10 Things to Do Before You Announce Your Agency Is Closing

Once you announce, the clock starts and you lose the ability to plan quietly. Do this work first, while you still have that room.

1. Get real clarity on your actual timeline

Not a vague target, an actual date range you're confident in. Announcing before you have this locked creates confusion you'll spend weeks managing.

2. Review every client contract

Specifically: notice periods, assignability clauses, and any non-solicit or non-compete language that could affect a transition. This single step determines a huge amount of what's actually possible later.

3. Take real financial stock

Know exactly what you owe, what's owed to you, and what your runway looks like through the full wind-down period. Financial surprises mid-close are what turn an orderly process into a chaotic one.

4. Decide on your team's timeline before theirs is decided for them

Know who you're keeping through the close, who you're letting go and when, and what you can offer departing team members (references, severance if possible, help finding their next role). This should be settled before you tell clients, not scrambled together after.

5. Map every client by tenure, size, and health

Long-standing, healthy, well-sized clients deserve different handling than small, new, or already-shaky ones. Sort this now so you're not making decisions client by client under time pressure later.

6. Decide your placement strategy per client

For each client or client segment: are they going it alone, finding their own next agency, or being handed to a transition partner. Having this answer ready before the conversation is what makes the conversation land well.

7. Inventory every asset that needs to transfer

Ad accounts, social handles, brand files, login credentials, domains if relevant. Build this list now, per client, so the actual handoff is mechanical rather than a scramble.

8. Line up legal review

Even a light review of your closing plan, contracts, and any transition agreements is worth the cost. This is the step owners skip most often under time pressure, and it's the one most likely to bite them later.

9. Draft your communication plan, don't wing it

Know who hears what, in what order, and roughly what you'll say to each. You don't need a script for every conversation, but you need a plan, not improvisation under stress.

10. Decide what you actually need before you announce anything

If part of your plan involves a transition partner for some or all of your clients, get that conversation started now, confidentially, before anything is public. Having that piece already in motion changes the entire tone of every client conversation that follows, from "we'll figure it out" to "here's exactly what's next for you."

If you're working through this list and want a second opinion on any piece of it, particularly the client mapping and placement strategy, that's exactly the kind of conversation worth having early and confidentially, before you've announced anything.