Frame & Field Studios Business Plan — Key Performance Indicators

The utilisation, day rate, edit turnaround and repeat-client indicators reported weekly, with targets and thresholds.

Key Performance Indicators

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The following are the operating measures on which this studio should be managed. Three of them — billable utilisation by photographer, the editing backlog in weeks, and the forward diary at eight weeks — are reported weekly, because a photography diary is booked and lost in weeks rather than months.

Indicator	Definition	Target	Why it matters
Billable utilisation by photographer	Billable days divided by working days, per photographer	71% at maturity	Break-even is 39.9%. The single most important number in the business
Editing backlog in weeks	Shoots awaiting delivery divided by weekly editing throughput	Below three weeks	Editing binds output in every year. A backlog is unbilled revenue
Editing ratio	Post-production days divided by shooting days	0.87 blended, falling	A 15% improvement is worth R515235 — more than the same movement in utilisation
Blended day rate in real terms	Revenue divided by billable days, deflated	R20946 rising to R23407	A 10% movement swings mature EBITDA by R5617680
Service mix by share of days	Days by service line divided by total days	Catalogue below 5%	Weighted AI exposure of 21.8% against 54.0% on a conventional mix
Forward diary booked at eight weeks	Confirmed shoot days eight weeks ahead	Above 60% of capacity	Utilisation is a scheduling achievement, not a sales outcome
Revenue per photographer	Revenue divided by photographers	R2780018 rising to R3727901	The productivity measure that captures rate, utilisation and mix together
Client concentration	Largest client share of revenue	Below 25%	Clients follow individuals in this industry; concentration compounds that risk
Debtor days	Trade receivables divided by revenue, annualised	58 days	Working capital reaches 16.3% of revenue and exceeds the facility from Year 4
Debt service cover	EBITDA divided by interest and capital	Above 1.30x from Year 3	Negative in Year 1 by construction

13.1 Reporting cadence and ownership

Measure	Cadence	Owner	Source
Forward diary booked at eight weeks	Weekly	Producer	Booking system; the earliest signal the business produces
Billable utilisation by photographer	Weekly	Producer to managing director	Timesheet against the diary, by individual
Editing backlog in weeks	Weekly	Lead editor	Shoots delivered against shoots awaiting post-production
Editing ratio by service line	Monthly	Lead editor	Post-production hours logged against shooting days
Blended day rate in real terms	Monthly	Managing director	Invoiced revenue divided by billable days, deflated
Service mix by share of days	Monthly	Producer	Days by line; catalogue held below 5%
Client concentration	Quarterly	Business development	Rolling twelve-month revenue by client
Debtor days and facility headroom	Monthly	Finance	Aged debtors against the R3 600 000 facility

Two features of this table matter more than the measures themselves. The first three are weekly rather than monthly, because a photography diary is booked and lost in weeks and a monthly report arrives after the correction window has closed. And utilisation and the editing backlog are owned by different people on purpose: the producer cannot clear a backlog and the lead editor cannot fill a diary, so a studio that gives both to one person will find that whichever is more visible receives the attention.

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