Insights on agency growth, profitability, and operations from teams who've been there.
There's a number that keeps agency owners up at night, and it's not revenue. It's the gap between the revenue they should be earning and the revenue that actually hits the bank account.
Utilization rate is one of those metrics that agency owners know they should be tracking but often aren't. Or they're tracking it badly. Or they're tracking it and have no idea whether their number is good, bad, or somewhere in between.
Search for "PSA software" and you'll get page after page of results about ConnectWise, Autotask, HaloPSA, and Kaseya. Every one of those products was built for IT managed service providers. Not for agencies.
Most agency owners can tell you their revenue off the top of their head. Fewer can tell you their margin. Almost none can tell you their realization rate, their effective bill rate, or their unbilled work-in-progress at this exact moment.
Revenue tells you how much money came in. Headcount tells you how many people you're paying. Neither tells you if you're actually running a healthy business.
Most agencies leave 15-20% of their billable time untracked. Here's why it happens and how to fix it.
The definitive guide to agency financial benchmarks. See how your metrics compare to top-performing agencies.
The fastest way for an agency to make more money isn't winning new clients. It's billing for the work you've already done.
Retainers should be the most profitable work your agency does. Fixed monthly revenue. Predictable cash flow. Long-term client relationships. In practice, most agencies lose money on their retainer clients.
Great projects start with great onboarding. Here's the exact checklist top agencies use to onboard new clients.