Zweig News

In the past six months, I’ve had the pleasure of working for three firms with very low average collection periods (ACPs). Average collection period is the average number of days it takes a firm to...

When it’s time to hire, most A/E and environmental consulting firms do a pretty good job defining their needs in terms of education, registrations, experience, and so forth. But they don’t do a good job...

Conventional wisdom (CW) isn’t always so “wise.” Let’s take a look at some of the wisdom frequently heard in the halls and conference rooms of A/E and environmental consulting firms: The company will be profitable...

As Art Linkletter observed: “Kids say the darnedest things.” The other day, my daughter Christina, who is in the first grade, said to me, “Dad, why don’t you do a commercial where you tell everyone...

We just had the experience in the last few weeks of working with an architect. Business has been good, and we are committed to growth, so we decided to triple our office by moving to...

On Monday, December 20, 1993, William Edwards Deming, the 93-year-old management guru of Total Quality Management (TQM) died in his sleep. A statistician with a doctorate in Physics from Yale, Deming was credited with engineering...

We were talking in our office the other day about the “Big 6” accounting firms and their problems. One of our newest staffers just joined us from a Big 6 firm, and, believe me— those...

Although I dislike corny slogans and management propaganda, one of our fast-growing clients asked me recently if we had some sort of “employee credo” they could provide to new employees. This firm’s owners were concerned...

Have you seen the bumper sticker that says “Question Authority?” One thing is for sure— now’s the time to question conventional wisdom with respect to marketing A/E and environmental consulting services. Many of the experts...

No matter what the self-appointed experts are telling you, right now is a great time to buy a firm or to be acquired by or merge with another firm. But, like most things, it’s not...

We constantly get asked by principals in A/E and environmental consulting firms about what or where the next “hot markets” will be. It seems that these people have read about market life cycles in the...

Contrary to what pop management “guru” Tom Peters may say, no architecture, consulting engineering or environmental consulting firm really “thrives on chaos.” Some companies may do well temporarily, but not many are able to “reinvent...

Throughout my working career, I never asked for a raise. I never asked for a bigger bonus. I figured if my employers weren’t smart enough to pay me what I was worth, I’d go somewhere...

In seven years at XYZ Engineers, Bill Jones had become one of the firm’s most dependable project managers. Bill’s jobs always made money, and his clients loved him. Unfortunately, XYZ had gone through three bad...

With more than 40,000 architecture, engineering and environmental consulting firms in the U.S., most of which have less than 20 people, no one is going to tell me that design professionals aren’t entrepreneurial. If they...

No small company— particularly an architecture, consulting engineering, or environmental consulting firm— can afford to ignore cash flow. Consider that a firm billing $5 million a year in fees can raise $137,000 in operating capital...

It’s the time of year when you can’t reach anyone on the telephone, when important decisions seem to be postponed, and when, as one CFO who participates in our ZWEIG 100 index remarked recently, firm-wide...

It has come to our attention that a number of our readers are flying high right now. Business is great, you’re growing, you’re making money— it’s an exciting time. It seems like you’re getting every...

The ability of an A/E or environmental consulting firm to quickly hire qualified people for any opening affects virtually every aspect of its management. I call it “supply-side human resources management.” If you think about...

Good professionals have a lot in common— no matter what their profession. Take my six year-old’s kindergarten teacher, Ms. Donohoe. Many of the professionals working in design and environmental consulting firms could learn a thing...

We’ve all heard it before from people we work with: “I’m going to...” or “We’re going to...” or “I would have, but....” or “Some day, we’ll...” These “do-nothing” people may work for you, with you...

Everyone knows the old adage: “You have to spend money to make money.” But who follows it? Take the example of two of my wife’s friends. Both are smart, educated, and come from good families...

One of the key determinants of any architecture, consulting engineering, or environmental consulting firm’s ability to get work at decent fees is how well “positioned” it is. Positioning means becoming established as an expert service...

If I weren’t so optimistic, I could easily get discouraged. As an owner in a small, growing company, it seems that every time you make a buck, someone is there to take it away from...