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O P I N I O N
New Year’s resolutions
Our businesses need the same care we are giving ourselves to remain healthy and viable in the year ahead!
I have never been a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. If something is a good idea to do, it should be done no matter what time of the year it is. But nevertheless, maybe with the holiday downtime – when everything quiets down and we have a chance to do a little introspection – it’s normal to come up with a list of things you want to change about yourself or how you are running your business.
Mark Zweig
If you are like most owners or managers of A/E firms, you aren’t alone. The problems you are facing are also being dealt with by most other companies in the business. We are operating in a period of great uncertainty. The road ahead looks bumpy – at least for a few years. Here are some things I would be doing to meet the challenges of 2021 if I were you: 1)Do a new business plan. Now, more than ever, it’s time to document your thinking on what the future will be for your business. Make sure your future vision and goals are still viable. Decide what changes you have to make to reduce costs and create more efficiency. Commit to constant monitoring and reporting of how the company is doing and what the trends are showing, as well as a process for quickly
making changes in the business to reflect those trends. 2)Raise prices. I just commented on a LinkedIn
article I read yesterday that was all about managing project budgets in an A/E firm. Now in my 41st year in this industry, my belief is we would all be a lot better off if we spent the time we are spending managing too-small project budgets looking for new clients who will pay better fees, and doing other things that will allow us to earn better fees. Getting paid well is more important than ever, especially if the overall volume stays flat or is going down. Focus on getting paid for what you know (value pricing) versus just what you do (effort expended).
See MARK ZWEIG, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER JANUARY 11, 2021, ISSUE 1374
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