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 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...
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...
{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...
5 Steps to Help Your Project Managers Succeed
Your project managers (PMs) face daily challenges to their success that they are unprepared for. Becoming a PM can feel like moving to a foreign country – everything feels strange and everyone is speaking a different language. PMs today have more demands on their...
{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...
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...
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...
Are Your Clients Taking Advantage of You?
In today’s post we're sharing a podcast of an interview of June Jewell by STEVE GORDON on The Unstoppable CEO. >> Click HERE to listen If you have a professional service firm… you can’t miss this one. Have you ever done a project and ended up making less than...
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...
5 Crucial Steps for Project Manager Success
The success of your Project Managers (PMs) can make or break your firm. Right? Considering all of the tasks that the typical project manager is required to perform, it is no wonder that many PMs get frustrated or even lose money! I did an assessment of the typical...
Reinventing Your Culture to Enable Growth
The drive for progress doesn't wait for the external world to say "It's time to change." - Jim Collins, Best-selling Author, Good to Great Recently I was talking with a prospective client about challenges they were facing with their project management....
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...
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,...
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...
6 Steps to Win on Value Instead of Price
We've all been there, sitting in front of that client we know we don't want to work with. But the fear takes over. The fear of not having enough work. So we don't walk away. We succumb to the pressure and lower our fee. Or maybe it is our best client, and he is...
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...
Making a Difference – One Client at a Time
We all work hard every day and hope that what we are doing is adding value to our clients. We usually don’t get much feedback about whether our work is making an impact, although occasionally something happens that puts a smile on your face and makes it all worth it....
Do You Have a Strong Project Management Culture?
There were many trends discussed for engineering firms at the 2013 national American Consulting Engineers Council (ACEC) national conference last month in Washington, DC. I always pay close attention to these discussions in order to make sure I am on top of the latest...
Profitability Expert June R. Jewell Raises Awareness of How Corporate Culture Is Stealing Profits from Business Firms
For Immediate Release Profitability Expert June R. Jewell, CPA, Raises Awareness of How Corporate Culture Is Stealing Profits from Business Firms Vienna, Virginia– April 26, 2013 A company’s corporate culture could be its own worst enemy, according to profitability...
Ten Culture Traps that Steal Your Profits
The culture of your firm directly impacts your profitability. How you look at money, deal with your financial management, and manage your staff directly translates into policies, processes and behaviors that cause projects to go over budget. Without a healthy focus on...