Episode
Set Up to Fail, Even with Perfect Projects - Real Client Case Study, With Kristen Kelly
- Podcast
- The Agency Profit Podcast
- Published
- Dec 17, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 2183
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://parakeeto.com/blog/
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Summary
About this Episode In this episode of the Agency Profit Podcast, Marcel is joined by Parakeeto’s own Kristen Kelly to unpack a client case study that will feel very familiar to any agency running on a small core team plus a big bench of contractors. Together, they walk through a video-heavy, just-under-$2M agency that looked “fine” on a cash-basis P&L some months, but was constantly scrambling to cover contractor costs and make sense of its margins. Kristen breaks down how cash-basis books, lumpy project work, over-servicing, weak time-tracking habits, and a half-implemented project management tool were all symptoms of a deeper issue: a business model and unit economics problem, not just an execution or tooling problem. Using Parakeeto’s assessment process and estimator framework, she shows how they reclassified contractors, clarified delivery margin and ABR targets, reset pricing and contracts, and aligned the PM tool after the model was clear. If you’ve ever wondered why tightening your processes and buying new software still hasn’t fixed your profitability, this episode offers a grounded roadmap to finally understand your business model, price work for a 70% delivery margin, and use flex labor without constantly feeling behind on cash.