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, the quality of their projects and the relationships with their clients and not focused on the money. Sometimes money is the last thing that gets paid attention to when working on a project and by the time you get to the end of the project you find that it wasn’t as profitable as you would hope it would be.
- Time and materials contracts are one where you bill your client for every hour that you work. Make sure that your billing rates are covering your costs of the project when you are billing clients hourly as a lot of money can get lost on time and materials contracts.
- The firms that share more financial data and help their managers to understand business and accounting concepts and financial terminology have better project profitability and their employees do a better job of managing the project.
- Improving your decision-making process on which project to go after and also by having a no-go process in place, will reduce the number of lost dollars on a project.
- Look at how you track your qualifications data and how you share the actual process of the project.
- If you do a poor job on your engineering proposal cost estimate, you are going to have a bad project with lots of problems occurring during the project. The key to a good estimate is asking a lot of questions and understanding your clients’ requirements and expectations.
- Scope creep is when the actual work that you do on a project exceeds what was agreed to in your contract outlined. There is always going to be scope creep during a project and how to react to it is very important.
- When you have a project budget, project managers have to keep their eye on every aspect of it to ensure not losing unnecessary money.
- The more you can do to tie all of your databases together, the more your employee proficiency will get improved.
- Identify who your good clients are. Bad clients drain your resources and can potentially be causing you to lose money on your profit margin of your project.
Listen now on The Engineering Career Coach
>> Click HERE to listen
About Anthony Fasano
Anthony Fasano, PE, LEED AP
The Engineering Career Coach
Author of Engineer Your Own Success
“Professional engineer turned author/speaker originally from New York who makes a living helping engineers be successful both professionally and personally.” Learn more >
JOIN THE RAISE YOUR VALUE AUDIOBOOK LAUNCH TEAM
Help us get the audiobook off the ground and you'll receive the following benefits:
- Be among the first to hear the audiobook and give feedback
- Invitation for you and your leadership team to attend an exclusive web training to learn and discuss how to implement the 5-Step RAISE Your Value Formula in your firm
- Up to 20% discount on the RAISE Your Value online workshops for 12 months
- Corporate discounts on bulk orders of books
- Exclusive invitation to join us for our RAISE Your Value Audiobook Virtual Launch Party!
- Invitations to participate in other live and virtual events, workshops, book signings and other educational opportunities
More From the Find the Lost Dollars Blog...
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...