By Deborah Broadbent on October 9th, 2020
VisionFR is pleased to have sponsored the DBA’s Annual Survey report, published earlier this week. In creative agencies, the company is only as good as its people and so the emphasis of the DBA Annual survey on people-based measures is very pertinent, and the results should provide very valuable intelligence for DBA members. However, whether looking at salary levels, charge-out rates, utilisation, recovery rates or many of the other financial & HR metrics contained in the report, knowing how to use and act upon this data to improve an agency’s financial performance is key.
At VisionFR, we help creative agencies hire the best financial talent to do just this. The current economic climate remains uncertain and, whilst it is encouraging to see the report highlight some level of optimism, keeping a close eye on staff cost to gross profit ratios will continue to be hugely important over the next year, and understanding the levers that influence this core metric equally so. We believe that having the appropriate senior finance expertise in the business – whether full time or part time – to support agency leaders and improve the commercial acumen of client facing employees is essential. In our experience, such an investment will not be a cost to the business as having the right senior finance input will improve overall profitability and ensure that decision-making and business planning has appropriate financial rigour.
VisionFR is a specialist financial & HR recruitment consultancy, owned and run by former CFOs from the marketing & creative sectors. We have first-hand experience of the pleasures and the ongoing challenges of running agencies and so are well placed to consult with you should you be looking to recruit into your finance (& HR) teams.