Engineering Management Institute

Leanna Michniuk

5 Tips for Maintaining a Healthy Culture at Engineering Firms

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This is a guest blog by Leanna Michniuk

healthy cultureFor engineering firms, a healthy culture that continues to evolve and adapt is the driving force for long-term company success. Positive work culture is linked to improved employee engagement, increased productivity, and higher profit margins. Simply put, happy employees equal happy clients and happy pockets.

Wait — clients, too? Yes! Client churn is directly tied to employee churn. Did you know it can be anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive to gain a new customer than retain an existing one? By making a concerted effort to focus on your employees, you’re in turn strengthening client relationships and retention. Clients may sign on for your engineering firm’s reputation or the strategy you propose to tackle their work, but the reason they stay goes beyond that. Clients like to know that their business and needs are fully understood. Consistency is key to building this trusting relationship between your staff and clients. If a client is constantly being shifted to a new team or staffer, it will always feel like a new firm to them.

How to Create a Positive Work Environment

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How Engineering Firms Can Prevent Client Churn

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Client ChurnClients are arguably the most important aspect of running a successful and healthy engineering firm. What’s even more important is retaining them. Did you know it can be anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive to gain a new customer than to retain an existing one? So, how are you preventing client churn at your firm? On the surface, it can feel like there’s little control a firm can have over what its clients do, but in reality, improving retention starts internally.  

Keep on reading to learn our tips for improving your internal operations to boost client retention at your firm. 
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5 Things We’ve Learned from the Civil Engineering CEO Show

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This is a guest blog by Leanna Michniuk from BigTime Software

Civil Engineering CEO ShowGood advice is invaluable. And for engineers, hearing advice from leaders in their industry can provide new ways of thinking and even a boost of confidence and reassurance in their work. BigTime Software recently partnered with the Engineering Management Institute as a founding sponsor of the show, The Civil Engineering CEO show, that features interviews with CEOs of leading civil engineering firms on important industry topics. The goal of the show has been to connect engineers with industry leaders to hear their firsthand advice on important topics. The CEOs who have appeared on the show have done just that by sharing with us how they are approaching some of today’s challenges and opportunities including the talent shortage, the abundance of infrastructure work, the hybrid work environment, and more.

Because there have been so many great words of wisdom and amazing guests on the show, we thought we would share the top five things we’ve learned from The Civil Engineering CEO show so far. Keep on reading to hear some sage advice from pros who have lived it themselves.
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Trends & Predictions for Professional Services Firms in 2022 (From a CEO)

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This is a guest blog by Leanna Michniuk from BigTime Software

Professional ServicesWhether we can believe it or not, 2022 is here. What does this mean for people and firms in the professional services industry? If it’s anything like the past two years, we can expect … well, the unexpected.

Using what he’s learned and experienced firsthand throughout his career and leading a company through a pandemic, Brian Saunders, CEO of BigTime Software, sat down to share his predictions for the new year with one key theme in mind — preparation.

Keep on reading to get an inside look into what Brian foresees in the upcoming year and his advice for making it a successful one.

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5 Pieces of Advice Every Engineering Professional Should Know

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This is a guest blog by Leanna Michniuk from BigTime Software

Advice

Advice from people who’ve walked in your shoes is invaluable. This year, we set out with a goal to help build a community for industry leaders on how to successfully scale their business. We were fortunate to partner with EMI, and specifically its The Civil Engineering Podcast, to bring listeners a new series — The Civil Engineering Entrepreneurs. The host and founder of EMI, Anthony Fasano, sat down with experienced and skillful engineering leaders to have compelling conversations about what it takes to build and grow a firm.

As the series comes to a close, we’ve gathered five of our favorite tidbits of advice straight from guests of the podcast. Keep reading to learn more about growing a successful engineering business from pros who have been there, done that.

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8 Tips From an Engineer Who Started a Business From Scratch

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This is a guest blog by Leanna Michniuk

starting a business

“That feeling of what the heck are we doing never really leaves you. You just keep at it until you figure it out and surround yourself with really smart people to help you get there.”

The very first episode of our new series, Civil Engineering Entrepreneurs on The Civil Engineering Podcast, has recently published! We’re partnering with the Engineering Management Institute to deliver expert insight and helpful ideas for engineers.

In this first episode, host Anthony Fasano, P.E. sits down with Gordon Greene, P.E., of Patel, Greene & Associates, LLC (PGA) to learn how he successfully grew his company from a few employees to 85+. During the episode, he calls out eight sound pieces of advice for people who are starting a business from scratch or perhaps looking to improve upon their strategy.

Read on to learn his eight tips and how you can implement them into your own company.

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