Start a Social Media Agency

A social media agency runs the online presence of businesses that know they need to show up but never do: the content calendar, the posts, the graphics, the engagement, and the reporting. You start as one person managing a handful of local clients on monthly retainers, and the platform's studio tools do the production heavy lifting that used to require a team.

People chase big brands; the money is in five local businesses at a monthly retainer each.

Run your own numbers with the calculators →

Social natives, marketers, and students who already think in posts and captions, and anyone organized enough to run other people's presence on a calendar instead of on inspiration.

The skills you need

• ✦Writing captions and hooks in a brand's voice
• ✦Basic graphic sense (the tools do the production)
• ✦Calendar discipline: planned weeks, not scramble days
• ✦Client communication and honest reporting

• Chasing big brands first

  You compete with established agencies for accounts that were never going to hire a newcomer

• No written scope

  'Can you also just' quietly doubles the work at the same price

• Skipping the monthly report

  Clients cancel silence, not results, and silence is what they got

• Posting without a strategy

  Activity with no inquiries behind it, and churn at the first renewal

• Hourly pricing

  Batching and templates make you faster, and hourly billing punishes you for it

• Serving every platform for every client

  Quality drops, batching breaks, and the niche advantage disappears

1. 1

   Pick a niche and a package

   Five local businesses in one industry at a monthly retainer each is a real agency. Define the package scope with Kenny and put the price through /calculators/recurring-revenue.

2. 2

   Set up the agency properly

   Entity, EIN, and bank account at /start-a-business-checklist, and the client services agreement from /contracts so scope creep dies in writing.

3. 3

   Build your own presence as the proof

   Create your brand kit in the Brand Studio at /studio and run your own accounts with the Social Media Studio at /social-post. Your feed is your portfolio.

4. 4

   Land the first client and over-deliver

   Manage one business's presence at founder pricing, onboard their accounts with the setup guide at /guides/social-setup, and document the growth as your case study.

5. 5

   Systemize production on the calendar

   Plan every client's month on the SM Calendar at /sm-calendar and produce it in batch through the Social Media Studio at /social, so client four takes half the hours client one did.

6. 6

   Sell the case study five times

   Track prospects in the CRM at /crm, add press releases from /press-release as an upsell, and raise the retainer as the results stack up.