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PODCAST

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast

Running a serviced based business, an agency or consultancy isn’t just about great client work. It’s about keeping everything behind the scenes running smoothly.That’s where The Handbook comes in. Our goal? To help you take your business to the next level of business maturity.This podcast is for operations and service-business leaders who are juggling it all – people, processes, finance, tech, and everything in between.Every other week, we dive deep into a specific challenge that businesses face as

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All Episodes

42:41

The 8 Systems Every COO Needs to Scale with Jason Swenk

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2026/01/13

Most service businesses don’t stall because of a lack of talent or ambition. They stall because the business quietly outgrows the systems it was built on.In this episode of The Handbook, Harv Nagra sits down with Jason Swenk – agency founder turned advisor who’s spent two decades helping agencies and consultancies scale with more confidence and less chaos. After building and selling his own eight-figure agency, Jason codified the patterns he kept seeing into an eight-system framework for predictable

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2:02

One Question Before the Break – What Should We Tackle...

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/12/17

A short one to close out the year! 🎁No frameworks. No deep dives. Just a genuine thank you.Whether you found The Handbook last week or you’ve been listening since episode one, I wanted to reflect on the year and say how much I appreciate you making time for the show.This year I’ve had the chance to sit down with brilliant operators and leaders across agencies and consultancies, covering people, process, tools, data, and growth – all anchored by one belief: operational maturity is what lets

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2:52

Ops Quickie: Fixing the Sales-to-Delivery 'Black Hole'

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/12/09

Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿"Ballpark" is a dangerous word.Especially when Sales sells the dream, and Delivery is left living the nightmare.In this Quickie, Harv shares a real story from a consulting session with a 100+ person agency. They had the headcount and the revenue, but behind the scenes? It was pure chaos.We're talking manual spreadsheet reconciliation, "remembering" to log expenses, and invoicing based on memory rather than

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35:19

Scaling Effort, Not Results? This is your wake-up...

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/12/02

When your business feels busy but the numbers don’t back it up, something’s off.Agencies and consultancies often confuse effort with progress – and today’s guest has the data to prove it.In this episode of The Handbook, Harv Nagra sits down with fractional CFO and Trimline founder Michael Wark to unpack why so many service businesses hit revenue ceilings, run on thin margins, and stay stuck in that exhausting cycle of over-servicing.If you’ve ever wondered why more clients and more staff don’t

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2:23

Ops Quickie: AI isn't the threat. Flying blind is.

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/11/18

Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿Flat demand, tighter budgets, squeezed margins. And AI is adding uncertainty on top of it all. But the real risk? It’s flying blind. If you don’t know what’s profitable, where time’s going, or what’s around the corner, every decision is a gamble.In this Quickie, Harv lays out how visibility and control de-risk your business – and why data beats gut feel when markets wobble. When the foundations are tight, AI becomes an amplifier, not a

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35:16

How to Run Annual Planning Like a CFO (Even If You’re...

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/11/11

Most teams treat annual planning like a spreadsheet exercise.Finance builds the numbers. Everyone else nods along. Then the plan gets filed away until next year.But real planning isn’t about producing a static budget – it’s about creating a rhythm that connects finance, operations, and delivery all year round.In this episode of The Handbook: The Ops Podcast, Harv sits down with Adam Cooper, founder of ACC Finance Solutions and host of The Fractional CFO Show, to unpack how finance can become your

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1:23

Ops Quickie: PSA vs ERP – Same Same...or Totally...

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/10/28

Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿So many acronyms, but what do they mean!? This one’s for anyone wondering: what’s the difference between a PSA and an ERP? And which one does your business actually need?Harv breaks down how both systems bring your operations together – but are built for completely different worlds. ERPs power product-based businesses with inventory, supply chains, and manufacturing. PSAs, like Scoro, are built for service businesses that sell time and

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56:30

Beyond Experiments: What It Really Takes to...

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/10/21

AI has stopped being a side project – it’s rewriting the rules of how professional services businesses operate – and – stay competitive.Luke Alexander, Chief Digital & AI Officer at Four, has led an ambitious AI transformation in his business. From rolling out Microsoft Copilot across 300+ staff to launching client-facing AI services, Luke’s approach to embedding AI is bold, practical, and refreshingly human.In this episode, Luke and Harv unpack what it really takes to move from AI experiments

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3:13

Ops Quickie: MCP – the Missing Link Between Ops & AI?

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/10/07

Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿This one’s for anyone curious about the next big shift in how AI connects with the tools you already use: MCP. Model context protocol.Harv breaks down what it is (a universal connector for AI), why it matters for ops leaders, and how it could turn your favourite LLM into the control center for your business systems.He also shares how Scoro’s new MCP server unlocks practical (and pretty mind-blowing) use cases – like summarising client

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30:31

Becoming Better Ops Leaders: Lessons from Operations...

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/09/30

Ops isn’t just about keeping the lights on anymore.As Aušrinė Keršanskaitė, co-founder of Operations Nation, puts it – today’s ops leaders are expected to drive growth, protect culture, and build resilience. And if you’ve ever felt like the “glue” holding everything together without always getting recognition, this one will hit home.In this episode of The Handbook: The Operations Podcast, Aušrinė joins Harv to talk about the evolution of operations, the community she’s built for ops leaders

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2:32

Ops Quickie: When your stack starts to crack 😬

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/09/16

Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿This one’s for anyone who’s ever looked at their jumble of spreadsheets and apps and thought: “Is this normal?”Harv explains why the state of your tech stack is actually a mirror of your business maturity – from The Chaotic Era where everything’s buried in spreadsheets and copy-paste is your main 'process', through The Stable Era where processes click into place, and up to The Data-Driven Era where your systems finally give

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39:41

Lessons From Scaling $750k to $25m with Lindsey Head

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/09/09

Touch the same piece of information more than twice – fix the workflow. That’s the kind of CFO-meets-COO thinking we get into in this episode of The Handbook, where Harv sits down with Lindsey Head to connect the dots between finance, ops, tech, and people – and what really changes when you standardise how the business runs. Lindsey helped scale a PR agency from 5 to 125 people and $750k to $25m in revenue, leading finance, ops, HR, tech, legal and M&A along the way – so she’s seen where the

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2:30

Ops Quickie: What ERA is your business in? Find out...

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/08/26

Ops Quickies – we're back with another snackable episode. 🍿This one’s for anyone who’s ever wondered: Is my business actually set up to scale – or are we just surviving?Harv breaks down:👉🏽 Why business maturity matters👉🏽 What it really means (hint: it’s not about headcount or revenue)👉🏽 Why most service businesses get stuck at the early stages👉🏽 And how you can quickly benchmark where you stand today...Harv's launched a business maturity quiz to help you see where your business

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47:50

How to Scale Smarter: Productizing Value with Brian...

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/08/19

When businesses talk about “productizing,” they often picture cookie-cutter scopes and rigid templates. But according to Brian Kessman, that’s missing the point.Brian is the founder of Lodestar Consulting, and he’s spent 25 years helping agencies and consultancies scale without burning out teams or eroding margins. His approach isn’t about productizing services – it’s about productizing value.In this episode of The Handbook: The Operations Podcast, Brian and Harv dig into what that really means, and

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3:29

Ops Quickie: Why a PSA ≠ PM Tool

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/08/05

Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿This one’s for anyone who’s ever asked: How is a PSA actually different from a project management tool? And does it even matter?Spoiler: it does.Harv breaks down how project management platforms and PSAs serve very different purposes – and why the difference becomes more obvious (and more valuable) as your business grows.If you've got a question about ops tech, PSAs, or Scoro, drop Harv a message on LinkedIn. He might just turn it

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57:48

The Operator’s Guide to Mergers & Acquisitions with...

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/07/29

From the outside, M&A can seem like a clean transaction – a new parent company, a logo change, a cheerful announcement.But inside? The reality is messier. Integration. Culture clashes. Reporting headaches. And a long list of decisions that determine whether the deal actually works.Dom Hawes has lived both sides. After his own agency was acquired (badly), he went on to build Selbey Anderson – a marketing services group backed by private equity, designed from day one to scale through M&A.In

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2:09

Ops Quickie: What the heck is a PSA?!

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/07/15

New series alert: Ops Quickies — snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿We're kicking off with a big question wrapped in The Clunkiest Acronym: what the heck is a PSA ... or professional services automation platform?Harv explains why the name’s a problem, what this kind of platform actually does, and why service businesses need to start paying attention.If you've got any questions about ops tech, PSAs, or Scoro, drop me a message on LinkedIn. I'd love to hear from you – and

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40:14

Board-Level Thinking, Sale-Ready Ops – with Sam Wood

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/07/07

Your ops might be ticking along just fine.But what if your founder got sick tomorrow? What if your top client left? What if you had to make a big decision with zero visibility on the numbers?You might not be planning to sell your agency – but you should run it like you are.Because when you adopt that mindset, you zoom out. You stop firefighting. You start building a business that runs without you.This week on The Handbook, Harv sits down with Sam Wood – fractional COO and founder of consultancy

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32:28

The ops CHEAT CODE: One year of insights condensed...

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/06/17

Is your business growing, but it still feels messy?This solo episode from Harv looks back at one year of The Handbook podcast, and it’s a big one. Harv recaps what he’s learned from a year of speaking with ops leaders across the agency world. He packages it all into one whirlwind tour of the five core pillars of operational maturity: people, process, tools, data, and growth.If you’ve missed a few episodes (or want a cheat code to benchmark your agency’s ops maturity), this is your starting point. Or

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48:35

Are you helping or hindering your delivery team? With...

The Handbook: The Operations Podcast ·

2025/06/03

Ops Leaders, are you unintentionally making life harder for your delivery team?Galen Low, co-founder of The Digital Project Manager and host of The Digital Project Manager podcast, joins us to flip the lens, and spotlight the real impact of operational decisions from the delivery floor up.Galen has spent years helping digital PMs thrive in chaotic environments. In this episode, he shares the signs leaders might be missing when systems break down and how to create structures that support people doing

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