{"id":5090,"date":"2019-03-20T01:16:15","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T01:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totalsynergy.com\/?p=5090"},"modified":"2025-02-25T14:26:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T03:26:30","slug":"punching-the-clock-cost-of-time-in-an-aec-design-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totalsynergy.com\/punching-the-clock-cost-of-time-in-an-aec-design-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Punching the clock: the cost of time in an AEC design business\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t<div class=\"content-row row no-padding-top\" style=\"border-color: #ededed; background-color: #fff;\">\n\t\t<div class=\"row-bounds\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single ww \">\n\t\t\t\t<p class=\"p1\">We love built environment design, and we love seeing it done well (isn\u2019t that what puts the twinkle in our eye, folks?). Above and beyond all else we love doing it well in our architectural, engineering and construction design industry businesses (AEC). But, how do we work out how much time it takes to design well? And how do we assign a value to that time\u00a0once we have?<\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li1\">Should I count the overtime I do in order to make a project truly great?<\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\">What about the time I spend project managing a job for my business?<\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\">Why does it feel like I spend 70\u00a0percent\u00a0of my time in meetings when I\u2019m billing for design?<\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\">Do meetings count? Do they have any value (besides free coffee and the occasional biscuit)?<\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\">Does the time my staff spend in meetings count?<\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\">How much does it count (in cold hard cash terms)?<\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\">How much time do I really have for design if this project deadline is in\u00a0four\u00a0weeks?<\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\">How much should I quote for my design time when I\u2019m bidding for a project?<\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\">How do I even guess at a schedule\u00a0let alone\u00a0know if I\u2019m sticking to it?<\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\">Did I turn the oven off?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u2026 In 2019, in an SME AEC business, how do you and your staff\u00a0actually punch\u00a0the clock?\u00a0Or at least, stop it punching you?<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\">I love design with all my heart, I don\u2019t mind spending every available hour making it great!<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\">We know. We love built environment design with a passion too. When you\u2019re working or studying on your own there\u2019s even a sense of pride in pulling an all-nighter to produce some truly inspired design work for a project. Piles of coffee-stained mugs,\u00a0dishevelled\u00a0hair,\u00a0eyes a little crazy, drawings strewn across the studio floor as we zoom in on you, panting, finished, right up against (but on the right side of) the deadline, spent. It\u2019s all very\u00a0<i>Brilliant Mind<\/i>. But the fact is that working like that is not only unsustainable in terms of your health, when you have an AEC practice it\u2019s\u00a0actually bad\u00a0business. Bad business is bad for design.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\">Why can\u2019t I just work on a design project until I\u2019m happy with it? That\u2019s good for design!<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\">We\u00a0just want to be great at what we do.\u00a0Agreed. But here are some of the reasons you can\u2019t, as a professional, just keep going at a design until you\u2019re perfectly happy with it:<\/p>\n<h3>1. You\u2019re an AEC professional: you have a thing called \u2018a budget\u2019 and time = money<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\">Trust us, no one likes the b-word, but budgets are a fact (and an important fact) of being a\u00a0time-based design\u00a0professional.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Although many of us think of business profits as the\u00a0unpleasant\u00a0necessity that runs alongside our designing lives, a successful (i.e.\u00a0profitable) business is\u00a0actually what\u00a0facilitates the work we love. It seems obvious, but most of us in this industry are motivated by creativity and generally place that ahead of business bothers. Timesheets? Staff costing? No thank you very much!<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">However, profit allows the business to keep going, and therefore, the design process to keep flowing. That design, if managed correctly and kept within budget, in turn creates profit. And on goes the circle of design life. The reality is, you need to be doing one well to do the other well. As John Barker, managing principal of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tobiaspartners.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tobias Partners<\/a>, puts it, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiandesignreview.com\/architecture\/margins-architecture-and-profits\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cBeing\u202fprofitable enhances the opportunities and the potential of any design practice to produce award winning work.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The equation looks like this:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Good business = profitable business = time for design = repeat business<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6528\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/punching-the-clock-inline-1.png\" alt=\"The cost of time in an AEC business\" width=\"1600\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/totalsynergy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/punching-the-clock-inline-1.png 1600w, https:\/\/totalsynergy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/punching-the-clock-inline-1-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/totalsynergy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/punching-the-clock-inline-1-768x384.png 768w, https:\/\/totalsynergy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/punching-the-clock-inline-1-1024x512.png 1024w, https:\/\/totalsynergy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/punching-the-clock-inline-1-1200x600.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3><b><\/b>2. You\u2019re an AEC professional: those budgeted work hours aren\u2019t all for design<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\">When you\u2019re working on a project,\u00a0you\u2019re not\u00a0the only moving part. You may have other staff working on it, and you need team meetings with them. You need to set aside time for the management and strategy of\u00a0using that\u00a0staff\u00a0effectively, both for this project and for the business as a whole. You need design meetings with the client, and possibly the client\u2019s contractors. You need to factor in time for things like administration, documentation, coordination, presentation\u2026 and on and on it goes. In our collective experience it\u2019s all too easy to both underestimate the time a project will cost, and how much of that time will be relegated to non-design work. We need a way to work out how much time we spend in meetings and activities that aren\u2019t the design work itself, and we need to keep track of this time as the project progresses. We know, we\u2019re clenching our teeth too.<\/p>\n<h3>3. You\u2019re an AEC professional: overtime hours cost you money in overheads<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\">The space in which you carry out your architectural, engineering, or construction design work costs\u00a0money. It\u2019s that simple. It may seem petty, but things like the rent (divided amongst the overhead cost of each employee), keeping the lights on overnight, extra\u00a0tea, coffee and other facilities associated with being in the office or studio, they all add up. Not to mention the increased insurance risk of having someone working out of hours.\u00a0And, of course,\u00a0extra\u00a0biscuits.<\/p>\n<h3>4. You\u2019re an AEC professional: overtime hours actually decrease the value of your work<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\">The reality of the relationship between time and value is this: your design time is a commodity you exchange for payment. That\u2019s what\u00a0a professional\u00a0service\u00a0is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In other words, the value of something is determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. The worth of a thing, a service, or, more specifically, a design, is directly proportionate to the\u00a0amount\u00a0of other things (hours, or money) for which it can be exchanged.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The equation looks like this (and we\u2019re plucking numbers out of the air here, to use as an example):<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">$1000 contract \/ 5 hours (budgeted) design work = $200 per hour<br \/>\n$1000 contract \/ 5 hours (budgeted) design work + 15 hours over time = $50 per hour<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Now, of that $50, there\u2019s still a percentage that needs to be subtracted for the overheads we discussed above, super payments, etc., <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rb1Ej3UAaPw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">which make up a cost to the business of work being done<\/a>. There\u2019s also the matter of non-design hours required\u00a0\u2014\u00a0which we\u2019ve discussed\u00a0\u2014\u00a0those need to be subtracted,\u00a0too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In the end, we may produce\u00a0the most brilliant design work in the world, but it\u2019s\u00a0only worth $30 an hour. Which means, literally, the work\u00a0ain\u2019t\u00a0worth much. And there\u2019s the salt in the wound: we\u2019re\u00a0the ones\u00a0doing the devaluing. Ouch!<\/p>\n<h3>5. You\u2019re an AEC professional: overtime hours actually decrease the value of the whole industry\u2019s work<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\">So,\u00a0we can agree that the value placed on the design hours in the example above is minimal, and let\u2019s face it, sad. What we also need to keep in mind is that every time we work more hours on a project than we\u2019ve budgeted for (overtime\/free work) we\u2019re also increasing the quality or standard of work that will be expected for the smaller sum. And that has an impact over time on the AEC\u00a0industry as a whole. It devalues the work of the whole industry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The equation here, looks like this:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Less value placed on design = less money for design = less time for design<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The clock, dear friends, is punching us silly!<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\">How do I work out how much time I have for design? How do I punch the clock back?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\">When fitting design time to a budget,\u00a0we need to consider two broad concerns:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li1\">History: how long has it taken to complete AEC design projects in the past?<\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\">Future: how can I track what time is being spent where and on what, as the project is in full swing?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\">Firstly, in order to work out how long a project will take we need to have some sense of our past projects. In order to achieve this we can go back over past project documentation and look at staff <a href=\"https:\/\/totalsynergy.com\/solutions\/track-time\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">timesheets<\/a> across the entire job. We need a timesheet submission practice detailed enough to account for how many hours were spent in meetings, on site, dealing with admin, designing, etc. And we need for our staff to be able to log their time, as they spend it and at the appropriate rate, to keep accurate records (so, ideally, staff can access their timesheets wherever they are \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/totalsynergy.com\/pure-cloud-vs-fake-cloud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">think cloud-based, mobile software here<\/a>). This way we can properly forecast the amount of time each element of a project takes us\u00a0and benchmark the cost to our business for accurate planning and bidding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Secondly, having the ability to accurately track where projects are is crucial. Where is my current project in terms of time and money spent at this point? How much of the budget have we used? What&#8217;s the actual cost to the business? Am I making money, or are we over servicing? Do I have the right resources available? Again, this is simplified with AEC project management software, used in the right way (it&#8217;s like a gym membership, just having it doesn&#8217;t make you fitter!).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Both of these\u00a0points, and their proper management,\u00a0feed back into our ability to bid for projects accurately and complete them fairly and sustainably. Done right, we can also use this data to look at where we can streamline our practices to get more time for the good stuff (i.e.\u00a0more time for design).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">This is\u00a0our\u00a0veritable left-right combination to the face of the clock.<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do we work out how much time it takes to design well? And how do we assign a value to that time once we have? We\u2019re taking a look at how we punch the clock in the architectural, engineering, and construction design industry. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6739,2],"tags":[],"webinar-categories":[],"type-of-webinar":[],"industry":[],"region":[],"class_list":["post-5090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-better-business","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Working out the cost of design time in an AEC business<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How do you value AEC design time? 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