The 12-Week Profit Sprint
Annual goals die in inboxes. A 12-week sprint turns strategy into execution you can feel in your bank balance. This is a simple, ruthless system to grow profit fast without blowing up your team.
What the sprint solves
Too many goals, not enough movement.
Offers that overpromise and under-margin.
A calendar full of “work” that doesn’t ship.
Define one meaningful outcome
Pick one outcome you’ll be proud of in 12 weeks. Not twelve. One.
Examples:
Raise net margin 5 points.
Close 10 prepaid Jumpstart projects.
Cut delivery time by 30%.
If you’re arguing with yourself, choose the one that moves cash sooner.
Translate outcome into three levers
You don’t need 19 initiatives. You need three levers that, if moved, guarantee the outcome.
Example for “Raise net margin 5 points”:
Price resets on legacy clients.
Delivery speed—kill two bottlenecks.
Overhead trim—cut 10% without touching quality.
Lock your weekly operating cadence
Monday 45: Plan the week
15 min: Review the scorecard (below).
15 min: Choose two MITs (Most Important Tasks) tied to your levers.
15 min: Calendar those MITs as Focus Blocks (90 minutes each).
Wednesday 15: Mid-sprint check
Are the MITs on track?
Remove obstacles or re-scope now, not Friday.
Friday 30: Ship and learn
Scoreboard update: numbers only.
Debrief: What shipped? What didn’t? Why?
Reset: Queue next week’s MITs while the learning is fresh.
Build your 5-line scorecard
Numbers, not novels. Update weekly.
Revenue Collected (not booked)
Gross Margin %
Operating Runway (weeks)
Average Fulfillment Cycle Time (quote → delivered)
Owner Time in Fulfillment (hrs/week)
Set a 12-week target for each and watch the trend line.
Craft two sprint offers
You need an offer you can sell fast and fulfill cleanly.
Jumpstart Offer (fast cash):
A scoped, prepaid, 2–3 week engagement that solves a painful problem.
Includes a 14-day follow-up; no ongoing support.
Price to a minimum 70% gross margin.
Flagship Offer (core revenue):
Whatever you’re best at, re-scoped for speed and quality.
Add “Good/Better/Best” tiers so clients self-select margins.
Offer rules
No custom work without a Change Order.
Delivery templates only; if a task repeats twice, it gets an SOP.
Kill one feature if you add a new one. Keep it lean.
The 12-week timeline
Weeks 1–2: Foundation
Pick outcome + levers.
Write Jumpstart and Flagship scopes, pricing, and boundaries.
Build the 5-line scorecard.
Calendar your Monday/Wednesday/Friday rhythm.
Weeks 3–4: Price resets + pipeline
Send price upgrade letters to legacy clients (10–20% with options).
Launch 10–20 Jumpstart outreach messages to warm contacts.
Add fast-pay incentives for upfront cash.
Weeks 5–6: Delivery speed
Map your fulfillment steps; remove two bottlenecks.
Create or tighten SOPs for handoffs and client approvals.
Switch to asynchronous updates (weekly summary email vs. daily pings).
Weeks 7–8: Overhead trim
Audit software, subscriptions, and contractors. Cut 10% that doesn’t touch client value.
Negotiate annual prepay discounts; fund from Profit bucket if ROI is clear.
Weeks 9–10: Quality and proof
Collect three case studies with before/after metrics.
Add them to proposals and the first two follow-up emails.
Weeks 11–12: Scale what worked
Double down on the channel/offer combo that produced the fastest cash at the healthiest margin.
Book a 30-minute retro; set the next sprint’s single outcome.
Protect the focus blocks
Calendar them. Defend them.
Slack/email off. Phone flipped.
If a client “emergency” keeps blowing up your blocks, you don’t have emergencies—you have a policy problem. Add a paid “Priority Support” tier or a response-time SLA.
What to measure weekly (and why)
Collected vs. Invoiced: Cash is real. Invoices are promises.
Gross Margin %: The health of your pricing and scope in one number.
Runway: How bold you can be without sweating payroll.
Cycle Time: Speed drives referrals and frees capacity.
Owner Fulfillment Hours: If this doesn’t fall, you don’t own a business—you own a job.
Common landmines
Too many goals. One outcome. Three levers. That’s it.
Custom everything. You can’t sprint with ankle weights. Standardize.
Heroics over systems. If success depends on you being superhuman, you’re done by Week 6.
Tools (use only what you need)
One task board (Kanban: Backlog → Doing → Review → Done).
One doc for SOPs (start messy; improve weekly).
One scorecard (updated every Friday, visible to the team).
Resources
The 12 Week Year overview: https://12weekyear.com
Asana project template gallery: https://asana.com/templates
Margin Accelerator
Give me 60 minutes and I’ll help you pick one measurable 12-week outcome, the three levers that guarantee it, and a simple scorecard your team can update in five minutes.
In this session we’ll:
Choose your single sprint outcome (not five, one)
Identify the 3 levers (price, delivery speed, overhead)
Draft your Monday/Wednesday/Friday cadence and two Focus Blocks
Want profit movement you can feel in 12 weeks?