Read the contract for the exit

Pull the contract. You are looking for four clauses, and most people have never read any of them. The minimum term and the notice period, which together decide the earliest date you can stop paying. The ownership clause, which decides whether the keyword research, the screenshot source files and the test data are yours or theirs. The tool-access clause, which decides whether the dashboard you have been shown disappears the day you leave. And the auto-renewal clause, which decides whether silence on your part signs you up for another year.

Write down the earliest exit date. If the notice period is sixty days and the term ends in four months, your decision date is in two. That is what the rest of this course is working toward.

Then request the assets, now, while you are still a client: every keyword list, every screenshot source file, every test result, every version of the metadata with dates. A good agency hands them over without friction. A weak one produces a PDF export of a dashboard. What you receive tells you what you own.

None of this is hostile. You are a client reading your own contract and collecting your own work. If the agency reacts as though it is hostile, that is information too.

Today’s task

• Find the term, notice, ownership, tool-access and auto-renewal clauses.
• Write down the earliest exit date and the decision date before it.
• Request all assets in writing.

Related: Where the retainer goes · Agency vs consultant · Why I am not an ASO agency