My 3 Levers to Increase Your eLearning Profit Margins by 20% or More

When I first began my professional career as a Certified Public Accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, I learned something that’s still at the core of everything I do today: profit margins tell the truth about a business. No matter how inspiring your mission or how large your top line, the true measure of sustainability lies in your ability to generate profit efficiently. Years later, as the owner of eLearning Partners, I’ve come to see how this same principle applies to one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world eLearning.

What surprises most organizations is how easily profit can slip away in their learning and development programs. They might spend hundreds of thousands—sometimes millions—on technology and content that no longer serves them. They might keep producing new courses without realizing that only a fraction drives real results. Or they might miss the exponential growth available to them simply because they’re thinking too small.

That’s why I built a framework around three specific levers that can increase your eLearning profit margins by 20% or more. These levers have helped my clients—from emerging startups to S&P 500 enterprises—save six figures annually and scale their impact globally. And today, I want to share all of this with you in this blog post (and in the YouTube video linked here and podcast episode linked here).

Lever 1: Upgrade your tech stack

When I audit an organization’s eLearning systems, I often find the same pattern: they’re overpaying for outdated technology. Many of these companies—especially those generating $50 million or more in annual revenue—are spending five to 200 times what they should on their platforms. It’s not because they’re careless. It’s because eLearning, as an industry, is still relatively young.

Think about it. The first commercially available computer in the 1950s cost the equivalent of over $12 million today. Now, our phones outperform that computer a thousandfold and cost less than a thousand dollars. Technology has advanced dramatically, but most organizations haven’t updated their learning tech to match. They’re still paying enterprise prices for systems that were top of the line ten years ago but are now slow, clunky, and overpriced.

The truth is, today’s eLearning software can be both better and cheaper. I’ve seen organizations spending $50,000 to $1 million per year on learning platforms when modern, high-value tools like Kajabi or TalentLMS can accomplish the same goals—or more—for a fraction of the price. Kajabi, for example, is ideal for selling external courses and digital programs. TalentLMS is built for internal training and employee development. Both are easy to implement, integrate with other systems, and can cost less than $1,000 per month.

Just by switching to a modern tech stack, many of my clients save five to six figures annually. That’s the kind of win-win I call “higher value, lower cost.” It’s like filling your car with premium gas from Costco—it performs better, costs less, and keeps your engine running longer.

The first step toward increasing your eLearning profit margin is to look at where your money is going and ask a simple question: Is this still the best use of our resources? If not, upgrading your tech stack might be the easiest lever you’ll ever pull.

And this is exactly why I created my eLearning Platform Finder™—to help you find the perfect eLearning platform for your business in a matter of seconds. You’ll get instant access to a free trial of your matched platform, a free course to help you and your team set everything up, and once you start paying for the platform, you’ll also receive a complimentary Platform-to-Profit Strategy Session™ with me to maximize your organization’s ROI.

Lever 2: Apply the 80/20 rule (and the 64/4 rule)

Once you’ve streamlined your technology, the next step is to optimize your efforts. The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, states that 80% of results come from 20% of efforts. In business terms, that means a small percentage of your programs or initiatives are likely driving the majority of your profit and impact.

I’ve seen this pattern play out repeatedly. One of my clients, a global real estate data company, generates nearly all of its eLearning profit from just two flagship certification programs. Those two programs represent only 20% of their total catalog but deliver more than 80% of the revenue. But you can go even deeper. When you apply the 64/4 rule—that is, 64% of results come from just 4% of your efforts—you can uncover the real gold in your business. For that same client, one single program accounted for nearly two-thirds of total eLearning revenue. By concentrating our time, energy, and budget there, we achieved exponential growth while cutting waste elsewhere.

This principle doesn’t just apply to revenue. You can use it to evaluate costs, staffing, and operations too. When I looked at my own company’s expenses, I realized I was still paying for an office I rarely used. I served clients all over the world remotely, yet I was spending $18,000 per year on a space I visited once a week. That came out to about $350 every time I walked in the door. The day I canceled that lease, my profit margin instantly improved.

Ask yourself: What expenses are you maintaining out of habit rather than necessity? Which courses, systems, or processes drive the majority of your results? Eliminate the rest. Focus your energy where it truly counts, and your profit margins will reflect that clarity.

Lever 3: Think 10x instead of 2x

The third lever is less about spreadsheets and more about mindset. It’s what I call 10x thinking—a shift that changes how you view growth entirely.

Most organizations think in terms of incremental gains: doubling revenue, adding a few new clients, or modestly improving efficiency. That’s 2x thinking. It’s safe and logical, but it often keeps you stuck in old patterns. 10x thinking, on the other hand, challenges you to imagine exponential growth and then design systems that make it possible.

For example, if you’re generating $2 million from your eLearning programs, your instinct might be to hire twice as many people or double your ad spend to reach $4 million. But what if, instead, you asked, How could we generate $20 million with the same team? That question forces creative, systems-level solutions.

In my experience, 10x growth rarely comes from working harder—it comes from working smarter. It means upskilling your existing team through eLearning. It means integrating AI to automate repetitive tasks and empower employees to focus on what actually moves the needle. It means redesigning your programs so they deliver ten times more value to learners without ten times the cost.

I first learned this mindset from authors Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan in their book 10x Is Easier Than 2x. They argue that aiming for tenfold improvement simplifies decision-making because it forces you to focus only on what’s truly transformative. The companion book, The Science of Scaling, expands on how organizations can apply this framework to grow efficiently. Both are required reading for my clients and team.

When you combine 10x thinking with the 80/20 rule and modern technology, the compounding effect is extraordinary. You don’t just save money—you build a learning ecosystem capable of scaling indefinitely.

Bringing it all together

These three levers—upgrading your tech stack, applying the 80/20 rule, and adopting 10x thinking—work in harmony. Together, they can help you increase your eLearning profit margin by 20% or more, often within a single fiscal year.

The beauty of this framework is that it’s entirely actionable. You can implement it yourself by reviewing your current systems, running a cost-benefit analysis, and identifying your top-performing programs. Or, if you want a partner to help you accelerate the process, that’s exactly what my team at eLearning Partners does through our Enterprise Learning Accelerator™ program. We work directly with organizations to modernize their technology, simplify their systems, and scale their learning impact—often saving six figures annually even after paying our fee.

If your company is generating $50 million or more in annual revenue, has 200 to 500 employees, and manages internal or external learning programs, you may be the perfect candidate for this partnership. We don’t just consult; we become your eLearning partner, guiding you step by step through transformation.

At the end of the day, improving profit margins isn’t about cutting corners—it’s about aligning your efforts with what truly drives value. When you modernize your technology, focus on your highest-impact programs, and think 10x instead of 2x, your organization becomes more efficient, resilient, and profitable.

That’s what I want for every business I work with: a learning program that doesn’t just educate, but accelerates growth. If you’re ready to pull these three levers in your organization, you’ll be amazed at how far they can take you.