How profitable is your agency, really?
Revenue growth can hide shrinking margins. This calculator turns your monthly numbers into a clear profit picture.
What it means
Profit here is simply monthly revenue minus monthly expenses, expressed as a dollar amount, a margin percentage, and a per-client figure so you can see who's actually contributing to the bottom line.
Why it matters
Agencies often track revenue closely but expenses loosely, which means margin erosion goes unnoticed until cash gets tight. Seeing profit per client also surfaces which accounts are worth keeping.
Try it with your own numbers
You're profiting $7,000/month at a 28% margin
$7,000
Monthly profit
28%
Profit margin
$875
Profit per client
$84,000
Annualized profit
Recommendations
- A healthy small-agency margin is typically 15-25% — if you're below that, look at expense creep before raising prices.
- Review your recurring monthly expenses line by line; subscriptions and tools tend to accumulate quietly.
- Re-run this calculator quarterly with real numbers so margin trends don't sneak up on you.
Suggested next steps
- Check whether your current pricing supports this margin using an hourly rate or retainer pricing tool.
- Look at profit per client to see if any accounts are quietly dragging your margin down.
Relevant Sarion features
Every client, fully organized
Nobody on the team has to ask "does anyone know where that came from?" again.
- Client records
- Notes
- Activity history
- Search
Never lose track of a payment
Overdue invoices get chased before they turn into bad debt.
- Paid
- Unpaid
- Overdue
What's typical
Healthy agency net margin
15-25%
Warning zone margin
below 10%
Strong, well-run agency margin
25%+
What actually moves this number
- Audit recurring expenses line by line — subscriptions and underused tools accumulate quietly over time.
- Review pricing against actual hours delivered, not just against what competitors charge.
- Cut or renegotiate the lowest-margin client relationships instead of only chasing new revenue.
Where this usually goes wrong
- Confusing revenue with profit — a busy agency can still be unprofitable.
- Not counting the owner's own time as a real cost, which hides the true margin.
- Only checking margin once a year instead of monitoring it monthly as expenses shift.
Common questions
Should I include my own salary in monthly expenses?
Yes, if you want an accurate margin. If you don't pay yourself a fixed salary, estimate what it would cost to replace your role and include that.
What counts as a monthly expense?
Salaries, contractor payments, software and tools, rent, and any other recurring cost of running the agency — anything you'd still pay even in a slow month.
Why does profit per client matter?
It's a rough average, not exact per-account profitability, but a low number is a signal to check pricing or scope on your lowest-margin accounts.
Put these numbers to work
Sarion is where the client records, invoicing, and portal behind these numbers actually live.