8 Simple Steps That Made Running My Agency Feel Lighter, Clearer and More Fun

When I look back at my early agency days, I have to smile. We were having a great time, doing work we loved, and honestly we were just winging it. There was no real plan, no roadmap. And for a while, that was okay. But then, like so many others, we hit a ceiling.

It’s a bit like going on holiday. Do you just turn up at the airport and pick a destination? Or do you know where you're going, where you're staying, and have a rough idea of what you’d like to do, while still leaving room to go with the flow?

Sure, flying by the seat of your pants can be exciting and liberating. You might get lucky and have an amazing time. But you're leaving a lot to chance.

Many agency owners start out this way. You know what you're good at. You’ve got drive, belief, and that entrepreneurial spark that powers you through the early years. And when it works, you wonder, why bother planning?

But then you turn up in a resort that turns out to be awful. Or worse you hit a crisis in the agency and you have no plan to fall back on.

That was me, too. For the first few years of my agency, we were doing well. But when a recession hit and our biggest client who made up 80% of our business stopped spending, I longed for a well-considered plan. I didn’t want to rely on luck anymore. I wanted clarity, direction, and a way to build something more resilient.

But how to create a plan? I remember one particular January morning coming back after the break, full of fresh-start optimism. I had a clean notebook, a clear desk, and absolutely no idea where to start.

So we tried all sorts. I remember running an offsite in a swanky hotel boardroom once, using a corporate planning template I’d borrowed from a big consultancy. It looked the part, full of clever exercises and acronyms but within a few hours, we were lost in jargon and rolling our eyes. No one wanted to use the thing again.

That’s when I got serious about simplifying the process. Over the next few years, I refined an approach that actually worked for our agency. Not just once, but again and again. Something we no longer dreaded, and was in many ways exciting.

So here it is. If you’re ready to create a strategy and stop winging it but don't know where to start, I hope this helps.

Step 1: Create space for it

This sounds obvious, but the biggest barrier to strategic planning is time. Book a day. Get out of the office if you can. Let your team know you’re stepping back to focus on the bigger picture.

For me, it started with a working weekend in the countryside. I booked an Airbnb, walked in the hills in the mornings, then spent the afternoons with a notebook and a few strong coffees. It didn’t just help me think clearer, it reminded me why I was doing this in the first place.

Step 2: Start with your personal vision

Your business should support the life you want, not the other way around in my humble opinion. So start here: What do you want your life to look like in 3–5 years? Once you’re clear on that, you can shape the business vision accordingly.

I did this every year, asked myself and the team: what do you want personally from this business? That simple question changed everything. It led to clearer goals, better decisions, and more motivation.

Step 3: Revisit your longer-term agency vision

Now look at the business. What does great look like in 3 years? What size, shape, clients, culture, reputation? Pick 3 big-picture goals that would feel like real progress and that you’d enjoy achieving.

Step 4: Do a SWOT analysis

It’s old school, but it works. Identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Then prioritise the top 3 in each category. This gives you an honest picture of where you are today.

We used to do this on sticky notes and also used tools like Miro, but I reverted back to physical sticky's - I think it's because you have to get up from your chair and that keeps the energy up. Some of our best insights also came from those casual conversations - at the breaks in-between. Don’t overthink it, just start listing and see what emerges.

Step 5: Focus on what matters

Use a simple 2x2 grid: Impact vs Effort. Plot your SWOT priorities on it and pick the items that are high impact, high effort. These are your strategic goals. Low impact, low effort, these are fill in jobs. High impact, low effort, these are quick wins. Turn them into short term to-do's. Low impact, high effort. these are thankless tasks, don't do them.

Step 6: Turn them into strategic goals

Group your priorities into 3–5 strategic goals for the year ahead. Make them SMART or OKRs, whatever works for you. The key is: they should move you toward that 3-year vision.

One year, I remember setting ten goals and regretting it. We only really nailed three. After that, we made a rule: no more than five, and each one had to have a clear owner.

Step 7: Assign ownership

Every goal needs a clear owner. Someone who can lead the charge, track progress, and rally others. No owner = no momentum.

Step 8: Keep the plan alive

This is where most plans fall over. They get filed and forgotten. So build in regular checkpoints, monthly or quarterly, to review progress, adapt, and stay accountable.

We used to review our plan every 90 days. It became a ritual and it worked. We didn’t always stay perfectly on track, but we stayed moving.

Want the full framework?

I’ve created a simple PDF version of this process. It includes worksheets, templates, and guiding questions you can use with your team. Drop me a message if you’d like a copy.

Neil

Get in touch - neil@agency-adventure.com