The agency exit checklist for contractors

Step 1: Take stock before you touch anything

Spend an hour making a written list of every marketing asset you can think of, and leave the "who controls it" column blank for now. You're building a map, not changing anything.

Include at least these:

• domain name and registrar
• website hosting and the website's admin login
• business email (if it runs on your domain)
• Google Business Profile
• Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising and any other ad accounts
• Google Analytics and Google Search Console
• Facebook page, Instagram, YouTube and any other social accounts
• call-tracking service and the numbers it supplies
• review platforms, trade directories and supplier dealer locators
• any software you pay for monthly: booking, CRM, review requests

Then take screenshots. Capture each account's settings page showing users and roles, your current Google listing, and the last three monthly reports you received. Screenshots are cheap insurance if anything changes after you give notice.

Step 2: Fill in who controls each asset

Now try to log in to each one yourself, with an email address your business controls. Mark each line as one of three states:

• Green: your business email holds the top role (owner, admin, registrant).
• Amber: you have some access, but someone else holds the top role.
• Red: you can't get in, or don't know who can.

Pay special attention to Google Business Profile roles. Google distinguishes owners from managers, and only owners can add or remove users. A profile also has a single primary owner. If you're only a manager on your own listing, it's amber, not green.

For the domain, look at who is listed as the registrant with your registrar. For .ca names, CIRA says it doesn't make changes itself: they go through your registrar or reseller. If the registrant is the provider's company rather than yours, that's red, and it's the most important line on the sheet.

Step 3: Recover in this order

Work from red to green, starting with the asset everything else depends on.

1. Domain. It controls the website and often the email. Ask for the registrant to be updated to your business, or for the domain to be moved into a registrar account you own.
2. Hosting and a full website backup. Get a copy of the files and database, or at least an export, before anything else changes.
3. Phone and tracking numbers. If customers dial a tracking number, find out who owns it and whether it can be transferred or forwarded during the changeover.
4. Google Business Profile. Ask to be added as an owner, then to have primary ownership transferred to you. Google's owners and managers page says new owners must wait 7 days before they can remove other users or transfer primary ownership, so add that week to your plan.
5. Google Ads. Make sure your business email has admin access and the billing is yours. Google's help page on unlinking manager accounts explains that admin access to either side is needed to remove the link.
6. Analytics and Search Console. Add your business email as an administrator so you keep the history.
7. Social pages and directories. Add yourself as admin on each.

If nobody answers on the Google listing, Google's request-ownership process is the official route; as of October 2026 its help page gives the current owner 3 days to respond, and service-area businesses without a storefront are directed to Google support.

Step 4: Write a calm, factual request

The message you send to whoever holds your accounts matters more than people expect. A short, neutral request gets action; an angry one gets delays.

Here's a template you can adapt:

Hi [Name], as part of some housekeeping at [Business name], I'm making sure our business email, [business email], holds the owner role on all our marketing accounts. Could you please add it as owner or admin on the following: [list]. For the Google Business Profile, please also transfer primary ownership once the 7-day waiting period allows. Thanks very much.

Keep a copy, note the date, and follow up politely after a few business days.

Step 5: Give notice, then confirm the handover

Once the domain, the Google listing and the ad account are green, you're in a safe position to give notice under whatever terms your agreement sets. Ask for a short handover list: what's running, what's scheduled, and any renewals coming up.

After the notice period:

• remove the provider's users from each account, one by one
• confirm the website, email and phone still work from an outside phone
• pause or rebuild ad campaigns you don't understand rather than letting them run unattended
• update the payment method on anything still billing through someone else

Step 6: Keep an ownership register

Turn your sheet into a permanent ownership register: every account, the owner email, renewal dates and who else has access. Review it every quarter.

This one habit prevents almost every rescue we see. It takes an hour a quarter, and it means that whoever you hire next, the business stays in control.

Mistakes that turn an exit into a crisis

• Cancelling in anger. It can leave your domain or listing with someone who no longer has a reason to help.
• Letting the domain lapse in the hope of re-registering it. Expired names can be taken by anyone.
• Creating a new Google listing instead of recovering the old one, which loses your reviews and creates a duplicate.
• Changing passwords on shared logins before documenting how things are set up.
• Starting fresh ad and analytics accounts while years of history sit in the old ones.

When to get help

If you can work through this list and everything ends up green, you may not need anyone. If several lines stay red, or a provider has gone quiet, our rescue audit and account and domain recovery services take it from here. You can also read who owns your marketing for a deeper look at each asset, or contact us to talk it through.