Jul 21, 2026 · 50 min · 13 segments
Most consultancy owners can tell you their revenue. Very few can tell you their net profit. That gap is where the money quietly leaks out. In this Australia-only episode, Val sits down with Josh…
Josh StoneGuest
Val MatthewsHost
Dale FoongHost
I think the world as well from an economy perspective and a lot of companies are struggling and it's an interesting take because we don't necessarily talk about cash and making profit on this podcast.
I think financial education is a big gap when I speak to a lot of business owners and a lot of consultants and a lot of people who are genuinely trying to add value to the client but don't necessarily know how to kind of monetize their worth how do they get to a point where you know because sometimes you get this this feeling like you feel bad charging a client there's almost like a shame associated with charging what you're worth and i think that comes from genuinely good people you know generally people with integrity who want to do good work with clients but just don't know how to set up the pricing model how do you go about that because that's a very interesting even personally for me that's a very interesting conversation
Like I can't tell you how many clients that we have coming to us where, so we do a lot of like entry level questions around what's, where's, where's your revenue at? They can always, always answer that.
But like, where's your profit margins at? And they're like, Oh, I have to check with my account and I'm not sure where my net profit sitting.
Um, and we do, we do a lot of education around, um, these are the numbers that you need to be tracking in your business.
And it's not just revenue and net profit, but it's also like all the other project stuff that they should be tracking in their business.
So we do a lot of education around, I guess, we call it the metrics that matter, like the things that you should be tracking in your business on a weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis just to kind of have your finger on the pulse.
But, yeah, it's like a really interesting discussion, right, because – We can go as deep as you want, but from a human psychology point of view, people do feel uncomfortable talking about money or tracking their money properly, charging variations to clients, increasing fees and prices.
It's a really interesting discussion because a lot of the times One, there's an awareness piece.
So we, you know, you will, we'll help with the awareness around, well, you know, as an example, consultancy should always be 30% net profit or above.
Um, But then, yeah, when you start to get behind the psychology of the business owner around, oh, I can't lift my hourly rate from $180 per hour to $250 per hour and that sort of stuff.
And it's like, well, why not? Oh, well, what will the client think? They're not going to like me.
How do you deal with that? Because that's probably real, especially given the buckle down on the economy and less spending potentially on consultants at the moment.
And I suppose there's still a need, though, for good engineers, for good civil people, for good consultants.
I think the world as well from an economy perspective and a lot of companies are struggling and it's an interesting take because we don't necessarily talk about cash and making profit on this podcast.
I think financial education is a big gap when I speak to a lot of business owners and a lot of consultants and a lot of people who are genuinely trying to add value to the client but don't necessarily know how to kind of monetize their worth how do they get to a point where you know because sometimes you get this this feeling like you feel bad charging a client there's almost like a shame associated with charging what you're worth and i think that comes from genuinely good people you know generally people with integrity who want to do good work with clients but just don't know how to set up the pricing model how do you go about that because that's a very interesting even personally for me that's a very interesting conversation
Like I can't tell you how many clients that we have coming to us where, so we do a lot of like entry level questions around what's, where's, where's your revenue at? They can always, always answer that.
But like, where's your profit margins at? And they're like, Oh, I have to check with my account and I'm not sure where my net profit sitting.
Um, and we do, we do a lot of education around, um, these are the numbers that you need to be tracking in your business.
And it's not just revenue and net profit, but it's also like all the other project stuff that they should be tracking in their business.
So we do a lot of education around, I guess, we call it the metrics that matter, like the things that you should be tracking in your business on a weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis just to kind of have your finger on the pulse.
But, yeah, it's like a really interesting discussion, right, because – We can go as deep as you want, but from a human psychology point of view, people do feel uncomfortable talking about money or tracking their money properly, charging variations to clients, increasing fees and prices.
It's a really interesting discussion because a lot of the times One, there's an awareness piece.
So we, you know, you will, we'll help with the awareness around, well, you know, as an example, consultancy should always be 30% net profit or above.
Um, But then, yeah, when you start to get behind the psychology of the business owner around, oh, I can't lift my hourly rate from $180 per hour to $250 per hour and that sort of stuff.
And it's like, well, why not? Oh, well, what will the client think? They're not going to like me.
How do you deal with that? Because that's probably real, especially given the buckle down on the economy and less spending potentially on consultants at the moment.
And I suppose there's still a need, though, for good engineers, for good civil people, for good consultants.
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