Many of our clients see the need to improve the business acumen of their project managers (PMs) and other technical staff. Even the project managers themselves, many of who have come up through technical ranks and have little to no formal project management training, are begging for it. But, it’s difficult getting firm leaders to agree to the best approach and take action. They know on some level it will probably payoff with increases in profits, higher customer satisfaction, etc. But how can they be sure?

Different options include 2-day bootcamps out of the office, in-house training, bringing in outside consultants to customize training for your firm, or industry-specific online training. Each method has it’s pros and cons but most firms agree that the training needs to address the key issues that are causing dollars to get lost, causing lower than expected profits.

Having trouble getting leadership buy-in for business management training? 

Without leadership buy-in, support and the very important (but often overlooked) aspect of also participating themselves, your training program can fail to gain momentum and acceptance throughout your firm. Studies show that when leaders get involved with training programs they are much more likely to be successful and show positive results.

How can you gain consensus with your firm executives around investing in training for your project leaders and demonstrate the impact that business management skills can have on your firm’s success?

AEC Business Solutions’ online Find the Lost Dollars Business Management Training Program is a great option for busy PMs that can’t leave the office or lose billable time on projects. Here are a few tips for leveraging our resources to get your firm leaders to move forward with the Find the Lost Dollars program.

Leverage our Amazon best selling book – Find the Lost Dollars: 6 Steps to Increase Profits in Architecture, Engineering and Environmental Firms

When looking to implement the Find the Lost Dollars AEC Business Management Training Program in your firm you have the added benefit of the book (used as the basis for the training content), Find the Lost Dollars: 6 Steps to Increase Profits in Architecture, Engineering and Environmental Firms to help you to introduce the concept of a 1% increase in profits to your executive team.

Download your complimentary copy of the book and encourage your key executives to do the same.  In the book you will find 9 Areas Where Money Gets Lost in the A&E Firm, choose one of these that you feel is most applicable to your company, and use the resources in the book to recommend a measurable change in your firm.  Even better, take the full initiative and put that change into action.

Once you have shown that the recommendations in the book will help you increase profitability and improve business management processes, you will have an easier time of getting the team to fully evaluate the training.

Here’s the experience one Amazon reviewer had:

“I first found out about this book in our industry newsletter for the Society of Design Administration. The article got my attention and I wanted to read the book. I immediately went to June’s website and signed up for her blog and a free chapter of the book. When I read the Introduction it was like she was writing about the company I work for. I begged our management group to read it. After getting a few people to read the free chapter it was decided that the book would be required reading for all management before our annual planning retreat. It was the best planning retreat we have ever had. It opened our eyes to some changes we could implement to increase our profitability. It increased their awareness of all aspects of our firm. I have the book on my Kindle and I have a hardcover copy that stays on my desk. I refer to it all the time. Our industry has needed a book like this for a very long time.”

Calculate Your 1%

A small change of just 1% or 2% increase in three key metrics – the win rate, utilization rate and project profit margin  – can be a lot of money for your firm each year.

We have found that money talks! Calculate your 1% increase in these 3 metrics using AEC’s Find the Lost Dollars Calcualtor and show your leaders what is at stake.

Do Our AEC Business Management Assessment

Use this resource to have your staff let management know exactly how your business management people, processes and systems are viewed and understood. This anonymous survey tool gives you scores and recommendations in a full color report that can be shared with the leadership team. It will help you understand where employees may be struggling, need training or where processes are not optimizing performance. The recommendations in nine areas of your business are broken down by people, processes and systems, and can provide a great starting point for productive discussions around where to invest in your business.

Organize a Find the Lost Dollars Session with your leadership team

After your results from the Business Management Assessment have been tallied and reported on, put together a group session with your leadership team to discuss the recommendations and next steps.  At the end of the session, present your ideas for taking the content of the Find the Lost Dollars book and the results of the Assessment to the next level by having your team participate in the full 10 hour online Business Management Training.

Talk to our team at AEC Business Solutions for more ideas on what to present at this meeting. We can help you determine your firm’s best approach for getting the most results from the training and how to present it to your Principal team. We can even facilitate these meetings if outside guidance is needed.

A dedicated leadership event like this will allow you to properly educate your executive audience on the importance of business managment training.