Project Risk

As the manager or company owner for a design firm, you need to evaluate the risk a potential project has to your company.  There are two main problems that exist when accepting work from clients (and  a few minor ones).

1. Will the client pay or pay on time?  This obviously is the golden question.  Make sure your payment details and plans are written in a solid contract.  Does that mean you will get paid?  No.  But it helps.  Another key to enforcing payments is having the customer sign off at stages of work.  Why is this important?  Because you may have to prove you completed the work you were paid for or are trying to collect.

2. Does the project have the potential to sap all your resources?  This is an often under estimated problem.  Last year we had a $300, 000 project come in.  We were very happy.  Guess what?  Very quickley we realized we were not only suffering "Death by Meeting" but all of our resources were working on the project.  Other customers were upset.

Over the next few days I'll go over some of the other issues I have with Project Risk.