Becoming Aware of How Your Agency Is Wasting Away Its Margins

value model
Written By Brian Kessman
A busy, modern agency environment showing three people collaborating in a glass-walled conference room while colleagues work and walk by outside, capturing an active and fast-paced workspace.

Let’s eliminate all the ways your agency is wasting away its margins.

“Waste” is anything that prevents or slows value delivery to your clients. It costs you time, weakens client relationships, and frustrates employees. Once you know what to look for, you’ll see it everywhere. It costs you time, weakens client relationships, and frustrates employees.

A few common forms of waste I see in agencies are:

  • Excess or redundant meetings

  • Waiting time for internal or client approval on work

  • Multiple revisions to work

  • Creating overly polished work too early in the creative process

  • Creating work that doesn’t get approved or used

  • Delays and loss of knowledge during handoffs

  • Manual duplication of information in different tools

You won’t be able to eliminate all waste, but we can certainly aim to minimize it.

Brian Kessman

As Lodestar's founder and principal consultant, Brian helps agencies move beyond billable hours and commoditized services to scalable outcome-driven commercial models and value-aligned pricing.

Brian is an inaugural member of the 4As Expert Network, and his transformative approach has been shared across the industry through presentations for Mirren, the 4A’s, AMIN, Magnet, Worldcom, and other top industry organizations. Combining hands-on and advisory expertise, he is a trusted partner to agency leadership teams looking to break free from outdated models and thrive in an era of disruption.

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