Did you shine during your lunchbreak?
SMPS Chicago’s Professional Development committee presented their inaugural lunch seminar series, “Dine & Shine,” was held today at Thornton Tomasetti and it was a shining success! For $10, an intimate group of about 15 SMPS-ers watched a guided presentation presented and recorded previously by SMPS National on “Financial Management for Marketing and Business Development Professionals.” Presented in webinar style, the program offered an opportunity to hear from SMPS-ers across the nation that participated in the webinar as their question and answers portion was recorded as part of the presentation. As a small group after the presentation, we were able to dig deeper into how the topic is affecting our marketing bottom line. As marketing and business development professionals, we sometimes are not as engaged in the financial/accounting aspects of the firm even though they are important for our marketing forecasting and strategic planning. For example, do you know your firm’s expected net multiplier? The net multiplier measures the revenue required for each dollar of direct labor spent on projects. To determine, use the formula: billing rate/direct labor rate. This number indicates how many dollars you bring in per dollar spent on direct labor. For marketing and BD forecasting, this number helps you determine which contracts and clients are profitable and which ones you tend to spend more hours than projected on. Sounds so simple, right? Be sure to check out SMPS National’s resource center for more information on this topic.
-Megen Briars, mbriars@okwarchitects.com
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