The Build to Own Guide
A practical approach to getting more from your agency
More time. More money. More satisfaction.
More of what you want.
If you’re taking the risk,
you should get the rewards.
Owning an agency isn’t just a job.
It’s risk, responsibility, pressure, and stress that doesn’t switch off.
Build to Own starts with a simple premise:
If you’re carrying that load, your business should work for you—not just your clients, your team, or a hypothetical future outcome.
Selling may be a possibility someday.
Owning is the reality today.
This guide helps you shape your agency around what you want from ownership:
More money you actually get to keep
More control over how you spend your time
More satisfaction from the business you’ve built
Not later. Now.
What you’ll get from the Build to Own guide
After reading this guide, you’ll be able to:
Clarify what you want from ownership
Profit, time, flexibility, satisfaction—so you can stop designing by default and start designing intentionally.
Make better decisions immediately
A simple owner-focused question you can apply to clients, pricing, hiring, and growth—starting this week.
Shift from employee thinking to owner thinking
So you stop treating yourself like a powerless employee in your own business.
Get rewarded for the risk you’re already taking
Ownership should pay you back in income, autonomy, and sustainability—not just obligation.
Keep future options open without organizing your life around them
Selling can make sense someday. Build to Own helps you benefit today while preserving optionality.
This isn’t about radical change.
It’s about making smarter choices, consistently.
Who this guide is for
This guide is for agency owners who:
Have built a successful agency—but don’t feel like it’s fully working for them
Are profitable, yet stretched thin or constantly reactive
Want growth to improve ownership, not complicate it
May sell one day, but don’t want to put their life on hold waiting for that moment
Are tired of advice that treats owners like replaceable operators
If you want your agency to be something you’re genuinely glad to own, this guide will resonate.
What Build to Own is—and isn’t
Build to Own is:
An owner-first way of thinking about agency decisions
Focused on profit, control, sustainability, and satisfaction
Practical, grounded, and flexible
Build to Own is not:
Anti-growth
Anti-ambition
Anti-exit
A rigid playbook or one-size-fits-all system
It’s about intentional ownership—designing a business around your needs and priorities.
Why this matters
Too many agency owners spend years:
Making decisions based on habit or outside expectations
Optimizing their businesses for everyone except themselves
Deferring satisfaction to a future that may or may not arrive
Over time, ownership starts to feel heavy instead of rewarding.
Build to Own helps change that dynamic.
When your agency works for you:
Profit becomes something you enjoy, not just track
Time becomes something you can protect
Decisions feel intentional instead of reactive
Ownership feels like a choice—not a trap
What’s inside the guide
The Build to Own approach, clearly explained
The difference between owner economics and employee thinking
How to shape your agency around money, time, and satisfaction
Why optionality matters—and how it emerges naturally
Reflection prompts and a simple decision filter you can use immediately
You can read it in one sitting—and start applying it right away.
About the Author
Chip Griffin is the founder of SAGA and a longtime agency owner and entrepreneur.
He helps PR and marketing agency owners grow profits, eliminate overwork, and build businesses they are genuinely happy to own. Over nearly three decades, he has founded, grown, and sold multiple companies and led agencies at senior levels.
Build to Own reflects what ownership actually feels like—and how to make it work better.
You’re already taking the risk.
Your agency should give something back.
Download Build to Own and start shaping your business around what you want from ownership—starting now.