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...
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...
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,...
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....
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...
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Protected: Focus on Finding Lost Dollars in Your Business
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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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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...
Developing Superstar Project Managers
In looking at the operations of an Architecture or Engineering firm, it is evident that the project manager (PM) role is the key to success. In addition to their normal project management responsibilities, most PMs are also involved in many other aspects of firm...
AEC Business Solutions Announces Launch of Innovative Training Platform with Three Days of Launch Events
Leading Provider of Profitability and Assessment Solutions for AEC Firms Launches their Proprietary Platform During Three Days of Events Spanning Two Cities. AEC Business Solutions, a leading provider of profitability and assessment solutions for Architectural,...
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);...
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...
You Asked and We Listened: Find the Lost Dollars Training Courses Are Here!
Find the Lost Dollars: 6 Steps to Increase Profits in Architecture, Engineering and Environmental Firms, authored by June R. Jewell, CPA was published in 2013. Since its release many readers asked how June could help them take the book from information to...
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...
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,...
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...