This month we are delighted to continue with our team spotlight series. This is where we interview members of our team and ask them to share a little more about themselves and their role at Rocksteady Finance.
Next up is an interview with Jon Lockwood, our Finance Director, who was one of the most recent people to join the team. Here is what Jon had to say:
1. How long have you worked at Rocksteady Finance?
I started working with Aggie and the Rocksteady Finance team, in October 2025, so just under a year.
2. What do you do day-to-day for Rocksteady’s clients (Tell us about your role)?
I am the Client Finance Director at Rocksteady Finance and I work with agency founders or leadership teams to help them define their finance strategy, plan their business and set targets. I help them to understand their team’s performance, overall agency health and what results they are achieving, what actions need to be taken to improve performance and guide where they should focus their energies.
I also oversee our Virtual Finance Team and the work they do to keep our client’s operations moving forward effectively. I ensure that everything comes together into a narrative that makes sense and is useful to the key stakeholders in the agency.
3. What does good look like and how do you know when you have done a good job in your role?
When a client has a good understanding of how their agency is performing financially, they have a clearly defined finance strategy and an understanding of what is influencing their numbers. They start to ask, “what if?” questions such as “What if we hire two more people instead of one?” and “What impact will that have on our goals and profitability?”. When the client has trust and confidence in the team that they will receive reliable and useful advice, it is a sure sign we are doing a good job.
4. What’s the most common financial mistake you see agency founders making and what’s the fix?
Some agencies are focused on chasing revenue growth, which can come at a high cost to the rest of their business. For example, the agency owner might decide that they achieved £1.5m revenue last year and therefore their budget and target for this year is £2m revenue. Sounds sensible right? Well not always.
They may be too quick to hire a new team member, buy tech to help them realise this objective or agree to proposal discounts when trying to win new business. As they progress through the year they may see their gross profit and net margins start to erode. Their team will report back that they are too busy servicing work that is being undersold, all the while not feeling confident in bringing in further heads onto the team so decide to hire more costly freelancers instead.
At the end of the year, the revenue growth may have been achieved but profitability turns out to be the same or less than the previous year. All that extra work hasn’t driven better returns.
The fix is to focus on solid financial planning, setting realistic goals and being clear on who is responsible for what. Be clear on your key profitability drivers and make solid hiring or investment decisions based on financial forecasts, not gut reaction. It is key agency owners prioritise sustained, profitable growth, over growth at all costs.
5. What’s a financial problem that agency founders often don’t realise they have until someone points it out?
One of the most common problems we see is that the agency owner does not know which services or clients are the profitable ones. When the time is taken to analyse and review the data, we often find that agencies are quietly losing money, or barely breaking event on a chunk of their client base. Similarly, we often find that one service is being disproportionally responsible for the profitability of the agency, whilst other services contribute revenue but little towards overhead costs.
Having a granular view of which clients and services are most profitable in your agency and which ones aren’t can significantly change how you view and manage your client base and delivery teams. Saying “no” to the wrong type of work or client can have a dramatically positive impact on your agency finances.
6. What do agency founders most misunderstand about what you do?
Often bookkeepers, accountants and finance people are thought to be one and the same or interchangeable.
A good bookkeeper will reliably process your agency paperwork and keep financial records and transactions up to date.
A good accountant will keep you compliant and file your tax return for you.
A good finance director will have a solid understanding of your numbers and agency strategy, they will help you to understand and improve your business.
Often these are separate roles fulfilled by different people, playing to different strengths. Things don’t go so well or expectations are not met when you have the wrong person in the wrong role.
7. What’s the one financial challenge you think agency founders aren’t currently taking seriously enough?
The cost of everything continues to rapidly increase, meaning that the business landscape is more challenging than five years ago. New technologies and the rise of AI mean that the agency landscape is rapidly changing. Agencies have the challenge of keeping both their proposition sharp and their rate cards healthy to ensure profitability. Because of this, I think it’s more important than ever that agencies of all sizes seek solid financial guidance and support. By keeping an expert eye on financial operations, growth and profitability will enable the agency owner to focus on client delivery.
Consulting financial models are important before you make a big decision that can’t be undone at a later time eg: investments, acquisitions or a round of pay increases for your team. It is important for agency owners to have confidence in the big decisions they are making, gut instinct alone doesn’t cut it.
8. What drew you to working in accounting and finance?
I never planned to work in finance, it was the first good opportunity that came up after university. Once I got started however, I found it suited me very well and I started to realise it could be a rewarding career for me.
9. What’s the one thing you’d tell your younger self or anyone wanting to work in this field?
If you aspire to being a leader, don’t just get experience of doing different types of work within the finance function. Focus on getting broader experience across all areas of the business, working with other departments to understand what they do. This might include understanding the service your agency offers as well as getting experience in working in HR, legal, IT, governance and operational teams. Cultivate an opinion and when you are confident in your opinions, put them out there, respectfully of course.
10. What’s the best piece of financial advice you ever received (from anyone, formal or not)?
When I was young, a friend brought me the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” as a birthday gift. After enjoying this book I have read various other books around the topic of personal finance and I follow a lot of content in this space online. Even with a background in accountancy, now as a finance director, personal finance is a topic that takes many years and a lot of personal experience to understand and appreciate.
My advice would be to read books or consume content around this topic and slowly decide what works for you and makes sense. Sometimes there is no substitute for experience, the best way to learn about investing is to start investing small amounts to figure out how it all works. Spending time learning about finance will give you a better chance of success, the same applies in business too.
11. What do your friends and family think you do for a living?
They think I offer free tax return advice and Excel formula support! 😂
12. Tell us something about that you we may not know about you.
I have two cats who are often sleeping next to me when I work. Both are named after literary characters – Lupin and Lyra (from the Harry Potter and Northern Light books). Neither likes to be seen on camera, so they rarely make an appearance on calls.
Thank you for your time Jon it was great to learn more about what you do and the role you play at Rocksteady Finance. If you are a marketing, creative or PR agency that is ready to take the next step and looking to gain some financial clarity and direction, get in touch to book a no-obligation discovery call!
