If you wake up on the first of the month staring at a zero on your calendar, no matter how good last month was, you're trapped in hunter mode. And you're not alone. Searches for "how to create loyal customers" have spiked 900% because business owners everywhere are realizing the old transactional model is broken.

In this episode, we break down why most service businesses accidentally build a hamster wheel instead of a business, and how the most successful ones are making a fundamental identity shift from "hunter" to "harvester."

You'll discover:

- The three non-negotiable requirements every loyalty-based business has mastered (and why most businesses have never built them in the first place)

- The Habituation System: how getting a customer to buy three times turns them into a habit and why that 20% of Loyalists drives 80% of your profit

- Why caring for customers means challenging them, not accommodating them (with real examples that flip conventional wisdom)

- The 3 R's Framework: Retention, Related Sales, and Referrals, and why a 2% increase in retention has the same financial impact as cutting costs by 10%

- The choice every business owner faces: stay a hunter working harder every year with rising acquisition costs, or become a harvester building predictable revenue through relationships

This isn't about tactics. It's about transformation. If you're tired of the zero-revenue reset and ready to build a business where your past customers become your future revenue, this conversation will show you exactly how the shift happens.

Perfect for service business owners earning $250K-$3M annually who are done chasing and ready to cultivate.

Why does $2M in revenue feel less secure than $500K? Because you're measuring success with the wrong number.

Most service business consultants obsess over revenue per employee. But the businesses that thrive track Profit Per Employee:

Net Income ÷ Full-Time Employees = The number that reveals everything.

**THE THREE STAGES:**

- Under $25K profit per employee = Crisis (fix foundation first)

- $25K-$60K = Healthy but vulnerable (optimize now)

- Over $60K = Thriving (you've built something that works)

**WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:**

→ Why the $1.5M business with 6 employees was losing money on every hire

→ How the $3M firm found $255K in hidden profit leaks

→ The 5 Pillars of Profitability that actually fix service businesses

→ Why consulting isn't an expense—it's self-funding infrastructure

**THE 5 PILLARS:**

Cash Flow | Cost Control | Complexity Reduction | Client Retention | Contribution Margin

Fix three of these five, and your profit per employee jumps 30-50% without changing your marketing.

**WHO THIS IS FOR:**

Service business owners earning $250K-$5M who are exhausted from growth that doesn't translate to take-home pay.

**NEXT STEP:**

Calculate your number. Then learn about the Pathway to Profit Assessment at mediaaceadvisors.com.

If you can't go another day stuck where you are, let's have a conversation.

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Hosted by Ryan Herrst, Certified Profit Advisor | Author of "Profit Foundation"

Keywords: profit margins, service business, small business consultant, business optimization

You're booked out three weeks. Prospects are calling. Your calendar is full. This should feel like success. Instead, it feels like drowning.

Because here's what nobody tells you about being "fully booked": you've built a cage, not a business. You can't take more clients even though people are trying to give you money. You're working 65-hour weeks. You missed your kid's soccer game because of a client emergency. You haven't taken a real vacation in three years.

Every new client means more work for roughly the same profit. You're not growing, you're just getting busier. And you know the profit margin calculation. You can do the math. But that formula doesn't tell you HOW to fix it.

In this episode, I break down why knowing how to calculate profit margin isn't the same as knowing how to improve it without working yourself into the ground.

What You'll Discover:

The seven-lever system that multiplies profit growth. Most businesses only work on ONE lever (leads) while the other six are broken or rusting shut. When you improve all seven levers by just 10% each, they don't add up, they multiply. Small improvements across all seven create massive profit growth.

Why two businesses with the same revenue can have wildly different take-home pay. A $500K business at 30% margins puts $150K in your pocket. A $1M business at 10% margins only puts $100K in your pocket. The bigger business makes LESS money while working twice as hard.

The capacity trap that's killing your margins. You're maxed out trying to generate more leads while completely ignoring conversion rate, average sale, and the four other levers that would let you make more money from your existing customer base.

What "good" profit margins actually look like by industry. Consulting and advisory: 20-40%. Marketing agencies: 15-25%. Home services: 15-25%. Professional services: 25-50%. If you're below these ranges, something in your seven levers is broken.

The biggest mistake fully booked businesses make. They spend every dollar on more leads, pouring water into a bucket with six holes in it. You're not building profit, you're just getting busier.

The systematic approach that moves businesses from 12% to 25% margins in 6-12 months without spending a single additional dollar on marketing or adding hours to the workweek.

This isn't about working more hours. It's about working different levers.

I'm Ryan Herrst, Certified Profit Advisor and author of "Profit Foundation" (second edition coming 2026). Over the past year, I've interviewed over 100 service business owners generating $250K to $5M annually. The pattern I see repeatedly: owners focus only on the profit margin calculation and miss the seven underlying levers that CREATE that margin.

If you're fully booked but barely breaking even, if you're working 65-hour weeks for 12% margins when industry standard is 25%, if you know something needs to change but you don't know which lever to pull first, this episode is for you.

Stop pedaling harder on a broken bicycle. Fix the bicycle, then pedal.

Book Interview Opportunity:

I'm currently interviewing service business owners for the second edition of "Profit Foundation." During these 45-minute conversations, I walk you through your seven profit levers and show you which one is your biggest opportunity. It's a research conversation, not a sales pitch. You'll receive a complimentary copy of the book when published. Schedule here: https://mediaaceadvisors.com/contact/

Connect with Ryan:

Website: https://www.mediaaceadvisors.com

Email: ryan@mediaaceadvisors.com

Phone: 517-955-2154