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How To Find Profitable Clients For Agencies

How to See Which Projects Are Losing Money (Before You Take Them On)

Learn how to find profitable clients for your agency and avoid bad clients BEFORE you even sign them on. This article shows you how to that in 5 minutes

Most agencies discover they’re losing money on a client like three months after signing the contract.

By then, it’s too late. 

You’re already trapped in revision hell with a client where “just one small change” means rebuilding everything from scratch.

The project that looked like easy money during the sales call has turned into a financial nightmare that eats your team’s time and your profit margins.

But here’s the thing: these profit-killing clients always reveal themselves during the sales process. 

You just need to know what to look for and that’s what we speak about in this article.

The Clients Who Look Perfect (Until They Don't)

Agency owners fall for the same client tricks every time.

Big budget → Must be a good client. 

Professional email signature → They know what they’re doing. 

Tight deadline → At least they’re decisive.

WRONG ON ALL COUNTS.

The client with the big budget might also have 12 people who need to approve every design decision. 

The professional client could be a micromanager who questions every color choice. 

The decisive client with tight deadlines probably hasn’t thought through what they actually want.

Meanwhile, you’re sitting in sales calls thinking about the revenue while completely ignoring the massive red flags waving in your face.

The "Dream Client" Trap

These clients check all the boxes during sales calls:

Decent budget. Reasonable timeline. They seem to know what they want.

But three weeks into the project, you discover they can’t make a decision without running it past their business partner, their spouse, their marketing team, and apparently their yoga instructor and also their pet dog. 

Every creative decision becomes a month-long debate about font choices. 

A simple logo design requires input from 8 different people who all have conflicting opinions about what “modern” means.

The budget was real, but so was the committee of people who think they’re all creative directors.

The Scope Creep Clients

Some clients are experts at getting 3x more work for the same price.

They don’t call it scope creep. They call it “collaboration” and “being flexible.”

“Can we just add one more page?” turns into redesigning an entire site.

“Quick social media work” becomes managing their entire content strategy. 

“Simple updates” means rebuilding everything because they changed their brand direction overnight. (Like a certain British car brand)

They act like these additions are tiny favors. 

You’re working nights and weekends for free while they’re thrilled about all the “bonus value” they’re getting.

The Client Red Flags That Predict Losses

Learn to spot these warning signs during sales calls, and you’ll avoid most unprofitable projects.

Red Flag #1: They're Looking For Cheap Work

“What’s your lowest rate?” or “We’re getting quotes from 5 other agencies” means you’re already in a race to the bottom.

These clients don’t care about your process, your expertise, or the quality of your work. 

They want the cheapest option and will treat you like a discount vendor.

Even if you win the project, they’ll question every hour, push for discounts on everything, and constantly remind you that “Agency X would have done this for less.”

When they say “We just want to make sure we’re getting good value”, 

they mean “We want the cheapest option and will make your life miserable about money.”

Red Flag #2: Impossible Timelines

“We need this by Friday” for a project that obviously takes three weeks.

These clients haven’t planned properly and want you to fix their poor planning with your team’s overtime. 

They’re probably under pressure from their higher ups or promised something to “their” client / buyers / team without checking if it’s realistic.

You’ll end up cutting corners to hit their fantasy deadline, then getting blamed when the rushed work isn’t perfect.

The client who says “This should be pretty straightforward, right?” has no idea what the project involves and will absolutely blame you when it takes longer than they imagined

Red Flag #3: Too Many People Making Decisions

If more than 2 people need to approve your work, think if the project’s worth it.

“We like to get the whole team’s input” means 6 months of revision rounds because everyone has different opinions about what looks “professional.”, 

and there’s a high chance you might not get paid for all that. 

You’ll design something the marketing manager loves, the CEO hates, and the sales director wants to completely change. 

Then they’ll ask you to somehow combine all their conflicting feedback into one design.

Clients who “believe in collaborative decision-making” are really saying nobody there can make decisions, 

so you’ll redesign this 47 times until they accidentally agree on something

Red Flag #4: They Can't Explain What Success Looks Like

When you ask “How will we know this project is successful?” and they give you word salad.

“We want something that really pops and captures our brand essence while feeling modern but timeless and appealing to our diverse customer base.”

These clients will ask for endless revisions because they have no idea what they actually want. 

You’ll be guessing and hoping until you magically read their mind.

The classic “We’ll know it when we see it” response means they have no clue what they want, 

so you’ll keep working until they randomly decide to stop.

Red Flag #5: Constant Reference to "Industry Standards"

Clients who constantly mention “how other agencies do it” or “industry standards” are comparing you to every agency they’ve ever worked with.

They’ll expect you to match the lowest price, the fastest timeline, and the highest quality they’ve ever received – all from different agencies.

These clients treat agencies like commodities. 

They don’t want a partner; they want a vendor who executes their vision without question.

What they say: “Our last agency included unlimited revisions.”

vs.

What they mean: “I expect you to match every good deal I’ve ever gotten while charging the lowest price anyone’s ever quoted. 

Stop Taking Profit-Killing Clients

Not every client who wants to pay you is worth working with.

Most agencies are so hungry for business that they’ll sign anyone with a pulse and a budget. 

Then they spend months wondering why they’re working 60-hour weeks for barely any profit.

You need to get comfortable walking away from bad opportunities. 

Because every nightmare client you don’t take on is space in your calendar for a client who actually values your work and pays appropriately for it.

The agencies that make real money aren’t working with more clients – they’re working with better clients.

What Next?

Trust me, the best way to see which projects lose money is to avoid taking them in the first place.

If you want help tracking which client types and project types are most profitable for your agency, 

Astravue makes it easy to do that. Sign up so you can see which projects are making the most money, and which clients you have to cut off. 

Try Astravue

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