COLLECTIVE 54 INSIGHTS
Welcome to Collective 54 Insights – a newsletter that delivers three things to you weekly – a blog on Monday, a video on Wednesday, and a chart on Friday. One subscription gets you all three.
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Why Your Professional Services Firm Shouldn’t Aspire to Be a SaaS Company
This article was originally published on ReadWrite. When I talk to founders of service firms, many...
Organic Growth vs. Acquisition Growth: How Pro Serv Firms Win Through Acquisitions
If you’re considering exiting your firm one day, you’re thinking about how much your firm...
Trying to Jumpstart Your Business Success? Master the Ability to Pivot.
This article was originally published on Entrepreneur. Business plans are like mining for gold. Miners had...
How Small Service Firms Win in a Declining Industry
A declining industry is an industry with an absolute decline in unit sales over time....
How Service Firms Win in Emerging Industries
Emerging industries present unique opportunities for both meteoric rises and swift downfalls for professional service...
Why Founders Get Trapped in a Lifestyle Business
This article was originally published on CEOWORLD Magazine. In the boutique professional services industry, there are...
How Professional Service Firms Win in a Mature Industry
Many professional service firms compete in mature industries. This overview of the mature industry environment,...
The Capital Formation Process of Professional Service Firms
Professional service firms need capital to scale, as do product companies. However, the capital-formation process...
How Selling Professional Services Is Different Than Selling Products
There’s a big difference between selling a professional service versus selling a product. Failure to...
The Concealed Steep Personal Cost of Being a Founder of a Professional Services Firm
According to the US Census Bureau, an average of 4.4 million companies are launched every year....
The Maturing Founder: How to Go From a State of Immaturity to a State of Maturity (Part 2)
If you’ve been keeping up with the Maturing Founder (and if you haven’t, check out...
The Maturing Founder: How to Go From a State of Immaturity to a State of Maturity (Part 1)
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Why Some Professional Service Firms Scale and Others Don’t
Scalability is the highly sought-after holy grail of business, but not every professional services firm...
How to Customize EOS for Professional Services Firms
Macaroni and cheese. Spaghetti and meatballs. Those pairings exemplify the dynamic relationship between EOS (“Entrepreneurial...
Founder Market Fit: What Is It and Why Is It Mission Critical for Boutique Professional Service Firms?
Founder market fit is the relationship between the founder of a firm and the environment...
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The 9 Revenue Sources for Pro Serve Firms: How Many Are You Using?
Discover the 9 common revenue sources for a successful professional services firm.
Have You Structured Your Firm Effectively to Scale?
The professional services org chart is unique. With labor as the highest expense in your firm, it’s critical that you...
Selling Professional Services – Do You Need a Sales Team?
Are you relying on one person to generate business through referrals? The path from a small business to a market...
Hiring Employees: Getting it Right for Your Pro Serv Firm
Have you ever said “Nobody can do what I do?” At Collective 54, we hear this a lot – but...
check out the Pro Serv charts
Vacancy Rates in the US Office Market
Remote work vs in office vs hybrid work continues to be a debate in the professional services industry.
Sales Cycle Length in 2023
Sales cycles are getting longer in boutique professional services, as 2023 unfolds.
Boutique Management Meetings
Working on the business vs in the business requires management meetings. Ever wonder when your peers have the management meetings?
Revenue: New Clients vs. Existing Clients
Generating expansion revenue from existing clients is the most reliable growth strategy for boutique professional service firms.
Average Contract Value in Professional Services
Average Contract Value in Professional Service Firms Scaling a boutique pro serv firm requires an increase in contract value overt...
Sales Pipeline Visibility
Boutique pro serv firms can be lumpy businesses. Matching revenue and expenses with limited forward visibility can be very hard.
2022 Employee Turnover in Professional Services
Despite the great resignation, and recession fears, employee turnover in professional services remained low in 2022. By historical comparison, employee...
Revenue per Employee
Revenue per employee trends by firm size. Key Lesson: Boutique professional services firms must learn how to grow revenues without...
Entry Level Annual Compensation
Entry level wages in professional services firms in small, medium, and large firms.
Full Time vs Contract Labor
Full time employees vs part time contractors as a % of a firm's workforce.
Geographic Concentration of Consulting Firms in the US
Geographic distribution of consulting firms in the US. 752,254 firms spread across 50 states. Why do you care? Firms follow...
2023 Price Increase
It is that time of the year again- the annual price increase. Here are the forecasted price increases in pro...
Client Concentration
Boutique professional service firms are living on the edge. The % of revenue coming from the top 5 clients is...
2022 Professional Service Bill Rates
Bill rates in boutique professional service firms in 2022. Across all sectors in NAICS 54 in North America.
2022 Revenue Sources for Professional Services Firms
Why multiple sources of revenue is better than one source.
2022 Utilization Rates
Keeping your people billing during a recession is the best way to avoid layoffs.
Time to Exit in Professional Services
The time it takes to sell a professional services firm based on the firm type.
Margin Improvement Over Time
The path to profits in professional services. Margins vs. years in business.
How Much Money Founders Make
Collective 54's Chart of the Week shows the bigger the firm, the more money the Founder makes.
Inflation
Clients are paying more for everything BUT your services. Don't believe me? Here is some proof.
Fixed Bid Pricing vs Firm’s Valuation
The relationship between a fixed bid pricing strategy and a firm's valuation. More fixed bids = higher valuation.
