PART 1
The Big Picture: Why Most Business Plans are a Total Waste of Time
Most A/E business plans fall into one of two categories:
- Very little time is spent developing them and very little value is gained from them
- A great deal of time is spent developing them and very little value is gained from them
This session tells you how to use PSMJ’s proprietary Business Planning Digital Toolbox to avoid these pitfalls and develop a really effective business plan in a minimum amount of time.
LEARN:
- Why traditional business planning is so frustrating to all concerned
- Why the budget is the least important part of an effective business plan
- How to sync your annual business plan to your long-term strategic plan
- Why obsessing about utilization is almost always counterproductive
- The 3 KPIs that determine 99% of profitability in A/E firms (Hint: utilization is one of them)
- How to use PSMJ’s Financial Benchmarking Tool (included in this course) to identify which key metrics offer the best opportunities for improvement
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT: Use PSMJ’s Financial Benchmarking Tool (included in this course) to benchmark your firm and identify which key metrics offer your best opportunities for improvement.
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PART 2
Establishing Annual Goals: How to Benchmark and Find the Greatest Opportunities
Many firms set goals that are simply extrapolations of their historical performance. Other firms set goals that are so lofty that no one believes they can be achieved (which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy). At this session, we’ll walk you through the goal-setting process using a case study of an actual A/E firm and PSMJ’s Business Planning Template. You’ll come away from this session knowing how to avoid these pitfalls and develop stretch goals for your firm that can actually be achieved.
LEARN:
- The difference between a goal and a forecast
- How to focus on the few critical metrics that really drive business performance
- How to use PSMJ’s proprietary Business Planning Tool to visualize your annual goals
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT: Use PSMJ’s Business Planning Tool to establish appropriate goals for your firm for the coming year.
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PART 3
Making Operational Improvements: How to Develop an Action Plan with Accountability
Most firms’ business plans are long on budgetary numbers and short on strategies and tactics about how to achieve them. In this session, you’ll learn how to develop a straightforward set of strategies and an action plan to achieve the goals you set.
LEARN:
- How to drill down your KPIs until you get to actionable metrics
- How to improve lagging metrics without creating unintended consequences
- How to turn improvement strategies into an Action Plan that defines deliverables, responsibility and due dates
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT: Use PSMJ’s Business Planning Tool to define your improvement strategies and convert them into an Action Plan.
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PART 4
Establishing a Capacity Budget: Finding the Best Use of Resources to Hit Goals
A/E firms’ business performance is largely determined by the effectiveness of their principals and employees. In this session, you’ll learn how to assure that all your staff is contributing productively toward achieving your goals. You’ll then learn how to turn your H.R. vision into an annual budget for your firm and each of your business units.
LEARN:
- How to use PSMJ’s “Rainbow Analysis” to objectively classify your staff into market leaders, client leaders, top-notch doers and everyone else
- How to set an annual HR goal so that you end next year with the right mix of each category
- How to deal effectively with rising stars, plateaued employees and substandard performers
- How to use PSMJ’s Capacity Budget Template to develop a budget for your firm for next year
- How to flow your company’s annual budget down to your business units
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT: Use PSMJ’s Rainbow Analysis and Capacity Budget Template to develop a annual budget for your firm.
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PART 5
Establishing a Sales Plan: How to Ensure You Have Enough Work to Support Staffing Levels
The Capacity Budget discussed in the previous session is dependent on your firm’s ability to bring in enough work to support your current and planned staffing. This session tests that assumption to be sure your Capacity Budget is realistic.
LEARN:
- How to prioritize your current clients so you devote the most time to your best clients
- How to assign client responsibilities that create a focal point for all business development activities for your high priority clients
- How to systematically plan a cross-selling strategy for each of your quality clients
- How to select new target clients
- How to use PSMJ’s Sales Plan Template to estimate your bookings and revenue for your current clients and for known opportunities from new clients
- How much work should you expect to just “come in over the transom” and how to include this in your revenue forecast
- What to do if your expected sales are less than what is needed to support your current and planned staffing
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT: Use PSMJ’s Sales Plan Template to develop a detailed sales plan, along with forecasts of bookings and revenues for your firm.
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