As a consultant, be it IT or creative, you’ve probably experienced a moment of doubt or uncertainty at some point in your career - and in most cases, it’s been related to your overall profitability.
There are many consultants and creative managers who can’t even get to sleep at night without worrying about where money is being spent, or why their bottom line looks the way it does - they’re just lying in bed trying to figure out ways to recover lost revenue.
If this sounds all too familiar, don’t stress - we’ve found a way for you to avoid these restless nights. With service operations automation, you’ll be able to deliver on those short term projects which can negatively affect your bottom line. For example, a two-month project represents roughly 16% of your total revenue (before interest and taxes) and that kind of percentage can mean the difference between overall profitability or a major loss.
So with that in mind, here are some ways to manage your profits and avoid feeling overwhelmed:
1. Streamline everything for real-time visibility
If your data is spread out between different tools, it’s really hard to get a clear overview of what’s actually happening inside your business. But what if you had a smart platform that could show you just how profitable you are, in real-time?
With the right business software, you’ll be able to schedule resources more efficiently, double down on certain projects (or pull back), and make sure you and your team’s workloads are manageable - so that everyone can get some sleep at night.
2. Automate repeatable processes
A Harvard Business Review study found that on average, 27% of service-based projects go over budget because time isn’t being used effectively. By automating your repetitive admin tasks, you’ll have more time to spend on the important things like projects that drive revenue and clients that bring in money.
Additionally, optimize the way you spend your time even further with Retainers and Contracts. They can be used for recurring work or returning clients - saving you from the brain-numbing task of rehashing old work.
3. Bulk invoicing
With projects running over time and budget more often than not, it's important to have a fast-tracked billing cycle. Select a platform that offers Bulk Invoicing which is ideal for when you have a lot of clients to bill (for a lot of work) at the end of the month - we're talking days to minutes. Filter and search through all of your contacts and all of the work done for them, to find the specific types of work you want to invoice for. Then use the Bulk Invoicing feature to quickly create and send invoices to all of your clients in an instant!
