
In this lecture you calculate the four numbers behind your margin and get the map of the whole course.
The four numbers that decide whether a service business makes money: utilisation, cost of an hour, price of an hour and margin per job
How each number continues in the lessons on pricing, capacity, scope, profit and cash
The course map: seven disciplines, from service business economics to surveys and feedback
A dictionary for applying lectures from other fields to your own service business
Three transfer questions to ask after every lecture
A self-diagnostic that shows which sections to watch first: pricing, scope creep, utilisation, cash, account growth, founder bottlenecks and AI in delivery
Download the Service Profit Scorecard PDF and its spreadsheet, which calculates the four numbers from your inputs
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (1)
Define a buyer problem and an observable service result.
Set scope units, deliverable quantities and three tiers with distinct boundaries.
Record client inputs, revision limits, exclusions and acceptance evidence.
Build an offer specification and an intake form with estimated delivery hours and costs.
Plan a package pilot and decide what to revise when actual delivery differs from the estimate.
Download the interactive HTML tool Service Offer Builder and the PDF of this lesson's slides from the lecture resources.
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (1)
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (1)
Build a delivery cost bridge and calculate a price floor from a chosen target margin.
Distinguish margin from markup and compare value-based pricing, fixed fees, hourly billing and retainers.
Create a role rate card with explicit paid-hours and utilisation assumptions.
Set discount limits and draft three proposal options with defined scope.
Test changes in hours and costs, then record price revisions and approval exceptions.
Download the interactive HTML tool Margin Pricing Calculator and the PDF of this lesson's slides from the lecture resources.
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (1)
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (1)
Models and methods explained (1)
Draft a statement of work with deliverables, exclusions, assumptions and client input deadlines.
Set observable acceptance criteria, an authorised reviewer and an approval record.
Distinguish corrective work from new scope and record changes to price, effort and timing.
Separate delivery milestones, invoice triggers and payment due dates.
Build a scope-control review routine and flag unresolved terms for appropriate review.
Download the interactive HTML tool Scope and Change Builder and the PDF of this lesson's slides from the lecture resources.
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (1)
Ready to use on the slides (9)
Separate paid hours, leave, protected non-client work and feasible client capacity.
Calculate utilisation with a named hours base and keep actuals separate from plans.
Compare confirmed demand with provisional scenarios and identify weekly gaps by role.
Compare hiring, subcontracting and rescheduling with ramp time, oversight and cash commitments.
Record a staffing decision with an owner, review date and explicit triggers.
Download the interactive HTML tool Capacity and Hiring Planner and the PDF of this lesson's slides from the lecture resources.
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (1)
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Reconstruct payroll-only margin, direct project contribution and a stated cost-recovery view.
Calculate realised price per hour using actual project effort.
Track unbilled work and invoice readiness without treating logged effort as automatic billing entitlement.
Separate invoiced amounts, recognised revenue and collected cash; assign overdue follow-up actions.
Build a weekly cash forecast, check conditional runway and record a profit or cash recovery action.
Download the interactive HTML tool Project Profit and Cash Planner and the PDF of this lesson's slides from the lecture resources.
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (1)
Ready to use on the slides (6)
Record client outcomes, evidence sources and the people who influence renewal.
Use dated delivery, relationship and payment signals to prioritise account recovery.
Prepare a quarterly business review agenda around client results and next priorities.
Map renewal dates, contractual notice deadlines and named decision owners.
Draft an expansion hypothesis after checking client need, delivery capacity and contribution; assign follow-up commitments.
Download the interactive HTML tool Account Growth Planner and the PDF of this lesson's slides from the lecture resources.
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (1)
Ready to use on the slides (9)
Choose one repeatable task and define its trigger, inputs and standard output.
Write a standard operating procedure with steps, owners and evidence of completion.
Assign responsibility and decision ownership, with explicit delegation limits and escalation routes.
Set quality checks and an onboarding practice task before client release.
Rehearse founder absence, record remaining dependencies and plan the next playbook revision.
Download the interactive HTML tool Delivery Playbook Builder and the PDF of this lesson's slides from the lecture resources.
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (1)
Ready to use on the slides (8)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (1)
Select one delivery task and record its baseline human effort, cost and required output.
Define approved inputs, client permission and the system allowed to process them.
Prepare bounded prompts for scoping, proposals or reports, with sources and missing facts made explicit.
Set a human review gate and test missing evidence, incorrect totals and instructions embedded in untrusted content.
Compare assisted drafting, review and rework costs under fixed-fee and hourly billing; record pilot evidence and client disclosure.
Download the interactive HTML tool AI Delivery Pilot Planner and the PDF of this lesson's slides from the lecture resources.
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (1)
Ready to use on the slides (6)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (2)
What this function is and why a service business needs it
How it differs from sales, marketing and service operations
Owning the whole funnel rather than a segment of it
The symptoms of a company without it
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Models and methods explained (4)
The revenue funnel against the sales funnel
The stages from lead through to retention
Where revenue most often leaks in a service business
Stage criteria, and the agreements between functions
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (12)
Models and methods explained (5)
The single company-level metric worth having
Reconciling marketing, sales and delivery metrics into one set
Acquisition cost, lifetime value, payback, churn and expansion
Connecting team metrics to the profit and loss
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (3)
Ready to use on the slides (10)
Models and methods explained (4)
The customer system as a single source of truth
The structure it needs to support analysis
Fields, statuses and data-entry rules
Dashboards for owners, and avoiding analytics for its own sake
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (3)
Ready to use on the slides (13)
Models and methods explained (4)
Which revenue processes to standardise first
Automating across enquiry, sale and delivery
Where AI genuinely strengthens the system
The automation mistakes that break a funnel
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (3)
Ready to use on the slides (12)
Models and methods explained (4)
Where to start the rollout
A 90-day launch plan
Selling it internally
Quick wins against systemic change
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (3)
Ready to use on the slides (15)
Models and methods explained (2)
What a project is, and its four stages
Delivering a result rather than running activity
The role of the person accountable, and the difficulties in it
The PMBOK 7 principles and performance domains
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (3)
Models and methods explained (3)
Collecting the ideas worth considering
Building the business case
Developing the charter
Cost-benefit analysis, and choosing which work to take
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (6)
Models and methods explained (3)
Who your stakeholders actually are on a client engagement
Compiling and prioritising the list
Assessing influence against interest
Planning engagement rather than improvising it
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Models and methods explained (3)
Establishing that the work is needed at all
Defining where it starts and ends
Setting the boundaries explicitly
Documenting assumptions, which is what protects your margin later
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (2)
Models and methods explained (6)
Breaking the work into parts
Describing the plan as a diagram
Identifying risks at planning stage
Time planning, and the network diagram
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (6)
Models and methods explained (3)
Methods for planning time
Determining how long activities take
The Gantt chart, and the tools that produce one
Identifying participants, and the resource matrix
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (8)
Models and methods explained (3)
Project cost, and the types of cost involved
The three stages of a project budget
Identifying risk factors and assessing them
Managing risk rather than listing it
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (8)
Models and methods explained (2)
Building the structure for the work
Operating in a matrix, where people serve several clients
Defining roles and allocating tasks
Starting the team, and keeping it working
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (4)
Models and methods explained (8)
What control actually means here
The reporting system for progress
Monitoring spend and handling deviations
The report, the meetings, and the communications plan
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (10)
Models and methods explained (4)
Planning the closure rather than drifting into it
The administrative matters
Surveying what the work produced
Bringing the principles together at the end
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (4)
Models and methods explained (8)
This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.
513 tools for running a service business in one course: 325 ready-to-use templates, procedures, checklists, matrices and AI prompts, 130 models and methods, 31 downloadable tool files, and 27 services and apps shown on screen.
Open a lecture, take the tool, use it on one client engagement.
Why a busy service business has a margin nobody can explain
The work gets done, but each client is served from scratch. Small scope changes stay in conversations. Quotes miss review time. The next project waits for the same senior person. An invoice looks like income in a report, while the cash for payroll has not arrived. The missing pieces sit between the offer, the promised work, the people who deliver it and the date you get paid.
What changes after this course
You have one bounded offer and a price tied to stated costs. Changes are written down and have a cost. You see capacity by role and decide between hiring, subcontracting and rescheduling. Project margin and cash are two separate views. Routine delivery has an owner, a check and an escalation route, so every question does not come back to the founder.
What is inside: 513 tools, counted lecture by lecture
You do not have to take this number on trust. Open any lecture and read its description: every tool inside is listed there by name.
Where the tools are
What this course is not
It is not an accounting or legal course: the templates for contracts and cash are working formats, and you check them against the rules of your country.
Who is teaching
I am Mike, the #1 HR instructor on Udemy, with 1,800,000+ course enrollments from 170,000 students, and the author of about 200 books on Amazon. I built the people system at Preply as it became a unicorn and worked at Wargaming, iDeals and Alfa-Bank across 20 years in HR. I hold PHRi, SHRM-CP and HCI sHRBP certifications and represent HRCI in Eastern Europe. I am also a founder and lead the strategy of my own academy.
My own first service was simple: I improved resumes. I started at 15 dollars, then took 50, then raised the price to 100 and later to 200. The work was the same, and people were satisfied with it. The price of a service is a decision you make, and this course gives the calculations to make it on purpose.
How to use the course
Start with the first lecture and its Service Profit Scorecard. Watch the next three sections in order: each lecture has a tool to fill in for one client engagement. Then open the block for your task: income and systems, projects, operations, process improvement, client experience or surveys. Section and lecture titles show how many tools are inside, and each lecture description lists them by name.
What is included
Where to start
Take one client engagement from last month. Open the first lecture and fill in the Service Profit Scorecard: utilisation, hourly cost, realised hourly price and project margin. Enrol now and start your first lesson today.