Setup: the business and the stack

Setup is where new agency owners overspend on things that feel like progress. This lesson spends your attention on the two things that matter, the legal shell and the contract, then gives you the whole tool stack for less than a dinner out.

The legal shell, in order

Start as a sole proprietor if you want the simplest possible start. It costs nothing beyond a business bank account, and you can form an LLC the moment real money flows. The tradeoffs are real, so move on a schedule, not on fear.

The LLC is the standard recommendation for a client-service business once revenue is live. It separates your personal assets from business liabilities, and state filing fees vary by state, so check your Secretary of State's site or the SBA's guide to business structures rather than trusting a number you read anywhere, including here. Alongside the LLC, get an EIN from the IRS, free and online, and open a business checking account. Never mix client money with grocery money. The bookkeeping headache you prevent is worth an afternoon of forms.

One line on insurance: professional liability, sometimes called errors and omissions, exists for exactly this kind of work. Whether you carry it before your first client or after your fifth is a judgment call and a conversation with an agent. What is not a judgment call is knowing it exists before a client asks.

The contract: five terms that matter

You will be tempted to skip a contract with your first client because it feels awkward with someone you know. Sign one anyway, kindly and without apology. Reddit's social media marketing communities are full of threads that end with the same advice, including one from a manager whose client tried to cancel a signed three-month agreement early: put the exit rules in writing before the relationship starts.

Agency operators who have signed hundreds of clients converge on the same five terms:

• Scope: named platforms, posting cadence, response times, and what counts as a revision. Everything outside the list is a new conversation and a new price.
• Term and notice: thirty days written notice from either side is the community standard. Some agencies hold a three-month initial term, then roll monthly. Pick one and say it plainly.
• Payment: due date, late fee, and the golden rule: pay at the start of the month, never the end. You are financing nothing.
• Ownership and access: the client owns their accounts and, once paid in full, the content. You hold the logins you need through a manager role, not by password sharing.
• Exit: what happens to scheduled posts, files, and access on the final day. A clean offboard is the last impression, and in a referral business, last impressions compound.

A one-page service agreement covering those five beats a fourteen-page template nobody reads. When money grows, have a lawyer read yours.

The stack

Here is the entire operation, priced for month one:

| Job | Tool approach | Cost | |---|---|---| | Scheduling FB + IG | Meta Business Suite (free, official) | $0 | | Design | A free design tool tier to start, paid tier later | $0 to ~$20/mo | | Multi-platform scheduling, later | Per-channel or entry plans on a scheduler like Buffer or Later | ~$0 to $25/mo | | Files and collaboration | Google Drive or equivalent | $0 | | Invoicing and payments | A free invoicing tier, card processing fees per payment | ~3% of card volume | | Calls | The video tool you already use | $0 | | Portfolio | One page, even a Notion page, with work samples | $0 |

Two honest notes on that table. The free tiers are genuinely sufficient for your first three clients; scheduler makers have shifted their free plans over the years, so check current limits before paying anyone anything. And card processing fees are the one cost that scales with you. At a thousand-dollar retainer, three percent is thirty dollars a month, which is worth the convenience of automatic payment until ACH or check becomes worth the friction.

What not to buy

Skip, for now: all-in-one agency dashboards that cost more than your first retainer, a logo designed by anyone, a course that promises a client in thirty days, stock video subscriptions, and any tool whose pitch is "scale your agency" before you have an agency. Every dollar not spent here is a week of runway, and runway, from the fit check, is your scarcest asset.

With the shell, the contract, and the stack in place, the machine exists. It still lacks an offer somebody can say yes to.