How do you measure your success?

There’s a saying in business, “What gets measured, gets managed.”

Winning companies track several metrics to gauge their performance and measure business success. ROI (return on investment), EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization), average sales, website traffic, employee churn and average inventory are all key business indicators. Large retailers track same store sales, days of supply and stock to sales ratio. Public companies are required to publish quarterly results and business metrics are the tools they use to communicate the health of their business to regulators and investors.

Much like how an experienced pilot continuously views her instruments to better understand how and where her aircraft is operating, successful companies track their performance to better understand how and where to focus their attention.

Do you know how successful you are? Do you know where you need to focus your attention to improve your results? Do you track metrics?

In addition to some of the standard metrics listed above, as an Entrepreneur Architect, a few metrics you may also want to track are; the number of overall projects per year, average project budget amounts, proposals to projects ratio, time from proposal to project start, and time from project commencement to construction start.

Track whatever you think will improve your results. Review your metrics on a regular basis and view your business from 20,000 feet. You may be surprised with the results.

Do you track your performance? What metrics are YOU using?

How do you measure YOUR success?

Our Architectural Services Proposal

Several years ago, I attended a local AIA seminar presented by a fellow architect and the Chapter Council. The topic was “alternative agreements”.

What I learned during that interactive meeting was that for some projects, selecting one of the many legal documents available from our national professional organizations an appropriate way to protect both the architect and the owner when entering an agreement for architectural services.

There are other times though, when a simpler, “friendlier” document may be a better alternative.

The seminar presenters offered some examples, which got me thinking more about our own documents. As residential architects specializing in additions and alterations, we had often suffered through the pain of negotiation and contract revision initiated by a client’s attorney. We had even lost a few projects due to unreasonable, unnecessary and/or unacceptable changes. Other times, prospective clients just froze in fear of signing a scary looking legal agreement. We needed to find a better way…

So, with inspiration from from that very informative seminar, we prepared our own set of legal documents.

We developed our proposals to be clean, clear and straight-forward. We used large print and easy-to-understand language. Our Standard Terms and Conditions document is designed to look more “legal” and supports the “friendlier” proposal. The Proposal Package is always sent (via email and USPS first class mail) with a select portfolio, a cover letter and a complete list of references.

Our proposal also doubles as our agreement, so if our prospect wants to become a client, they just sign on the bottom line and send it back to us.

Since we started using our documents, the time between proposal and project commencement has been greatly reduced… and we no longer get to meet new and interesting attorneys.

Since my previous post here, and another similar post on the Entrepreneur Architect Linkedin Group, I have received several requests to share our Proposal/Agreement documents. I feel that the more we share with one another, the better our whole profession will be.

So, in that spirit… below are links to our Architectural Services Proposal, our Construction Management Proposal and our supporting Standard Terms and Conditions document. We have developed these documents over the past several years and continuously revise and update them. They work for us and I am happy to share. (They may NOT work for you. See the “legal stuff” below.)

• Architectural Services Proposal
• Construction Management Proposal
• Terms and Conditions for Architectural Services

Now for some legal stuff…

I am in no way recommending that you use these documents. I do not claim that they will protect you, your firm or your client. I advise you to have an attorney and your insurance company review all your legal documents, including your proposals and contract agreements. By downloading the documents linked above, you are agreeing that Mark R. LePage and McCarthy LePage Architects, PC have no responsibility for claims that may arise from the use of these documents and waive any and all liability, directly or indirectly.

I welcome general comments regarding this post below. If you are interested in discussing any specifics regarding the linked documents, please post your comments at the Entrepreneur Architect Linkedin Group.

Have YOU developed your own proposal and/or agreements? I would love to learn from what you have done. If you are interested in sharing, please send copies to blog@fivecat.com.

Do you use AIA Contract Documents? Let’s talk agreements…

Several years ago, we constructed a new Proposal document that doubles as our Owner / Architect Agreement. It’s 5 pages long and, together with a separate 2 page “Standard Terms and Conditions” document, it includes all the protections of the AIA document… but looks and reads much friendlier.

Fivecat Studio specializes in large residential additions and alterations, so we’re dealing with homeowners. Back when we used AIA Documents, we spent way too much time negotiating contracts (or waiting for our prospects to recover from their shock). Very often, the agreement ended up going to their attorney for review and, of course, revision. It was never a pleasant experience.

We haven’t met any new attorneys since we moved to our friendly document and the time between proposal and commencement has been greatly reduced. It’s one of the best business decisions we ever made.

How about you? Are you using AIA Documents, or another agreement? Are you using agreements?

Please share.

How I Use Social Media

Although not technically “social media”, I have been blogging at http://www.livingwellinwestchester.com since 2006. I have had many clients remark that they read my blog and felt that they had grown to know me before we actually met. For me, that alone makes it worth the time required to post on a weekly basis.

Recently, I have been much more active on facebook, http://www.facebook.com/fivecatstudio and Twitter, http://www.twitter.com/fivecatstudio. It takes less effort than the blog, but I find that I have a much smaller audience. I use facebook to post firm news and updates on current projects. When I interview with prospects I direct them to not only http://www.fivecat.com, but our facebook page. People seem to enjoy seeing the progress of active projects.

I have found that Twitter is great for communicating with local business people and other networks I find interesting. I also use Twitter to distribute informative links to my followers. If nothing else, Twitter is a lot of fun.

The above web presence is all support for my firm, but I also use the platforms to support my interest in business success and the practice of architecture. I post to this blog when I have something worth writing about. I use facebook (http://on.fb.me/emCLWK) to post and store business focused links and video. I also tweet at http://www.twitter.com/entrepreneurRA and follow more business minded and inspirational tweeters. As you may have noticed, the business of architecture is where my passion lies.

All of this web presence helps my Google ranking tremendously. If you search “Fivecat Studio”, “Mark R. LePage” or “Entrepreneur Architect”, it’s all me. More importantly though, search “Westchester Architects” (which is the term that my clients are using to search for a firm) and you’ll find Fivecat Studio on the first page. This is important to our success. We need to be there. More than 80% of our prospects say that they found us on the Internet.

Are you using social media to attract clients?

The Entrepreneur Architect Linkedin Group has been very active lately. We’ve been discussing fee structures, branding, client acquisition, firm naming, business plans and startups.

The question of the day today is about social media. Are you actively using social media platforms such as Linkedin, facebook, Twitter or YouTube to promote your business, make connections, influence people or attract clients?

Let’s talk.