3 game-changing insights from Consultancy BenchPress 2024

In my humble opinion, our time is our number one asset. How we choose to spend it will dictate our success or failure.?

What’s exciting is that analysis from the 2024 Consultancy BenchPress survey released last week reveals quite clearly how the leaders of the most profitable high-growth firms spend their time.?

While the overall picture for boutique consultancies looks mixed and many consultancies are feeling the profit squeeze, the data from Consultancy BenchPress shows a strong correlation between time spent on strategy and high performance.??

Conclusion? The evidence clearly shows that now it is more important than ever to be working ‘on’ your business, in parallel with working ‘in’ it, to grow your business profitably.?

What does it mean to work on our business??

We delved deeper into this very question at a packed Consultancy BenchPress 2024 event earlier this month. Here are our takeaways:?

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1. Uncover your blind spots?

As consultancy owners, we tend to run our businesses in isolation, focusing on clients and internal operations, rather than looking outward. We are often unaware of what our competitors are doing and the commercial models they are employing. We don't have the insights into how they are making money, setting prices, achieving margins, or what expectations they have for their teams.??

We need to shift our perspective to ask, "What is the market doing? What do our customers really want? How can I innovate to grow a commercially sustainable consulting business?"?

Consultancy BenchPress addresses these blind spots by providing data on market performance and the strategies of high-performing firms. This benchmarking data from hundreds of boutique consultancies* reveals what is possible and can significantly enhance the performance, profitability, and value of your consultancy business.?

For example, at our Consultancy BenchPress launch event, a consultancy owner (and long-standing The Consultancy Growth Network member) shared his remarkable growth story from ￡2 million to ￡9 million. In addition to this amazing revenue growth, he shared how he had been inspired by one of the TCGN sessions to increase his gross margin target by 10% which led to a doubling of his bottom line!?

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2. Act like Olympians – drive marginal gains?

Marginal gains are often discussed in the context of elite sports, but they also have a powerful multiplier effect in business performance. A 1% change in utilisation, client advocacy, gross margin, team engagement might not seem significant on its own, but together, these small increments add up.?

Try our free utilisation-to-profit calculator

As leaders, our choices in leading our teams follow the same principle. Making that extra call, checking in with one more client or team member can make all the difference when key metrics are under pressure. People want to be part of a successful team moving in the same direction.?

Consultancy BenchPress offers awareness, comparison, and a market temperature check. It reassures you that you are not alone and can provide a positive boost when a key metric compares favourably to your peers. Consultancy leadership teams often integrate benchmarks from the Consultancy BenchPress Reports into their board meetings and targets.???

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3. Spend more time on strategy?

The truth is, we’re not dedicating enough time to strategy. This is likely because we don't know how to spend that time wisely and feel more secure believing that "I’m adding value if I am selling or delivering.”??

So, what can we do about it? As well as establishing the correlation between time spent on strategy and performance, Consultancy BenchPress 2024 also reveals that consultancies integrating the eight levers of equity value into their growth strategy are twice as likely to experience rapid growth, expect fast growth in the next 12 months, and feel very confident in achieving their goals.?

This was a core discussion point in our roundtable sessions at Consultancy BenchPress 2024. Attendees shared ideas on how to create space for strategic thinking and what it truly means to work on strategy, including taking time to reflect on whether their proposition needs additional work, to reconsidering what services could be outsourced to make space.?

This is just one of the key themes we are addressing collectively. You are not alone in figuring this out! Join The Consultancy Growth Network where we will run sessions to help you work on these crucial challenges – and many more.

Read The Consultancy BenchPress 2024 report

*Consultancy Benchpress 2024 is based on data from 287 independent consulting businesses with revenues of up to ￡50m. Now in its fourth year, Consultancy BenchPress is the only extensive long-term benchmarking research into the performance of boutique consultancies. Consultancy BenchPress is THE resource for boutique consultancies to rely on to shape their future.?TCGN members can access the full report via the Growth Hub .