December 30, 2010

Profit Points #2 - Handling Scope Creep

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Profit Point # 2 - Handling Scope Creep
During this great recession it has never been more important to manage client expectations.

Remember you get to set your fees.

Unfortunately out of scope work very often becomes a negotiation with the client when it should be a simple change order.

Change the wording in your engagement letters
from “If any matters come to our attention that will increase the scope of our work…”
to “When we discover matters that require us to increase the scope of our work we will discuss the situation with you, amend our engagement letter and increase our fees accordingly.”
Then act promptly when these situations arise.

Standardize your change order process and have materials readily available for everyone’s use.

Realization and profitability will increase... guaranteed.

We recommend having all of your employees and partners sign up for the weekly blast and start your firm profit improvement efforts now!

December 13, 2010

Profit Points #1 - Stop quoting in ranges...

We've got a new weekly, 1-minute profit tip you can subscribe to!

Get useful tips that you and your entire team can start implementing right away to improve your overall profitability. They'll be posted here over time, but you can get them each week, in order, free!

Here's the first Profit Point:

Stop quoting a range of fees when clients ask about your fee, as the bottom of the range is irrelevant.

You seldom bill the lesser amount and lock yourself into a cap on your fees.

Rather than telling you clients that you estimate the fee to be $12K to $15K, tell them that your fee could be $15K or more and that you will keep them informed about the fees as the engagement progresses.


We recommend having all of your employees and partners sign up for the weekly blast and start your firm profit improvement efforts now!

We have also now completed our 2010 EMPLOYEE CAREER DEVELOPMENT SURVEY and the results are now available to the public... get yours, free, today!

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http://www.SteveEricksonLLC.com/profit-points