Find the Lost Dollars Blog
Introducing the Audiobook Version of “RAISE Your Value”
We are thrilled to unveil the latest addition to the "RAISE Your Value" family: the audiobook version! Following the tremendous success of the hard copy release last year, we recognized the need to cater to the busy and dynamic lifestyles of professionals in the...
5 TOP BUSINESS CHALLENGES A&E FIRMS FACE IN 2024
The business environment for A&E firm is changing due to growing competition, fee pressure, technology advances and hybrid work arrangements. Most A&E firms struggle to adapt to the fast pace of change. In working with A&E firms of every size and...
Increase Revenue with no Extra Work in 12 Months: The RAISE Your Value Fee Accelerator Program
We are excited to announce the launch of our new program – the RAISE Your Value $1M Fee Accelerator kicking off in January. This blog post will provide information about the program, the results you can expect to achieve and how you can be one of a small group of...
Strategic Advantage: Harnessing the VQ Assessment for A&E Excellence
In today's competitive landscape, architecture and engineering (A&E) firms face numerous challenges when it comes to differentiating themselves, maintaining profitability, and cultivating a company culture that truly embodies their values. In my newest book, RAISE...
Stop Sabotaging Your Success: Insights from Geostrata Magazine
In a recent article published in Geostrata Magazine by June Jewell, the key challenges and opportunities in the engineering and architectural sectors are discussed, shedding light on why some firms manage to charge high fees and achieve significant profits while...
Mastering the Art of Strategic Pricing: A Guide for A&E Firms
Many A&E firms lack strategic pricing. If you look at proposals from architects and engineers of all disciplines, most firms calculate and present their pricing in a similar way. Focusing solely on acquiring new clients or projects puts them at a disadvantage....
10 Steps to Raise Your Firm’s Value
Raising the perception of your firm's value among clients, employees, and the wider community holds the potential to profoundly transform your organization. This transformation promises several significant advantages. Firstly, it can lead to increased success in...
Training A&E Project Managers for High Financial Performance
We waited ten years for business to be booming again, and now that it is, most of our problems have gone away, right? In reality, we just have different problems, and for some firms, more problems. That is because as we grow and add more people, offices,...
Increase Fees and Achieve Client Goals: Crafting a Win-Win Scope of Services for A&E Projects
As an A&E professional, creating a robust scope of services is a crucial step in establishing strong client relationships, protecting your fees, and fostering opportunities for upselling. The process of defining the scope requires careful consideration, effective...
How to Build Unshakeable Confidence in Your Project Managers
Today’s A&E (Architecture & Engineering) project managers are challenged by staff labor shortages, turnover, client fee pressure and responsibility for tasks they are not trained to do. Some of these responsibilities include: Business Development and...
Maximizing Productivity and Nurturing Talent: Thriving Amidst A&E Labor Shortages
Dealing with an overwhelming workload and severe labor shortages has become an existential threat to A&E firm growth and success. All studies and data show this problem continuing long into the future. However, there are proactive measures that can be taken to not...
A&E Firm Sales Success: The Power of an Effective Sales Process
In the competitive world of Architecture and Engineering (A&E) firms, the sales process is a crucial aspect of success. Securing new projects and clients heavily depends on going after the right projects, managing sales opportunities, and submitting well-crafted...
Kleinschmidt Associates implements a strategic client acquisition and relationship strategy to double in size in a few years.
Success story provided by Jon Christensen, CEO, Kleinschmidt Associates During the past 35 years in the architecture and engineering (A&E) industry I have watched with deep frustration the slow deterioration in the assumed level of prestige and value of our...
Commoditization of the Architecture and Engineering Industry – It’s Time to RAISE Your Value
I am excited to announce the long awaited release of my new book, RAISE Your Value: 5 Steps for Architecture and Engineering Firms to Uncover Hidden Value, Design a Winning Advantage and Charge More. If you experience any of the following situations, you will benefit...
How to Measure Your Culture
Culture is a term that is tossed around quite a lot and used many different ways. While culture can mean a lot of things, it is often considered “squishy” and not measurable. Companies set goals to change their culture and then struggle to determine if they have been...
10 Challenges to Bringing Employees Back to the Office
In my Monday afternoon AEC Crisis Roundtable, I hear similar stories of confusion, anxiety and dismay. The Covid-19 pandemic has created many challenges, among the most complex being how to bring employees back into the office. One leader, Rich, summarized the problem...
How to Prepare for the Next Recession
I don’t know if there will be a recession in 2021. No one does. What I do know is that I have been through at least five difficult economic downturns since starting my business in 1990. And what I witnessed is that some firms were prepared and some were not. Some went...
6 Signs You Don’t Have “Great” Client Relationships
Every leader believes they have great client relationships. And many are counting on their long-term deep relationships with clients to help make it through whatever economic conditions are coming. With uncertainty in the future and an unstable environment no one has...
Ten Business Practices That Won’t Return to Normal
I often hear people say that they are hoping we get back to normal. It feels like there is no normal anymore. Everything we used to take for granted has changed. Simple things like sitting at a restaurant and being served the food of your choice are now exciting, and...
10 Questions to Remove Uncertainty From Your Business
The thing we all have in common right now is that it is difficult to predict the future. In my Monday AEC Crisis Roundtable meetings, the number one concern of A&E leaders right now is uncertainty. Without certainty it is challenging to develop strategy or plan...
10 Key Problems A&E Leaders are Working on This Week
Since this COVID-19 crisis started in March, I have been meeting with about 50 A&E leaders every Monday to discuss the new challenges they are facing in their businesses. I am thrilled at the level of participation, sharing and collaboration taking place in this...
How to Plan a Safe and Healthy Return to Work
We are all dreaming about getting back to normal but the life we knew before March 2020 will never be the same. It wasn’t easy quickly transitioning our teams to work at home and it will take much longer and much more detailed planning to get them back to the office. ...
How to Deepen Client Relationships During the Shutdown
For over 7 years I have been helping A&E firms embrace inbound marketing, remote working and paperless business management. The way people connect, do business, find each other and make money has become digitized over the last ten years. But it took a global...
10 Video Conferencing Best Practices for a Productive Meeting
In 2017 I implemented a policy in my business that we would conduct all meetings on video conference. Having a virtual business for over 30 years with very little in-person meetings, I found video conference to be a much more effective way to have a meeting or...
How to Create Financial Stability Now
The world is in turmoil and the current state of the world will quickly cause financial losses. You may already be seeing signs of an early decline. In times of uncertainty, business often slows to a crawl. Business owners and their clients don’t make decisions in...
Spring Cleaning for Your Business
Doesn’t it feel good to throw things away? I don’t know about you, but I hate clutter. It makes me feel stressed and disorganized. Every year I resolve to clean out my office, my garage, and all the drawers and closets in the house that get cluttered over the long...
Turning Processes to Profits
As a design and construction professional you know that a building is only as strong as its foundation. Without a strong foundation, a building will move and settle over time and have lots of problems. The same principles apply to your business. Processes and...
10 New Truths to Win Employees’ Hearts
Turnover sucks. It can ruin projects, destroy client relationships and infect employees with uncertainty. As we are all exposed to more information, it can be confusing to figure out what employees want and need. What will make them happy? What do you need to do to...
How to Review Your Decade
Happy New Year! Congratulations on another year and decade of growth and expansion! A lot has happened in the world, in the country, in the industry, and I’m sure, for you personally. Most A&E firms are much better off than they were ten years ago. But that...
{Guest Post} 4 KPIS to Track Business Development Success
Is your business development (BD) program successful? Whether you answered yes or no, here’s a question to ponder: how do you know? Two challenges facing professional services firms today are both having an understanding of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as well as...
{Guest Post} Five basic rules for better Go/No Go decisions in A/E/C industry
We fixate on go/no go in this industry. As we should. Go/no go is the pivotal decision point in A/E/C consulting firms’ business where we consider 'spending or not spending' our precious overhead dollars to pursue work. It is an important marketing and business...
2019 AEC Profitability Summit Attendees Find a Potential $39 Million in Lost Profits
The AEC Profitability Summit is an event developed specifically to help architecture and engineering firm leaders increase profits by focusing on implementing business management best practices. 2019 was our third Profitability Summit and this year we returned to...
How to Get Your Employees to Follow Profitable Best Practices
One of the most frustrating aspects of running a business is getting employees to follow your business processes. Whether it is submitting timesheets late, making mistakes on proposals, failing to respond to clients correctly or failing to get approvals for extra...
Stop Wasting Time! Get Your Employees to Work Smarter (Not Harder)
“According to a McKinsey report, employees spend 1.8 hours every day—9.3 hours per week, on average—searching and gathering information.” Source: http://utrconf.com/top-3-reasons-why-we-spend-so-much-time-searching-for-information/ One of your employees, let’s...
5 Steps to Get Your Leadership Team on the Same Page
Is your executive team on the same page about where your firm is heading? One of the most critical factors to successful A&E business results is being able to make the right decisions that will drive the firm’s growth and profitability. When there is a lack of...
5 Keys to Higher Profits and Happier Employees
You want higher profits and happier employees but getting both may seem impossible. The relationship between firm financial success and employee happiness is not always obvious, but higher profits enable investment in staff and systems that in turn, makes them enjoy...
7 Secret Causes of Scope Creep
Scope creep – that vicious blood-sucker that steals your project profits. When the scope of the work done exceeds what is promised in your contract, and you don’t get more money, you pay for it. It comes straight from your profit margins and can leave a project at a...
Focus on Business Excellence! How A Mid-size Environmental Firm Transformed Their Culture, Teams and Profits
In 2014 Hillmann Consulting, a then 100-person environmental consulting firm based in Union, NJ, found itself on the cusp of growth. They started seeing what many A&E firms experience when transitioning from a small local firm to a mid-size geographically...
The Three Biggest Challenges to Fast Growth in the A&E Firm (and what to do about them)
We waited ten years for business to be booming again, and now that it is, most of our problems have gone away, right? In reality, we just have different problems, and for some firms, more problems. That is because as we grow and add more people, offices, services,...
How to be a Top Tier A&E Firm
The majority of A&E firms will concur that 2017 and 2018 have been stellar years for the industry. Opportunities have been abundant, and economists are telling us that it is likely that the momentum will continue into next year. With this high volume...
QK Finds Lost Dollars with Profit-Enhancing Employee Development Program
“While I have always been concerned for the client, the company, project performance and profits, as an engineer my focus has always been on the technical aspect of the work. This focus on quality and technical excellence will never change. What has changed, however,...
10 Strategies to Boost Employee Retention
The number one challenge stated by our clients right now is hiring and retaining employees. Because finding experienced employees is so difficult in the A&E industry, many firms are getting creative with their compensation plans, benefits, profit-sharing and other...
10 Dirty Secrets of the Best A&E Firms
The Architecture, Engineering and Environmental industry is as hot as it has ever been in my 30-year tenure, yet even when work is booming, I still find even the best A&E firms struggle to meet targets in any given month, quarter or year. So many factors impact...
The Blessing and the Curse of Being So Busy
The Architecture and Engineering industry is busier right now than it has been in a long time. This is great for your firm – right? I talk with at least 5 to 10 A&E firm CEOs a week, and their results are surprisingly mixed. While it is obviously a booming market...
Why Some A&E Firms Make More Money Than Others
Many A&E firms come to me because their profits are too low, not hitting expected targets, and barely enabling the firm to grow. In most cases, their projects are making a profit – just not at the levels expected or needed. The leaders of these firms are...
10 Keys to Increasing Utilization
The employee utilization rate is one of a handful of key performance indicators (KPIs) used by A&E firms to measure the ability of the firm to keep employees working on billable projects.Your employees are your firm's primary asset and...
Tolerating Mediocrity – What is the Cost?
When we close our eyes and dream of the ideal business and team of employees, we imagine a world where there are no conflicts, everyone is a top performer, and we never have to give negative feedback. Not all employees are created equal But the reality is that not all...
Turning Around an Underperforming Team
Are you frustrated because not every team in your firm is hitting their goals or performing at their highest level? Unfortunately you may have groups that struggle to be profitable, have high turnover, or don’t embrace your firm’s culture. It can be difficult to hold...
10 Ways to Knock it Out of the Park in 2018
“If you're going to play at all, you're out to win. Baseball, board games, playing Jeopardy, I hate to lose.” - Derek Jeter 2017 had many ups and downs but overall was a good business year for the A&E industry. From the indicators I am seeing, the number of...
10 Estimating Mistakes that Kill Project Profits
You planned for your project to make 14% but you end up with 8%. So do you know what caused this loss of potential revenue that your firm was counting on? Was it: A. Deficient project management? B. Scope creep? C. Lack of systems and processes? D. Poor scope...
Why Accountability is NOT a Dirty Word
I was meeting with an engineering client recently that was explaining his firm’s culture. He said, “Accountability is a dirty word around here. We don’t measure anyone or have any consequences because we don’t like to punish people.” That statement stopped me...
Building an AEC Firm: It’s a Business, Not a Hobby
After 30 years as a Principal in the firm KCCT Architects in Washington, DC, Tom Twohey recently retired at the age of 79. Tom was one of the founding partners in the firm, and my client for the last 22 years. Unlike most architects, Tom had a business mind, and...
How to Strategically Grow and Retain Your Best Clients
Trying to get work in the door can be a challenging process for A&E firms, and many may be missing the easiest opportunity of all. Getting more work from existing clients! You may assume that your clients are giving you all the work they have, but what if they...
6 Steps to Find the Lost Dollars in Your A&E Firm
In my book Find the Lost Dollars: 6 Steps to Increase Profits in Architecture, Engineering, and Environmental Firms, I conclude with a final chapter that outlines the six steps that can guide you towards increasing your firm’s profitability. This article will...
Top Ten Reasons Change Initiatives Fail
Over and over again I have seen major change initiatives fail. In fact, studies show that over 70% of most internal initiatives fail to meet stakeholder expectations. Whether it is implementing a new system, a merger or acquisition, business process improvement,...
5 Ways to Increase Accountability in Your A&E Firm
If there is one issue that I have heard repeatedly in working with A&E firms over the last 27 years, it is the difficulty of getting employees to fully accept responsibility – to be held accountable for their actions and performance. This issue goes so deep, that...
Finding the Lost Dollars™ in Your Civil Engineering Firm Podcast
In today’s post we're sharing a podcast of an interview of June Jewell by Anthony Fasano of The Engineering Career Coach. >> Click HERE to listen Here are some key points discussed in the podcast: Many engineers are more focused on their technical skills,...
3 Estimating Lessons to Boost Project Profits
We have all had projects that for some reason did not meet our financial expectations. Overbudget projects happen for many reasons, including bidding on the wrong projects to begin with, underestimating the number of hours needed to successfully complete the project,...
10 Ways to Prosper in the Uncertainty of 2017
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. - John F. Kennedy If there is one thing we all know about 2017 it’s that we have no idea what is going to happen. This will be a year of change and...
10 Tips to Survive the Next Recession
Another recession is coming. It is inevitable. Based on past history, it should be next year. But these things are hard to predict, so all I will commit to at this point is that another dip is coming. And we don’t know how bad it will be. What I do know for sure is...
Time is Money: Improve Your Employee Time Management
Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time. ~Jim Rohn, American Speaker and Author In a professional services business, the expression “time is money” is truly accurate. Your employees’ time is the greatest asset your...
How to Save your Project Managers Two Hours a Week
The main complaint I am hearing from A&E firm leaders these days is how they would love to “find more time” for their project managers (PMs). With workloads the highest they’ve been for many years, and talented and experienced PMs difficult to hire, asking PMs to...
How to Get the Most Value from Investing in AEC Project Management Training
There is a growing trend in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industries to train project managers (PMs). Reasons include the obvious goal of improved performance – both qualitative and financial. Other reasons are grounded in the many challenges faced by...
Gannett Fleming Launches “Change is Good” to Spur Increased Growth
I was fortunate to get the opportunity to sit down with Gannett Fleming President Bob Scaer to discuss the January 1st launch of their major reorganization which he has endearingly named “Change is Good.” As bad a connotation that change has in the A&E industry,...
3 Reasons Why A&E Firm Owners Can’t Retire
“The exit that many leaders had thought would take place in their mid to late 50’s is now getting delayed to 65 and older.” As I enter my mid-fifties (never thought it would happen) I have become privy to many private conversations from my...
How to Get Leadership Buy-in for Business Management Training
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,...
How to Make 3% More on Your Next Project
In my book, Find the Lost Dollars, I focus on the impact of just a 1% increase in profits in nine areas of your business. The reason for focusing on such a small increase is twofold – first – it sounds easy. Most employees will gladly step up to help the...
Hillmann Consulting Finds Lost Dollars with Innovative Business Management Training Program
“We are making Finding Lost Dollars part of our culture now. That’s the way we want it, that was the whole idea of choosing the Find the Lost Dollars training. We have systems in place. We have processes. We have happy clients and are more profitable.” - Michael...
Are You Blowing Through Yellow Lights?
As we drive along the roads each day we make split second decisions. These decisions can have zero or life changing consequences, or anything in between. A cautionary yellow light can occur when driving slow or fast, far from the intersection or right in it. Once in a...
The Elusive “Right” Conversations A&E Firms Frequently Miss Getting Right
Conversations fuel A&E firms' success. Conversations are taking place all day long at A&E firms, yet 75% are the wrong conversations. Most conversations in your company are killing productivity, utilization rates and ultimately profits. Did you realize there...
christopher consultants Finds Lost Dollars in Just 10 Weeks
For over 33 years, christopher consultants (christopher) headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia has provided civil engineering, surveying, land planning, urban design and landscape architecture in the mid-Atlantic region. Founded by Christopher Brown (Chris) in 1982, the...
Holding Project Managers Accountable for Profitability
While most A&E firms expect their project managers (PMs) to deliver profitable projects, many have not put the appropriate measures in place to ensure that it happens. Accountability at the PM level is often vague and unstructured, which can lead to several...
10 Ways to Make More Money in 2016
It is hard to believe 2016 is here. I always get excited about the beginning of a new year - I look at it as an opportunity to start over, correct the mistakes of the past and achieve some of the goals that eluded me in the previous year. For most of our clients, 2015...
6 Keys to Building a Profitable Culture
Increased competition in the Architecture and Engineering (A&E) industry is driving down fees and making it feel like a buyer’s market. This is putting a squeeze on A&E firm profits, and forcing many firms to re-evaluate their strategy including how they go to...
{Guest Post} The Power of 1%
We have all heard the phrase, “work smarter, not harder” and yet I would venture to guess that few of us really understand how to do just that. There is however, a very simple concept that demonstrates the critically important issue of how to constantly improve...
How Accountable Learning Can Improve Financial Results
In looking where to invest limited dollars these days, it is critical that every penny spent provides a return on investment (ROI) above what other investments could deliver. Every dollar spent on one part of the business takes away investment in...
Why I Want My Firm to Be Like Tesla
I started a new business last year which gave me a unique opportunity to figure out my new brand – how I wanted AEC Business Solutions to be viewed and perceived in the marketplace. It is very exciting starting a new business after 25 years doing the...
New Industry Conference Launched – Aimed at Increasing Profits in Architecture & Engineering Firms
Industry leader AEC Business Solutions, LLC is launching a new conference aimed at helping Architecture and Engineering firm leaders to improve business management practices with the primary goal of increasing profits. The inaugural AEC Profitability...
3 Steps to Increase Your Fees Now
In a recent survey of our clients across the U.S., one of the most pressing concerns noted was how to raise fees. While the economy is improving, faster in some sectors and geographies than in others, fees for Architecture and Engineering firms are not increasing...
Your Profitable Journey – Kickoff a Transformation in Your A&E Firm
As I speak to our Architecture and Engineering clients around the country, the common goal is always how to maximize profits. The daily demands of running an architecture or engineering firm can be overwhelming. And the day to day demands of growing while still...
Too Busy to Work ON Your Business?
Too Busy to Work ON Your Business? 3 Steps to Ensure Important Change is Happening Many of you have probably read or heard of Michael Gerber’s best-seller The E-Myth which introduced the concept of working ON your business not in your business. This how-to...
AEC Business Solutions Partners with ACEC National to Provide New Educational Resources to the Engineering Industry
AEC Business Solutions, LLC is proud to announce that they have met the rigorous requirements to be able to provide continuing education credits and educational resources for Professional Engineers through the Registered Continuing Education Program (RCEP);...
Increase Business Value with Improved Processes and Systems
If you are thinking of retirement or considering selling your company in the next five years, one of your priorities should be to maximize and increase the business value of your company. This requires attention to the numbers, and ensuring that a potential buyer will...
Succession Planning and Your Exit Strategy: Are You Preparing Your Future Leaders?
I attend many industry events in the A&E industry such as conferences held by the ACEC, SMPS, and AIA, and have observed a trend lately that has me concerned. This trend is the aging of the A&E firm principals, and based on my recent conversations with staff...
What I Learned at Tony Robbins’ Business Mastery Training
I recently returned from Tony Robbins' Business Mastery training in Fiji. You might wonder why I would travel halfway around the world to attend a business training workshop. Those of you who follow Tony are probably aware of his powerful presence, and have a...
5 Ways to Love Your Business Again
Do you remember when you first started your business? The excitement was overwhelming, and the adrenalin was flowing. The main thoughts that occupied your mind were around getting new business, and how to make ends meet. But as your business grew, you realized that...
How to Manage Your Business Like an American Idol Competition
There are many popular reality shows on TV but American Idol has consistently ranked on the top of the charts for many years. Besides just the high quality singers, and celebrity judges, Americans are watching because of the desire to see unknown young people become...
Using Four Metrics to Analyze Performance of a Professional Services Firm
Sometimes the day to day demands of running a professional services business can be overwhelming, especially for creative and technical entrepreneurs and project managers that do not have a financial background. Trying to stay on top of administrative...
Change is the New Status Quo
Change in life and business is inevitable, and harder for some business owners than others. But the pace of change is faster now more than ever, and those who are weak and unwilling to adapt run the risk of being left in the dust. While this might sound like a cliché,...
Is Your Professional Services Firm Surviving or Thriving?
Three Growth Strategies for Professional Services Firms Times have changed and making money in a professional services business is harder than it used to be. It requires a more defined strategy, a focus on better client relationships, highly motivated and skilled...