Profit Advisor For $1mm–$5mm Marketing Agencies
I fix the people and process leaks that keep you from the profit you deserve, turning your high-stress non-profit into a wealth-building machine.
The Problem
Your Agency is Your Worst Client
You spend your best intellectual energy solving problems for brands while your own business starves for attention. You have a folder full of strategic initiatives that have been sitting untouched for eighteen months. Instead of building an asset you’re babysitting a payroll. It’s exhausting to be an expert for everyone except yourself.
The Outcome
A Business That Actually Works For You
You cannot fix a profit problem with growth.
The need for growth often hides a dysfunctional story that misunderstands a core business fundamental: it’s better to have a $1mm business that’s 20% profitable than a $10mm business that’s 2% profitable.
I promise a path to a firm that is financially resilient, operationally disciplined, and high-margin by design.
20% net profit: We move your margins from "surviving" to "thriving" by fixing the Labor Efficiency ratio.
Optimal utilization: Your team stops being overworked and starts becoming efficient (believe me, they also want this!).
Market-based compensation You finally get paid a fair salary for your role, plus a healthy distribution for your ownership.
A fully capitalized business: Your business finally lives-up to the expectation of withstanding market-based ups and downs and building wealth.
You can stop: Most small firms cease up without the principal’s involvement. That will stop being a problem by standardizing your operations so you can finally mute your notifications.
The Method
How It’s Done
Finances
I’ll take a 36-month view of your P&L and balance sheet to define the narrative of both where things stand and the trend over time.
People
Common wisdom says ‘the people who got you to where you are aren’t going to be the ones to take you where you want to go.’ Perhaps that’s true, but you need outside perspective to determine who your bright spots are.
Your Project Management Processes
The heartbeat of your operation needs to be reliable. Boringly reliable. It needs to be metronomically predictable. And chances are, things tend to slacken because you’re not doing the basics well enough.
Clarity In Four Weeks
Week One will analyze the qualitative reasons the numbers are the way they are. Interviews with staff and clients will to qualify the quantitative data with qualitative insight.
Week Two will paint a full picture of the ins and outs of the business. How the processes are creating the outputs that generate your LER.
Week Three will write the narrative of the future we’ll be creating and a map to get there, with practicality in mind so we can begin immediately.
Week Four I’ll present the full diagnostic, including the full playbook for how to make real the theory defined in my documentation.
What's Included?
A comprehensive strategy for turning 20% profit as a rule, without heroics, which comes with:
A full financial analysis with an 100 company comparison.
An overview of the expenses you could do without.
An illustration of what your organization will look like after the strategy has been fully implemented, including an updated EOS Accountability Chart.
An adjusted salary cap with salary bands per discipline localized to your business, and a bonus where applicable, that make sense and prevent the endless race for salary increases.
A recommended project management reorganization with a recipe for how to achieve it.
The Offering
What’s Included?
Co-Founding Partner, p3 Maine“Tom identified our real needs immediately, pivoting us from cutting expenses to generating sustainable revenue. He spoke our language without the usual consultant posturing and told us the truth without tip-toeing. That frankness is exactly why we hired Tom."
Tom Conlon, CEO @ North Street Creative“Tom implemented systems and processes that have transformed our operations, enabling us to consistently deliver projects on deadline and with 40% improved profitability.”
Matthew Amundson, COO @ Lemonade Creative“Tom’s unique blend of professionalism, charisma, and patience lands him in the upper ranks of operations management.”
Contact
Stop Guessing
I work with agency owners and principals who are tired and want a better future. If you have at least $1mm in revenue and the courage to change how you run your business, fill this out. I’ll review your data and let you know if if a diagnostic call makes sense.
For Your Ears
I Have a Podcast
If you’d rather hear what I have to say about being an Irreplaceable Professional — where I talk, for less than 10 minutes per episode, about what it takes to survive AI — you can find it anywhere you listen to podcasts. Even better, I position the conversation directly at your employees, so they can hear the other side of the conversation, prioritizing their career while inspiring them to be the best professional on your team.