Free game · about 6 minutes · your logo on a demo agency
Profit simulation game for marketing and creative agencies
The Profit Game is a free simulation for agency owners who want to see what doubling profit would really take. You type your work email, the game reads your agency's public website and runs a one-year season under your agency's name, logo and color.
Play The Profit Game as your agency Free · about 6 min · work email required · your name and logo on a demo agency
- 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 an agency's profit in a year?
Agency margin leaks in the gap between what a retainer promises and the hours it really takes. Five levers set the size of that gap.
The price nobody revisits
Many agency retainers are priced on last year's number and an hourly rate nobody tracks. The game makes you set a price for new retainers and shows how much of the pipeline it costs, because buyers' price sensitivity is one of the facts you have to discover.
When 24 hours becomes 30
A retainer sold as 24 hours a week drifts to 30 once revisions and extra channels arrive. In the game, scope is a decision (16, 24 or 32 hours) and every week the team runs over capacity raises the odds that clients leave.
Senior, junior or freelancer?
A senior hire is fast and expensive, a junior is cheap and needs months of supervision, and a freelancer sits in between. The game draws each candidate's real speed and only reveals it after the ramp.
Promised hours against real ones
First drafts, resizes, reporting decks, keyword research and ad variations are work agents can take today. The promised hours and the hours your review process really absorbs are not the same number, and the game makes you plan for the gap.
The brand that pays a quarter of the bills
One retained brand often pays a large share of the agency. When it renegotiates, the cheapest answer on paper can cost the most on average, and the game asks you to price the odds of it walking.
How do the game’s levers map to an agency?
The game simulates a small retainer firm. Every lever above has a setting in it, plus scope, overhead and cash; the table shows its numbers and where to read each one in your own agency.
See the demo firm’s numbers, lever by lever
The demo book is a six-person retainer firm billing $68,000 a month: read its consultants as your account and creative team. At each of four board meetings you set the price and scope of retainers, hiring, AI agents and the answer to your biggest client's discount request, and the twin plays 100 futures of each option before you choose.
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 an agency” is where to read each lever in your own year.
| Lever | In the game's model | In an agency |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Monthly retainer per client, or the blended rate behind your fees. |
| 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. | Channels, deliverables per month and rounds of revisions included. |
| Capacity | Five consultants at 34 h a week plus you. Every week over capacity raises the odds that clients leave. | Hours of your account, creative and media team. |
| 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. | Senior hire, junior, or a freelancer or offshore studio. |
| 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. | Drafts, asset variations, reporting, research, social scheduling. |
| 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 biggest retained brand and the partner or platform that sends leads. |
| 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. | Studio, software seats and pitches you do not bill. |
| Cash | Invoices paid 30 to 60 days after they are sent; the bank starts at $45,000. | Monthly retainers against project milestones, media paid before the client pays you. |
Can your agency 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 examples, 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 more expensive retainer with a defined scope earns more than a cheap one that churns.
- Q2, capacity: freelancer, junior or agents for the extra hours, and what to do when your best creative gets an offer.
- Q3, growth: the renewal discount your largest client asks for, and whether outreach or a partner fills the pipeline.
- Q4, strategy: the pricing and team you present at year end, and how much of the agency still depends on you.
Questions agency owners ask about the game
Is there a profit simulation game for agency owners?
Yes. The Profit Game runs a retainer firm for four quarters with the levers agencies argue about: retainer price, scope, capacity, hiring, AI agents and one dominant client. It is free and takes about 6 minutes in Boardroom mode.
Does the game work for a creative or design agency, not only marketing?
Yes, if most of your revenue comes from recurring clients and your team's hours are the constraint. Read the consultants as your team and the retainers as your monthly clients. Project-only studios will find the pricing and capacity quarters closest to their year.
Can I play it with my agency's name and logo?
Yes. Type your work email and the game reads your agency's public website for its name, logo and main color. Nothing else is read: the clients and numbers in the game stay fictional. If you add your monthly recurring revenue, the money on screen scales to your size; the engine still plays the demo firm.
How can an agency double its profit?
Rarely by selling more hours at the same price, because the hours run out first. The levers that move profit are the price of new retainers, a scope you can deliver, work handed to agents or partners, and costs, and each one carries a risk. Try the calculator on this page with your numbers, then play the year.
The game for other professions
How the game works, its modes and its rules: The Profit Game.
Then play your own agency.
The game plays a demo firm. A digital twin of your own agency 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 agency, 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.