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...
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...
AEC Business Solutions Announces 2019 Find the Lost Dollars Client Awards Finalists
Reston, VA – The Find the Lost Dollars™ Client Awards were designed to recognize our clients who have realized the greatest financial impact, culture change and individual performance improvement as a result of completing the Find the Lost Dollars™...
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...
Over 12 Million Lost Dollars Found at 2018 AEC Profitability Summit
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. The 2018 Summit, held at the beautiful Eden Roc resort in Miami...
AEC Business Solutions Announces 2018 Find the Lost Dollars™ Client Award Winners
PRESS RELEASE Reston, VA – The Find the Lost Dollars™ Client Awards were designed to recognize our clients who have realized the greatest financial impact, culture change and individual performance improvement as a result of completing the Find the Lost Dollars™...
AEC Business Solutions Announces 2018 Find the Lost Dollars Client Awards Finalists
Reston, VA – The Find the Lost Dollars™ Client Awards were designed to recognize our clients who have realized the greatest financial impact, culture change and individual performance improvement as a result of completing the Find the Lost Dollars™ Training Program....
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...
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...
Improving the Business Side of Engineering
Today’s post is by our guest author Becky White, Vice President/Organization Development of Sain Associates, Inc. Becky has more than 26 years of project experience in transportation planning for public and private sector clients. In her Organization Development role,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
6 Ways to Differentiate Your A&E Firm
Are you feeling the pinch of reduced fees and increasing salaries these days? You are not alone. Pressure on profit margins is causing many architecture and engineering firms to revisit their strategy and look for ways to differentiate from their competition....
Hot Topics at the 2015 Zweig Awards Conference
For the 7th straight year I attended the Zweig Industry Awards Conference held at the beautiful Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston. This event, previously held as three separate conferences, recognizes the Hottest Firms, the Best Firms to Work For, and Marketing Excellence...
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...
{Guest Post} 6 Steps to Holding Employees Accountable
Ineffective communication is the root of all evil. Recent research has shown that the average employee in a professional services firm wastes 40-minutes per day due to ineffective communication alone. In the average company with an average payroll this equates...
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...
Top 10 Topics Discussed at the ACEC Large Firm CEO Roundtable This Year
In April, I attended the Large Firm Roundtable at the ACECNational Conference to find out what pressing issues are top of mind for our clients. ACEC defines a large firm as 200 to 500 employees, and we work with a lot of firms this size. These roundtables are mostly...
Guest Post: Find the Lost Dollars™ Book Review
Today's post is by our guest author Scott D. Butcher, FSMPS, CPSM. Scott is Vice President of JDB Engineering, Inc. and President-elect of the SMPS Foundation. He has more than two decades of A/E/C marketing experience and is a Fellow of the Society for Marketing...
7 Video Marketing Ideas for A/E Firms
Today's post is by our guest author Brian M. Fraley, Founder, Manager and Chief Strategist for Fraley AEC Solutions, LLC. Video is trending upward in marketing. Did you know that YouTube is the 2nd largest Internet search engine? The truth is that it was always...
Implementing Accounting Software is Like Moving to a New House
If you have moved your home in the last few years then the pain of making the move is probably still fresh in your mind. For some, it is so painful that they pledge to never go through the process again. For others, the memories die away, and the reality of the next...
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...
How To Gain A Competitive Advantage in Your A&E Firm – Part 4
This post is part 4 of a 6-part series analyzing marketing trends, technology, and the role of the marketer in an A&E firm. The previous three posts looked at the culture of an A&E firm and how it affects marketing success, trends in marketing and where...
Improve Marketing Results with Marketing Technology – Part 3
This week’s post is focused on marketing technology as a way to improve marketing results and the win rate in A&E firms. In Part 1 of this 6-part series, I wrote about the culture in A&E firms that does not value marketing resources, and in Part 2 we looked at...
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...
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...
Welcome to Find the Lost Dollars!
Hello and welcome! As we get ready for the launch of my new book, Find the Lost Dollars: 6 Steps to Increase Profits in Architectural Engineering and Environmental Firms, my hope is that here you can find valuable resources and information to help you build and grow...