Project-Based Business Consultant Melbourne
Project-based businesses, from engineering consultancies to creative agencies to IT services firms, face a unique set of challenges. Your product is your people's time, your inventory is work-in-progress, and your profitability depends on winning the right projects and delivering them efficiently.
As a consultant who has spent over two decades in professional services environments in Australia, I understand the dynamics of project-based work. I help Melbourne professional services and project businesses improve utilisation, enhance project delivery, and build the systems and processes needed for profitable growth.
Challenges in Project-Based Businesses
Utilisation and Resource Management
In project businesses, utilisation is everything. Billable hours not sold today are gone forever. Yet many firms lack visibility into forward workload, making it impossible to balance capacity against demand. This leads to feast-or-famine cycles: periods of burnout followed by anxious bench time. Effective resource planning requires systems that connect sales pipeline, project schedules, and staff availability.
Time and Expense Capture
Accurate, timely time capture is fundamental to project businesses, yet it's a perennial struggle. Staff submit timesheets late or inaccurately, billable time goes unrecorded, and project managers lack real-time visibility into burn rates. Poor time capture directly impacts revenue recognition and project control.
Sales and Pipeline Management
Project businesses need a steady flow of new work to maintain utilisation. Yet many firms take an ad hoc approach to business development, relying on referrals and relationships without structured sales processes. When the pipeline dries up, it's too late to fix.
Project Profitability
Not all projects are created equal. Some generate healthy margins; others consume resources for minimal return. Without accurate project costing and real-time tracking, unprofitable projects only become visible after the damage is done. Many firms discover too late that their biggest client is actually their least profitable.
Scope Management
Scope creep is the silent killer of project profitability. Small additions accumulate into significant uncompensated effort. Many firms lack formal change management processes, and even those that do often fail to enforce them consistently. The result: projects that finish on time but well over budget in terms of effort.
How We Help Project-Based Businesses
Operational Excellence
Resource planning: Implementing processes and tools for forward visibility and capacity management
Project delivery methodology: Developing or refining approaches to scoping, planning, execution, and closure
Time and expense optimisation: Improving capture rates and accuracy through better processes and systems
Change management: Establishing formal processes to control scope and capture additional work
Technology Enablement
PSA/Project ERP selection: Guidance on platforms like Deltek, Mavenlink, Harvest, or ERP solutions with project modules
CRM implementation: Setting up systems to manage client relationships and sales pipeline
Integration strategy: Connecting project management, time tracking, invoicing, and accounting
Commercial Performance
Sales process development: Creating structured approaches to opportunity identification, qualification, and conversion
Pricing strategy: Developing rate cards, pricing models, and value-based approaches
Client development: Building account management practices that grow existing relationships