Most brokerage owners know whether their business is growing. Fewer can say—clearly and confidently—whether it’s profitable in a way that’s sustainable, repeatable, and worth the effort.
Profit isn’t something that just shows up at the bottom of a spreadsheet. It’s a direct result of the structure, staffing, compensation, technology, and workflows you choose to build around.
Here’s where profitability is most often gained—or quietly eroded.
Get Clarity on What Profitability Actually Means
Let’s start with the basics. What’s your EBITDA margin?
What’s your revenue per employee? What does it cost you—fully loaded—to serve a single account?
If you’re not tracking these things, it’s almost impossible to improve them. Most brokerage owners I speak with have a sense of their numbers, but not a full understanding of what’s driving (or dragging) the outcome.
Profitability isn’t about instinct. It’s about visibility.
Stop Treating Headcount as the Solution to Every Problem
If you’ve hired “just to keep up,” there’s a good chance your staffing model is working against your margin. Throwing bodies at broken workflows is expensive. And it’s a temporary fix that locks in long-term inefficiencies.
Before hiring, ask:
• Is this role clearly defined?
• Can existing systems or automations reduce the workload?
• Is this a productivity gap—or a clarity gap?
The answer isn’t always “do more with less.” But it’s rarely “add more people and hope things settle down.”
Make the Invisible Visible
Most brokerages leak profitability in areas no one’s tracking:
• Are renewals being handled reactively?
• Are policies being rounded when they should be?
• Are producers fully utilizing account managers—or just creating friction?
• Are your compensation models driving the right behaviour?
If you’re not measuring these areas, you’re guessing. Profitability isn’t about perfecting every corner of the business—but it is about knowing where the leaks are.
Understand the True Cost of Complexity
Every system, every handoff, every deviation from process adds cost. Most of it hidden.
When you layer on exceptions, manual workarounds, inconsistent workflows, or client-specific accommodations, the business becomes harder to run—and less profitable at scale.
You don’t have to become rigid. But you do have to become intentional.
Operational simplicity is a profit driver.
Connect Leadership Compensation to Business Health
In many brokerages, leadership compensation is fixed—even when business performance isn’t.
That creates a dangerous disconnect: when the business struggles, the team tightens belts… but the top still gets paid. It doesn’t have to be that way. Profit-sharing, performance-based bonuses, or owner draw models tied to EBITDA health are just a few ways to better align leadership with outcomes.
Profitability starts at the top—and so does the example.
Final Thought
Profit is a choice. Not always in the short term—but absolutely over time.
If your brokerage is growing but margin is shrinking—or if you’re unsure what your true profitability even looks like—there’s work worth doing, and I can help you do it.
