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MOST RECENT

Financial/Compensation

Client P&L vs. Billable Time Reporting; What is More Important and Why?

Vince Dong
4/25/2024


Time. Time. Time. As I gaze out the window in my office, I look back on the time-consuming events over the last 12 months. Our fourth and fifth grandchildren were ...

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It's An Easy Business

Second Wind
3/6/2024

Agency principals ask us all the time how to measure the financial success of their agencies. When we respond, many seem disappointed. "That's it?" they ask. "Those are all ...

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Revenue Recognition

Vince Dong
2/8/2024


What’s all this fuss about revenue recognition with agencies?  Isn’t revenue recognized when we just bill the client???

What do accountants know about financial reporting for advertising and ...

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Navigating Price Increases: Advice for Smaller Agencies

Laurie Mikes
2/8/2024


In the dynamic world of advertising, change is constant. As a small advertising agency, evolving with the times is essential to staying competitive and delivering competitive services. One aspect that ...

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How to Bill More AE Time

Second Wind
7/10/2023

A Stake Is at the Heart of It

Second Wind
6/5/2023

One of the best things we’ve seen at smaller agencies in recent years is the advent of stakeholder programs. These programs engage key agency employees who are not currently ...

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When Is A 30% Markup Not Really 30%?

Second Wind
4/11/2023

A Lesson in AGI Math

For agencies needing a little refresher, Agency Gross Income is the amount left after subtracting the costs of media, printing, outside digital services, photography, etc ...

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Blended Rates Make Sense

Second Wind
12/15/2021

If you are publishing prices for hourly rates, or telling clients your rates for particular people or services, you may not be making as much money as you could. And ...

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Achieving Balance in Risk as Well as Client Mix

Deborah Budd
4/16/2021

We write elsewhere about having a balanced mix of client accounts—a few big clients, some middle-sized accounts, and several smaller bread-and-butter accounts that provide steady work if not huge ...

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When Down Is Up

When Down Is Up: Making the Most of Downtime

Second Wind
1/5/2021

We heard an interesting fact from an agency principal not long ago. He said that his ad agency had been losing about $100,000 per year in billable hours through ...

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Watch Yourself…Hard Times Are Just Around The Corner

Second Wind
2/15/2017

Many smaller agencies and design studios tend to forget hard times when clients are active and billings are flowing. However, most long-term advertising agency people (and other business people) never ...

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The Peak of the Frenzy

Tony Mikes
1/12/2016

Our late founder, Tony Mikes, originally wrote this article in 1998… and it’s as if he wrote it last week. As he was fond of pointing out, business is ...

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