Step Zero
Find out what has to happen before you trade.
Three stages. 22 questions. Agency Ready, Sales Ready, Client Ready. You get a four-column action map: what to ignore, prepare, configure and test — specific to where you are now.
Start the checkWhat Step Zero covers
Three stages. One honest read.
Step Zero checks where you are across each stage of the ready-to-trade sequence — and tells you what to ignore, prepare, configure and test.
01 Agency Ready Before you open GHL
The thinking happens before the platform. Your agency's business identity, domain plan, email and SMS decisions, offer clarity, and access setup need to exist before GoHighLevel does anything useful.
Business identity
Your agency name, structure, ABN and operating model. Not optional. If this is unclear, everything built on top of it is uncertain.
Domain and DNS plan
One domain strategy — main site, campaign subdomains, email sending domain, branded links. Decided before the first GHL page is published.
Email sending decision
A dedicated sending domain, authenticated (SPF/DKIM/DMARC), tested and monitored. A green DNS record is not a ready email setup.
SMS and phone decision
SMS is a feasibility, consent, compliance and cost decision. In AU, every GHL phone number requires a Regulatory Compliance Bundle. Not a default feature.
Offer clarity
One service you can describe in a sentence, fulfil repeatably, and price based on value. If you cannot describe it, you cannot sell it or scope it.
Legal and commercial basics
Terms of service, privacy policy, scope boundaries. Not a full legal document — just enough that you and the client both know what you are agreeing to.
Access and ownership
The GHL account is in your name, under your email, billed to you. If it is under a supplier or third party, you do not own the business.
02 Sales Ready Test your own system first
Eat your own dog food. Your agency's enquiry-to-booking path, follow-up, pipeline and fulfilment map should work before a client touches any of it. Going to market before this is in place means the client becomes your experiment.
Agency landing and booking path
A working page and booking flow you have tested yourself — from the link to the confirmation. Not just built: tested.
Branded links
Trigger Links, calendar links and form links on your own subdomain. Generic GHL links are a trust signal you are not ready to trade.
Calendar test
A real end-to-end booking test: link to form to confirmation to calendar entry to reminder. Tested before anyone else uses it.
Pipeline test
A test contact walked through your pipeline. You watched it behave. You know it works.
Follow-up test
You received your own follow-up sequence. You know what it says, when it fires, and whether it makes sense.
Fulfilment map
Every step of what you deliver after someone pays — written down. If you cannot map it, you cannot promise it.
Scope and exclusions
What you will not do, written clearly. Not just known in your head — documented enough to go in a proposal or terms.
Payment and deposit decision
Decided, set up and tested. Not something to improvise when the first client asks how to pay.
03 Client Ready After your own system works
Client setup comes after your own system is proven. Client intake, verification docs, sub-account domain pattern, permissions model, QA checklist and handover process — built and documented, not improvised when someone pays you.
Client intake process
What information you collect from a client before you start — and when. Not a questionnaire thrown together on the day.
Client verification docs
What documents clients must provide: business name, ABN, domain access, phone number compliance docs (AU). Known before the first client is onboarded.
Sub-account domain pattern
How client sub-account domains work: campaign pages, branded links, email sending. A consistent pattern, not decided fresh for each client.
Permissions model
What access and permissions each client has in their sub-account. Decided before you create the first one.
QA checklist
A pre-launch checklist you run before anything goes live for a client. If you do not have one, you are doing QA in front of the client.
Handover process
What the client receives, in what form, when, and what that means for ongoing ownership. Documented.
Support boundaries
What is included in your support, what is not, and how the client reaches you. Written down before you take money.
Your read
Enter your email and we'll send you a copy of your Step Zero read — so you can come back to it when you're ready to move.
How the result works
A four-column action map.
Step Zero doesn't just score you. It tells you what to do next — specific to where you are in the ready-to-trade sequence.
After Step Zero
Get the ready-to-trade toolkit. Free.
The Toolbox gives you the checklists and maps that make the sequence doable. Or, if you are ready, see if the Incubator is a fit.