September can be considered a 'second new year' in agency life. After summer breaks, clients return with fresh budgets, new campaigns, and heightened expectations. For many agency leaders, it's exciting. But it can also be overwhelming.
Without a clear operational reset, September can quickly spiral into firefighting, eroding both margins and morale. The good news? A few small but intentional steps can set your agency up for a calmer, more profitable final quarter.
Before you dive into the autumn rush, take stock of your client commitments. Are scopes still clear? Are priorities realistic given your team's bandwidth?
A 30-minute review with your leadership team now can save weeks of confusion later.
September often brings a spike in new briefs - which looks great on your revenue forecast, but can mask delivery risks.
Map your team's actual capacity against confirmed and potential work. Where are the pinch points? How will you protect against over-servicing when client demands surge?
Agencies thrive when they're not only executing, but also anticipating client needs. That requires space. If your team is maxed out at 100%, they won't have the margin to think strategically.
Build in weekly 'look ahead' sessions - short, structured check-ins that give teams space to spot risks and opportunities before they land.
Margins rarely disappear in one dramatic swoop. They erode gradually through fuzzy scopes, last-minute client requests, or a project that 'just takes a little longer than planned'.
Use September to tighten up how you track time, scope changes, and profitability. Even small tweaks here can deliver a measurable impact before year end.
September is your chance to reset. Agencies that take the time to align scopes, capacity, and priorities now will enter Q4 with clarity, confidence, and calm — not just busyness.
If you want help spotting where your systems are leaking time and profit, our Operational Clarity Workshops are designed for exactly this. Two hours. Tangible wins.
If you've ever Googled 'project management in agencies', you're faced with a long list of project management software tools. All the usual suspects are there – along with some that you'll inevitably have never heard of before.
You must have been there - at a wedding or dinner party, or (more likely for me, these days) a whole-class village hall birthday party...when the 'what do you do?' question comes up.
If you know me, you know it's my favourite colour. At one point I had on a purple coat, purple bag and was sitting on a purple chair, waiting to go in for a client meeting. My colleague at the time had the most unprofessional fit of the giggles.