99 Problems but....

99 is a lot of problems, how about 9 common problems and some solutions.

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1) Difficulty making a decision. Engineers too often really struggle with this one. There’s never enough information. Therefore, it is deemed best to do nothing. This kills you when you are in business where your clients and employees need answers – or where delays implementing critical strategic initiatives translate into lost opportunities. 2) A lack of control over cash flow optimization. Changes with project management can make huge impacts on your average collection period, and the money will flow back into your accounts....Read more here. 3) Selling. Architects and engineers wait for clients to tell us what THEY want or need and then give them a proposal. That may seem perfectly normal to you. What’s wrong with it is that when you play this game you’ll almost always have competition and even if you don’t, fee will be an issue. Many people in this industry are afraid of selling & don't know how to communicate their firm's services. 4) A need for "soft-skills" training. 5) Understaffed marketing. Being billable and maximizing utilization is natural to us and offers instant gratification. This is one reason that firms have trouble investing in marketing anywhere close to where they should be. 6) Lack of ownership transition or succession plans. You're not going to live forever, and you probably don't want to work until the day you die. A crisis could descend upon many design firms because owners have not taken the necessary steps to assure their companies will go on after they exit. 7) Firm Value. Most people in the A/E industry are not thinking about firm value and don't understand the activities that create value. "What's your firm is worth?" sounds like a straightforward question, but it’s not. There are multiple metrics that can be used to determine a firm’s value. 8) Constantly changing technology. There will be a lot of uncertainty with new companies and technologies vying for dominant design in the next 10 to 30 years. It is important to have some criteria in place to intelligently embrace and implement emerging technology into your enterprise. 9) Finding & retaining new people. One of the biggest challenges facing the AEC industry is old interviewing habits. Here are three things you can start doing to make sure you don’t get left in the recruiting past. Need one more reason? Zweig Group offers a seminar to designed to improve the effectiveness of project management. Learn more and register today!