crudely your value (as a biller) to your business. The final piece of the puzzle in assessing the profitability of your desk is cash flow. It is all well and good to make placements and invoice clients, but if you are working with clients who are 'bad payers' or candidates who are 'unreliable' you are not a profitable consultant.  Most of us who have been in the game for a period of time would have had a 'non-starter'.  The candidate who goes through the process, accepts the role and then never shows for their first day, or goes missing, or disappears in the first week before the client has paid the bill. ( I have many names for candidates like that, but for now let's just call them... ummm...what's the worst possible printable name I can label them with...ummm...loverat...no...ummm...let'\\... just go with selfish). You have probably also experienced -particularly in tough economic times -- the client who makes every excuse under the sun not to pay your invoice, pushes out terms and sometimes doesn't pay at all. Basically, up until now you may have seen these inconveniences as simply that -- an inconvenience.  It affects your commission at the end of the quarter, you bitch about it for a couple of days and then you move on... What if your desk -- your business -- was depending on that money to pay your bills? To pay your salary, the rent, the phones, the advertising, the Friday night drinks etc. etc.