Scaling Effort, Not Results? This is your wake-up call – with Michael Wark

When your business feels busy but the numbers don’t back it up, something’s off.

Agencies and consultancies often confuse effort with progress – and today’s guest has the data to prove it.

In this episode of The Handbook, Harv Nagra sits down with fractional CFO and Trimline founder Michael Wark to unpack why so many service businesses hit revenue ceilings, run on thin margins, and stay stuck in that exhausting cycle of over-servicing.

If you’ve ever wondered why more clients and more staff don’t automatically create more profit, this one’s for you.

Here’s what we get into:

• The hidden math behind low profitability – and why over-servicing is usually the real culprit
• Why headcount growth can become an ego metric (and why hiring your way out of inefficiency rarely works)
• How to diagnose your true unit economics and reset your pricing based on reality, not optimism
• The operational signals your business is running harder in place rather than growing
• What healthy, scalable service businesses measure – and the benchmarks Michael looks for in top-performing firms

Whether you’re firefighting day to day or thinking seriously about scaling, Michael brings a clear, practical lens to understanding your numbers and building a healthier business.

Listen to the full episode to hear the data, the patterns, and the playbook that can help you break the cycle. 🎧

Additional Resources:

👉🏽 Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-wark-18627628/ 

💰 Check out Trimline: https://trimline.co/ 

📺 Check out Michael’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MichaelWarkTrimlineCFO 

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/ 

📈 Measure your business maturity and find out how to get to the next level: https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity 

📬 Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook 

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you.