When you hire someone new at your agency, most costs are one-time or variable. Equipment, onboarding time, a few weeks before they are fully productive. The ongoing cost is their salary, which is the point. You hire because the revenue they generate should outpace what you pay them.
Per-seat software pricing adds a different kind of cost. Every new hire automatically increases your software bill. Not because you have asked for more capability. Not because you are using more of the platform. Just because the team is larger.
At 10 people, this feels manageable. At 20, it starts to compound. At 30, you are paying materially more for the same software you had when you were half the size - and the costs scaled at exactly the moment your margins were already under pressure from growth.
Key takeaways
- Per-seat pricing means every new hire raises your software bill automatically.
- You pay more even though you are not using more of the tool.
- At 20 or 30 people the extra cost really starts to add up.
- The bill grows just when growth is already squeezing your margins.
