3 Signs Your Projects Are Eating Your Profits

As someone who works at a digital agency, you know how quickly projects can add up (like when you start waking up at 3:00 AM gasping in a panic — not fun). Managing those projects effectively is not only important for your sanity, but it’s critical if you want to stay profitable. For businesses like digital agencies, 60% of projects are completed in less than three months. With such a high volume of work and revenue falling into shorter projects, it’s critical that you manage them successfully.

To help make sure you sleep through the night and keep those profits rolling in, keep an eye out for these 3 signs that your short-term projects are hurting your bottom line:

1. Poor communication and documentation

A lack of communication with your team and clients or unclear documentation outlining where a project stands at any given point is a recipe for disaster. Having a clear understanding of deliverables and expectations only happens when there is good communication and documentation of those expectations between your team and clients in one integrated platform.

2. Poor planning and estimation (scope creep)

If you’re a marketer, designer, or a digital strategist and don’t take the time to carefully plan out and estimate the scope of your projects you’re setting yourself up for financial loss, not to mention some aggravated clients. Having a flexible and dynamic system in place that let’s you see the profitability of your projects in real time is a surefire way to avoid any scope creep catastrophes and keep everyone smiling.

3. Budget overrun and schedule slippage

Short projects run over budget when schedules spiral out of control since more often than not, short-term projects aren’t as strictly monitored or tracked as longer ones. That leaves those working on them scrambling to meet expectations and deliverables at the end — when it’s already too late.

If you can already see these three signs manifesting at your agency, you should really consider doing some research on some of the smart technology platforms out there than can streamline your work life and business.