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Average Fee Per Project
Profitability

Average Fee Per Project

Are you winning the right size of work?

Not all revenue carries the same value. A higher fee project may still produce weak returns if it demands too much time or senior attention. Looking only at revenue can hide this.

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Part of
Profitability

Whether the work being won is actually worth doing, once the cost of delivering it is accounted for.

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How it's calculated

Total project fees ÷ Number of projects, by service or client type

Typical range

There is no universal benchmark. The useful comparison is against your own cost to win and deliver each type of project.

What it measures

The definition

Total fees from projects in a period divided by the number of projects. It is most useful broken down by service, client type or sector, and compared with the average cost of winning and delivering each type of project.

Why it matters

What it tells you

Not all revenue carries the same value. Small projects often carry the same cost in proposals, onboarding, management and invoicing as larger ones, so a business built on many small jobs can be busy and still unprofitable. Equally, a larger fee can produce weak returns if it demands too much senior time. Tracking fee alongside margin shows which project sizes the business delivers well.

Know how

Getting it right

Use the median as well as the average, as a few large projects can distort the mean. Compare fee with actual hours and gross margin per project, not revenue alone. If the average is falling, check whether it reflects a deliberate move into a new market or a gradual drift into smaller, less profitable work. Once you know the fixed cost of taking on any new job, consider setting a minimum project fee.

Where it matters most

Industries that rely on this measure

Finance review
Do you know your
Average Fee Per Project
?

Most owner-managed businesses don't, or they work it out in a way that flatters the result. We'll calculate it from your own numbers and show you what it's telling you.

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