Library/Leak 18

The disproportionate client or account

A client whose share of your personal hours far exceeds its share of revenue or strategic value. Usually tolerated for historical reasons: they were the first big customer, they are a friend, they were loyal during a hard year.

ExitEliminateManual workB–C · weeks to a quarterContainer

How you know you have it

“Which client or account takes the most out of you relative to what it returns?”

What kind of leak it is

Both a time leak and a touch leak

Does it need your judgment?

Usually yes — this is a decision, not a chore.

A touch that needs judgment is a delegation candidate: someone has to decide, and it does not have to be you.

How to measure it

your hours a week on the account × 52, against the account's share of revenue

Annualized the same way everywhere: duration × frequency × people × 52.

Typical range — illustrative

often the single largest line in the whole inventory; a concentrated account can exceed the entire Automate tier combined

An order of magnitude to prime your eye, not a statistic and not a claim about anyone's result. The only number that matters is the one you measure.

The move — Eliminate

Three real options, not one: resign the account, re-price it so the hours are paid for, or hand it to someone who is not you. The comparison decides, not the hours alone.

Where it lands in a Time P&L

Manual work

How long a fix takes

B–C · weeks to a quarter

What to do about it

Tools that fix this

No tool names this category on its own yet. The two below apply to all twenty.

And across everything

← All twenty categories