Episode Details

Send Me Your Questions!

Everybody looks busy. Calendars are packed, people are working late, and every weekly check-in sounds like “I’m drowning.” So you start writing a job description.

But busy is not the same thing as profitable.

In this episode, Melissa tells the story of Denise, a design studio founder who was halfway through drafting a job post when one question stopped her: how much of your team’s time is actually going to client work? The answer was barely half. Denise didn’t have a capacity problem. She had a utilization problem. Hiring would have just made it more expensive.

Melissa breaks down the utilization rate, the agency profitability metric that tells you whether your payroll is paying off, and why it’s the other half of the pricing work from Episode 13.

In this episode:

• What utilization actually measures (billable hours ÷ available hours), and why it still matters if you bill flat fees or retainers
• The industry benchmarks founders ignore, including healthy targets by role and why the founder should not be at 80%
• A real-world-style example of how moving a four-person team from 55% to 75% utilization adds roughly $220,000 a year, with the same people and the same payroll
• How to improve utilization without burning out your team, from tighter briefs to protected focus time to looking in the mirror
• How to use team productivity metrics to decide when to hire, and when to find the leak instead

Your homework:

Pull last month. For each person on your team, write down their available hours and their billable hours. Do the division. Don’t judge it yet. Just look at it. And if you’ve got a job description half-written, hold off until you’ve seen that number.

No Se Habla Taxes is the podcast for creative agency owners who want to understand the financial side of their business — without drowning in spreadsheets. Hosted by CPA and fractional controller Melissa Armstrong, each episode unpacks real operational finance questions through candid stories and practical insight. Subscribe to the newsletter at steadyhandaccounting.com for episode recaps and financial insights delivered straight to your inbox. 

Not sure if your business is healthy or just busy? No Se Habla Confusion is a $500 financial assessment for creative agencies on QBO doing $300K–$3M. I dig into your numbers, find the gaps, and tell you exactly where you stand. Email info@steadyhandaccounting.com — subject line: No Se Habla Confusion. 

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LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/armstrongmelissacpa/

Website: https://steadyhandaccounting.com/