Case Study - Operations

Case Study- Lead Generation

FLAIR Strategy

A digital marketing agency needs to find a balance between the workload of their staff and the profitability of their projects.

Background

FLAIR is about to start working on multiple new clients in the next quarter but is unsure if they need to hire new employees, find freelancers or push the start dates further down the year.

SERVICES

Budgeting

Work Planning

Financial Reporting

DELIVERABLES

Costing Grid

Work Mananagement

Time Tracking Reports

TOOLS

Google Sheets

ClickUp

BI Tool

Step 1

Costing and Planning

In a service-based business where each project is unique, it's crucial to accurately determine pricing and workload despite efforts to standardize services. To address this, we developed an in-house costing grid for the sales department. This tool provides a detailed breakdown of the tasks involved in each deliverable, offering a clear picture of the work required. Additionally, it forecasts both the revenue generated and the work hours needed throughout the project's duration, ensuring precise cost estimation and resource planning.

Exp. Levels KPIs

Balancing experience levels across projects is essential to maximize both the quality of work produced and the profit margins.

Hours per Discipline

Gaining a detailed view of the work required for each project enables managers to determine the specific types of talent needed to complete the tasks effectively.

Task Creation

The costing grid automatically creates and assigns tasks, facilitating the seamless transfer of this information into a project management tool.

Forecasted Revenue

The costing grid enables the revenue and accounting departments to determine the appropriate billing schedule, while also providing the sales team with insights into whether they will meet their sales and revenue targets.

Step 2

Visualizing the Workload

Once the project is approved by the client, the next step is to import the tasks generated by the costing grid into the work management tool. Since all tasks have already been allocated to the appropriate employees during the costing process, a simple export/import into ClickUp provides a detailed view of each team member's workload and remaining capacity. Given that the project management tool is dynamic and continuously updated, the newly imported project tasks offer the most accurate view of the available hours for additional projects.

Workload Capacity

Obtaining precise workload time estimates weeks in advance for all employees helps managers make quick decisions to prevent staff from becoming overworked.

Task Progression

Monitor which tasks are in progress and which ones are not to gain a better understanding of which projects require attention.

Billable & Non-Billable

Assist employees in achieving a balance between their billable and non-billable hours by providing an accurate forecast of their daily workload.

Outsourcing Indicators

Obtain the necessary information to discern which tasks can be outsourced and which ones cannot.

Step 3

Analyzing the Performance

The process and tools implemented yield a wealth of valuable data that enables comparison between initially planned work hours and actual time tracked. By incorporating various details such as billable rate, employee cost, and more, we derive key performance indicators (KPIs) essential for assessing the overall performance of the business and identifying areas for improvement.

85%

Steady Billable Time

Accurate task distribution based on the costing grid, coupled with visibility into non-billable tasks, ensures that billable resources dedicate more time to revenue-generating work rather than non-billable meetings or tasks.

2x

Less Need for Subcontractors

Task labeling and tracking within the project management tool help ensure that we do not overutilize subcontractors for work that can be efficiently handled in-house.

60%

Consistent Profit Margin

This process aids in maintaining a consistent minimum profit margin across clients and projects.