Ask an agency owner which client pays the most and the answer comes instantly. Ask which client costs the most and you get a long pause. We sit down with Sarah Patterson, an outsourced CFO who has worked only with agencies for 15 years, to talk about client health and the numbers behind it.

Sarah goes beyond the spreadsheet. She cares just as much about how the business feels to run, and she even has a theory that you should track how happy each client makes you. We cover the difference between a lifestyle agency and a performance agency, who should own the numbers, and why letting go of control is part of growing.

You will learn:

-Why finance is the third leg of the stool, next to tax and bookkeeping

-How to tell a lifestyle agency from a performance agency, and which metrics each one needs

-The core numbers every owner should know: profit, cash runway, fee revenue per FTE and utilization

-How account managers show up in the numbers, from utilization to account growth targets

-How to tell whether you need a CFO or can level up the team you already have