Free game · about 6 minutes · your logo on a demo firm
Profit simulation game for consulting firms
The Profit Game is a free simulation of the question every consulting partner hears sooner or later: can you double profit next quarter? Type your work email and play a one-year season under your firm's name, logo and color, on a demo book of six consultants and six retainers worth $68,000 a month.
Play The Profit Game as your firm Free · about 6 min · work email required · your name and logo on a demo firm
- 4board meetings, one per quarter
- ×2the profit of the quarter before, each time
- 100futures played before each decision
- ≈ 6 minin Boardroom mode, free
On this page
What decides a consulting firm's profit in a year?
In a boutique firm, profit is the small number left after salaries, and five levers move it. Pull the wrong one and the margin disappears into overtime, a discount or a hire who is still ramping up in March.
What a higher fee really costs
A retainer price is a bet on how much a buyer values a steady seat at the table. Raise it and every hour earns more while fewer proposals get signed. The game hides your buyers' price sensitivity and shows how the odds move as you win and lose.
Where the hours run out
Consultants sell hours they have not delivered yet. A retainer that takes 24 hours a week fills a consultant fast, and the twin counts every week the team runs over, because overloaded weeks are when clients start to leave.
Experienced hire or junior?
A senior consultant is productive within a month and expensive; a junior is cheap and takes a quarter to ramp. Both are paid from day one, so the hire that looks right in January can drain cash until the pipeline catches up.
How much of the mandate to hand over
Desk research, data preparation, first drafts and reporting are the parts of a mandate agents can take. The vendor promises hours; what your process really absorbs is unknown until they run, and someone senior still reviews the output.
What your anchor client is worth
Many boutiques have one anchor client and one partner who brings the deals. When the anchor asks for 20% off at renewal, the right answer depends on how likely it is to walk, and the game makes you price that.
How do the game’s levers map to a consulting firm?
Every lever above has a setting in the game, plus scope, overhead and cash. The table shows the demo firm's numbers and where to read each one in your own firm.
See the demo firm’s numbers, lever by lever
In the game every fee earner is called a consultant. Every number under “In the game's model” belongs to its model, not to a benchmark; “In a consulting firm” is where to read each lever in your own year.
| Lever | In the game's model | In a consulting firm |
|---|---|---|
| Retainer price | A standard retainer sells at $12,000 a month; your six current ones run from $9,000 to $14,000, $68,000 in all. New retainers at $9,000, $12,000, $15,000 or $18,000. Buyers' price sensitivity is hidden and learned from the proposals you win and lose. Existing clients keep their fee. | Your monthly retainer or advisory fee, and the day rate behind it. |
| Scope | Lite 16 h, standard 24 h or premium 32 h of consultant time a week per client. A wider scope is worth more and churns less: 4.5%, 3.5% and 2.8% a month. | Days on site, workstreams and steering committees included. |
| Capacity | Five consultants at 34 h a week plus you. Every week over capacity raises the odds that clients leave. | Billable consultants and their utilization target. |
| Hiring | Senior at $13,000 a month, 4-week ramp; junior at $6,500, 10-week ramp; contractor at $4,500, 6-week ramp. Real speed shows after the ramp. | Experienced hire, junior analyst or freelance associate. |
| AI agents | Pilot: about 24 h a week for $2,500 a month. Full rollout: about 60 h for $7,500. Ramp of 6 to 8 weeks; the share of promised hours really delivered is hidden, from 35% to 110% depending on the world. | Desk research, benchmarks, slide drafts, data cleaning, status reports. |
| Client concentration | Largest client at $14,000 a month, a fifth of retainers, asks 20% off at renewal. A refusal loses it in half the worlds, a 10% counter-offer in a quarter of them. | Your anchor client and the referral partner behind your pipeline. |
| Overhead | $16,000 a month. Trim it by $2,500 (about 15%) and the team works 3% slower; cut $5,000 (about 30%) and it works 15% slower. | Office, tools, events and travel you do not bill. |
| Cash | Invoices paid 30 to 60 days after they are sent; the bank starts at $45,000. | Milestone and monthly invoices, your clients’ payment terms. |
Can your firm double its profit next quarter? Check the arithmetic
Before you play, put your own numbers in. This runs in your browser and nothing is sent. The prefilled values are the game's demo firm ($68,000 a month in retainers, $75,000 of profit last quarter), not benchmarks: replace them with yours.
What will you learn in four quarters?
One board meeting per quarter, one module per meeting. The season takes about 6 minutes in Boardroom mode and about 20 in the MBA season, which adds a graded case per quarter.
- Q1, pricing: whether a retainer 25% more expensive earns more than it loses in yeses, and what a lighter scope does to churn.
- Q2, capacity: hire, automate or stay lean, and whether to match a rival's offer to your most senior consultant.
- Q3, growth: your largest client's renewal discount, your outreach engine and an overflow partner for delivery.
- Q4, strategy: the price and team you hand the board, and what the firm is worth when less of it depends on you.
Questions consulting partners ask about the game
Is there a business simulation game for consulting firms?
Yes. The Profit Game is built on a boutique consulting firm: retainers, consultants with a weekly capacity, a channel partner and an anchor client. It is free and takes about 6 minutes in Boardroom mode. For classroom simulations such as Capsim or Cesim, see our ranking of business simulation games.
Can I play the game as my own consulting firm?
Yes, under its own name. Type your work email and the game reads your firm's public website for its name, logo and main color. The book of business stays a demo one: the game does not know your clients, your fees or your team. If you add your monthly recurring revenue, the money on screen scales to your size; the engine still plays the demo firm.
Are the game's numbers consulting benchmarks?
No. Every number in the game belongs to the model: a fictional firm built to make the trade-offs visible. The engine that computes the weeks is the one AI Jungle runs on its own books, checked by replaying 30 weeks of them: sales counts land on the real ones, and cash timing is still being tightened.
How do you double a consulting firm's profit in a quarter?
Rarely by effort alone. Profit is revenue minus costs that barely move, so doubling it takes a higher price, new retainers you have the hours to deliver, or lower costs, and each route carries a risk the game makes you price. The calculator on this page shows the arithmetic on your own numbers.
The game for other professions
How the game works, its modes and its rules: The Profit Game.
Then play your own firm.
The game plays a demo firm. A digital twin of your own firm runs the same engine on your CRM, time and invoice data, so the buyers, pipeline and capacity it plays are yours. Before it advises anything, it replays your last 12 months and shows you which figures land inside its error bands and which do not yet.
Play The Profit Game Book a scoping call
A twin of your own firm, built on your CRM, time and invoice data: from $55,555; your exact scope is set on a call. Want to try your own numbers in a flow model now? Twin Lite runs them in your browser.
- Play the game: four quarters, 100 futures per decision.
- Book 30 minutes: we pick the one decision your twin should answer first.
- Get your twin: same engine, your data, and a replay of your last 12 months you read before any scenario.