I’ve always been the queen of “you can know my business,” so here we are again – deep in the mess of Fran Moore LLC, whiteboard in hand, ready to fix this thing.

The Reality Check: We Were In Chaos Mode

Right now, I’m building this agency behind the scenes through white labeling. That means I’m delivering services for another agency under their name while we’re doing the work as Fran Moore LLC. It’s genius for growing without the pressure of a big flashy launch, but it also means we need our shit together. And we… didn’t have our shit together.

The onboarding process? A little bit of a cluster, to be honest. And I don’t operate well in the gray. Shout out to the Tism, but I was like, okay, there’s a clear way to fix this. It doesn’t have to be gray. We know the three things we offer to them. So let’s really get after it.

Here’s what was happening: The girls at the partner agency are out there selling their hats off – literally 2 to 4 new clients a week. Nobody knew it would grow this fast. Meanwhile, I’m doing EVERY onboarding call, being the bottleneck, and generally getting in everyone’s way.

My team finally had the guts to tell me: “Fran, I could do that instead of you.” And I was like, okay, don’t let me cry. Because they were right.

Why I Had To Fix This (Spoiler: Greece)

I’m going to Greece in May. This process needs to work without me. Period. End of story.

But beyond that? I need to act more as a point of escalation, more like the virtual assistant ops lead instead of also being a virtual assistant. I do some work, but we’re working on removing me from the day-to-day grind.

The New 4-Step Onboarding Process

So I grabbed my marker and my whiteboard (borrowed from my mother – yes, Marcia, I will give it back) and mapped out exactly how we’re going to fix this. Here’s the whole system.

Step 1: The Welcome Email (No Fran Required)

First things first – the welcome email. I already do this, but I’m kind of the only one who knows the rhyme or reason. So what I needed to do was write out what needs to go in the welcome email, create a template, and pass this off to the team.

Here’s what needs to be in there:

Introduction to the VA – This comes from a general VA email address, so there’s no need to introduce me in this step. We really could bypass me for the whole part. The email should say: “Welcome to [agency name]. We’re so excited to have you. Your assigned VA is [name]. They will take on the below tasks.”

List the services – The partner agency has done a great job making sure everyone can see the services available to the new client. We need to clearly list what’s included.

Link to a form – And this is critical: NOT a link to schedule a call yet. A link to a form.

Why? Because sometimes if we get on a call without enough information, it’s kind of hard. The call gets awkward. Especially for virtual assistants who aren’t naturally salesy or haven’t been a CSM or any kind of relationship manager. I’ve watched some of these calls and I’m like, let’s not have this happen.

So the form comes first.

Step 2: The Form (The Secret Sauce)

This form is where we collect everything we need before anyone gets on the phone. It includes:

• Passwords (we have LastPass, so there are details on where to send passwords securely behind our two-factor authentication)
• Project details
• Expectations
• Any specific requirements

We need them to give us as much information as they can upfront to set the VA up for success. Because I’m always team Fran’s VAs, hands down. They make me look good. What can I do to make them look great?

Once the form is filled out, THEN they get the scheduling link.

Step 3: Schedule The Call

After they complete the form, we’ll send them a link to schedule a call with their VA. This happens within 12 hours of them getting the form – just enough time to fill it out without creating too much lag.

The good thing about doing this in ClickUp? We can make sure once the form is completed, it auto-assigns to the VA to reach out and schedule. We can monitor if someone opened the form but the form is still blank and we haven’t gotten a task yet because they never clicked submit. If that happens, we just do a quick follow-up.

They can even talk through the form on the call if needed. The point is to have some data before getting on the phone.

Step 4: Introduce Leadership (That’s Me)

Only after all of this do they get an email introducing me as the lead. This email will say something like: “Happy to have you. Here’s your lead, Fran,” and it’ll include a link to book a call with me if they ever need me.

That way I’m still satisfying my contract with the white labeling company (they like me, they came to my agency because of me), so there’s still some Fran in the process if they need me. But it doesn’t stop or halt anything. They can keep moving without me.

This is the key: I’m the escalation point, not the gatekeeper.

The Final Step: Feedback Loops

Four weeks later, both the client and the VA get feedback forms.

To the client: “How’s it going with the VA?” To the VA: “How’s it going with the client?”

This isn’t for testimonials. This is for real process improvement. As a CEO, yes, I’m in charge of them. Yes, I’m watching all this. But I’m also responsible for the systems they use and how we build our SOPs.

Even if I can’t immediately fix what the client needs from the VA or what the VA needs from the client, I at least have more details on where we need to go, what needs to change, and also what’s working.

How This Compares To My Full Agency Onboarding

For my own coaching clients and when I onboard people into my agency directly, the process is similar but with way more automation. I use DevTuttle and ClickUp and they just talk back and forth to each other like crazy.

But because there’s so much going on with the white labeling situation and so much nuance to being an agency living under another agency, I wanted to make sure we stepped in with human interaction for now. The partner agency also doesn’t have some of the automated tools I typically use because they’re in their infancy too.

So this is what we’re doing for now, and it can grow into an automation pretty easily once we’ve got it dialed in.

The Mindset Shift That Changed Everything

Here’s the thing: your team can probably do more than you think. Way more.

I used to think I HAD to be on every onboarding call. I thought if I wasn’t there, things would fall apart. But the girls were like, “Fran, we got this.” And you know what? They do.

The biggest thing holding your business back might just be… you.

Not gonna lie, the team and I have been chaotic. We’ve been doing our thing in Slack – I Slack them, they Slack me, it works. Clients are getting everything they need. They don’t know it took us two and a half hours of talking to one another about their CRM. And that’s fine!

But now we’re taking that chaos and turning it into a system. A system that doesn’t require me to be online 24/7. A system that lets me go to Greece and know everything’s running smoothly.

Why This Matters (Even If You’re Not White Labeling)

Maybe you’re not running a white label agency. Maybe you’re not even running an agency at all. But if you’ve got clients, if you’ve got a team, if you’re trying to scale… you need systems.

You need processes that work without you.

You need to get out of your own way.

Systems aren’t just for the big agencies with fancy automation tools. Systems can start with an email template. A form. A clear set of steps that anyone on your team can follow.

Start simple:

1. Map out your current process on a whiteboard (or borrow one from your mom)
2. Figure out where YOU are the bottleneck
3. Create templates for each step
4. Build in feedback loops
5. Test it, iterate, improve

What’s Next

Next week on the podcast, I’ll talk you through why I decided to start this agency more as a white labeling service versus just doing a big flashy launch. Spoiler: it has everything to do with sustainability, building the right way, and not burning out in the first six months.

The big flashy launch is coming at the end of the year, though. I just told my team and they were kind of excited.

Let’s Talk About Your Onboarding

If you’re struggling with your onboarding process, DM me. Free Coaching Fridays are back! I let go of that one client that took up way more time than I actually had capacity for, so I actually have time now.

Let’s talk through what’s not working. What’s creating chaos. Where you’re the bottleneck. We’ll figure it out together.

Because at the end of the day? We’re all just trying to build something that works. Something sustainable. Something that doesn’t require us to be glued to our desks 24/7.

And if that means admitting our onboarding process was a cluster and completely rebuilding it? Then that’s what we do.

Fran

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