A new client signs, and the instinct is to prove the decision right as fast as possible. The team starts producing in week one, the first posts go out before anyone has agreed who approves them, and the first invoice goes to whoever signed the contract rather than whoever pays.
None of that feels like a mistake at the time. It shows up in month three, as late approvals, unpaid invoices and a client who is not quite sure what they are getting. The first thirty days are when the habits of an account are set, and it is far easier to set them deliberately than to change them later.
Before day one: the paperwork
The account should not start until the commercial basics are in writing. A signed agreement and a statement of work with deliverables, revision rounds, feedback deadlines and what is not included. The free templates on this site cover the statement of work, proposal and briefs if you need a starting point.
Then set up the client record properly, once. Legal name and TRN as their finance team holds them, the billing contact, currency, payment terms, contract start and end, and whether it renews automatically. Ask who processes invoices and whether they need a purchase order reference. Getting this right before the first invoice saves weeks later.
Week one: the kickoff
The kickoff meeting is not a pitch. The client has already bought. Its job is to answer the questions that will otherwise be answered badly, by accident, over the next three months.
- Who has the final word on approvals, and who else needs to see work before it goes out.
- How the client prefers to communicate, and how fast they expect replies. If the answer is WhatsApp, agree now where approvals will be recorded.
- What success looks like at three months and at twelve, in terms the client's manager would recognise.
- What has gone wrong with previous agencies. Clients are usually candid about this, and it is the most useful answer in the meeting.
- Dates that matter to the business: launches, seasonal peaks, Ramadan and Eid, and any periods when the brand prefers to stay quiet.
Write the answers down and send them back to the client within a day. It shows you listened, and it gives both sides one document to point to when memories differ.
Week one and two: access and assets
Access is where new accounts lose the most time. Make a list of every login, page, ad account and tool you need, send it in one message, and chase it daily until it is complete. Ask for brand guidelines, logos, fonts, product information and past campaign results in the same request.
One principle worth holding to: the client should own their accounts. Pages, ad accounts and profiles belong in the client's name, with the agency given access, not the other way round. It is fairer, it avoids a painful handover if the relationship ever ends, and it is one less thing for a client to worry about when deciding whether to trust you.
Week two and three: the first work
The first deliverables are more important than their size suggests. Pick something small, visible and low risk, and use it to test the whole process end to end: brief, production, internal review, client approval, publishing and recording the result.
If the approval path is going to break, it is much better to find out on a single post than on a campaign launch. Notice where it stalls. Did the approver reply, or did someone else answer first? Did feedback arrive in one place or three? Fix the path now, while the client still expects things to take a little longer.
The first deliverable is a test of the process as much as the work. Treat any friction it reveals as the most useful thing you learned all month.
Week four: the first review
Close the month with a short review, not a full report. What was delivered against the scope, what is planned for next month, what is still waiting on the client, and anything you have learned that changes the plan.
Be direct about anything that is slowing things down on their side, such as missing access or slow feedback. Raised in week four as part of a routine review, it is a practical note. Raised in month four, after it has cost you a deadline, it sounds like an excuse.
Send the first invoice on the date the contract says, to the person who pays, with the details they asked for. A clean first invoice sets the rhythm for every one after it.
What to hand over internally
By the end of the month, anyone on the team should be able to open the client record and find the scope, the contacts, the approver, the key dates and the notes from the kickoff without asking the account manager. If that knowledge lives in one person's head, the account is fragile, however well the first month went.
Keeping the client record, their projects, approvals and invoices in one system is what makes this possible without extra effort, and it is the reason Wiro is built around the client record. The principle holds whatever you use: the first thirty days are for building the account's memory, so the next three hundred do not depend on anyone remembering.
