Explore every episode of the podcast The Handbook: The Operations Podcast

Everyone talks about being "data-driven," but many professional services businesses are drowning in data, not actually using it. 

Rich Brett is back for episode three of our mini-series from inside The Missing Finance Course, the free FinOps course presented by Rich and Harv Nagra built to close the gap between finance and delivery. 

This episode leans into the delivery side of the business – the day-to-day decisions that end up written into your numbers, whether you meant them to or not.

Here's what we dive into:

• Why utilization and capacity are two sides of the same coin, and why utilization should never be a surprise at month end
• Where delivery leads go wrong on scoping, and how a duplicated quote can set a project up to fail before it starts
• Why over-servicing to keep clients happy is often a decision nobody actually made, and how to take back control
• What revenue recognition really means (it's simpler than it sounds), and why doing it once a year isn't good enough
• What "recovery" actually measures, and why comparing it to an invoice tells you nothing
• What being genuinely data-driven looks like, versus just having a lot of reports nobody reads

Plus, Rich and Harv get into why the best businesses are already looking at what’s going to happen next month instead of just explaining what happened last month.

The Missing Finance Course is free, self-paced, and built for three audiences: leadership, delivery teams, and individual contributors. Head to https://learn.scoro.com to get started.

Additional Resources:

👉🏽 Follow Rich Brett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-brett-36903590/

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

Everyone wants AI to fix their messy data. Andrew McBarnett will tell you straight: it won't. In fact, it'll just help you reach the wrong conclusion faster.

Andrew is Group Financial Director at Lucid Group, a PE-backed medical communications agency. He joined in 2020 for what was meant to be a four month contract. Six years later, he's still there, and the numbers tell the story: EBITDA up from £3.6m to £18.1m, revenue more than doubled, legal entities cut from 25 to 15, and a finance team that's shrunk in headcount while transaction volume has nearly doubled.

In this conversation, Andrew explains how he diagnosed a business that looked successful on the surface but was being held back by its operating model. 

Here's what we get into:

• Why numbers don't explain your business, they just reveal where the pain is
• Andrew’s five pillars of an operating model that can actually scale
• Why "businesses don't fail to grow, they fail to absorb their growth"
• How Lucid built single sources of truth across accounting, project delivery, and expenses
• Why AI was never the goal, it was the reward for doing the foundational work properly
• What changing the culture of a team actually takes (it’s harder than the tech, according to Andrew)

Plus, Andrew shares the real reason finance teams get sidelined in the business, and how to fix it.

Additional Resources:

👉🏽 Follow Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmcbarnett/

👉🏽 Lucid Group: https://wearelucidgroup.com/ 

👉🏽 AMB Associates: https://amb-associates.com/ 

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/  

💰 The Missing Finance Course (free): https://learn.scoro.com 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

Most leaders in professional services are making decisions every day that come back to the finance – but no one ever actually taught them the numbers. 

In this episode, we're pulling back the curtain on the financial foundations that every leader needs to get a handle on, whether you're running a team, managing projects, or sitting in the hot seat at the top.

Rich Brett is a FinOps consultant with 15 years in finance, working with professional services businesses to close the gap between finance and operations – and answer that nagging question: why is everyone busy, but we're not making any money?

This episode is pulled directly from The Missing Finance Course – a free FinOps course Rich and Harv built to level up everyone from founders to individual contributors at agencies and consultancies. 

Here's what they get into:

• Why cashflow forecasting isn't an advanced topic – it's a survival skill
• What the P&L is really for, and why most senior leaders struggle to explain it to their own teams
• How a knowledge gap becomes a credibility gap – and why that erodes trust across the whole business
• Why so many businesses are pricing based on what they think something costs – not what it actually costs
• Why comparing your rates to competitors is a trap, and what to do instead

If you've ever sat in a finance presentation and felt a bit lost, or if you've been winging parts of your pricing strategy, this one's for you.

The Missing Finance Course is free, self-paced, and built for three audiences: leadership, delivery teams, and individual contributors. Head to https://learn.scoro.com to get started.

Additional Resources:
👉🏽 Follow Rich Brett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-brett-36903590/
👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you.

Most businesses will go through some kind of change management challenge – a new tool, a restructure, a rebrand. But what does it look like when you're doing that across eight acquired businesses, each with their own people, systems, culture, and way of doing things?

Jonathan Healey is Group Technology Director at IDHL, a 500-person UK digital agency group that has grown through eight acquisitions. He's been at the center of every integration – aligning systems, consolidating brands, and figuring out what actually has to happen, and in what order, before any of it can work.

This is a conversation about what M&A integration really looks like on the ground – and why, at its core, it's a change management problem more than a technology one.

Here's what we get into:

• Why the back office has to move first – and what happens when it doesn't

• The "us vs them" dynamic that can derail an integration before it starts

• How to decide what to standardize and what to leave alone

• Why process is poison – and what good process actually looks like

• Build vs buy: when in-house systems become a liability

• AI adoption as a change management challenge – and the federated model IDHL is using to scale it

Whether you're navigating an acquisition, thinking about one, or just trying to get a new way of working to stick across your team – this one's got something for you.

Additional Resources:

👉🏽 Follow Jonathan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanhealey1/

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

Most professional services firms are generating revenue. But somewhere between producing a quote and issuing the final invoice, profit gets eroded. And more often than not, the root cause runs deeper than you'd expect – it's that nobody in the business ever properly understood the numbers in the first place.

In this special episode, Harv is joined by FinOps expert Rich Brett to introduce The Missing Finance Course – a completely free resource built for everyone in your firm, from the leadership team, to delivery teams, right down to individual contributors. 

This conversation, taken straight from inside the course, sets the scene for why financial understanding isn't just a finance team problem. It's everyone's problem.

Here's what they get into:

• Why most firms don't bother with financial education – and why that's a mistake
• How finance and operations working in silos creates blind spots that erode profit
• Why storytelling, not spreadsheets, is the real skill your finance team needs
• How commercial awareness at every level – yes, including junior staff – changes the way a business performs
• Why understanding the numbers is one of the fastest ways to accelerate your career in professional services

The Missing Finance Course is free, self-paced, and built for three audiences: leadership, delivery teams, and individual contributors. Head to https://learn.scoro.com to get started.

Additional Resources:

👉🏽 Follow Rich Brett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-brett-36903590/

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

The data is in – and it's not pretty.

After surveying 303 agencies and consultancies through the Business Maturity Quiz, we've launched The Maturity Gap Report, revealing just how wide the gap really is between the firms where operations is a strength and everyone else.

In this episode, Harv is joined by operations consultant Manish Kapur and FinOps expert Rich Brett to walk through the headline findings – and what they actually mean for the way your business is run.

Here are a few of the headlines they discuss:

• Role clarity is rarer than you think – only 35% of firms have clearly defined roles, and the knock-on effects reach everything from project delivery to decision-making bottlenecks
• Most operational knowledge lives in people's heads – just 21% of firms have documented their best practices, leaving businesses one resignation away from losing it all
• Automation remains an untapped opportunity – only one in eight firms have automated any meaningful part of how they work, in 2026
• Time tracking data is being wasted – 41% of firms track time accurately, but only 13% are using that data to make decisions or course-correct mid-project
• Forecasting with confidence is the exception, not the rule – only one in four firms can forecast margins, revenue, and capacity with any real certainty
• Scale readiness is a widespread concern – just 13% of firms believe their operating model is ready for what's ahead

If you want to know where your business sits against the 303 firms in the report – and what separates the top performers from the rest – this is the episode to start with.

This was originally recorded as a live webinar – if you'd prefer to watch with the presentation slides, head to YouTube here: https://youtu.be/GfQ-raYcGQg

Ready to take action to level up?

1) Take the business maturity quiz – https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity

2) Read The Maturity Gap Report – https://scoro.com/blog/maturity-gap

3) Subscribe to The Handbook: The Ops Podcast for the upcoming maturity series – https://linktr.ee/handbookpodcast

Additional Resources:

👉🏽 Follow Manish Kapur on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manishkapur/

👉🏽 Follow Rich Brett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-brett-36903590/

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

Growing a professional services business often starts the same way: scrappy teams, generalists wearing multiple hats, and a lot of momentum driven by energy rather than structure.

In this episode of The Handbook, Harv sits down with Alex Bodini, CEO of Spin Brands, to unpack how Spin evolved from a grassroots social media shop into a multi-entity group of 100+ people. Rather than waiting for a crisis to force change, Alex and his co-founder made a conscious decision to professionalize the business so they could attract bigger clients, better talent, and more ambitious opportunities. 

They walk through the operational shifts that helped Spin move from “proper scrappy” to a more mature organization – and the cultural tensions that inevitably come with that transition.

Here’s what we dive into:

• Why bringing in a proper finance director changed far more than reporting – from pricing and scoping to forecasting and recovery
• The role HR played in moving from informal “touchy-feely” people management to structured career paths, policies, and development
• How hiring experienced specialists elevated the quality of work – even if not every senior hire worked out
• Why investing in senior-level marketing helped Spin build credibility and compete for bigger clients
• What a chairman can bring to a founder-led business – accountability, perspective, and bigger strategic thinking
• The trade-offs between the fun, chaotic “old Spin” culture and the more structured, scalable “new Spin”

Alex is refreshingly honest about the reality of transformation. Some hires didn’t work out. Cultural change created tension. And the journey took far longer than expected.

But the result is a business with stronger foundations – one that’s now scaling through acquisitions and positioning itself for the next stage of growth.

If you’re navigating that transition from scrappy startup to grown-up, mature organization, there’s a lot in Alex’s story that will feel very familiar.

Additional Resources:

👉🏽 Follow Alex on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-bodini/ 

🌐 Spin Brands: http://spinbrands.com/ 

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

📈 Measure your business maturity and find out how to get to the next level: https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity 

📬 Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

The work we produce gets all the attention.

But the real question is: what’s happening behind the scenes that makes that work possible?

In this episode of The Handbook, Harv sits down with creative operations expert Nicky Russell, co-founder of WDC, We Deliver Change, and chair of the Creative Operations Summit in London. Together they explore the discipline of creative ops – the systems, culture, and leadership required to help creative teams do their best work. 

What starts as a conversation about creative teams quickly expands into something bigger: how operations leaders create the environment where great work can actually happen.

Here’s what we dive into:

• What creative operations actually is – and why it’s becoming a strategic role inside agencies, brands, and consultancies
• Why ops is fundamentally about culture – not just processes, workflows, and systems
• Why happiness and psychological safety matter more than most leaders realise when it comes to producing great work
• How creative ops and business ops are converging as technology and AI reshape how work gets done
• How learning to speak the language of different stakeholders is often the key to unlocking real influence.

Whether you work in a creative environment or not, the themes in this conversation will resonate with any ops leader trying to build a healthier, more effective organisation.

Additional Resources:

👉🏽 Follow Nicky on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicky-russell-989a4719/

🌐 WDC London: https://wdc-london.com/ 

🌐 In-House Agency Leaders Club: https://www.ihalc.com/ 

🗓️ Henry Stewart Creative Ops Summit London, 19th March 2026: https://henrystewartconferences.com/creative-operations/ 

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

📈 Measure your business maturity and find out how to get to the next level: https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity 

📬 Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

Your numbers might look healthy.

Revenue’s up. Projects are flowing. The pipeline feels… fine.

But underneath? Margins are eroding. Cash is tighter than you’d like. And no one’s totally confident in the data they’re using to make decisions.

In this episode of The Handbook, Harv Nagra sat down with finance and business ops advisor Robert Patin to unpack what’s really going on beneath the surface of many professional service businesses right now – and why operational maturity is the difference between surviving and thriving.

Here’s what we dive into:

📉 The financial red flags leaders consistently overlook – especially around forecasting, cash flow, and margin erosion

📊 Why revenue is a vanity metric if your gross profit assumptions are wrong

🧐 How to turn project postmortems into a pricing engine that actually improves over time

🔄 The link between operational maturity and financial performance – and why finance and ops can’t sit in silos

🧩 How data fragmentation creates “business whack-a-mole” and makes AI harder, not easier

🤖 Why AI will increase pricing pressure – and how to get ahead of it before the market catches up

This conversation is a practical look at how to level up your maturity across finance, systems, and decision-making – so you can scale with confidence instead of guesswork.

Additional Resources:

👉🏽 Follow Robert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/creative-agency-success 

🌐 Robert’s resources for The Handbook listeners: https://creativeagencysuccess.com/handbook   

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

📈 Measure your business maturity and find out how to get to the next level: https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity 

📬 Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

AI is moving fast in professional services firms. 

And while most conversations focus on efficiency gains and new tools, the harder questions are around risk – ownership, liability, and what happens when AI use goes wrong.

In this episode of The Handbook, Harv Nagra is joined by Sharon Toerek, a leading expert on IP and legal risk in the creative and consulting space, to unpack what AI really changes for operations leaders – and what needs to be in place to protect your business

Here’s what they dive into:

📄 What actually happens to IP when work is human-created, AI-assisted, or fully AI-generated
🔐 The data privacy risks agencies and consultancies often underestimate
🧭 Sharon’s five-step framework for building an AI-ready workplace
📝 How contracts, policies, and client conversations need to evolve as AI becomes operational

If you’re an ops leader trying to balance innovation with risk, this episode is a practical reminder that AI governance isn’t a legal edge case anymore – it’s part of running a mature, well-managed operation.

Additional Resources:
👉🏽 Follow Sharon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharontoerek/ 
🌐 Check out Sharon’s website: https://legalandcreative.com/ 

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

📈 Measure your business maturity and find out how to get to the next level: https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity 

📬 Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

Most service businesses don’t stall because of a lack of talent or ambition. They stall because the business quietly outgrows the systems it was built on.

In this episode of The Handbook, Harv Nagra sits down with Jason Swenk – agency founder turned advisor who’s spent two decades helping agencies and consultancies scale with more confidence and less chaos. 

After building and selling his own eight-figure agency, Jason codified the patterns he kept seeing into an eight-system framework for predictable growth.

We unpack why so many leadership teams feel stuck, what actually breaks as businesses scale, and how operators can help reset the foundations before things start to crack.

Here’s what we get into:

• Why clarity, positioning, and offering are the foundations everything else depends on
• How to move from reactive growth to a more deliberate, scalable operating model
• The difference between prospecting and sales – and why skipping steps causes pain later
• How delivery, ops, and leadership systems protect margins and give leaders time back
• What it really means to transition from founder mode to CEO mode

Whether you’re an Ops Director, COO, or part of a leadership team trying to break through a growth ceiling, this conversation is a strong reminder that maturity isn’t about working harder – it’s about building the right systems at the right time.

Additional Resources:

👉🏽 Follow Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonswenk/ 

💻 Jason’s website: https://jasonswenk.com/  

🎧 Jason's podcast: https://www.agencymastery360.com/podcast 

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

📈 Measure your business maturity and find out how to get to the next level: https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity 

📬 Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿

"Ballpark" is a dangerous word.

Especially when Sales sells the dream, and Delivery is left living the nightmare.

In this Quickie, Harv shares a real story from a consulting session with a 100+ person agency. They had the headcount and the revenue, but behind the scenes? It was pure chaos.

We're talking manual spreadsheet reconciliation, "remembering" to log expenses, and invoicing based on memory rather than milestones.

Harv breaks down why this "Chaotic Era" caps your growth and why moving to a PSA is the way to align what you sell with what you actually deliver.

Stop running your business on memory. Start running it on data.

When your business feels busy but the numbers don’t back it up, something’s off.

Agencies and consultancies often confuse effort with progress – and today’s guest has the data to prove it.

In this episode of The Handbook, Harv Nagra sits down with fractional CFO and Trimline founder Michael Wark to unpack why so many service businesses hit revenue ceilings, run on thin margins, and stay stuck in that exhausting cycle of over-servicing.

If you’ve ever wondered why more clients and more staff don’t automatically create more profit, this one’s for you.

Here’s what we get into:

• The hidden math behind low profitability – and why over-servicing is usually the real culprit
• Why headcount growth can become an ego metric (and why hiring your way out of inefficiency rarely works)
• How to diagnose your true unit economics and reset your pricing based on reality, not optimism
• The operational signals your business is running harder in place rather than growing
• What healthy, scalable service businesses measure – and the benchmarks Michael looks for in top-performing firms

Whether you’re firefighting day to day or thinking seriously about scaling, Michael brings a clear, practical lens to understanding your numbers and building a healthier business.

Listen to the full episode to hear the data, the patterns, and the playbook that can help you break the cycle. 🎧

Additional Resources:

👉🏽 Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-wark-18627628/ 

💰 Check out Trimline: https://trimline.co/ 

📺 Check out Michael’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MichaelWarkTrimlineCFO 

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

📈 Measure your business maturity and find out how to get to the next level: https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity 

📬 Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿

Flat demand, tighter budgets, squeezed margins. And AI is adding uncertainty on top of it all. 

But the real risk? It’s flying blind. 

If you don’t know what’s profitable, where time’s going, or what’s around the corner, every decision is a gamble.

In this Quickie, Harv lays out how visibility and control de-risk your business – and why data beats gut feel when markets wobble. 

When the foundations are tight, AI becomes an amplifier, not a threat. 

If you're wondering how to make your professional service business more resilient, this one's for you. 

Most teams treat annual planning like a spreadsheet exercise.

Finance builds the numbers. Everyone else nods along. Then the plan gets filed away until next year.

But real planning isn’t about producing a static budget – it’s about creating a rhythm that connects finance, operations, and delivery all year round.

In this episode of The Handbook: The Ops Podcast, Harv sits down with Adam Cooper, founder of ACC Finance Solutions and host of The Fractional CFO Show, to unpack how finance can become your business’s operating rhythm – one that brings clarity, accountability, and foresight to every decision.

Here’s what we cover:

• How to use finance as your sat nav, not your rear-view mirror
• Building a monthly rhythm that links financials, KPIs, and team accountability
• Creating a planning cycle that goes beyond budgets – with scenarios, reforecasts, and 3 - 5 year goals
• Managing cash flow and runway with discipline (and less stress)
• Why financial storytelling matters – and how it helps the whole business make smarter choices

If your annual planning still feels like a finance ritual, this episode will help you reframe it as an operating plan for the year ahead – one that helps your team navigate, adapt, and grow with confidence.

Additional Resources:

👉🏽 Follow Adam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamfcooper/ 

💰 Check out ACC Finance Solutions: https://www.accfinancesolutions.com/ 

🎧 Listen to The Fractional CFO Show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2275917/episodes 

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

📈 Measure your business maturity and find out how to get to the next level: https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity 

📬 Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿

So many acronyms, but what do they mean!? 

This one’s for anyone wondering: what’s the difference between a PSA and an ERP? And which one does your business actually need?

Harv breaks down how both systems bring your operations together – but are built for completely different worlds. 

ERPs power product-based businesses with inventory, supply chains, and manufacturing. 

PSAs, like Scoro, are built for service businesses that sell time and expertise.

If you’ve ever been told you “need an ERP” – this one’s worth a listen before you sign anything.

And if you’ve got a question about ops tech, PSAs, or Scoro, drop Harv a message on LinkedIn. He might just turn it into the next Quickie.

AI has stopped being a side project – it’s rewriting the rules of how professional services businesses operate – and – stay competitive.

Luke Alexander, Chief Digital & AI Officer at Four, has led an ambitious AI transformation in his business. From rolling out Microsoft Copilot across 300+ staff to launching client-facing AI services, Luke’s approach to embedding AI is bold, practical, and refreshingly human.

In this episode, Luke and Harv unpack what it really takes to move from AI experiments to AI integration – and the leadership, structure, and mindset that make it work.

Here’s what we dive into:
• How Four operationalized AI across teams (and why fluency beats training)

• The three categories of AI value – assistive, automated, and transformative

• Why senior leadership buy-in is the single biggest success factor

• How to overcome the “AI shame” still holding some teams back

• The impact of AI on agency structures, staffing, and the future of junior roles

If you’re still just experimenting with AI – but haven’t figured out how to truly embed it into the way you operate, this episode shows what that next stage looks like in practice — and what it demands from leadership.

Additional Resources:

👉🏽 Follow Luke on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukealexander/ 

4️⃣ Check out Four’s website: https://www.four.agency/ 

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

📈 Measure your business maturity and find out how to get to the next level: https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity 

📬 Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿

This one’s for anyone curious about the next big shift in how AI connects with the tools you already use: MCP. Model context protocol.

Harv breaks down what it is (a universal connector for AI), why it matters for ops leaders, and how it could turn your favourite LLM into the control center for your business systems.

He also shares how Scoro’s new MCP server unlocks practical (and pretty mind-blowing) use cases – like summarising client meetings straight into Scoro tasks, or pulling insights across Scoro, Slack, Gmail, and other tools in one prompt.

MCP is brand new, but it’s going to change how we work. Tune in to get ahead of the curve.

Ops isn’t just about keeping the lights on anymore.

As Aušrinė Keršanskaitė, co-founder of Operations Nation, puts it – today’s ops leaders are expected to drive growth, protect culture, and build resilience. And if you’ve ever felt like the “glue” holding everything together without always getting recognition, this one will hit home.

In this episode of The Handbook: The Operations Podcast, Aušrinė joins Harv to talk about the evolution of operations, the community she’s built for ops leaders everywhere, and what it takes to step into leadership with confidence.

Here’s what we get into:

• How so many of us “fall into” operations without a playbook – and how to build one for yourself
• The loneliness of ops roles, and why communities like Operations Nation matter
• Traits that define a brilliant ops leader today – from resilience to influence over execution
• How startups’ scrappy mindset can sharpen your approach to tooling, automation, and scaling
• The real opportunity with AI in ops (hint: it’s not about replacing your team)

Whether you’re a COO, head of ops, or still figuring out your path – this conversation is packed with lessons on how to elevate your role and find support along the way.

Additional Resources:

 👉🏽 Follow Aušrinė on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ausrine/ 

💡 Check out Operations Nation: https://operationsnation.com/ 

📣 Get your tickets for cONference 2025 in London (£30 off with code SCORO): https://luma.com/onconference2025 

📚 The ON COO Course: https://operationsnation.com/resources/coo-resources 

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

📈 Measure your business maturity and find out how to get to the next level: https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity 

📬 Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿

This one’s for anyone who’s ever looked at their jumble of spreadsheets and apps and thought: “Is this normal?”

Harv explains why the state of your tech stack is actually a mirror of your business maturity – from The Chaotic Era where everything’s buried in spreadsheets and copy-paste is your main 'process', through The Stable Era where processes click into place, and up to The Data-Driven Era where your systems finally give you a clear view of the road ahead.

He also shares the headcount milestone where cracks really start to show if you don’t have a PSA like Scoro in place.

Not sure where you stand? Take Harv’s Business Maturity Quiz (3 minutes, 25 questions) at https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity and see how your setup stacks up.

And if you know someone stuck in spreadsheet purgatory, send this episode their way.

Touch the same piece of information more than twice – fix the workflow. That’s the kind of CFO-meets-COO thinking we get into in this episode of The Handbook, where Harv sits down with Lindsey Head to connect the dots between finance, ops, tech, and people – and what really changes when you standardise how the business runs. 

Lindsey helped scale a PR agency from 5 to 125 people and $750k to $25m in revenue, leading finance, ops, HR, tech, legal and M&A along the way – so she’s seen where the cracks form, and how to close them.

Here’s what we dive into:

• The case for “non-billable” hires early – why dedicated new-business and ops roles pay for themselves, and a simple admin-as-%-of-revenue rule of thumb (aim for ~7–8%).

• Systems thinking > shiny tools – map the ideal information flow first, then pick tech to automate it. If you’re touching the same data repeatedly, the process is broken.

• Change management that actually works – phase rollouts, involve users early, test, train, and measure adoption before you “go live.”

• Multi-entity without the migraines – standardise what you can across entities, respect local nuance (currency, tax, PTO), and use partners/EORs when expanding fast.

• Run the business by the numbers – utilisation, gross margin by client, and labour % tell the truth; AI can accelerate FP&A and reporting, but you still sanity-check the outputs.

If you’re feeling buried under tools, processes, and hiring questions, Lindsey’s final nudge is simple: pause, map “how it’s going” vs “how it should go,” and focus this quarter on the single change that unlocks the most leverage.

Additional Resources:

 👉🏽 Follow Lindsey Head on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseylhead/ 

💡 Check out Pulse Business Group: https://pulsebusinessgroup.com/  

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

📈 Measure your business maturity and find out how to get to the next level: https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity 

📬 Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

Ops Quickies – we're back with another snackable episode. 🍿

This one’s for anyone who’s ever wondered: Is my business actually set up to scale – or are we just surviving?

Harv breaks down:

👉🏽 Why business maturity matters

👉🏽 What it really means (hint: it’s not about headcount or revenue)

👉🏽 Why most service businesses get stuck at the early stages

👉🏽 And how you can quickly benchmark where you stand today...

Harv's launched a business maturity quiz to help you see where your business sits across people, process, tech, data, and growth, and what to focus on next.

It's only 25 questions and takes just 3 minutes. You get your results – and actions on where to focus to level up. 

So which era is your business in – The Chaotic Era? The Glimmers of Growth Era? The Stable Era? The Data Driven Era? Or The Innovation Era? 

👉 Take the quiz here: https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity

Shout out to PSA platform Scoro for supporting this initiative! 

Check out scoro.com and if you sign up for a demo – tell them Harv sent you! 

When businesses talk about “productizing,” they often picture cookie-cutter scopes and rigid templates. But according to Brian Kessman, that’s missing the point.

Brian is the founder of Lodestar Consulting, and he’s spent 25 years helping agencies and consultancies scale without burning out teams or eroding margins. His approach isn’t about productizing services – it’s about productizing value.

In this episode of The Handbook: The Operations Podcast, Brian and Harv dig into what that really means, and how it can transform both your client relationships and your bottom line.

Here’s what we cover:

• The difference between productizing services (deliverables) vs. productizing value (outcomes)
• Why improving operations alone won’t fix a business model that’s not designed to scale
• How to spot patterns in your expertise and codify them into structured solutions
• Why productization doesn’t kill creativity – it actually creates more space for it
• Smarter ways to think about pricing, from fixed fees to value-based models

Brian also shares case studies from consultancies and agencies that have reframed their offers around outcomes – unlocking higher margins, more predictable delivery, and stronger authority with clients.

If you’ve ever felt stuck between reinventing the wheel on every project or being forced into commoditized work, this episode is for you.

Additional Resources:

 👉🏽 Follow Brian Kessman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briankessman/ 

💡 Check out Lodestar Agency Consulting: https://www.lodestaragencyconsulting.com/ 

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

📈 Measure your business maturity and find out how to get to the next level: https://www.scoro.com/business-maturity-quiz/ 

📬 Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you. 

Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿

This one’s for anyone who’s ever asked: How is a PSA actually different from a project management tool? And does it even matter?

Spoiler: it does.

Harv breaks down how project management platforms and PSAs serve very different purposes – and why the difference becomes more obvious (and more valuable) as your business grows.

If you've got a question about ops tech, PSAs, or Scoro, drop Harv a message on LinkedIn. He might just turn it into the next Quickie.

And if you know someone stuck in spreadsheet purgatory or drowning in tools – send this episode their way.

From the outside, M&A can seem like a clean transaction – a new parent company, a logo change, a cheerful announcement.

But inside? The reality is messier. Integration. Culture clashes. Reporting headaches. And a long list of decisions that determine whether the deal actually works.

Dom Hawes has lived both sides. After his own agency was acquired (badly), he went on to build Selbey Anderson – a marketing services group backed by private equity, designed from day one to scale through M&A.

In just 30 months, he led the acquisition of 11 agencies, growing the group to £22M in revenue. In this episode, he pulls back the curtain on how that actually happens – and what too many people get wrong.

Here’s what we dive into:

• Why leadership – not just profit – is the #1 factor Dom looks for in an acquisition
• The red flags that make him walk away (including founders who say “I’m not a numbers person”)
• What makes integration hard – and how to avoid derailing morale
• The systems decision Dom regrets – and how it made integration and reporting harder later on
• How to be “sale-ready” in today’s tougher market

Whether you’re looking to sell or simply sharpen up your ops, this one’s a must-listen.

Additional Resources:

Follow Dom Hawes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominichawes/ 

Check out Selby Anderson: https://selbeyanderson.com/ 

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

Get the key takeaways from the podcast in your inbox. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook 

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

New series alert: Ops Quickies — snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿

We're kicking off with a big question wrapped in The Clunkiest Acronym: what the heck is a PSA ... or professional services automation platform?

Harv explains why the name’s a problem, what this kind of platform actually does, and why service businesses need to start paying attention.

If you've got any questions about ops tech, PSAs, or Scoro, drop me a message on LinkedIn. I'd love to hear from you – and might even turn it into a mini episode. 

And if you know someone who needs this explainer, forward it on and ask them to give it a listen.

Your ops might be ticking along just fine.

But what if your founder got sick tomorrow? What if your top client left? What if you had to make a big decision with zero visibility on the numbers?

You might not be planning to sell your agency – but you should run it like you are.

Because when you adopt that mindset, you zoom out. You stop firefighting. You start building a business that runs without you.

This week on The Handbook, Harv sits down with Sam Wood – fractional COO and founder of consultancy Ottesu – to talk about how agencies and consultancies can apply board-level thinking without needing to set up an actual board.

Because a business that’s sale-ready is a business that’s well run.

In this episode, Sam breaks down the five areas every agency should be reviewing regularly – whether you’re building to exit or just want better control of the ship.

Here’s what we get into:

• Why applying board-level thinking doesn’t mean setting up a boardroom – and how to start
• How to define and operationalize strategy (it’s not just a slide in onboarding)
• Why culture starts with leadership behavior (not beers and pizza)
• How to build capability and resilience so your business doesn’t depend on heroics
• How to reduce risk and spot gaps in capability before they break you
• The one performance metric every service business should be tracking if they want to be profitable

Whether you're an ops lead or MD, this one’s packed with practical ways to futureproof your agency.

Additional Resources:

Follow Sam Wood on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-wood-gaicd-9023a54a/ 

Check out Ottesu’s website: https://ottesu.com.au/ 

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra 

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Is your business growing, but it still feels messy?

This solo episode from Harv looks back at one year of The Handbook podcast, and it’s a big one. Harv recaps what he’s learned from a year of speaking with ops leaders across the agency world. He packages it all into one whirlwind tour of the five core pillars of operational maturity: people, process, tools, data, and growth.

If you’ve missed a few episodes (or want a cheat code to benchmark your agency’s ops maturity), this is your starting point. Or your reset.

Here’s what Harv dives into:

• Why operational maturity, not creativity or client relationships, is the biggest differentiator for scale
• What smart people practices actually look like, from efficient and effective hiring to career path frameworks
• How to build a sales engine that doesn’t rely on panicked effort or founder charisma
• Why a tech stack is only as good as the strategy underneath it
• What it really means to be data-driven, beyond just dashboards
• And what common agency growth mistakes still trip up even the most ambitious teams

Plus, you’ll hear key takeaways from guests like Manish Kapur, Karl Sakas, Preston Chandler, Jenny Plant, and many more.

Additional Resources:

• Harv’s webinar on documentation & best practice here: https://youtu.be/RroxOVlSwIk 
• Learnings and tools from Freia Muehlenbein's 'how to pitch' episode: https://www.scoro.com/blog/how-to-pitch-a-client/ 

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/harvnagra

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook 

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Ops Leaders, are you unintentionally making life harder for your delivery team?

Galen Low, co-founder of The Digital Project Manager and host of The Digital Project Manager podcast, joins us to flip the lens, and spotlight the real impact of operational decisions from the delivery floor up.

Galen has spent years helping digital PMs thrive in chaotic environments. In this episode, he shares the signs leaders might be missing when systems break down and how to create structures that support people doing the work.

Here’s what we dive into:

• How layoffs and role blending are pressuring delivery teams
• The hidden cost of heroic project managers who just “make it work”
• What agencies get wrong about tool rollouts (and how to fix it)
• How to better onboard freelance talent
• The link between trust, autonomy, and delivery excellence

Galen also offers advice on listening to your PMs, empowering teams, and building resilience into your operations, without burning people out.

And – this is part one of a two-way podcast exchange! For part two, head over to The DPM Podcast where we flip the mic and explore what it takes to build operational models that truly support delivery.

Additional Resources:

Listen to PART TWO on The Digital Project Manager podcast: https://thedigitalprojectmanager.com/podcast/how-project-managers-can-thrive-in-evolving-agency-models/

The Digital Project Manager website: https://thedigitalprojectmanager.com/membership/

DPM on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcgWl0Rda9bHhOJTcIy8XwQ

DPM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedigitalpm/

Follow Galen Low on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/galen-low-digital-transformation-advisor/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://scoro.com/podcast/#handbook

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

What does it really take to operate more strategically as an agency?

Manish Kapur returns to The Handbook to help agency ops leaders shift from firefighting mode to future-focused thinking. If you’ve ever struggled to carve out time for the big picture while juggling the day-to-day, this episode is your playbook.

Harv and Manish dig into how to run fast-paced, high-impact workshops that drive meaningful change – and how to keep momentum once priorities have been decided. They also explore how ops folks can step up as strategic leaders, driving these initiatives, especially as AI is forcing agencies to become more adaptable than ever.

Here’s what we get into:

• Why agencies that plan beyond month-to-month win long-term
• Manish’s 7-part workshop format that delivers clarity, alignment, and action
• How to navigate alignment across multiple offices and entities
• The role of ops in driving, not just supporting, AI strategy
• Why senior buy-in is the secret to getting big initiatives done

Whether you're leading change or nudging it along, this conversation is packed with real-world tactics to keep your agency moving forward.

Additional Resources:

Manish's workshop playbook: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/episode/strategic-ops-unlocked-manish-kapur-workshop-playbook/

Follow Manish on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manishkapur/ 

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter. Sign up here: https://scoro.com/podcast/#handbook

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Growth is the goal for many agencies, but as your team hits certain size thresholds, your structure, systems, and workflows can start to break down.

Marcel Petitpas, CEO of Parakeeto, has spent years helping agencies around the world clean up their operations, tighten up forecasting, and build financial systems that actually support scale.

In this episode, Marcel shares what breaks as agencies grow, and how small optimizations can make the difference between momentum and mayhem. If your team’s growing fast, but your numbers aren’t adding up, this one’s for you.

Here’s what we dive into:

• The critical headcount thresholds where agency ops tend to break - and what to do at each stage
• The metrics that really matter when you’re trying to scale profitably
• How to build a top-down forecasting model that’s simple, fast, and actually useful
• How to align your leadership team around a shared, consistent view of performance
• Why data hygiene matters, and how to balance accuracy vs precision to help you make smarter, faster decisions

Marcel also breaks down the operational traps that create noise, slow growth, and kill clarity. Plus what you can do right now to lead with better insight.

Additional Resources:

Follow Marcel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelpetitpas/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Parakeeto’s Website: https://parakeeto.com/

Marcel’s Agency Profitability Toolkit: https://parakeeto.com/toolkit/?utm_source=Earned+Media&utm_medium=Podcast+Appearance&utm_campaign=Harv+Nagra 

Parakeeto's Foundation Course: https://course.parakeeto.com/?utm_source=Earned+Media&utm_medium=Podcast+Appearance&utm_campaign=Harv+Nagra

The Agency Profit Podcast: https://agencyprofitpodcast.simplecast.com/ 

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://scoro.com/podcast#handbook

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

What if you could charge more, and keep your best clients happy?

Karl Sakas has spent over 20 years in agency operations and consulting, helping more than 600 agencies shift from reactive to strategic. In this episode, he joins us to break down why pricing isn’t just about numbers – it’s an ops play, and one that can define your agency’s future.

Here’s what we get into:
• Why time & materials pricing is on the way out, and what to do instead
• How to use “value anchoring” as a bridge to value-based pricing
• How to strategically churn clients that are holding you back
• Why you should consider raising your prices annually
• Why AI tools shouldn’t just make you faster, but more profitable too

Whether you’re raising rates, tightening up scope, or exploring performance-based models, this episode is full of sharp, practical insights to help you price smarter and scale with confidence.

📝 Articles & Blog Posts:
Karl’s Predictions for the Agency Space in 2030.

A Step by Step Approach to Raising Prices at your Agency.

How to Raise Prices – Case Study.

📚 Books by Karl Sakas
Calm the Chaos: 10 ways to run a better agency.
Work Less, Earn More: How to Escape the Daily Grind of Agency Ownership.

Additional Resources:
Karl’s Website – Sakas and Company.
Follow Karl on LinkedIn.
Follow Harv on LinkedIn.

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Your tech stack might be holding your agency back more than you think.

Ryan Pearcy, founder of Digital Transformers and chartered accountant, has helped countless agencies untangle their systems and make smarter, faster decisions. He’s spent nearly 15 years helping service-based businesses clean up their systems, bringing finance, tech, and process together so leaders can make decisions based on reality.

In this episode, he helps Harv troubleshoot three common (and all-too-familiar) agency tech stack scenarios.

Here’s what we get into:

• Why disconnected tools lead to risky, gut-feel decisions, and how to fix that
• How spreadsheet chaos is a sign you’re due for a system rethink
• What to do when your systems aren’t quite delivering, but you’re still paying for them

Whether you’re early-stage or at 100+ people, this one’s a must-listen if your agency is still duct-taping its way through operations.

Additional Resources:

Follow Ryan on LinkedIn. 

Follow Harv on LinkedIn.

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

How do agencies stack up in 2025?

The results are in for BenchPress 2025. The UK’s largest benchmarking survey for independent agencies has revealed some surprising (and shocking) trends about the state of the industry.

To break it all down, Rory Spence, Head of Commercial at The Wow Company, joins us to unpack the data, trends, and opportunities that agency leaders need to know.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why 2024 was a brutal year for many agencies (and how to bounce back)
• Profitability trends and how top-performing agencies maintain strong margins
• AI’s growing role in agency operations (and the pricing mistake you must avoid)
• The power of confidence in agency success - and how to build it

If you're focused on making your agency more efficient and financially stronger, these insights will help you drive meaningful change. 

Additional Resources:

Download the full BenchPress 2025 report at thewowcompany.com/BenchPress

Follow Rory on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rory-spence-63023884/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Most agencies add value far beyond execution. They develop methodologies, frameworks, and strategic thinking that help clients make better decisions. But too often, they give that thinking away for free. Only to compete on price when it’s time for execution.

Max Traylor has spent years helping agencies break this cycle. He’s an expert in packaging and selling strategy, helping agencies move from order takers to trusted advisors. In this episode, Max shares how to stop the race to the bottom and start getting paid for what you know, not just what you do.

Here’s what we cover:

• Why giving away strategy in proposals undervalues your expertise, and how to change that
• How to stop being seen as a vendor and build stronger relationships with decision-makers
• The first steps to productizing your strategy and selling it as a standalone offer

Plus, Max explains how agencies can gain access to high-level conversations, avoid being “vendorified,” and turn strategy into a scalable revenue stream.

Additional Resources:

Download Max’s book, Agency Survival Guide: https://www.maxtraylor.com/book 

Follow Max on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxtraylor/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Are performance reviews a waste of time—or your agency’s secret weapon?

Too often, agencies treat performance management as a checkbox exercise, bogged down with vague feedback and awkward salary conversations. But Zoe Elizabeth Blogg, Operations Director at Reboot Online, has built a system that actually works. 

From structured performance reviews to proactive (quarterly!) salary reviews, Zoe’s created a process that keeps teams engaged, managers confident, and top talent sticking around—all in a fully remote, four-day workweek agency.

In this conversation, Zoe breaks down how to make performance management meaningful and scalable.

Here’s what we dive into:

• Why performance reviews fail—and how to make them useful (without the admin burden)
• Why Reboot runs salary reviews four times a year—without turning them into negotiation battles
• The key to training new managers so they lead with confidence, not confusion
• How Reboot creates equally rewarding career growth paths for both individual contributors and managers.

Plus, Zoe shares impressive details on her line manager playbook, and structured career pathways.

Follow Zoe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoeelizabethblogg/

Visit Reboot’s website: https://www.rebootonline.com/us/

Follow Zoe on TikTok: @fractionalzo

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Your agency’s operations can either fuel creativity, or kill it.

And you can focus on the big picture that drives real financial impact, or get stuck in the weeds.

Preston Chandler, WPP’s Global Practice Lead of Strategic Operations has a point of view, and the experience to prove it. In fact, Preston’s role at WPP is all about advising agencies in the group on how they can operate in a better, smarter, and more strategic way.

In this conversation, Preston shares how agencies can design their operations to be smarter, leaner, and more effective, without slowing down creativity.

Whether you're fine-tuning your structure or scaling innovation, this conversation will challenge you to think about how your agency is run—and how to take it to the next level.

Here’s what we dive into:

• Why your agency model (not just your talent) defines your success
• How governance can empower teams instead of creating roadblocks
• The ideal team structure to boost efficiency and collaboration
• Smarter ways of working—moving beyond outdated processes
• Why continuous improvement (not just annual reviews) is the key to long-term growth

Plus, Preston shares insights on AI’s impact on agencies, the pitfalls of hierarchy, and how to make change stick.

Follow Preston on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prestonchandler/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

We’ve all had those moments, we land that huge new client – first comes the elation for winning the mandate that will transform our fortunes, and then the mild panic at how we’re going to deliver.

There’s also times when what we do is simply just not that well understood across the organization – there might only be one internal expert, which creates a significant amount of risk for the business if they were to leave.

That’s where assessing – and improving – your business capability maturity becomes critical.

The good news? A business capability maturity model gives you a steer on how you can go from ‘figuring it out’, to something that’s a solid part of your agency’s remit and expertise, then to true innovation – through the prism of people, process, technology and information.

In this episode, we’re chatting with Mike Della Porta – an award-winning tech and operations leader who’s been a COO, CTO, and CIO at one of the top independent marketing agencies in the US. Mike shares practical advice and lessons for agencies looking to scale sustainably.

Here’s what we dive into:

• What each stage of business capability maturity looks like and what to consider at each 
• Using tech and tools to scale smarter
• How to get buy-in from your leadership team if they don’t understand the value of ops
• How ops roles can become billable and provide value to clients

Follow Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-della-porta/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

This year, Gen Z are due to make up over a quarter of the workforce – a huge proportion. But both the negative headlines and moaning around the watercooler have commenced. Claims of entitlement, laziness, and unreasonable expectations abound. 

But is any of it true? And is their approach to work really that detrimental to an efficient workplace? 

In this episode, Harv speaks with Isobel Camier, founder of Camier Communications and a training consultant with 15 years of experience in PR and communications. Drawing on her commissioned research into Gen Z in the workplace, Isobel debunks stereotypes and offers actionable strategies for creating a thriving, inclusive environment.

Here’s what Isobel shares in this episode:

• Why values matter: Gen Z is big on purpose and ethics, and their focus on these can help create a more open and accountable workplace.
• Balancing work and mental health: Flexible working and offering mental health resources can help prevent burnout.
• Clear career growth pathways: When you set clear expectations and actually deliver on training promises, it keeps people motivated and excited about their work.
• Technology’s role in engagement: Gen Z’s digital skills are a big asset—embrace AI, tidy up clunky workflows, and let them help your team work smarter.
• Diversity and inclusion: Creating a culture where differences are celebrated and everyone’s voice is heard isn’t just good for Gen Z—it’s good for everyone.
• The power of recognition: Giving regular, meaningful feedback (both the good and the constructive) builds trust and makes the team feel valued and motivated.

Isobel also highlights how open dialogue and listening to employees’ lived experiences can transform workplace culture, making agencies not only better for Gen Z but for everyone.

If you want to attract and retain the best talent in a competitive market, tune in to learn how agency and operational leaders can bridge generational gaps, align workplace practices with modern values, and create a culture that fosters collaboration and success.

View a video summary and get a copy of Isobel’s Gen Z research report on her website

Follow Isobel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isobelcamier/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

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In a tight market, sales become a big concern. Relying on repeat business or referrals no longer cuts it, you have to put in more effort. 

Often in agencies, the know-how on how to get this done is missing; few people come from a formal sales background. So a haphazard approach is implemented and we hope for the best. Only that slapdash approach rarely gets the results we want. 

Is it time for the sales engine to be looked at as an ops challenge? We think so. 

In this episode of The Handbook: The Agency Operations Podcast, Harv Nagra speaks with Ryan Hall, founder of Friday Solved and a seasoned expert in building sales systems for agencies. With over 23 years of experience generating revenue and growing agencies—including two successful exits—Ryan shares practical insights on how to operationalize sales for consistent results.

Here’s what Ryan shares in this episode:

• Why agencies struggle with sales: The pitfalls of relying too much on inbound leads and referrals.
• How to build a scalable sales engine: Breaking the funnel into actionable stages (top, middle, and bottom) and tailoring strategies for each.
• The importance of systemization: How the right processes, tools, and technology create predictable results.
• Sales as a blend of art and science: Why finding the balance between relationship-building and data-driven strategies is key.

Ryan also explains how operational leaders can play a pivotal role in creating a culture of sales excellence and offers practical tips for getting started, including low-cost tools and strategies to build momentum.

If you want to take control of your sales process and future-proof your agency’s pipeline, this episode is a must-listen.

Follow Ryan on LinkedIn.

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How do you create a highly efficient agency without losing flexibility or quality?

In this episode, Harv Nagra sits down with Jinny Mitchell-Kent, Joint Managing Director at Great State. With nearly 20 years of experience at agencies big and small—including global powerhouse AKQA—Jinny shares how she’s applying lessons from her big-agency days to a 100-person team.

Here’s what you’ll hear:

• How moving from COO to MD changed her focus from internal projects to building client relationships, while maintaining her focus on performance and excellence.
• The strategies Great State uses to compete with much larger agencies by staying lean and adaptable – from scaling up the team quickly when required, to creating a flexible delivery framework.
• Practical tips on managing costs, tracking profitability, and keeping teams running smoothly.
• How Jinny is championing inclusivity with initiatives like the Great Women’s Network.

If you want to learn how to streamline your operations and scale smarter, this episode is packed with insights you can put to work right away. Give it a listen!

Follow Jinny on LinkedIn. 

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Are you battling with inconsistent processes, bad practice and poor staff training? 

In this episode, Harv Nagra explains the benefits of documenting and embedding best practices – to take your agency one big leap forward in operational maturity.

Harv shares his best tips on:

• Creating an agency handbook – to create a single source of truth for your business, and help your team work consistently
• Choosing the right documentation tools – specific tools that are helpful in documenting and communicating workflows
• Creating a team of best practice champions – by providing learning resources that let them build confidence from day one

Ready to future-proof your agency? Join Harv in this episode as he explains how to take your agency to the next level.

Harv's preferred tools mentioned in the episode:

• coda.io
• scribehow.com
• loom.com

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

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This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Hiring and training new employees is a big commitment - and getting it right will have a lasting impact on your agency.

Kicking off The Big Agency Club series, we chat with Sarah Brougham, VP of Operations at GenFlow. Sarah’s helped multiple agencies go from start-up to established, having a big hand to play in their growth and maturity journies. Sarah has spent the past six years at GenFlow, helping grow revenue there by 5x and headcount 16x.

Sarah gives us her best tips on:

• Hiring the right people for your agency
• Creating onboarding programs that new hires love and gets them off to a running start
• How offboarding goes beyond formalities and systems removals, and includes decisions on retention
• How to decide whether to fight to keep an employee that's thinking of leaving

Follow Sarah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahbrougham/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Agency8x: https://www.agency8x.com/

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This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Individuals thrive when they’re equipped to handle challenges.

Amy Hopper is a former agency owner and now founder of the business consultancy TOA. In this episode, Amy opens up about her journey through some serious challenges. She shares how those experiences helped her create a system that keeps teams (and individuals) focused, engaged, and productive.

Amy dives into practical tips on:

• Planning your day in a way that energizes you instead of draining you.
• Letting go of perfectionism so you can delegate more and grow faster.
• Overcoming resistance to change, both personally and within your team.

Her insights are packed with real-world lessons for leaders looking to build stronger, more resilient teams.

Follow Amy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyhopper/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Which metrics should you track, to run your agency as efficiently as possible?

In this episode we speak with Richard Brett. Rich is a seasoned FinOps professional with 15+ years of experience, including a decade in the agency world. Rich has played a key role in scaling agencies, setting up financial processes, and supporting sustainable growth.

Rich will take us into a deeper dive of agency finances, starting with revenue recognition – recording revenue when it's earned, not when payment is received – and explain why this is so important.

Next, we’ll discuss key metrics and the kind of decisions you’ll be able to make using each:

• Utilization: see how effectively your team’s time is allocated to billable work, helping identify resource optimization opportunities.
• Recovery: shows the actual revenue generated from billable hours worked, highlighting areas of over-servicing.
• Billable paid: shows the proportion of billable work that is successfully paid for, helping assess the financial health of client engagements.
• Future month work value: projects the expected revenue from booked hours in upcoming work, allowing for proactive resource and budget management.

Finally, Rich will tell us 5 ways we can influence margins through agency rate cards.

Rich now runs his own consultancy, Rich Brett FinOps, providing bespoke financial services to agencies.

Follow Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-brett-36903590/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

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Do you ever get to the end of the working day and wonder, ‘What did I actually get done today?'

You’re certainly not alone. 

We’re interrupted about every 8 minutes. And it can take up to 20 minutes to get back to what we’re doing. Imagine the impact of that on an 8 hour day.

In a recent Agency Hackers webinar, Harv spoke about productivity – including the flow state, trends that have had a negative influence on our ability to focus, and strategies that have given him and his colleagues a big productivity boost.

We're resharing that content for you here in case you missed the webinar.

You'll learn Harv's advice including:

• Scheduling your day in advance, so you're not staring at your to-do list in despair.
• Using a combination of 'office hours' to reply to messages and DND to minimize distractions.
• Techniques to make your meetings more efficient, your team more focused, and encourage clear communication. (Including meetings that no one actually shows up to)!

View the presentation with visuals on Youtube.

Learn more about Agency Hackers.

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

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This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Curious about how an agency experimented with new approaches and found their recipe for success?

In this episode, we talk with Trenton Moss, a former agency owner who ran his business for 15 years before it was sold. Trenton shares the key decisions that transformed his agency, along with some missteps along the way.

Trenton covers three major changes he implemented and explains exactly how he did it:

• Setting up team pods with a highly effective reward system
• Developing ongoing client services training and putting the learnings into practice
• Creating an advisory board to guide the agency

Trenton shares plenty of inspiring stories and practical tactics you can apply in your own agency.

Now a leadership coach, Trenton has been coaching and training teams for nearly 20 years. You can check out his website, Sterka, his book Human Powered, you can also subscribe to Human Powered: The Podcast via his website.

Follow Trenton on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trentonmoss/ 

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

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This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

As an Ops person, the role of IT expert is often part of the job. So how can you ensure your agency’s IT infrastructure is set up for scaling? 

That's the focus of our discussion with Dan Timmiss, Technical Director at Kaizen IT Solutions. With over two decades of experience, Dan has helped hundreds of creative agencies optimize and manage their IT setups, from audits to complete IT overhauls and supporting scaling teams.

In this episode, Dan shares essential best practices:

• The importance of implementing single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) for security and ease of access
• How cloud storage can complement on-premise servers if you have heavy media files
• Using mobile device management solutions like Jamf to manage your fleet of computers, including ‘zero touch deployment’ and easy on-boarding and off-boarding
• Seeking security accreditations like Cyber Essentials Plus, CIS Benchmarks or ISO 27001 to help secure contracts with global clients
• How newer services like MDR (managed detection and response) and XDR (extended detection and response) go beyond traditional anti-virus solutions to monitor your systems for threats
• Why to educate your team on ‘social engineering’ scams that could cause financial and reputational harm

Follow Dan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-timmiss-486ab517/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

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This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Winning pitches is tough. 

Ghosting has become a common challenge, and even when you win, clients may be commissioning smaller pieces of the project rather than the full program.

But that’s only part of the struggle - crafting pitch decks takes a lot of time and energy. Surely there’s a better way than packing slides with your best creative ideas. 

In this episode we tackle these challenges and introduce a strategic approach to pitching. The focus shifts from pitching tactics to showcasing value and ROI.

Joining us is Freia Muehlenbein, an agency growth consultant and owner of Be Reyt Consultancy. With over 15 years of experience in agency operations, Freia is an expert in the sales and pitch process, known for closing large deals. 

Freia shares practical advice on:

• Developing a strong qualification process to truly understand your client's needs
• The concept of a war room and how it helps in crafting effective strategies
• Why prioritizing financials and ROI is more important than focusing on tactics

Follow Freia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/freiamuehlenbein/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Sign up for Harv's webinar with Agency Hackers on productivity hacks taking place Thursday 19th September 2024: https://bit.ly/thehandbook24

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This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Part of the remit of an ops leader is to ensure they’ve got the right people, in the right place. 

In many agencies, account managers handle sales, client relationships, AND project management. However, this hybrid role often leads to trade-offs. 

Everyone’s got their own strengths and preferences – and these responsibilities seemingly require very different personality types. 

A great sales person might struggle with rigorous project management, resulting in issues like over-servicing. While an exceptional project manager might struggle with developing a sales pipeline, leading to stress, missed targets, and a shallow pipeline. 

So, should these roles be separated?

We'll explore this with our guest, Jenny Plant. With over 20 years of experience in agency account management, Jenny founded her consultancy, Account Management Skills, to share sales training skills with account managers.

Jenny will share:

• The pros and cons of separating account and project managers
• What value agencies seek in their account managers
• How sales training can improve client relationships, retention and business growth

Jenny's website: https://accountmanagementskills.com/

Jenny's podcast: https://accountmanagementskills.com/podcast

Follow Jenny on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennyplant/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.