Are you an agency owner juggling estimates, time tracking, and profitability reports and still feel out of control? You’re not alone. In a recent episode of Stride 2 Freedom, Marcel Petitpas, CEO of Parakeeto, shared a compelling framework: standardize your process to unlock clarity, confidence, and profit.
From Spreadsheet Chaos to Predictable Margins
Many agencies ask, “Why am I hustling so hard but still barely breaking even?” According to Marcel, the root issue often lies upstream—how your data is captured, classified, and organized. He said it best:
“Accounting could actually be quite easy … but the data often is just not structured in such a way that it makes it easy.”
When your time-tracking tool doesn’t align with your project estimate breakdown (e.g., design, development, project management), you end up with messy, unusable data. That leaves you in the dark about scope creep, budget overruns, or inaccurate billing.
Don’t Choose Between Best Tools or One Platform — Use a “Transformation Layer”
Agencies face two frustrating options:
- Best-of-breed tools: Great features, but data lives in silos.
- All‑in‑one suites: Simplified, but often lack depth or flexibility in essential tools like Asana.
Parakeeto solves this with a “transformation layer” — a custom data-modeling system that pulls your raw data from wherever you track it and reshapes it into something standardized and reportable. In Marcel’s words:
“We’ll connect those tools to this transformation layer … normalize all of your data … and we have a nice clean set of data that is detached from the operations tooling itself.”
Make It Approachable: We Do the Heavy Lifting for You
For busy agency owners (especially those hitting $2M+ in revenue), implementing structured time‑tracking and utilization metrics can feel overwhelming. Parakeeto does the following for you:
- Design naming conventions and project structures
- Build time-tracking protocols
- Enforce naming standards and timesheet compliance
- Deliver clean, visual reports — no manual data cleanup required
All you need to do? Review the dashboards and make confident decisions.
When Agencies Hit Inflection Points
Parakeeto usually sees clients reach out at two key moments:
- ~10 employees: Founder-led processes start to collapse. “Everyone’s working like crazy, but nothing’s in the bank.”
- ~25 employees: Management layer emerges. Leaders need visibility and reliable metrics to make decisions.
Both inflection points expose weaknesses in process and data. But once structured tracking and reporting are in place, agency owners get what Marcel calls:
“See into the future.” With clean data, you can forecast hiring needs (“we need 1.6 designers next quarter”), pricing impact, discount decisions, and profit projections.
The ROI: Doubling or Tripling Profit Margins
Clients who implement this system often double—and sometimes triple—their profit margins. Marcel notes that:
- Many start with ~10% EBITDA
- With Parakeeto, hitting 25%+ becomes normal
- The extra profit can be reinvested in growth or retained as cash
Want a DIY Starting Point? Try These 3 Quick Wins
Parakeeto’s free toolkit includes spreadsheets, templates, and how-to videos, but Marcel recommends beginning with these simple steps:
- Standardize your estimate schema: Use consistent phases, roles, deliverables.
- Compare estimate vs actual: Build a feedback loop to identify gaps.
- Track time in some form: Even a simple record lets you analyze staffing, scoping, pricing.
Once these foundational pieces are in place, you’ll immediately detect where profit is slipping—and you’ll have the insight to fix it.
Conclusion: Structure is the Launchpad, Not the Cage
Standardization isn’t about rigidity—it’s about freeing your agency from chaos. With structured data and processes, you:
- Eliminate guesswork
- Empower your team with clarity
- Forecast with confidence
- Scale profitably
If you’re ready to swap spreadsheets for sound systems—and benched guesswork for forward-looking insight—it’s worth checking out Parakeeto’s toolkit or dropping them a line.
 Listen to the full episode or explore Parakeeto’s Agency Profitability Toolkit—and take the first step toward an agency that runs on clarity, not chaos.
In this Podcast episode with Marcel, you will learn:
- How to align what you estimate with how you track actuals
- The power of a transformation layer – Why you don’t need monolithic software
- How you can see into the future and have the confidence to make decisions
Thanks Marcel for joining us on another exciting episode of Stride 2 Freedom.
We are fortunate to have Bill available to spend time with us on this edition of Stride 2 Freedom. If there is a speaker you’d like us to interview, let us know. Stay well. Stay safe. Stay healthy.
This Stride Live Webinar is hosted by Stride Services. Stride is a comprehensive financial solutions provider, specializing in outsourced bookkeeping, accounting, tax, and advisory services for Managed Service Providers.
If you’re interested in being a featured guest on our Live Webinars or if there’s a subject matter expert you’d like us to interview, please let us know!
Show Notes + Transcript:Â
Marcel Petitpas LinkedIn
Parakeeto LinkedIn |Â Website
Marcel Petitpas Email
