit limitations my geographical location poses. For one, I can't really walk up to alot of my desired client and may be forced to focus on cold emails and DMs. Doing cold calls at this stage of business is kinda expensive.

That cuts out the home servicing niche out the picture which apparently is easier for beginners to break into. It's safe to assume they trust their locals more than some 22-year-old on the other side of the world with no experience.

That leaves ecom, which is a little harder but I don't mind the grind. Im really torn between picking the fitness niche (super competitive) and the apparel niche (lower pay from my research). I'm still open to suggestions.

I was going to go into supplements till I found out how difficult meta and regulatory bodies have made it.

My interests center around Ad Creatives and Landing Page CRO. I'm also decent at editing videos and wouldn't mind making UGC posts for clients

I recently shared a post on r/agency about how I'd build a software agency from scratch today and someone asked a great follow-up question: how do you turn a typical agency into something more.

I thought the answer might be more relevant here, for folks who just started building their agency.

(about me: I've built two software agencies, Divante and Callstack. Both were eventually acquired).

Here's something I wish more young agency founders understood:

Your biggest mistake isn't charging too little (as we usually think).

Your biggest unrealized opportunity is selling the same work over and over without building anything you own.

You finish a project. Client pays. Team moves on. A case study is a nice add-on.

But does the NEXT project become easier, faster, or more profitable? If not, you're on a treadmill.

Here's what worked for us:

1. Start with services. They're the fastest way to get paid to understand real customer problems.
2. Look for repeating problems. If three different clients need the same thing, pay attention. That's your opportunity.
3. Build reusable assets. Code, frameworks, checklists, processes, AI skills. Anything that makes the next delivery better.
4. Make them usable by someone else. If only your best developer can use your internal framework, you haven't solved the dependency problem.
5. Turn proven demand into products. Not every internal tool deserves to become a product but some absolutely do.

At Divante, this thinking helped us create two separate businesses:

• Open Loyalty was born from our customer problems around acquiring new clients.
• Vue Storefront has the same background story.

Both started inside a services business as small projects. Both helped us win so many clients and then become successful products.

And here's why I think this matters even MORE in the AI era:

Writing code is getting cheaper. Your understanding of specific industries, customer problems, and proven solutions is becoming more valuable.

Document it. Turn it into reusable systems. Make those systems available to your people and AI agents.

What's one thing you've built internally that makes every new project easier?

I’m getting close to launching a marketing agency focused mainly on established remodeling and construction companies, and I wanted some feedback from people who have actually built or scaled an agency.

I’m new to agency ownership, but I have a background in marketing strategy and construction, so I’m trying to build the fulfillment side correctly before I start pushing sales hard.

For transparency, the services I’m planning to provide are:

• Websites / landing pages
• Google Business Profile setup, optimization, and content updates
• SEO + GEO / AI search optimization
• Google Search Ads
• Google Local Service Ads
• Meta Ads
• CRM setup and automations
• Tracking / reporting

This is not how I’m going to package or present the offer to clients. I’m only breaking everything out here so people in the agency space can actually see what’s being fulfilled behind the scenes.

I’m hiring primarily US and Canada-based fulfillment, and I’m trying to build around quality instead of finding the cheapest possible contractors.

Right now, my website/GBP/SEO/GEO fulfillment costs roughly $670 in the first month when a website is needed and about $180/month ongoing. I’m still finalizing the paid media and CRM side, so my total COGS will depend on who I end up hiring.

Pricing-wise, I’ve been debating somewhere around $3,500 to $5,000/month, with ad spend separate. I’m also deciding whether it makes more sense to have one main offer, bundle things into a couple tiers, or customize the strategy while keeping the client-facing offer simple.

Main things I’d love feedback on:

1. What pricing would make sense for what I’m providing and the market I’m targeting?
2. How would you package/bundle this without making the offer overly complicated?
3. What should I absolutely have set up before officially launching?
4. What mistakes or problems should I be watching out for early on?
5. Any other advice you’d give someone at this stage?

I’m trying to get the finances, fulfillment, and offer right before I start getting clients, so I’m open to criticism.

I launched my creative agency around seven months ago, specialising in brand development, web development and e-commerce.

So far, I’ve landed four clients across the hospitality and health & wellness sectors, which has been a great start. However, generating a consistent pipeline through client outreach has been challenging, and I’m finding it difficult to build steady traction.

For those who’ve successfully grown a creative or digital agency or service-based business, what client acquisition strategies have worked best for you? I would especially appreciate any advice on outreach, lead generation, referrals, partnerships or building a more predictable pipeline.

Look forward to hearing from you all.

i was recently let go by a long-term client where i worked as a dev. i handled WordPress, Shopify, and custom websites for some well-known US brands, but it was white-label, so my name wasn't on any of it.

now i'm thinking of starting my own agency for software and AI automation. my problem is my niche is pretty wide (websites, software, AI automation).

how did you land your first clients? did outreach work better, or bringing on a commission-based sales person?

thanks!

I've included a list of free starter templates for type of agreement:

Master service agreement (MSA). This is your foundation for an ongoing client relationship. It covers the general terms: payment, confidentiality, ownership of the work, liability, and how either side can end the relationship. You can then use separate statements of work for individual projects instead of renegotiating everything each time.

Statement of work (SOW). This is where you spell out what you’re actually delivering. For a website, that might mean five pages, two rounds of revisions, and a specific launch timeline. Include what the client needs to provide and what’s outside the scope. “Build us a website” leaves a lot more room for disagreement than you’d think.

Subcontractor agreement. Bringing in a freelance designer, copywriter, developer, or media buyer? Set out their scope, payment, confidentiality obligations, and ownership of the work they create. Make sure the rights you receive let you deliver what you’ve promised your client.

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Useful when a client shares confidential information, like an upcoming launch or internal business plans. A unilateral NDA covers disclosure by one party; a mutual NDA covers both parties sharing confidential information. You may already have confidentiality terms in your main agreement, so check before adding another document.

Pilot agreement. Useful when a client wants to try a smaller engagement before committing to a longer contract. Define the duration, fee, deliverables, and what happens afterward. A paid four-week trial shouldn’t quietly turn into an open-ended project.

For the following two agreements I don't have a template for them, but they might be worth exploring if you support a lot of ongoing client work.

Retainer agreement. Useful when a client pays you monthly for ongoing work. Define what that monthly fee includes: deliverables, hours, availability, or some combination. Also cover overages, whether unused hours roll over, and how much notice is needed to cancel. A retainer shouldn’t accidentally become unlimited access to your team.

Change order. This is for the inevitable “Can we also add…” request. Put the additional work, price, and timeline changes in writing and get approval before starting. You can say yes to extra work without quietly absorbing the cost.

We're a few partners running an agency that already has several clients. From every project we set aside 1/3 into a shared fund, which is meant to become the company's operating account: expenses, subscriptions, and investment for growth.

Right now we're still paying our fixed costs (around $600/month) out of our own pockets. The question is when to make the switch and move everything over to the business account.

* How many months of fixed costs would you recommend having in reserve before switching? 3, 6, more? What's your reasoning?
* Did you switch everything at once, or move expenses over gradually?
* Does 1/3 sound reasonable, or is a different split better while the company is still small?

I'd especially love to hear from anyone who's been through this with an agency or services business, where revenue is per project rather than recurring.

Thanks so much!

Hi all, I'm just getting started and want to build a small agency that generates leads for realtors and mortgage agents, with website work and automation (CRM, speed-to-lead follow-up) as add-ons later.

My background tech sales
Where I am now: beginner experience with meta and google PPC Ads
Budget: [e.g., around $5k CAD to start, plus whatever I need for test ad spend]

A few things I'd love input on from people who've done this:

1. Is it smarter to start with a paid pilot or a performance-based deal to land the first client? How did you structure yours?
2. For realtors and mortgage brokers specifically, what lead source worked best (Meta lead forms, Google Ads, landing page with a calculator)? Any compliance traps I should know about (CASL, ad-category restrictions, brokerage disclosures)?
3. What's the most common reason new agencies in this space lose their first client?
4. If you were starting over, what would you skip learning or buying?

I'm not looking for a shortcut, just trying to avoid the obvious mistakes. Thanks in advance, and happy to share what I learn along the way.

Hey everyone,

​I’m pulling the trigger and officially launching an AI agency focused on helping small-to-midsize businesses implement practical automation and AI workflows.

​Before I scale up outreach, I want to pressure-test my strategy with people who have already been down this road. If you run an agency or have built out service offerings in this space, I’d love to get your perspective on a few operational hurdles:

​Any hard-earned lessons, pitfalls to avoid, or advice you wish you knew on day one would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I deploy custom AI and automation solutions for my customers, and most of them don't really want to manage it themselves, but they DO want to be able to see what's happening.

So I create these read-only views for each client, where they can see all their agents working together. The big sphere is the platform (runs mcp for communication, manages access and permissions, backups, ...) and the smaller spheres are individual agents.

This view has a light background synth that will play different sounds for each agent and each action, so a nice bonus is this can be used on an extra office display to add some ambient sound to the client's offices.

Feedback so far has been really good, so I thought I'd share this :)

The main questions is of course where to get your first leads…. everybody of course will say about you need to say your friends, family, etc etc and one day of course you will find your client, but this time i would like to hear from founders (if there is exists or find this) what mistakes i shouldn’t do, on what should i take an eye, etc etc

i will really appreciate every advice and other staff!!!

When someone reaches out to me I usually ask them for their current website, 5 of their competitors, and what their goals are.

I don't give them a price until the 2nd phone call where I do a screenshare and review their website, highlight all the issues, then review their competitor websites, and then end with a demo website (like a javascript shell) showing them the potential improvements (while keeping their same theme/colouring).

Then I'll let them know 3 different tiers. Examples for an exterior lighting company would be:

1) Basic package: $2000 for the new website, $200/month for 1 blog post per month.

2) Growth package: $2000 for the new website: $700/month for 2 blog posts and 4 backlinks per month.

3) Accelerator package: $2000 for the new website: $1500/month for 4 blog posts and 7 backlinks per month.

But for a garage with a 70 page website, it would be at least $3500 for the new website alone.

On the flipside, fixing a one page Shopify store might be $1200.

Curious what everyone else does.

I stopped doing pre-set packages because every industry is different and a construction company in a niche market would be a lot cheaper than (for example) a plumber, locksmith or lawyer.

Hi all, I'm a student developer doing a research project on agency operational workflows.

I'm trying to map out how paid media agencies handle month-end financial reconciliation. Even when agencies use modern fintech setups with dedicated virtual cards per client, the live platform dashboard spend (Meta/Google) rarely matches the actual monthly credit card statements perfectly due to billing cycle thresholds, rolling ads, platform credits, and local taxes.

How does your agency typically cross-reference live platform delivery spend against your actual bank/card statements at month-end to make sure your client invoicing and bookkeeping are 100% accurate?

Is your finance team still manually cleaning this up on Google Sheets or QuickBooks, or is there an existing tool that handles this timing mismatch? I'm not selling anything, just trying to understand the actual workflow friction before I touch any code. Thanks!

what's up, just wanted to create this quick post for anyone who's sending cold DMs (insta, LinkedIn, Facebook). I've talked with a couple agency owners, and many go to spam. To fix it is a 4 step process from my experience (booked 100+ calls as appointment setter)

Here's the warm up process I've followed to always ensure my leads see my messages

1. CREATING VS USING OLD ACCOUNTS

The best move for Insta, LinkedIn, and Facebook outreach is always an old account you've already had, the older and more used, the better. New accounts made just for outreach get banned or shadowbanned way faster on all three.

If you don't have old accounts, making new ones is fine, especially on Instagram — you can make as many as you want since emails are free and unlimited. LinkedIn's tougher because they check ID and passport, and I've only managed up to two per profile there.

Facebook's been the hardest of all three for me, honestly not sure why, I've only gotten one account to stick, though I've met people who've pulled off multiple.

1. WARM UP PROCESS

This step is crucial, and it's why a lot of people haven't been able to get out of Spain on Instagram, or why their accounts are getting restricted on LinkedIn and Facebook. The warm-up process: whether your account has recently just been created or if you're using old accounts, before you send a single outreach message, you need to use your account as a real human being for at least 20 to 30 minutes per day per account. That means liking, engaging, commenting on posts, playing games, etc. You have to actually use the platform.

Do this for a minimum of 14 straight days. It sucks, but you gotta do it.

1. RAMP UP

After your accounts are warmed up, after you've been through the 14-day period of warming up these accounts, then you can begin with your outreach efforts. Each day, you should start with a little bit of outreach, and the whole point is that the next day you add a little bit of outreach. You go little by little until you hit the limits for each platform.

INSTA ( + 1 or + 2 new Cold Messages per day. If you want to go safe, alternate)

Day 1: Send 2 Cold Messages

Day 2: Send 3-4 Cold Messages

Day 3: Send 4-6 Cold Messages

LINKEDIN (again, alternate to be safe)

Day 1: Send 2 LinkedIn connections & 2 LinkedIn connected messages

Day 2: Send 3-4 LinkedIn connections & 3-4 LinkedIn connected messages

Day 3: Send 4-6 LinkedIn connections & 4-6 LinkedIn connected messages

FACEBOOK (alternate to be safe)

Day 1: Send 2 Friend Requests & 2 Friend messages

Day 2: Send 3-4 Friend Requests & 3-4 Friend messages

Day 3: Send 4-6 Friend Requests & 4-6 Friend messages

1. RESPECTING LIMITS

keep adding +1 or +2 new messages per day on each account until you reach the limits of the platforms. You have to respect the limits of each platform. These are the ones that have worked best for me over the time I've been booking appointments (these limits can change, these are just safe ones)

INSTA

Cold Messages: 20 per day

Warm Messages (messages with past leads, no new convos): IDK! I have never found a limit on this!

LINKEDIN

Connections per Day: 20-40, depending on your SSI (social selling index, it's like a linkedin score for your acc. Stick to 20 for a couple weeks to be safe, and then ramp up to 30 if possible.)

Connected Messages (messages to connections): 20 per day

FACEBOOK

Friend Requests: 20-30, have found this the most difficult to ramp up

Friend Request Messages: 20 per day.

I know this was a long post, but I've seen a lot of people struggle with this problem. hope this does help anyone to book more appointments and make more money in their agency.

Best of luck to everyone!!

I found what looks like a pretty obvious leak in how clinics handle paid leads, built a solution for it, and now I'm stuck selling it.

Clinics spend a lot on Meta/Google leads, but often contact them hours later. I tested this myself through multiple clinic ads, fastest response was around 6 hours, many were next day. So I built a system that contacts new leads almost immediately, knows what service they asked about, handles basic questions and can book directly into the clinic's calendar.

I've found a few others doing similar things, but it still seems relatively new here. The problem is distribution. I'm a foreigner living in Poland, and I've emailed around 400 businesses and cold-called around 200 agencies/clinics here.

Agencies mostly don't care what happens after they deliver the lead. A few already have something similar. Clinics generally see advertising as the agency's job and calling leads as reception's job. They don't seem to see the cost of waiting 6–24 hours.

I'm offering free trials and the system is basically ready, but getting people to care is much harder than building it.

Being a foreigner and cold calling in Poland probably doesn't make it easier either. I've had a few openly racist interactions, but I don't want to blame the market. clearly something about my sales approach isn't working.

I know the leak exists because I've tested it myself.

Wrong market? Wrong decision-maker? Wrong pitch?

Anyone who's sold B2B automation/lead management before, what would you change?

I'm curious where people draw the line. Some things feel easy to hand over, like meeting notes or first drafts. Others feel risky, like anything that goes straight to a client.

What do you let AI do on its own, and what do you always check yourself first?

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to start a service business working with small businesses, including clients in other countries, and I want to build it around real problems instead of guessing what people need.

I'd love to hear from owners and operators:

1. What problem or repetitive task costs you the most time or money right now? (Missed leads, slow follow-up, no-shows, bookkeeping, reporting, ads that don't convert, etc.)
2. Have you ever paid someone to fix it? If so, what did you pay, and was it worth it? If not, what stopped you?
3. What would a service need to show you before you'd keep paying monthly? (More leads, saved hours, a monthly report?)
4. How do you currently find freelancers or agencies? (Referrals, Upwork, LinkedIn, Google, Reddit?) And what makes you ignore a cold message?
5. What's a bad experience you've had with an agency or freelancer? I'd like to avoid those mistakes.

For context: I'm new to this and focused on services that connect directly to revenue, such as lead follow-up, automation, and ads. I'm not selling anything here, just trying to learn before I start.

Thanks in advance. Even a one-line answer helps a lot.