Clockwork: The Agency Process and Operations Conference

How Simple Ops Moves Rocketed Our Profit

In 2014, Lisa’s agency had a healthy turnover but less than £100k profit. “I remember thinking, ‘What the hell?’. We were working harder than ever, but the margins were collapsing.”

Lisa’s solution wasn’t a shiny new strategy. It was the basics: timesheets, forecasting and transparency.

Profit shot up massively in just two years, setting up a successful sale.

👉 In this session, Lisa will show you the deceptively simple ops moves that transformed her agency, and how you can apply them to yours.

You’ve Got to Let Go to Grow Your Ops

“I remember thinking when I stepped back from doing my monthly invoicing… am I going to miss something? What’s slipping through the cracks?”

When Lee’ann Kauffman founded iseepr 20 years ago, everything lived in spreadsheets. In those early days, she did everything. But as the agency grew to £2.5m turnover, the spreadsheets couldn’t keep up. And neither could she.

👉 In this session, Lee’ann will explore the different phases of agency operations evolution:

∙ Why spreadsheets are vital in the early days
∙ How (and when) to introduce platforms
∙ Why stepping back is really about people, not software.

You Should Treat Ops Like a Product (Not a Helpdesk)

“Ops isn’t plumbers fixing a leak,” says Olivia. “We’re here to upgrade the system.”

At NOVOS, Olivia has reframed operations as a product: internal teams are the customers, and the ‘product’ is the operational ecosystem – systems, rituals, and UX- that powers the work.

Instead of reacting to complaints, she now runs discovery, ships betas, collects feedback, and iterates in sprints with a visible roadmap. And It’s already paid off.

👉 If you’re done firefighting and want ops that actually sticks, come hear Olivia’s playbook: treat ops like a product, not a helpdesk. Hear the missteps, challenges and learnings as well as the wins of approaching Ops as a product.

From Panic to Profit: How SAENTYS Rebuilt Its Finances – and Its Focus

When things slowed in 2022, SAENTYS suddenly found itself in trouble. Revenue looked healthy, but profit had disappeared, and the pipeline that once looked promising wasn’t converting.

👉 At Finance Forum, Julia shares the story of how she steered SAENTYS back to health, how she made those tough calls, kept morale intact, and helped redefine what success really looks like for a modern agency finance leader.

Beyond the Balance Sheet: How CFOs Can Shape Commercial Thinking

When cancer forced Paul Trilk to step away from his agency, something remarkable happened – the business ran better without him. It was the ultimate test of EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System that gave his team clarity, accountability, and ownership.

👉 At Clockwork, Paul shares how EOS helped him scale, survive, and build a culture where vulnerability is strength – plus, he’ll show you the two simple tools you can use right away.

Scaling Your Ops Through Rapid Growth

When Bottled Imagination jumped from 12 to 21 people, operations lead Kate Boddy had two weeks to stop chaos from taking hold. She restructured teams into pods, and built a “protective layer” so juniors weren’t crushed by the surge.

“Just because you’ve got people coming in doesn’t mean the workload gets lighter until probably a month down the road.”

👉 At Clockwork, Kate shares how she scaled at speed without breaking the team – from better onboarding to senior “pulse checks” that keep clients and culture intact.

Profitable Projects & Retainers

Peter Czapp, co-founder of The Wow Company, says, “It leaks in the details, in projects that drag, retainers that balloon, and teams that don’t know when to push back.”

Agencies often think that smart positioning and healthy rates are enough to keep margins strong. But in reality, the cracks usually show elsewhere.

👉 That’s what Peter’s talk at Clockwork is all about: how to stop profit from slipping through the cracks, and keep more of what you earn.