On April 7, 2020 Barry LePatner’s article, “Steps Design Professionals Must Take with COVID-19” appeared in Commercial Construction & Renovation. Barry has been providing the real estate, design and construction world with his regular updates on the best practices needed to manage their operations during and after the pendency of the current pandemic sweeping our nation.
With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the design profession has never been confronted by a crisis as demanding as this since World War II. To varying degrees, all design firm principals are likely experiencing fears and uncertainty from a human and business perspective, for themselves, their families, and their colleagues.
And while those feelings are real, understandable and ever-present, the question that remains to be addressed is: What steps should I take to best navigate my firm in the face of this uncertainty?
Most essential in these unprecedented times will be calm, rational decision-making in regard to short- and long-term plans built on flexibility and sound business judgment.
Don’t Go it Alone
Yet before you even begin, no one person in an any design organization should be making decisions about the future of your firm without consulting other principals and the entire staff. Information must be secured from a variety of sources including a firm’s bankers, accountants, and attorneys.
Assessment and Communication
To help identify the key issues to be addressed and acted upon here are four topics for your firm to focus on related to its current and immediate future once an “all clear” is announced and business begins some semblance of a return to the “new normal”:
It is imperative that you communicate with your staff to identify any personal or financial problems they may be experiencing, and offer to provide whatever advice or individual assistance they may need, or direction they may require involving outside parties;
Equally important is the need to reach out to all clients to assess the ongoing nature of their projects your firm is working on with them and to prepare individual directives as to their current project imperatives;
While new business outreach in these difficult times will not proceed as usual, keep in touch with prospective clients, partners, vendors, and other sources of possible business for when the crisis has departed;
Accept the possibility that one or more of your ongoing projects may not immediately start back up after the pandemic has abated. Issues in regard to staffing and cash flow will be directly tied to these projects.
Economic Realities
In addition to the issues noted above, some caveats about the uncertainties raised by the unique nature of this crisis include:
Lease issues: will your landlord agree to defer rent payments for a period of time, saving you needed cash for other business needs? Check with your landlord and real estate broker or lawyer.
Staff size: Depending on the number of projects that have been impacted by the crisis, identify your staff needs and do not bring back staff to sit idle waiting for projects that are on indefinite hold to come back online. Your bottom line and cash flow will be a direct consequence of your dedication to keeping staff on payroll that can support your active projects to move forward.
Secure your finances: Speak with your bankers and secure a line of credit to enable your firm to weather the uncertainties of the balance of 2020 and balance your cash flow needs to match your funding and collections.
Technology: this is the best time to streamline operations and create greater efficiencies in how you prepare critical construction documents. BIM is the present and the future of the industry. Committing more of your team to excel in producing virtual buildings using this technology will bring your firm into a future desired by public and private owners.
Marketing: the most successful firms going forward will devote funds to aggressive marketing campaigns that emphasize lean and efficient teams to help owners produce projects on time and on budget. There will be less emphasis on owners seeking costly overdesigned projects in the near term.
The total impact of the Covid-19 crisis will not become apparent until some time has passed. But following the prescriptive laid out above will help ensure that your firm comes out of these difficult times on a more solid financial and profit-oriented basis. Taking these steps will enable you and your fellow principals to lay the groundwork for longer-term growth when the market stabilizes, ultimately leading to the next construction boom.