You’ve built a stellar portfolio, delivered great work, and maybe even gotten a few glowing testimonials along the way. But when it comes to new business, it can still feel like every proposal you send out vanishes into the void. You’re not alone. Most creative agencies spend hours (and sometimes days) on proposals that never […]

For creative agencies, retainers are supposed to represent stability. It suggests steady revenue, consistent work, and predictable client relationships. But really, most retainers aren’t as “set it and forget it” as you might think. Over time, scopes expand, expectations shift, and client demands evolve. A contract that once felt balanced can quietly turn into a […]

We get it. Productivity in your small creative agency probably feels like a double-edged sword. All the time. On one side, clients expect results delivered faster and better (and often for less money…). On the other side, your team is human. So while they are brimming with creativity, they’re also extremely vulnerable to stress, fatigue, […]

Picture this: it’s Friday afternoon at your agency. Projects are overdue, the team is stressed, and you’re scrambling to piece together timesheets for client billing. Someone is trying to remember what they did on Monday, while another swears they logged time but can’t find it in the system. The hours don’t add up, and now […]

“It only takes a few minutes.” Entering timesheets, chasing down receipts, updating a client on project progress, creating a report for leadership… These are the invisible threads of administrative overhead that keep a creative business running. But those “few minutes” rarely stay a few. They stretch into hours, and those hours stack into weeks of […]

Retainers tend to be an attractive option for both creative agencies and clients. With a retainer, the client knows their monthly expense will be consistent, and the agency knows they will have a steady stream of revenue coming in. However, retainers can be dangerous to the creative agency if they aren’t managed correctly. For those […]

Running a creative agency is a balancing act. Between pitching new clients, delivering outstanding creative work, and keeping projects on schedule (and on budget), every role within the agency has to operate like a well-oiled machine. At FunctionFox, we’ve worked with creative firms, advertising agencies and digital agencies for the past 20 years. We help […]

Can you pitch your agency in a way that will make even the hardest of prospects want to keep talking to you? An elevator pitch, or elevator speech, used by many creative agency account executives has changed tremendously in the last few years. Many industry thought-leaders agree that the old elevator pitch is in need […]

In a fast-paced agency environment, staying aligned is all about delivering consistently without burning out your team or losing client trust. But alignment can’t happen in a vacuum. If you’re not tracking where each project stands, it’s nearly impossible to spot red flags before they turn into real problems. That’s where agency project status tracking […]

When your marketing agency is growing fast, chaos can creep in just as quickly. New team members are onboarded without a clear process. Campaigns run on gut instinct rather than structure. Client expectations shift midstream because no one is sure what “standard” looks like. That’s where SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) come in. SOPs are the […]

If you’re running a creative agency today, you’re probably juggling an endless stream of decisions. Should you take on that new client even though your team is stretched thin? Is a retainer agreement still profitable after multiple rounds of “quick” revisions? Can you afford to hire another designer, or should you bring in freelancers until […]

Running a small agency is not for the faint of heart. You wear a lot of hats, juggle multiple clients, and somehow still need to find time Pricing is one of the most crucial and most complicated decisions a small creative agency has to make. It’s not just about setting a number. Your pricing model […]

Running a small agency is not for the faint of heart. You wear a lot of hats, juggle multiple clients, and somehow still need to find time for team meetings, strategy sessions, and internal projects. When it comes to project management, the margin for error is razor-thin. One delayed task or overlooked deadline can mean […]