Lifetime Value Calculator

Wee gift for you today.

I stumbled on a spreadsheet I apparently created in 2019 – I say apparently because I don’t remember doing it, but as I’m on the verge of restarting a creative agency, it was a useful tool to stumble on (that agency was about 2 years old at the time).

It’s essentially an LTV (Lifetime Value) calculator: I added every client I had at the time, how many hours I’d logged, how much I’d invoiced them to date, how many months they’d been active for, and a few other details like “pain factor” (how much hard work the client, my contact there, and the work itself was).

The EHR (Effective Hourly Rate) column, which is just the invoiced amount divided by the hours, is very interesting. Some clear winners and losers.

I remember the outcome of this effort, I just don’t recall building this spreadsheet. I was looking at the hodge-podge of clients in various industries I had at the time, and searching for patterns to focus marketing at.

Anyway, if you want a copy just grab it here (Make a Copy) and fill it in with your own details – I’ve anonymised it and left a sample set of clients, plus some notes to help with filling in your own info.

The 3 green columns auto-update based on what you enter in all the other columns – delete all the other info but leave these 3 untouched so you keep the formulas.

I’m sure there’s plenty that can be improved on but if nothing else, it might be useful if (like me in 2019) your clients have little in common, and that’s making your marketing efforts challenging.

Flick me an email if you have questions about this and I’ll help if I can!