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. 

check out the Pro Serv blog

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...
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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...
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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...
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How Small Service Firms Win in a Declining Industry

A declining industry is an industry with an absolute decline in unit sales over time....
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How Service Firms Win in Emerging Industries

Emerging industries present unique opportunities for both meteoric rises and swift downfalls for professional service...
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Why Founders Get Trapped in a Lifestyle Business

This article was originally published on CEOWORLD Magazine. In the boutique professional services industry, there are...
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How Professional Service Firms Win in a Mature Industry

Many professional service firms compete in mature industries. This overview of the mature industry environment,...
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The Capital Formation Process of Professional Service Firms

Professional service firms need capital to scale, as do product companies. However, the capital-formation process...
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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...
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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....
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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...
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The Maturing Founder: How to Go From a State of Immaturity to a State of Maturity (Part 1)

Share it on social : SUBSCRIBE TO COLLECTIVE 54 INSIGHTS The first expert community for...
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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...
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How to Customize EOS for Professional Services Firms

Macaroni and cheese. Spaghetti and meatballs. Those pairings exemplify the dynamic relationship between EOS (“Entrepreneurial...
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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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check out the Pro Serv videos

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.
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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.
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Sales Cycle Length in 2023

Sales cycles are getting longer in boutique professional services, as 2023 unfolds.
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Boutique Management Meetings

Working on the business vs in the business requires management meetings. Ever wonder when your peers have the management meetings?
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Revenue: New Clients vs. Existing Clients

Generating expansion revenue from existing clients is the most reliable growth strategy for boutique professional service firms.
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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...
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Sales Pipeline Visibility

Boutique pro serv firms can be lumpy businesses. Matching revenue and expenses with limited forward visibility can be very hard.
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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...
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Revenue per Employee

Revenue per employee trends by firm size. Key Lesson: Boutique professional services firms must learn how to grow revenues without...
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Entry Level Annual Compensation

Entry level wages in professional services firms in small, medium, and large firms.
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Full Time vs Contract Labor

Full time employees vs part time contractors as a % of a firm's workforce.
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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...
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2023 Price Increase

It is that time of the year again- the annual price increase. Here are the forecasted price increases in pro...
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Client Concentration

Boutique professional service firms are living on the edge. The % of revenue coming from the top 5 clients is...
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2022 Professional Service Bill Rates

Bill rates in boutique professional service firms in 2022. Across all sectors in NAICS 54 in North America.
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2022 Revenue Sources for Professional Services Firms

Why multiple sources of revenue is better than one source.
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2022 Utilization Rates

Keeping your people billing during a recession is the best way to avoid layoffs.
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Time to Exit in Professional Services

The time it takes to sell a professional services firm based on the firm type.
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Margin Improvement Over Time

The path to profits in professional services. Margins vs. years in business.
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How Much Money Founders Make

Collective 54's Chart of the Week shows the bigger the firm, the more money the Founder makes.
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Inflation

Clients are paying more for everything BUT your services. Don't believe me? Here is some proof.
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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.
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