Professional Services

13 trades. Same grounded system, tuned to the realities of each one.

13 kinds of professional services businesses

Pick yours - every one has its own numbers, leaks, and 90-day plan

Law Firm Accounting / Bookkeeping Financial Advisor Insurance Agency Real Estate Brokerage Property Management Architecture Engineering Consulting Marketing Agency Web / Software Agency Photography / Video Notary / Title

How the money works

Professional Services runs on 3 different business models

Two shops in the same industry can need opposite advice, because they sell different things. Find the model you actually run on.

Expertise sold by the hour or retainer

You sell one hour, one engagement, one retainer month

Utilization times realization times rate is your entire income statement. Scope creep is the silent killer - the work grows, the fee does not, and effective rate drops without a single conversation. Recurring retainers beat project revenue for planning, but only when scope is written down.

Your ceiling: Your billable hours and those of the people you trust with client work.
Biggest leak: Unbilled 'quick questions' — Twenty minutes a day for a client on a fixed retainer is 80 hours a year. Either price it in or route it to a scheduled call.

10 business types

Recurring route work

You sell one stop on a repeating route

Revenue is stops times price times frequency, and profit is decided almost entirely by how close your stops are to each other. A dense route with modest pricing beats a scattered route with premium pricing every time, because drive time is unbillable and endless. Retention is the whole business - churn quietly resets you to zero every spring.

Your ceiling: Windshield time. Miles between stops is the tax you pay on every route.
Biggest leak: The account across town — One outlier stop can cost 45 minutes. Either raise its price to cover the drive or hand it to a competitor with a smile.

2 business types

Booked event or date

You sell one date on the calendar

You sell a finite number of dates and each one can only be sold once. Deposits are not a formality, they are the business model. Peak Saturdays subsidize the rest of the year, and the difference between an average operator and a great one is add-on revenue on a date they already sold.

Your ceiling: Prime dates. There are only so many Saturdays.
Biggest leak: Slow inquiry response — Event buyers contact several vendors at once. Being second by a day usually means losing.

1 business type

Photography / Video