Does saving $2,000 a year overall sounds good to you? If so, read on!

Public infrastructure is a bipartisan issue no one should ignore in the upcoming 2020 elections. It should be considered not just when comparing presidential candidates, but for all levels of state and federal government. Why? Because proper public infrastructure, or a lack thereof, impacts us all whether we like it or not. From the health and safety of our communities to the ability to efficiently and safely get home, infrastructure plays a part.

The scariest part about this entire conversation is that American’s infrastructure was given a D+. If our infrastructure was a student, it would be held back. The situation has not been improving over the last four years, if anything, it has stayed the same or even gotten worse. So, where do we go from here?

Public Infrastructure Definition

Public infrastructure is broadly defined as all facilities, institutions, structures, and systems that are considered essential to society, its economy, and its overall quality of life. In America, for example, we are blessed to have water treatment facilities that provide us clean and safe water at the turn of a knob – a luxury many countries do not have.

Public infrastructure is divided into these seven categories:

1. Transportation
2. Wet/Water
3. Energy
4. Information
5. Government
6. Institutions
7. Public Space

The American Society of Civil Engineers ranks various public infrastructures in the US and analyzes the funding that needs to be given and the work that needs to be completed to improve our current state. The image below shows America’s current grades, and it does not look pretty. The single category with a B, our rail system, is little used in our country compared to the other categories. Perhaps that lack of heavy use accounts for the good grade? Of the rest, only THREE categories were given a C.

The Future

So, why does it matter if we continue to keep our infrastructure at an overall D+ level? For one, the economic impact is robust. With direct ties to GDP, employment, and even personal income, a failure to fix America’s infrastructure is a failure to support our overall financial well-being.

The video above explains how our underfunded infrastructure cost YOU an estimated $3,400 year. And that’s just the cost to families directly.

Overall, poor infrastructure will add up to a $3.9 trillion loss in the US economy (roughly $433 billion a year from when the report was calculated in 2017), $7 trillion in lost business sales, and 2.5 million jobs lost – all by 2025.

Not funding infrastructure also means a serious loss of health for Americans. Dirty and potentially contaminated drinking and swimming water, increased air pollution and potentially unsafe dams and bridges are all serious risks, and this is only naming a few. Are you willing to risk you and your family’s health by failing to demand a change and elect officials who will help correct this system?

Would You Pay $3 Per Day to Save $3,400 a Year?

Just like anything in life, fixing our infrastructure won’t come free. Funding American’s infrastructure is an INVESTMENT. Investments are defined as “the action or process of investing money for profit or material results.” So, let me ask you – would you be willing to spend an extra $3 a day, or $1,095 a year, if it meant saving you $3,400 by the end of that year? That a net gain of more than $2,000 in your pocket A YEAR!

If you answered yes, the solution is right at our fingertips. Through various proposed taxes, user fees, and increased corporate income tax, elected officials and candidates for office are willing to come up with funding solutions to help improve our overall quality life and ultimately put money back in our pockets.

These initiatives will need community support. Government officials need to know that you – the American public – wants to help fund these solutions so that you may reap the benefits in the long run. And if you like their proposed ideas to fund solutions, it’s important to reach out to your elected officials and tell them your thoughts!

Don’t know where to find your elected officials?  Check out this site that gives you links to federal, state, and local directories.

America – we’ve got this. Let’s show ourselves and the rest of the world that we can achieve better than a failing grade in infrastructure.

It’s time we talked about a common industry term: a loss leader. A loss leader is a marketing strategy where an AEC consultant – or other businesses –  will take on a project or sell a product KNOWING it will lose money, with the hope to win a bigger project with the same client in the future, or to sell another product at a higher price in the future.

Looking specifically at professional AEC services, service providers taking a loss on offerings in any other aspect of life would be unacceptable – so why do we think this is OK in the engineering and architecture world? For example, do you expect a qualified contractor to renovate a bathroom in your house, taking a loss –meaning they are NOT able to pay their own bills or feed their family – on the off chance that you MAY ask that same contractor to do your kitchen renovation within the next few years? How about expecting your tax accountant to do your taxes for free, in the chance they will win your business for the next three years?

No.

And why not? The answer is simple.

1. No qualified provider would EVER do work for free. Why would they? After all, just like us, they are providing services in exchange for payment with the plan to be able to stay in business and earn a living.
2. There is no guarantee for them later down the road that you will even do a kitchen renovation (using the example above) and that you will, contractually, award them the job.
3. It is not a fair business transaction. It is not reasonable to ask someone to work for free. Earning $0 an hour is not something that you personally would accept – outside of charitable giving. Why do you expect others to accept this rate?

Wouldn’t we all be better off if we offered our services at fair rates and paid providers fair rates for their services?

Fair Price for Offering Protects Everyone

Paying fair prices for services also protects the individuals purchasing services. After all, the adage, “you get what you pay for” is around for a reason. Quite possibly, getting something for free can cost you more in the long run thanks to the lower quality of building materials, workmanship, and even design related services.

From a provider standpoint, I ask you to forever resist the urge to provide any services for free. After all, you have worked hard to develop your skills, perfect your trade, and provide meaningful and important insight to every project you touch. You deserve to be paid for that. Do you need to charge for every little thing you do or say? – no. Just be cautious when toeing the line between simple due diligence and informational conversations and full-blown work deliverables and project solutions.

And this isn’t to say that AEC companies should not be thankful for the opportunity to provide services to a new client willing to give them a chance. But instead of providing services at a loss, I ask that perhaps clients give – and consultants accept – smaller work contracts first as a “test”, rather than expecting service providers to prove themselves by taking a financial loss.

Let’s work together to help keep our professional work experience respected and our communities safe from “free for a reason” work.

With so many towns and cities in the United States, municipalities can have way more competition than your average business. This makes successful marketing so important. Cities are constantly competing for business to stay or move to their community, ultimately bringing in new people and tax income to better support city functions – making their communities great places to live. Not only is competition steep for municipalities, but their budget in which to market themselves is often extremely limited.

As if that wasn’t enough, municipalities must also work to keep their existing residents and businesses happy. This means marketing, engaging, and communicating with all existing stakeholders about public projects and city plans –  road reconstruction, bridge repairs and construction, wastewater treatment updates, downtown planning projects, and so on. Citizens and businesses are intimately interested in these projects because this is where they live, work, and hire talent, and it’s their money being used to fund these projects.

So what’s a municipality to do? So many things to communicate to a variety of stakeholders, with little money to do so. The solutions for many, has been a blend of grassroots marketing, a lot of creativity, and letting traditional communication outlets take over the heavy lifting. If you are a municipality, or working with one, the tips below can help you make the most of your time with maximizing effects.

Improve – And Maximize –  Your Marketing Approaches

·      Partnership Marketing: Within a city there are many different organizations and groups. Tap into theses collectives with similar goals and collaborate. Share resources and team members with other community leaders to reach a wider audience using less money. After all, you are all trying to reach the same goal and communicate to the same audience – why not go for it together?

·      Target Marketing: If targeting to bring in more residents to our area, be laser focused in reaching your identified target of types of people who you want to attract to your area. If you are Los Angeles, you may focus on people who want to make it into show business. If you are San Francisco, you may look for the tech entrepreneurs. This might seem like a no brainer, but it can be easy to think that the broader your reach, the better. If you aren’t a large city that is well known, it can be tough to figure out your target citizen. Develop and understand the identity of your city before developing any of your marketing. Once identified, develop your marketing messaging and target your channels to speak and reach just that target audience. By eliminating the need to reach a mass undefined audience, you can focus on the ones who fit – ultimately saving time and money.

·      PR News: In the spirit of collaboration, let the news media take on some of your marketing. This requires giving up some control of the message, but the cost savings is often worth it. An article about your city or a project you are completing in a respected magazine and/or newspaper will have more appeal, audience reach, and credibility than something coming straight from your office.

·      Influencer Marketing: Influencer marketing has emerged in the past few years as one of the most lucrative branches of marketing. It’s not only Nike and weight loss tea companies who can profit from this marketing strategy. Consider paying influencers to embark on social media campaigns to promote your city, talk about public projects, and highlight key project and city initiatives. Don’t forget! When looking for influencers for a social media campaign, look in your own backyard/the specific area in which you are completing project work. Search for residents with a large social following to promote your city/project by feeding them promotional material to post or engaging them in a lengthier marketing campaign. Using locals will give your marketing authenticity, which is incredibly important to today’s audiences