The Black Hole of Unbillable Activity

A wise consultant, Joe Mechlinsky from http://www.entrequest.com/ once told me, “Never confuse activity with achievement.” I still have this posted on my desk today. I find most designers are very passionate about their work. This is a good thing, but can also be their down fall. I find many designers end up spending more time designing, selling, and installing projects then they are charging. This will kill the design – build company.

The most profitable companies are often the ones that quickly go from call to cash (new lead to collecting). So where does that put the design – build companies? This is a process and often long process. Do we have to be a scratch and sign, in and out to survive? The answer is no. This would go against everything I and most of you believe in. So how do we compete and what’s up with the black hole?

The black hole is everything we are not charging for or say “it is built into my price.” Building it in is fine to an extent, but the reality what’s thrown into the black hole never comes back. The more that is “built in to the price”, the higher our price becomes. This gives you a disadvantage that’s hard to overcome. There is a good chance you are throwing it into the black hole, if you defend an activity by the following:

• It helps sell the job.
• I can’t charge them for that.
• It’s not that much concerning the size of the job.

Real examples could be: color designs, 3D designs, daily cleaning of the jobsite, tweaking (yes tweaking).

None of these things are bad. I actually I believe in doing all of the above. The problem is when we don’t charge for them. If we believe they add value to the job, we need to charge for it. Charging is the difference between activity and achievement.

Have a great week.