Running a professional service agency, whether you’re delivering marketing or consulting services, depends on employees and contractors being highly efficient. In fact, it’s expected for everyone to pull their weight and contribute a total of 40 billable hours every week.
This sounds great when calculating figures and projecting revenue, but in reality, 40-hour billable weeks are pretty rare without “fudging.” Anyone who is involved in producing deliverables and managing projects knows how grueling and challenging it is to simultaneously run numerous projects, address emergencys, delays while staying efficient and profitable.
If you’re facing this challenge, then your approach to weekly efficiency may be outdated. It’s time to embrace the “25-15 resource planning method,” and you’ll learn all about this approach below.
So, What’s the Problem?
Ultimately, efficient 40-hour weeks are rare without any challenges. Let’s say you run a marketing agency. You’re managing 15 various accounts with different deliverables, expectations, and collaborators.
We all know that things come up. Contractors delay for a variety of different reasons. Bottlenecks in communication keep employees off track and unproductive. Clients can get antsy and important tasks fall in between the cracks.
All of this chaos can and will happen during any week, no matter how organized your 40-hour week schedule is. To plan ahead, you should devote the necessary time for producing deliverables and handling critical issues as they occur.
What is the 25-15 Resource Planning Method?
Since agencies have no idea what challenges they will face any given week, development and project management teams need to be proactive. This involves embracing the 25-15 resource planning method.
Obviously, 25 and 15 hours will add up to a 40-hour billable week. However, the 25 hours will be devoted to producing deliverables for any client. The 15 hours, on the other hand, will serve to help employees plan ahead and build their schedule to address workplace issues.
This can include breakdowns in communication, address fires, and any other delays. By putting this approach into place, employees won’t have to work overtime to fix issues and stress themselves out! You then benefit from a less stressed team and if al goes well… happier clients.
The Benefits of Employing This Method
When you choose to swap your original scheduling habits with the 25-15 resource planning method, you’ll be benefiting your firm in a variety of ways, including:
- Reducing manpower and driving down extra labor costs.
- Improving workplace morale.
- Boosting productivity and efficiency.
- Enhancing workplace awareness of all projects and accounts.
- Heightening accountability for all project collaborators.
- Increasing customer satisfaction and revenue.
When your team is focused on delivering and proactive enough to set time aside to handle internal projects, your agency’s revenue will improve. Your team will also thank you for less-chaotic work weeks.
Therefore, it’s a win-win situation, considering you’re still achieving 40-hour billable weeks.
The Bottom Line:
Running an agency can be tough — we all know that. There are so many things going on, and not a single centralized platform to manage them all. That’s why we are creating Net Net, a personalized management tool for professional service agencies.
If you’re interested in automating your agency’s operations, sign up for our early adopter program for Net Net today and see how we can improve your workflow and improve your understanding of the bottom line.
