When the Red Flag Goes Up
One thing that will do it is changes that result in construction cost increases of more than 10%. Federal agencies have been alerted to start a thorough management review when that happens. Indicators of A/E performance problems may be triggered when costs increase just 5% from their oversights. Cost increase blame is difficult to pin down and the issue in many a lawsuit. The level of cost growth and the number of change orders that are considered abnormal can also depend on project complexity and novelty.

Excluded Services May be Almost as Important as Included Services
It might be wise to include in your agreement a list of services that were offered to the client but refused for whatever reason. If you don’t and disagreements follow it could be alleged that you did not offer certain services that were needed. Work closely with the client to develop the scope of services. Go over all recommended services and specifically discuss those rejected by the client.

Maybe Business will Slow Down
If it does, keeping in touch with customers (always a sound business practice) becomes vital to head off eager competitors. If appropriate, encourage your people to call on every customer on a regular basis, and set aside some of your own time to do the same. Frequent face-to-face meetings with your client base provide an excellent opportunity — probably your only one — to pacify disgruntled customers and win back lost ones.

Now is a Good Time to
Strengthen your banking relationships, which include letting lenders know the company's financial position. Banks are looking for business to boost their income, but are also trying to minimize risk, so they are careful about what kind of loans they undertake. Most experts agree, however, that seeking additional credit in a down economy is not advisable.

Efficiency vs. Quality
By law both the owner and contractor are presumed to be conversant with the documents forming the contract. So no blame should fall to the engineer for calling attention to his or her duties under those documents. Nonetheless it is well to inform the owner of some of your more important duties. The general administration of construction, by the engineer or architect, should not be confused with supervision of construction which is the contractor’s job. The contractor generally seeks efficiency while the A/E emphasizes quality.


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