How to Stop Silent Profit Leaks
Here’s a hard truth: most consultancies don’t lose profit because of bad clients or poor delivery.
They lose it quietly… at the end of every project.
The final invoice goes out. The team bolts straight into the next job. And that’s it.
No pause.
No reflection.
No lessons captured.
And what happens next?
The same mistakes get repeated.
Hours keep leaking out of budgets.
Margins quietly erode.
And before you know it, you’re delivering more projects than ever… but the business is running harder just to stand still.
That’s the problem. A leaky bucket business.
And in this podcast episode, I’ll walk you through the exact 20–30 minute project closeout process we install with Boardroom clients to stop profit leaks for good.
Here’s how it works:
Trigger: When a project hits 90% complete or the final invoice is raised, a closeout meeting is scheduled automatically. No excuses, no forgetting.
Agenda: Four key parts —
- Wins (celebrate what worked)
- Lessons Learned (what to fix)
- Financial Review (where margins were won or lost)
- Actions (3–5 specific steps to improve the next project).
Communication: The learning doesn’t stay trapped in one project team. A simple comms blast (Teams, Slack, email) shares it across the entire business.
The result?
— Mistakes don’t repeat.
— SOPs and fee templates get sharper with every project.
— Profit margins climb, sometimes by 5, 10, even 15%, without adding staff or extra hours.
It’s not theory. I’ve seen consultancies shift from 20% to 30%+ net profit by simply installing this one habit.
That’s the compounding effect of running your business like a system, not just a set of projects.
Click Here to watch the video.
Click Here for the podcast episode.
To your success,
Josh
PS: If you’re interested, here are 4 ways I can help you right now:
- Grab a copy of my new book | Profitable Engineering Consultant | 9 strategies to grow with confidence, get your time back & consistently hit 30% plus net profit margins – Click Here
- Subscribe to our podcast | Learn how to run a more profitable consultancy and grow successfully – no fluff, just actionable and practical advice from someone who grew a consultancy to $30M and exited successfully – Watch Here or Listen Here + make sure you subscribe!
- Download our free Business Plan template | Map out your Business Plan & grow your consultancy with confidence – Click Here to download now
- Book a 20-minute Business Audit Call | We’ll do a full review & audit of your business, uncover the #1 bottleneck that's holding you back right now & develop a 3-step action plan together for how you can get results faster. You'll leave this call with a clear and actionable plan for what to do next in your business – Book Here
