Serious question, are we all just lying to ourselves about client capacity?

I was at a meetup in Chicago last week and heard the owner of a 5-person shop brag about handling 40 active accounts. That's 8 per person, which is insane. My takeaway is that we push for growth so hard we let service quality tank, and then wonder why clients leave after 6 months. How many active accounts do you think one project lead can actually handle well?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_gray15d ago

Honestly, that 40 number might be a bit of a flex. In my shop, 'active' can mean anything from a retainer with weekly work to a client we just send an invoice to every few months. The real question is how many are actually demanding real hours each week. I've seen places where one lead handles five big clients and is drowning, and others where they manage ten smaller ones just fine. It totally depends on what the work actually is.

blair_fox715d ago

Five big clients sounds like a nightmare.

sandra_anderson2d ago

Yeah, the word "active" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. I once saw a firm count a client they emailed twice a year as "active" in a sales pitch. It makes any number you hear pretty meaningless without the real context of the work.