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.
Get a finance reviewTotal project fees ÷ Number of projects, by service or client type
There is no universal benchmark. The useful comparison is against your own cost to win and deliver each type of project.
The essentials
What it measures
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
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.
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.
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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