A little financial advice from an industry insider to help in these tough times… June Jewell, a CPA and owner of Acuity Business Solutions consulting (and author of author of “Find the Lost Dollars: 6 Steps to Increase Profits in Architecture, Engineering, and Environmental Firms), says the architectural, engineering and environmental firms she works for easily lose $100,000 each year through inefficient and ineffective practices. There are several nooks and crannies in which firms are apt to lack efficiency:
Company culture: the founders tend to go into business because they’re creative people who love what they do — not because they’re business people. So they don’t focus on profits, and they tend to be casual managers with regard to employees’ time
Ineffective practices: Failure to create an accurate, meticulous job estimate, for instance, can have multiple consequences, from having disappointed clients to jeopardize projects to losing money because time, materials and other costs were not accurately forecast.
Systems & IT: Technology is able to help companies leverage their resources more effectively, yet many of them are still using outdated software and non-integrated systems. While the transition from old to new software has its cost in time and work, the efficiency gained in future work production is worth it.
See complete details – Architectural, Engineering & Environmental Firms Lose an Average 100K a Year, CPA Says
