Full Sail Partners Blog (57)

Not all business buzzwords are created equal. For example, “collaboration” is red-hot among buzzwords today — but unlike other momentarily popular topics, the concept has been around a long time, but is now being addressed via technology designed to leverage the Internet. Collaboration apps and platforms typically take advantage of the Internet to enable the sharing of documents, ideas, calendars and more with colleagues. In fact, the more one embraces collaboration, the more implications one can find for teamwork, innovation and growth.

Here’s a quick look at the 5 best collaboration tools available today.

Kona

Kona is a cloud-based social collaboration/productivity platform for individuals and groups that enables file sharing, task/event management, and comments and conversations via Skype and instant messaging. It also integrates easily with other collaboration platforms and products, including Dropbox, iCloud, Google Docs and even SharePoint (if that’s your collaborative bag). 

In addition, Kona includes templates to expedite repeatable projects and processes, and can function as a company’s Private Social Network and shared calendar. Even better, Kona’s mobile app compliments its desktop functionalities, letting users track work from anywhere. Take it for a test drive by checking out the free trial version.

join.me

JoinMe is an elegantly simple (at least, simple to the end user) solution that allows you to share screens with anyone anywhere over an Internet connection. JoinMe can accommodate up to 10 meeting participants, and allows the meeting initiator to choose which items to share with whom, and enables chatting with one participant at a time or all at once. Keep in mind that these features are all in the free version — a fact that helped it land on our list of the 5 best collaboration tools.

Doodle

Doodle is a handy meeting scheduling/tracking tool for Android device users. Designed to integrate seamlessly with Google Calendar, Doodle makes it easy to find the right date and time for a group of people to meet. You can use the basic service for free at doodle.com, without the need to register or install software. With easy-to-use polling capabilities and real-time commenting tools, it’s also available as a low cost app for Android devices.

Dropbox

Currently in use by over 200 million people, Dropbox is a cloud-based platform for file sharing and accessing. Users designate a special folder on their computer that Dropbox synchronizes with similar folders the user creates on their other computers and devices. Any files that the user places in the Dropbox folder also are accessible through a website and mobile phone applications. Available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux desktop operating systems, Dropbox also offers apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry devices. Options range from a free version to DropBox for Business ($15/user/month).

Skype

Skype enables free video and voice calling to anyone else using Skype, as well as instant messaging and file sharing. Alternatively, a modestly-priced version of Skype includes low rates on calls to mobile devices and landlines worldwide, text messaging and group video calls for up to 10 people. Users can take part in Skype calls using a wide variety of devices, from desktop computers and mobile devices to home phones, certain TVs, and even devices you might not think of as collaboration tools, such as PlayStations Vitas and iPod Touches.

Join the collaborative world

As you can see from the 5 best collaboration tools mentioned above, the world of collaboration choices and tools is exploding. But before you jump in and start rubbing virtual elbows with colleagues on the other side of the world, keep in mind two bits of advice:

1. As attractive as their price tags may be, the free versions of all of these apps and platforms have limitations. For example, you may be limited in the number of participants you can accommodate and the amount of data you can share — and you may have to endure the occasional advertisement as well.
2. Remember that integration with your existing apps (especially your calendar) as well as other collaboration apps is critical. Some of these apps, such as Kona, play well with almost all of the apps mentioned above; others, not so much. The more seamless the integration between your various collaboration apps, the bigger the impact on productivity and ease of use.

Despite those caveats, each of these tools can truly transform aspects of the way you work with colleagues. The result could be better ideas, more effective teams, and possibly even a better quality of life. Just imagine how nice it would be to cut down the time you spend setting up, going to and from, and sitting in meetings — not to mention, take part in them from the comfort of your own home, cubicle, or coffee shop! 

 

As the New Year begins, most businesses, including ours, look for ways to drive even greater success than last year. If you are like most professional services firms, you evaluate project performance based largely on the efficiency with which the project is completed.  Unfortunately for most firms, they only look at half of the equation.

Evaluate Client Feedback for the Full Picture

Client feedback should focus on helping clients achieve the long-term success they desire by measuring all the metrics important to project performance. As the title suggests, this includes measuring both financial metrics and client metrics. Client metrics measure how well your process is meeting your client’s expectations at each stage of the project. If your team is not asking whether their client’s expectations are being met, they are making three dangerous assumptions:

1. An existing project delivery process will meet a new client's expectations (or a new project manager will meet an existing client’s expectation)
2. A client’s expectations of the project manager they have worked with before is not influenced by external factors
3. You and the client have the same understanding of project communication, deliverables, etc.

Benefits of Client Feedback

When your firm uses real-time, project-based feedback, you give your clients the opportunity to share their changing preferences and priorities with you throughout the project. You eliminate the assumptions that can result in poor project performance and unmet expectations. You strengthen your relationships with your clients as they realize that you really care about their goals. Ultimately, because the feedback you request is designed to benefit your client, you also give them the ability to help you help them achieve the success they desire.

Some of the benefits of improving your project performance and creating success for your firm include:

• Establishing a reputation as experts, elite players with a premium brand.
• Reducing or eliminating re-work and scope creep
• Becoming the ‘go-to’ firm
• Impacting the bottom line by providing a steady stream of profitable work

As 2014 gets underway, let’s challenge ourselves. Instead of measuring the same things you have in the past and expecting different results, take the strategic step of tracking the metrics that matter. Just like, Peter Drucker says, “what is measured improves”.  So the question to ask yourself is: Are you measuring the metrics needed to create the success you desire? Click below to learn more about measuring client metrics to create firm success. 

 

Are you ready? Year-end is upon us. We thought we would highlight some resources to assist firms with year-end processing.

Don't Forget Your Deltek Vision Year End Processes

As we come into the holiday season many of us in accounting face the coming season, not only with the joy of family and friends coming together, but with a sense of impending dread – YEAR-END and TAX SEASON are looming – ugh - have another drink.

W-2s - 1099s - journal entries - checking and double checking each number!  Auditors - shareholder meetings - endless explanations’ of what the results mean (even though you have been saying for the past 6 months) - Oh the joy of the season!

As we go through the year-end process there are mistakes we (and others) make that are easy to recover from like entering the 15 page depreciation journal entry “backwards” at midnight sitting in your semi dark office chugging your 15th pot of coffee.  Some are more difficult – like removing all the lower levels of your work break-down structure (did that once – glad our backups worked). So outside of deleting the database, what are some of the items in Vision year end processing that are hard to recover from?

>> Learn more

Is Your Deltek Vision System Year End Process Stress Free?

Year-end is always a stressful time of year, but it doesn’t have to be.  As with everything else in the world of Accounting, planning and preparation is the key to a successful and stress-free year end. Check out this article talk provides a few tips to make your year-end close just a little easier.

>> Prepare more

Webinar: Stress Free Year-End Process - Yes You Can!

Join our on-demand webinar to see how you can make your year-end stress free.  Our panel will provide insight into best practices, tips to close your books with ease, and focus on those “gotchas” on year-end processes. See what our panel says about the following year-end items:

1. How to make your process efficient
2. Avoid disruption to production
3. Communication topics to provide your staff and management
4. Saving money by evading closing obstacles

>> View more

Deltek’s Year End Resources

Deltek Customer Care is working to assist you with year-end activities. You can now take advantage of year-end resources:

• Year-End Forums

• Phone Menu Guidance

• Year-End Info Center

• Quick Chat Guidance

• Year-End Guides & Videos

>> Know more

We hope these resources serve as good reminder. Best wishes from the Full Sail Partners' staff! Wishing you a prosperous 2014.

When it comes to proving the value of marketing efforts, often professional services marketers have to prove their worth to the financial department through a language that they understand – Marketing Metrics! This often means a series of pre-determined metrics for measuring marketing ROI (return on investment). 

Marketers are often challenged with measuring marketing ROI. Many times it’s because we are don’t have access to the right type of data or in some cases it’s because we don’t know what to measure. This is where having a good relationship with finance can help you be a better marketer. To better develop the relationship and expectations between marketing and finance, we suggest fostering a relationship of understanding and sharing. 

Having the financial department on your side is one of the greatest feats any marketer can accomplish – If finance buys in, you can be assured that it is only a matter of time until everyone else falls in place! 

No matter how copasetic our relationship is with our financial department, we have to be ready to report on marketing ROI at a moment’s notice so here are some steps to take to gain a better relationship. 

Talking the Talk 

If you are looking at building a better relationship with accounting, in my experience the first bridge to cross is to put yourself in their shoes. When you think about what functions accounting is responsible for, you can easily understand their hesitancy to buy in to the marketing plan without cold hard data to evaluate. Instead of running from this hurdle, attack it straight on! Schedule a kick-off meeting with finance to address the plan, and allow them to voice any concerns. 

The goal during the kick-off session is to ease accounting’s anxiety.  Allow the finance department a chance to express their suggestions and concerns. Continue to reassure the finance team that through the marketing metrics established by your firm, you will be consistently measuring marketing ROI throughout the year to ensure that the marketing team’s plans and efforts stay on track.

Walking the Walk 

The quickest way to gain buy in is to lead by example. You know your job better than finance knows your job. Identify areas that your marketing efforts affect that might not be easily identified.  One way a Marketer can begin to do this on their own is to think about the data that you need to do their job better. Come to the kick off meeting ready to show your finance team that you understand their concerns, by identifying previously overlooked metrics for measuring marketing ROI. This will demonstrate to finance that you are looking at metrics that can help impact the growth of the company and further prove your value to the firm. 

If you are interested in learning more, review this blog article that discusses evaluating your business growth plan with metrics. This introduction can be applied to developing marketing metrics that help identify how your efforts are helping the firm grow. 

Here are important questions marketers can ask accounting to start the conversation on how the firm can start measuring marketing ROI:

1. Retaining & Gaining Clients: I’m looking to understand our total customer growth. Do we have a way to determine by percentage and revenue the amount of our work we’ve received is new vs. existing clients throughout the year?
2. Pursuing the Right Client: I’m been looking at how we can be more strategic in our pursuit of clients. Would it be beneficial to advise you when I see we are pursuing more work with clients that we are having AR issues with?
3. Forecasting and Backlog: Can you help me understand what our break-even is and do we have a way to see what our current backlog is? I’d like to help make sure we have enough business coming in the pipeline for each market or division.
4. Effectiveness: Can you help me better understand how I affect the bottom line? Developing metrics that help you understand the financials behind your results can help you fine tune your approach. 

Often times your finance team is not questioning the value of the marketing team -- they are however questioning the tactics (and results!) being used. Often times as marketers we can get lost down in the weeds and lose sight of the overall firm goals. By proving efforts through metrics and marketing ROI, we start speaking a language that our financial team can understand. 

As professional services marketers, start showing your finance team that you care by measuring marketing ROI, and building better relationships between marketing and finance to demonstrate the value of promotional efforts.

For more information, view the below webinar: 

We all love this this time of year when EVERYONE (in management at least) is coming at you to peer into the crystal ball to see what the upcoming year will bring -- everyone else is simply wondering if they will get a holiday bonus. With all of the tasks ahead for year-end, you may feel as though you will be lucky enough to make it to the New Year, let alone forecast what is going to happen!

Budget, budget, toil and fudge it (not as well-known as bubble, bubble, toil and trouble, but more appropriate). 

Most often you are expected to reach out to everyone in the firm to pull together a web of disparate “visions” for the various divisions of the firm, get buy in from everyone, set pay rates and bill rates, set annual goals for every person in the firm and publish your findings so that everyone can have proper “visibility”.  Just when you have it all together and about ready to go, someone transfers or quits or gets hired and everyone wants to you to “simply update the budget”. Fun times – just before the holidays. Unfortunately, if you are attempting to manage the undertaking of forecasting in Excel, you are causing yourself unneeded stress in an already stressful situation!

What are some of the hazards to be aware of when forecasting in Excel?

Multiple Spreadsheets – Typically when creating a budget in Excel you end up with multiple workbooks, at a minimum one for every department that will then roll up into a firm-wide budget.  And in each of these workbooks you can have multiple spreadsheets to total up the workbook (maybe a spreadsheet for each service type or for each employee).  As you move these workbooks, you run the risk of breaking links within each individual spreadsheet.

Changing Dynamics – When you create your budget workbooks, you usually create them to “map” the way the firm currently does business.  For example, at an AEC firm, the Survey Department staff only works for the survey department and the Water Recourses staff only works for the Water Resources department.  The issue is that the department heads might have hatched a plan to share resources to maximize efficiency. But if you have all your workbooks mapped out and they come back with their scheme you will need to “revamp” all your work.

Oops, I Forgot – When you created your workbooks you simply forgot a chart of account numbers or forgot that management wanted to add an employee in the corporate office.  Once you have everything mapped, if you have to add something, you run the risk of breaking links (bad) or creating incongruent links (worse).  An incongruent link would be adding a row in the Survey Department called “Survey Supplies” but forgetting to map to the row in the summarized data called “Interest Expense” because the Survey Supplies is only in the survey department and Interest expense is only in the corporate department.

It Doesn’t Add Up – So you have everything set-up and summarized and you have an acceptable profit.  However, when you pay closer attention, you realize that in January, the sum of your departments properly add up.  Somewhere, something is broken.

What can you do to avoid or mitigate these hazards?

Meet Early – Before you even get started down this long road of forecasting in excel, try to meet with the department heads to get an idea of changes they may have planned or discussed.  If you have suggestions for them to be more efficient (for example work share), get it out there for discussion and resolution before you get too far down the usual primrose path you find yourself following year after year.

Share Information – First figure out if there is truly a place where you can put your workbooks, create the links, and share with the appropriate staff.  This could simply be a shared drive in your network.  If you need to limit access for the workbooks (for example the San Francisco Engineering department head can only see the San Francisco workbook), this can be achieved via the “password protection” in Excel (found in File/Protect Workbook/Encrypt with Password).  Be sure to make a list of passwords for each workbook because if you lose them, you have completely lost your ability to use the workbook.

If you can’t create a shared drive, use your personal drive to save your workbooks until complete. Then you’ll want to only print final data. 

Having links break when you move your workbook is frustrating.  If you do have to move workbooks or update tab names, you can use the Update Links in Excel (Data/Edit Links/Update source) to get the correct mapping.

Be Consistent in Your Workbooks – Use the exact same chart of accounts and structure for each workbook – even if the information doesn’t apply to your department.  If you are consistent in your account listing and your workbook structure you do not have to worry about incongruent data.  If you realize you have to add an account number, make sure to add the account in the same row in every workbook and you can update your summary easily.  If you have utilization in your engineering department, have it in Corporate –even though it doesn’t apply – makes it easier to simply copy and paste formulas throughout the entire summary workbook.

Create Summary Rows/Columns – In your summary workbook, when you have subtotals in rows or your grand total column, use the column/row formulas to calculate these; DO NOT use the sum from the individual workbooks.  However, after your Total Column, add a column that adds the total columns from the individual workbooks to compare your results.  This will allow you to see if there is a mistake in any of the individual cells.  Also, at the bottom of your summary workbook, add a section that shows the profit from each department.  This should add to the total in your summary. If it doesn’t, then you may have to do some research into what is causing the issue.

We hope that the above tips help you avoid some of the most common hazards encountered when accounting and forecasting in Excel. With year-end approaching quickly, best of luck getting your accounting and forecasting in order, so that your firm can ‘excel’ in 2014!

If you are interested in taking your accounting and forecasting functions to the next level, check out Deltek Vision, the industry leading Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for A/E and Professional Services Firms!

 

As a project manager you have more to do in any given day than you can possibly get done. Sound about right? And, as if you don’t have enough to do, you sit through team meetings, office meetings, and visits from the top leadership where they remind you how important it is to ensure your clients are your top priority while also achieving strong profits. Okay. Now for the big question – how do you balance both priorities?

Do you remember the EASY button? Well I think Staples© was really onto something with that. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished I had one of those to handle tasks that I knew were important but that I struggled to get completed. Have you ever wished you had one to measure how things were going with your clients? Wouldn’t it be great to have a one button solution when your supervisor asks you how things are going with your clients?

Well, now you do. The answer – send your clients project surveys!

Client Feedback Tool grew out of an architectural firm so I definitely get it! As strongly as I believe that getting feedback from your clients is essential to building strong and lasting relationships, I am well aware that time is the one thing project managers in the A&E industry have in limited supply!

So you may be wondering, he just acknowledged that project managers have no time for extra steps in the project management process and yet he is suggesting that we send project surveys to our clients? Fair enough. The truth is that it takes less than 2 minutes to send your clients a survey. And, the information you get will save you so much time!

Every time one of our clients sends a survey, their clients’ responses are logged onto a scatter plot like the one in this figure. One of several reporting options, the scatter plot analyzes how well client expectations are being met. It takes less than a minute to run and you can schedule it as a weekly or monthly recurring report. Our clients see a snapshot of what their clients are saying. Are you starting to see how this will give you the information you need?

Each of our surveys consists of about 6 – 8 questions asking how well client expectations in different categories are being met. The blue dots represent individual pieces of feedback from one of those surveys. With a 4.0 indicating that the client’s expectations are being met, this one chart can be your very own EASY button!

With one quick glance you can see that overall you and your team are meeting, or exceeding, your clients’ expectations. But there’s more.

When you click on any of the blue dots, you immediately see:

• What project that piece of feedback is associated with
• What question was being asked
• Who answered the question
• Any specific comments by the respondent

It’s important to note that using project surveys does not replace the ongoing conversations you have with your clients.  However, with a strong feedback process you can, in about 5 minutes a day, get the details you need and get back to managing your projects. If there are ever any challenging responses, a simple click on the blue dot gives you the information you need to begin finding a resolution before their concerns become problems.

In addition to seeing the results for the clients you manage overall, you will have the ability to see a scatter plot for each individual client as well. Now, with your very own EASY button, the next time you are asked ‘how are things going’, you will have the information at your fingertips!

Interested in learning more about using project surveys?

 

Business leaders have any number of sophisticated computer programs and models to help them predict future business results. Despite these resources, however, in its essence financial forecasting is still a guessing game. 

That being said, there are several fundamental strategies that can improve one’s chances of making accurate forecasts.

1. Understand how and where you’ve succeeded.

The first strategy is to look at historical data to gain insight into exactly where past successes and challenges have come from. This inquiry includes reviewing the various sources of your leads, how your sales team manages them, and where you tend to have the greatest success. For example, you might try to determine:

• Whether your sales most often result from calling into existing clients to find additional work, from cold calling to purchased lists, or alternate sources.
• The extent to which your success has depended on the person doing the calling, the script used for the call, the number of contacts made, or other factors.
• The lasting impact of sales — i.e., which sales turned into continuing relationships and additional work. Of course, there are many factors that affect this statistic, but it can still provide useful insight for your financial forecasting. 

The key is investing the time and energy needed to gain fact-based insights into what has worked — and not worked — in the past.

2. Take a cold, hard look around you.

A second essential strategy of financial forecasting is to look closely at your current operating environment, and conduct a brutally honest analysis of your strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities (SWOT). 

Your SWOT analysis should begin with a realistic exploration of the many factors that could increase, or decrease, the likelihood of your success. Some questions you might want to answer:

• What is your reputation in the marketplace — what are you known for doing well, and where should you try to improve?
• Is the local or regional economy growing, stagnant, or shrinking? More specifically, what is the condition of the economy as it affects your clients?
• Are there factors that could encourage your clients to maintain or even expand the services they are buying from you? Are there conditions that might threaten projects that they have planned with you but not yet started, or that could prevent them from engaging with you in the future?
• What is your competition doing to take advantage of the current market? Where are they weak, and how can you exploit that weakness? 

The underlying strategy in doing your SWOT analysis is to be totally honest and realistic about where you excel and where you come up short — and determine what you can realistically achieve in your competitive environment. 

3. Test your assumptions and adjust as necessary. 

A third essential strategy in effective financial forecasting is to track and monitor your results. There is a range of ways to do so, but based on our experience working with professional services firms, one of the best is to invest in a purpose-built ERP such as Deltek Vision. This solution can provide a firm with up-to-the minute, comprehensive visibility into all of the assumptions and results related to its financial forecasting. Just as importantly, it connects and organizes data from both the front office (i.e., project) function as well as the back office (accounting), and automates a wide variety of essentially manual processes — including Customer Relationship Management (CRM), business development and more. Not only will the insight you gain help you tweak your assumptions to improve future forecasting efforts, but more importantly, you can make midcourse corrections to keep your firm on course. 

Keep your eye on the prize.

Whether you use one-off spreadsheets, software programs for specific functions, or a comprehensive solution like Deltek Vision, the key is to collect metrics that matter to you on an ongoing basis, measure results against your financial forecast, and make adjustments as necessary. 

You’ll never be able to see a completely accurate view of your company’s future. However, through financial forecasting, you will gain enough of a realistic sense of what’s coming that you’ll be able to stick to a plan and outmaneuver the competition. 

 

How many times has it happened, you are cruising along thinking all is going well.  All of a sudden wham, utilization is dropping like a stone.  How did it happen?  You were doing all the right things -- meeting with your clients, looking at Work In Progress, and asking staff all the right questions.  Executives and accounting are looking at you to explain what is going on, but outside of saying “well things will get better” – can you provide an answer?

The Magic of Forecasting

One thing you probably weren’t doing was forecasting for the future.  What?  That sounds like accounting voodoo – right?  Well kind of, but it isn’t magical and it isn’t just accounting folks who need to do it.

Anyone who is responsible for production staff needs to understand what their staff is working on currently, AND what they have coming up for work.  When there is excessive “downtime” we need to fill that time for staff.  When there is excessive “overtime” we might need to look at how the workload is allocated. A good system of project budget and forecasting is necessary to have that visibility. 

These steps can be used with forecasting software to help plan for the future:

• Create a process. The process of creating an initial budget, even for time & material projects, when the project is signed (you DO get signed contracts – right) is just the first step.   You must also have a mechanism of reporting actual results against the budget on a regular schedule.
• Update the budget for changes.  These changes usually come in the form of scope change orders and additional services.  These changes will add increases to your budget and you will have to report actual against them.  If you are not diligent about getting authorizations for scope changes or add services, then you run the risk of running out of budget by the end of the project.  Your client is quite often experiencing temporary memory loss at this point about what they asked you that was outside of contract. 

Bring it all together

So you and your managers have all initial pieces of the puzzle - Initial Budget, Scope Changes, and Actual Results.  Why do you still feel out of control and have surprises? 

You need to pull all this information into one centralized location, have the ability to update “on the fly”, and have actual results map to your budget.  A forecasting software, like Deltek Vision can help you to pull all this information together into something than can be easily updated and allow visibility into the upcoming workload and expectations for the future.  You can then use the “remaining budget” to forecast out for the next month, 3 months, or even year to avoid those nasty unexpected drops in your staff’s utilization. 

However maybe your initial budget assumptions were incorrect and you need to change the expectation of the end of the project.  A forecasting software will allow you to update the ETC (estimate to complete – this is what you EXPECT it to take to complete the project – not what you have remaining in the budget).  This provides a better picture of what you need to forecast over the timeframe you are forecasting. 

Once you have the above process in place, it is easy to review what you expected vs what you actually performed and what you have left to do.  This provides you the ability to plan for the slow times and the busy times.  It also provides you credibility when reporting to executive management or accounting what is going on in utilization or over the next few months.

What else does all this tracking get you? 

It helps you to establish how long it REALLY takes to complete a project – which is vital information for the future. It also helps you understand what should be included in your scope vs. what is an additional service.  Many clients would prefer to know the costs up front and if you can include these items in your scope and present a “total package”, your firm just went to the front of the pack. If you can get to the point that you budget and forecast (and yes people do this) beyond the project and down to the employee level, you can easily identify what employees are efficient and what employees may need further training.  All this information combines to make you a more knowledgeable and successful project manager. 

If you ask friends or colleagues how they feel about conflict, you will likely know their answer even before they speak. Their body language will tell you immediately. That is because most people view conflict as having to do with arguments, agitation, and to an extreme extent, hostility. But what if we reframe the way we look at conflict? Is there a way to see conflict as an opportunity if we accept the fact that conflict is essentially about the gaps in expectations that happen when individuals interact?

Project teams work hard to match their deliverables to their clients’ expectations. However, we all know there are, at times, bumps in the road and that project conflict can occur when your team’s understanding of deliverables, communication, or schedule is different than your client’s. There is certainly no magic to ensuring this doesn’t happen but there are three actions you can take to minimize the frequency and to actually turn these gaps in expectations into an opportunity to learn more about your clients.

Don’t avoid it or ignore it. Just because you are not aware of the gap between your clients’ expectations and what your team is delivering does not mean that the gap doesn’t exist. Both you and your client make assumptions related to their project every day. You assume that the way you have done 50 projects in the past that are just like this one is the way to progress on this one. Your client may have expectations (or a vision) about what the deliverable will look like that is different than what you are planning. It happens. However, if throughout the project you ask questions, you will catch these gaps in expectations as soon as they occur. And, the sooner you and your client have a conversation about the difference in your expectations, the sooner your project gets back on a healthy track.

Don’t blame anyone. I have heard many A/E/C firms speak of having difficult clients. Their (clients) expectations are unrealistic, they are inconsistent, they just expect you to read their minds and know exactly how they want things done. This may be true. But beyond the obvious problem with telling your clients they are wrong, playing the blame game may create an attitude on your team that your clients will pick up on. By looking at project conflict as nothing more than a gap in expectations, you and your team will have the opportunity to learn more about each client. As you solicit feedback from your clients, you will close any gaps in expectations and be recognized as their expert.

Communication – the great conflict alleviator. You can avoid having conflict escalate or go unresolved, by communicating regularly with your clients. Asking for feedback on a regular basis lets you keep a pulse on whether or not there are any expectation gaps. You will quickly see if there any issues that need to come to the surface? By asking for feedback and following up, you will keep the channels of communication open. And, you will give your clients the opportunity to share with you their ideas and thoughts about how they would like you to serve them.

Getting regular feedback lets you build an easy rapport with clients. The Client Feedback Tool process is easy and comfortable for both you and your clients. Integrated into your existing project management system, the feedback you receive provides you with new ideas about your clients’ preferences. We hear a lot about being your client’s trusted advisor. In addition to being their trusted advisor, you will also become the expert at how each individual client prefers to be served.

Learn more about using feedback as an opportunity to turn conflict into client loyalty and trust.

For most professional services firms, planning for growth is a natural part of business. There are different strategies for doing so, and choosing the best one depends on your ultimate growth objectives. But whatever your goals, understanding how your growth plan affects your cash flow plan is essential to achieving the results you seek.

The way you grow affects cash flow planning.

Organic growth. There are a number of ways to grow one’s business organically. For example, in a generally healthy economy, your firm could continue doing “business as usual” (i.e., not increase your marketing or business development activity) and still experience significant growth from the improving economy. This type of growth is typically slow-paced; you can keep up with the increased demand either by using existing staff or gradually “ramping up” your staffing to meet the growth curve.

A somewhat more aggressive growth plan might be to expand your client base in the same market niche and geographic area where you’re already doing business. In such a scenario, you are typically increasing your marketing and business development outreach to generate business. As this outreach occurs, you may experience rapid growth that requires you to have staff immediately available to meet the increased client demands.

Strategic growth. Alternatively, you might be planning to significantly expand your service offerings or target market. For example, an engineering firm might add a new service line, or expand into another geographic market. In such cases, you could expect to take on additional marketing and staffing expenses, along with expenses for market research (please do not skip this step), software and equipment and possibly even new office space. These added expenses occur up front, well before you bring dollar one through the door. 

Expect a time lag before reaching ROI.

The fundamental point to keep in mind is that your cash flow will take a hit, probably at least for 90 days for increased staffing costs, and longer for marketing costs. The reason for this is the unavoidable lag between when you begin investing in expansion, and when you actually start reaping the benefit.

Here’s the general reason for the time lag. Once you decide to expand, there are several types of expenses you’ll incur at the beginning of your growth effort — investments that will not bear fruit immediately. For example, there are costs to hire and train new employees, with probably 60 days before they’re doing billable work. Even if you’re very efficient and bill on day 61, then the earliest you should expect payment for their work will be another 30 days, making it a minimum total of 90 days where cash is going out, but no additional revenue is coming in.  

How to meet the demand: sub-consultants vs. salaried staff.

In general, hiring consultants requires less of a cash investment than full- or part-time staff, as they typically will not get paid until you get paid (Paid When Paid, or PWP). This advantage may be offset, however, by the fact that consultants can also be more challenging to manage and they have their own clients (and potentially conflicting commitments as well). Additionally, you still have to invest manager time to assign and manage the sub-consultants’ performance.

On the other hand, while full- or part-time staff may be more costly to hire, they will likely gain institutional and process knowledge as they work, which should make them increasingly valuable to your company. Additionally, they are typically focused on the company’s needs and requirements; you can control their priorities.

Tracking cash flow and return.

The other part of cash flow planning during a growth period (or at any time, for that matter) is monitoring your expenditures and results (hopefully in the form of additional revenue). As with any plan, it’s essential to have an idea of the effort you need to expend, and what results you expect from that effort. Even if your plan is “business as usual” because of an improving market, you should understand what results you expect from the improving market. If you are increasing your marketing effort in your existing market, you should know what you expect from that effort in the form of additional leads, opportunities, clients and, of course, revenue. Without the increased revenue, what is the justification of the increased marketing effort (and assumed increased cost)?

There are a number of approaches for tracking results, ranging from one-off spreadsheets to purpose-built ERP solutions.

In our experience, one of the most effective strategies is to find a solution that accomplishes several key functions at once. Deltek Vision, for example, is a purpose-built ERP solution that provides a unified platform for connecting the front and back office functions — providing up-to-the-minute insight into cash flow planning, as well as accounts receivable, billability and utilization statistics, and much more. It even includes integrated solutions for automating major parts of your processes for customer relationship management, proposal development and tracking.

Watch the details, but don’t neglect the big picture.

Keep in mind that the timeframes for generating ROI mentioned in this article are generalizations. In fact, they’re based on an ideal scenario that assumes making good hires, efficiently training and integrating them, finding a receptive market … and getting paid on time.

Naturally, as the fine print often says, actual results may vary. This makes it even more important to build-in expectations that cash flow will take a significant hit for at least a few months before you start reaping the rewards of you investment.

Growth is rarely painless or easy — but knowing what to expect is far better than wading into a growth plan without knowing when it will start paying off.