To say it has been a challenging time for agencies over recent months would be an understatement. Between budget cuts, shifting client expectations, increasing employment costs and the pressure to do more with less, the last 12 months have tested even the most resilient of businesses. Many agencies have streamlined their teams, tightened delivery processes and rethought their positioning – just to stay competitive.
And while some signs of stability have started to appear, 2025 isn’t shaping up to be an easy ride either. The pressure is still on.
In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Week (w/c 12 May), we’re focusing on something that often gets overlooked in conversations about improving agency performance and that’s ensuring financial transparency and building financial awareness within teams.
When you and your team, have a clear understanding of where the business is going financially, it creates stability of mind and momentum for action. It reduces stress, boosts engagement, builds confidence across the board and turns financial data into something empowering instead of intimidating.
In this blog, we’ll explore:
- Why visibility over finances affects mental wellbeing as much as performance.
- What happens when teams are involved in the numbers.
- Our case study of how financial mentoring boosted profit and engagement for one of our clients.
- Debate why this isn’t just a finance issue, it’s a leadership one.
And if this resonates, we’d also recommend checking out our article “8-Steps to Creating an Agency-Wide Culture of Financial Awareness.” It explores in greater detail the importance of creating a culture of financial awareness and transparency across the entire team and how this can make the difference between thriving and surviving.
Clarity Helps Everyone Breathe Easier
Financial stress doesn’t just affect agency owners, it affects the whole team.
When your team doesn’t have visibility over how the business is doing, it’s hard for them to stay motivated. They may feel uncertain, out of the loop, or even insecure about their jobs. That anxiety adds up, especially in leaner times.
And for owners? The mental load of carrying the business finances alone without clear forecasts, up-to-date dashboards, or a confident handle on project profitability, is heavy. Too many owners are still stuck firefighting, guessing, or avoiding the numbers entirely.
Transparency helps change that. It creates a shared sense of direction. It turns vague stress into actionable focus. And it gives everyone from founders to account managers a clearer picture of what’s working, what’s not and what to improve.
Confidence Drives Performance
Recent research backs this up. According to the 2024 BenchPress report (which measures Agency Confidence Indicator), agencies with higher financial confidence scores consistently performed better. Why? Because confidence fuels momentum. When your team knows what targets they’re working toward and they can see progress, they show up with more energy and purpose.
Here’s what builds that confidence:
- Weekly targets.
- Transparency over pipeline.
- Visibility of KPIs.
- Regular, honest conversations about profitability and cash flow.
This isn’t about bombarding your team with spreadsheets. It’s about giving them access to the right data, at the right time, in the right format, so they understand the “why” behind the work. And so you’re not alone in steering the ship.
What This Looks Like in Practice: How One Team Improved Profit and Team Engagement
We’ve been working with an agency whose Ops Director was feeling stretched. They had talented people, strong clients, but were struggling to achieve a good level of profitability (typically only gross profit of 30% was reported) and team accountability.
So, we built a mentoring programme specifically for their ops lead. We covered:
- Understanding project and client profitability.
- Building and using a rate card based on their target margins.
- Tracking staff utilisation and what “good” looks like.
- Costing projects properly and calculating project recovery.
Over several weeks, the Ops Director gained confidence and then passed that knowledge onto their team. Suddenly, conversations around time tracking and pricing weren’t awkward. The team wanted to know how their projects were doing, they cared about both delivery, client satisfaction and profit.
The result?
- Profitability improved significantly (last quarter the company achieved almost 50% profitability).
- The team became more engaged.
- Productivity tracking became the norm, not a chore.
- The leadership team stopped feeling alone with the numbers.
This is what financial transparency and building financial awareness looks like in action and it works.
Why This Supports a Better Value Proposition For Your Agency
One more thing: agencies that embrace financial visibility internally are often better at articulating their external value.
As clients continue tightening budgets, they’re looking for strategic partners not just executors. When your internal financials are clear, it becomes easier to price properly, justify your fees and communicate the outcomes you deliver.
Top-performing agencies work on shifting and improving their positioning, seeing stronger growth and client retention as a result.
You Don’t Have to Do It All Yourself
As an agency founder, it’s natural to feel responsible for everything, but carrying the full weight of the business finances alone isn’t sustainable or effective.
Financial transparency doesn’t mean sharing everything. It means creating a culture where financial performance is understood, talked about and improved together. It empowers your team, gives you peace of mind and sets the foundation for scalable growth.
Ae you ready to build a more confident, engaged and profitable agency?
Please get in touch to see how we can help you to make sense of your numbers, use them to drive smarter decisions, achieve stronger performance and create a healthier business.
