<div class="gn-article"><div class="gn-hero gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-hero__image"><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/687a235da6861294eec73166/69089aa027ef1b5a554ff895_651d7ec9b910457b425e83fc_6172ad65833e437c1f0f1e18_Blog%252520covers%252520(22).png" alt=""></div> <div class="gn-hero__head"> <span class="gn-kicker"><span class="dot"></span>Event · Expression</span> <h1 class="gn-title">Agency Workshop: Making 2022 your most profitable year yet</h1> <div class="gn-meta"> <strong>The GO Network</strong> <span class="pip"></span> <span>24 November 2021</span> <span class="pip"></span> <span>1 min read</span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="gn-event-meta gn-reveal"><div class="gn-event-meta__block"> <span class="gn-event-meta__label">When</span> <span class="gn-event-meta__value gn-date">Wed, 24 Nov 2021 · 09:00</span> </div><div class="gn-event-meta__block"> <span class="gn-event-meta__label">Where</span> <span class="gn-event-meta__value">Online</span> </div><div class="gn-event-meta__block"> <span class="gn-event-meta__label">Status</span> <span class="gn-event-status gn-event-status--recording">Past · Recording</span> </div></div> <div class="gn-body"> <h2>What it actually takes to run a profitable agency in 2022</h2> <p>Profitability is the metric agency leaders talk about least and worry about most. Revenue growth gets the headlines, new business wins get the celebrations, but margin is what determines whether an agency survives a difficult quarter, retains its best people, or has the financial headroom to invest in its own future. A workshop hosted by The GO Network in partnership with agency accountants <strong>The Wow Company</strong>, drawing on findings from the global <strong>Benchpress</strong> survey, brought these questions into sharp focus for agency owners and leadership teams heading into 2022.</p> <p>The session combined sector benchmark data from Benchpress with The Wow Company's direct experience supporting agencies on commercial growth. The result was a frank, peer-level conversation about where agency profitability is actually won and lost. What follows are the most useful takeaways for agency operators thinking seriously about their numbers.</p> <h2>Understand where your agency sits against the benchmarks</h2> <p>One of the most valuable things the Benchpress survey provides is a clear picture of what "good" looks like across agency size, discipline, and model. Without that external reference point, it is easy to mistake adequate for excellent, or to assume a structural profitability problem is simply a bad quarter.</p> <p>The workshop emphasised using benchmark data not as a vanity exercise but as a diagnostic tool. If your gross margin is below the sector median, that points to a pricing or utilisation problem. If your operating profit is lagging despite healthy revenue, the issue is likely in overhead structure or team productivity. Knowing which lever to pull matters enormously when resource is limited.</p> <p>Practical steps for agency leaders:</p> <ul> <li>Pull your gross margin, operating profit, and revenue per head figures and compare them directly against the latest Benchpress data for your agency type and size.</li> <li>Identify the single largest gap between your position and the benchmark before deciding where to focus improvement effort.</li> <li>Revisit benchmarks quarterly rather than annually. Agency economics shift quickly, and a comparison that was accurate in January can be misleading by September.</li> </ul> <h2>Empowering your team is a commercial decision, not just a cultural one</h2> <p>Agency profitability is, at its core, a people problem. Utilisation rates, recovery rates, and the ability to deliver work without constant senior intervention all depend on how capable and autonomous your team actually is. An agency where every client decision escalates to a director is structurally unprofitable, regardless of how good the work is.</p> <p>The workshop highlighted team empowerment as one of the most direct routes to margin improvement, precisely because it reduces the cost of delivery without reducing the quality of output. When account managers can hold a commercial conversation, when project managers can push back on scope creep, and when senior creatives can brief and review without director oversight, the agency becomes more efficient at every level.</p> <p>This is also a retention argument. Agencies that invest in developing their people's commercial and leadership capabilities retain those people for longer, reducing the recruitment and onboarding costs that quietly erode profitability year on year.</p> <p>Practical steps for agency leaders:</p> <ul> <li>Audit how much senior time is consumed by decisions that a well-briefed mid-level team member could make. That time has a direct cost attached to it.</li> <li>Build commercial literacy into team development, not just craft skills. Account handlers who understand margin and utilisation make better day-to-day decisions.</li> <li>Create clear accountability frameworks so that ownership of outcomes sits at the right level in the team, rather than defaulting upward.</li> </ul> <h2>Building a sustainable agency means designing for profitability, not hoping for it</h2> <p>One pattern The Wow Company sees repeatedly across agency clients is the distinction between agencies that are profitable and agencies that are accidentally profitable. The former have designed their commercial model deliberately: their pricing reflects the value they deliver, their capacity planning is proactive, and their leadership team reviews financial performance with the same rigour they apply to client work. The latter are profitable when conditions are favourable and fragile when they are not.</p> <p>Sustainability, in this context, does not mean slow growth. It means building an agency where profitability is repeatable and does not depend on a single large client, a heroic individual, or a favourable market. The Benchpress data consistently shows that agencies with diverse revenue across multiple clients and strong recurring income structures outperform those reliant on project-based or concentrated revenue.</p> <p>Practical steps for agency leaders:</p> <ul> <li>Review your client revenue concentration. If any single client represents more than 20-25% of total revenue, that is a structural risk worth addressing actively.</li> <li>Assess how much of your revenue is retainer or recurring versus project-based, and set a deliberate target for shifting that ratio over the next 12 months.</li> <li>Treat your agency's P&amp;L as a product that requires as much strategic attention as your client work. Monthly management accounts, reviewed with a specialist agency accountant, are not optional at scale.</li> </ul> <h2>The next step</h2> <p>Profitability improvement in agencies rarely comes from a single dramatic intervention. It comes from closing the gap between where your numbers currently sit and where the benchmarks tell you they should be, then systematically addressing the people, process, and pricing decisions that create that gap.</p> <p>If you have not yet benchmarked your agency against the latest Benchpress data, that is the logical starting point. From there, The Wow Company and The GO Network's network of agency peers offer practical, agency-specific support for the commercial decisions that follow.</p> </div></div> <aside class="gn-related gn-reveal" data-auto="related-reading"> <div class="gn-related__label">Related reading</div> <ul class="gn-related__list"> <li class="gn-related__item"> <a href="/articles/agency-workshop-pricing-for-profit" class="gn-related__link"> <span class="gn-related__category">Expression</span> <span class="gn-related__title">Agency Workshop: Pricing for Profit</span> <span class="gn-related__excerpt">Wow Company&#39;s Benchpress data reveals how top-performing agencies set hourly rates and fees, so you can benchmark your pricing and close mor</span> </a> </li> <li class="gn-related__item"> <a href="/articles/agency-workshop-planning-for-profit" class="gn-related__link"> <span class="gn-related__category">Expression</span> <span class="gn-related__title">Agency Workshop: Planning for Profit</span> <span class="gn-related__excerpt">Rory Spence of The Wow Company walks agency owners through goal-setting, billing capacity, and a structured plan to increase profit margins.</span> </a> </li> <li class="gn-related__item"> <a href="/articles/investing-in-pr-finding-your-strategy-in-2024" class="gn-related__link"> <span class="gn-related__category">Expression</span> <span class="gn-related__title">Investing in PR - Finding your Strategy in 2024</span> <span class="gn-related__excerpt">Agency leaders get expert guidance on PR&#39;s evolving definition, key mistakes to avoid, and a practical framework for building a modern PR st</span> </a> </li> <li class="gn-related__item"> <a href="/articles/pr-in-2023-what-to-expect-and-where-to-start" class="gn-related__link"> <span class="gn-related__category">Expression</span> <span class="gn-related__title">PR in 2023 - What to Expect and Where to Start</span> <span class="gn-related__excerpt">Agency PR leaders share what&#39;s changing in comms, influencer, and brand partnerships , plus practical steps to build a measurable PR strateg</span> </a> </li> </ul> </aside>