Nine services on the price list. Three of them made the money.
A professional services firm doing about $3.2 million offered nine services and had no idea which ones paid. Every service looked the same on paper. We pulled a full year apart, service by service, and put revenue, direct labor, and direct cost against each one. Three services produced most of the profit. Two lost money on every job. The owner cut the losers, folded the breakeven work into the strong lines, and put the team where the margin was.
- Three services identified as 82% of gross profit
- Two services exposed as losing money on every engagement, and cut
- Chart of accounts rebuilt with revenue and cost by service line, so the answer shows up on the monthly P&L
- Net profit margin from 6% to 14% in the year after the change
- Revenue dipped $300K. Net profit more than doubled, from $192K to $406K