Brightwater Creative

HOW THE CLIMB WENT

Brightwater’s two founders were the busiest people in the building and the lowest-paid per hour once Priya divided their drawings by their diaries. Retained clients were lovely, loyal — and over-serviced by roughly a day a week each, unbilled, as a habit of niceness.

Priya started with the two numbers: utilisation by person and effective rate by client. The bottom three clients were re-scoped or re-priced with six weeks’ notice; one left (profitably). Change requests moved to written, priced confirmations — awkward for a month, then just how it works.

A delivery lead was promoted from within, taking traffic and client comms off the founders. That single move funded itself: founder time moved to new business and senior counsel, the rate card moved up with the next January, and the pipeline stopped being a famine chart.

Eighteen months in, gross income is up 27% with two fewer all-nighters a month, and the founders take Fridays for the work only founders can do. Rachel now sits in the Boardroom’s Tuesday group.

“The Boardroom is the only room I’m in where nobody wants anything from me.”

— Rachel Okonkwo, Founder

Figures client-reported and published with written permission. Results depend on implementation.