Too often, companies that have the standard off-the-shelf firm management tools try to use all of the many metrics they provide to track, manage, and grow things like their revenue and profitability. That’s where we were many years ago — juggling dozens of figures without knowing which of them would have the biggest impact on our financial health.
As we?ve learned from our work with architecture/engineering (A/E) firms, there are relatively few absolutes when it comes to operating them. But, here?s one: If you aren?t managing projects well, you aren?t going to be successful. And while there are many aspects to effective project management, spending less money than you have budgeted for them is a core competency for any firm.
Factor is a firm profitability tool that gives you all the tools you need to manage your firm but with a focus on metrics that empowers you, at the same time, to grow your firm. But many companies that are considering Factor want to know the backstory. In other words, not what Factor is but why Factor is.
If you’ve succeeded in growing revenue but aren’t seeing profitability keep pace, you aren’t alone. That was the position we were in for years, and it’s an issue for many companies today. In our case, we learned that relying on the typical, single-focus firm management systems for project tracking, resource scheduling, and other tasks wasn’t giving us the holistic perspective we needed to run our business effectively, grow profitability, and increase firm valuation.