Last weekend I had to drive a couple hours up to D.C. It’s a drive I’ve done a half-dozen times since moving to the East coast and it’s mostly just straight up Interstate 95. Still, before I left, I opened up Google Maps to take advantage of the GPS on the way.
And I’m glad I did… It re-routed me around an accident, got me pointed back in the right direction after I stopped for dinner, and kept an ETA (or, as I like to call it: “Time to beat”) for my arrival.
Now… imagine I had just gotten into the car and said “well, I hope I end up in D.C.” I probably would have made it, but I’d be stuck in traffic, circling around looking for the right onramp, and clueless about when I’d actually check into the hotel.
And that’s exactly how a lot of us run our agencies. We hope leads show up. We pray referrals trickle in. We cross our fingers for a better year. It might work by happy accident… but just as often, it doesn’t.
Running an agency without forecasting is like driving without your GPS… You’ll might reach your destination, but how much time (and opportunity) will you lose along the way?
Forecasting? I know… It sounds like corporate jargon, but don’t think of it like fortune-telling. Think of it like directions:
Want $100K in new projects?
- If your average project is $10K, that’s 10 projects
- With a 40% close rate, you’ll need to write 25 proposals.
- If half of proposals come from referrals, you’ll need 13 new introductions.
That’s not hoping, praying, or crossing your fingers — that’s a roadmap.
You’ll still hit traffic. You’ll get re-routed. You’ll probably miss an exit or two (or ten). But at least you know where you’re headed and what it’s going to take to get there.
We’ve got just over 3 months left in 2025 — plenty of time to try this out in a small, manageable way:
- How much revenue do you want to bring in before the new year?
- How many projects does that mean?
- How many proposals will it take?
- Where are those opportunities going to come from?
You don’t need a crystal ball. Nobody’s forecast is perfect (not even the big corporations with teams of analysts). Forecasting isn’t corporate jargon for guessing — it’s being intentional.
The driver who plans the route, fills their tank, and uses the GPS to avoid traffic is always going to beat the one who gets in their car and figures it out as they go. Which one do you want your agency to be?
