Evaluate your architecture or engineering firm's performance with the A&E Firm Maturity Index. Get insights and recommendations for improved efficiency and profitability in minutes.
What Is The A&E Firm Maturity Index
Why Assessing Your A&E Firm's Maturity Matters
What You'll Get From Taking The A&E Firm Maturity Quiz
How To Take The A&E Firm Maturity Quiz
What To Do With The Results
Why BQE Developed The A&E Firm Maturity Index
How well is your firm really performing? Many architecture and engineering firms operate without a clear picture of their strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. Firm owners are pulled in many directions and don't always have the time to take a step back and assess all the aspects of their business. This is normal. But without a structured way to measure success, hidden inefficiencies can impact profitability and overall business growth.
That’s where the Firm Maturity Index comes in. This quick, structured assessment helps firm leaders evaluate their business across key areas and provides insights to improve efficiency and profitability. In just a few minutes, you can get an understanding of where your firm stands and how to move forward strategically.
The Firm Maturity Index is a complimentary, comprehensive, 14-question assessment meticulously crafted for the unique needs of architecture and engineering (A&E) firm owners, leaders, and executives. This tool is specifically designed to provide a thorough evaluation of firms by examining your performance across five critical categories that have a direct and significant influence on the overall success and sustainability of the business.
These categories are carefully selected to ensure that every aspect of the firm's operations is scrutinized, allowing for a holistic understanding of the firm's current standing and potential areas for growth and improvement.
Business Development – How effectively are you attracting and securing new clients?
Project Management – Are your projects consistently profitable and delivered on time?
Financial Health – Do you have clear budgeting, forecasting, and profitability tracking?
Billing & Payments – Is your invoicing and collections process optimized for cash flow?
Operations – Are your firm’s workflows, knowledge management, and technology systems efficient?
By answering a series of thoughtfully crafted multiple-choice questions, you’ll receive a comprehensive Maturity Index Score. Based on the score you will be classified as one of four different firm types:
Emerging Firm
Firms in this category are just starting to formalize their business practices. They rely heavily on ad-hoc processes, manual tracking, and minimal technology adoption. These firms are often focused on delivering projects and serving existing clients. Next steps are to develop structured systems and processes aimed at improving efficiency and enabling growth.Developing Firm
These firms have some foundational processes in place but are still in the process of refining them and documenting more across the operations of the business. They may have basic tools like spreadsheets or standalone software tools, but lack integration across systems. They recognize the need for improvement and are taking steps toward it.Established Firm
Firms in this category have well-defined processes and use integrated systems to streamline operations. They track metrics and focus on improving efficiency, but they may still have opportunities to optimize certain areas, like marketing, employee development, knowledge sharing, or advanced data analytics.Optimized Firm
Optimized firms operate at the highest level of maturity and tend to be higher performing in benchmarking metrics and profitability. They leverage fully integrated technology, real-time data insights, and robust systems for all aspects of the business. These firms prioritize continuous improvement and are well-positioned for growth and scalability.
Each category provides you with an objective and detailed analysis of your firm’s current standing in various critical business areas. It highlights not only where your firm excels but also pinpoints specific areas where there is room for improvement.
This valuable insight allows you to strategically focus your efforts on enhancing those aspects of your business that will drive growth and increase efficiency. This tool doesn't stop at just giving you a score. The results also include actionable recommendations and additional resources to help you implement changes and improvements. Ultimately this exercise will lead to greater success and sustainability in the competitive architecture and engineering industry.
Most architecture and engineering (A&E) firms encounter a variety of challenges that frequently remain undetected until they escalate into significant and costly issues. These challenges can range from inefficient project management and inadequate financial oversight to suboptimal business development strategies and outdated operational processes.
Without a proactive approach, these problems can erode profitability, hinder growth, and compromise the firm's competitive edge. By adopting a structured and systematic approach to evaluating your business, you can uncover these hidden inefficiencies and gain critical insights into your firm's operations.
This firm maturity assessment allows you to identify areas that require immediate attention and improvement, enabling you to make informed, strategic decisions that enhance overall performance. It's also a tool to help catapult your firm from one category to the next, ultimately becoming an Optimized Firm. Here’s why assessing your firm’s maturity is not just beneficial but essential for long-term success:
Hidden inefficiencies cost money. Many firms struggle with poor project management, inconsistent time tracking, inefficient billing, or unclear project workflows, leading to lost revenue.
Data-driven decisions lead to better outcomes. Firms that track key metrics can make informed adjustments, improving long-term profitability.
Stronger firms are more competitive. Having well-defined business processes makes your firm more scalable, resilient, and attractive to top talent and clients.
The assessment arms you and your team with the information needed to drive change throughout your business, ultimately leading to better operations and higher profits. From advice to additional resources, it aims to specifically address your challenges. If you are hoping to grow your business, this is an excellent way to identify areas to focus on.
By completing the Firm Maturity Index, you’ll receive a comprehensive suite of valuable insights and tools designed to elevate your firm's performance. This includes:
Your Maturity Index Score:
An objective assessment of how your firm ranks in key business areas and a description of the category you most align with.
Personalized Insights:
A breakdown of your firm’s strengths and opportunities for growth, along with tailored recommendations for improvement.
Actionable Recommendations & Resources
Expert guidance on how to improve operations, efficiency, and profitability. Plus links to additional resources, reports, tools, and content to help you achieve your goals.
You will gain access to in-depth analyses that provide a clear understanding of your current business standing based on your answers, highlighting both strengths and areas ripe for improvement. Additionally, the result offers strategic guidance and expert recommendations that are actionable and practical, aimed at optimizing operations, boosting efficiency, and increasing profitability.
These tools are crafted to empower you with the knowledge and strategies necessary to drive meaningful change and foster sustainable growth within your firm.
Taking the quiz is quick and easy. The format is designed to be completed in about 3 minutes. With just a few clicks, you can navigate through the questions addressing topics including winning work, project management, firm finances, billing and invoicing, and operations. What to expect:
Answer 14 multiple-choice questions.
Receive your Maturity Index Score and Firm Category instantly.
Get tailored recommendations based on your results.
It’s completely free and designed specifically for architecture and engineering firms looking to optimize their business.
Take the Firm Maturity Index Now
The future success of your firm is linked to the decisions you make today. Each choice you make can have a profound impact on the trajectory of your business, influencing everything from day-to-day operations to long-term strategic goals.
To navigate this complex landscape effectively, it is crucial to have a deep understanding of your firm’s strengths and weaknesses. This self-awareness serves as the foundation for enhanced efficiency and meaningful growth. By identifying what your firm excels at, you can leverage these strengths to capitalize on opportunities and gain a competitive edge.
Conversely, recognizing areas of weakness allows you to address and improve them, thereby minimizing risks and optimizing performance. This comprehensive understanding is not just a preliminary step but a continuous process that empowers you to make informed, strategic decisions that drive your firm toward sustained success and innovation.
Don’t leave your firm’s performance to guesswork. Take the Firm Maturity Index now and start making smarter, data-driven decisions for your future.
Running an architecture or engineering firm is challenging. Being founded by an engineer and an architect who were looking for better tools to run their firms, it is our mission to help firm owners achieve business success. By making the operations and financial management side of practice better, we hope to open up time for firm leaders to focus on the work that they love so they can make a bigger impact on our communities.
BQE is committed to helping architecture and engineering firms operate at their highest potential. With decades of experience serving A&E professionals, we understand the unique challenges firms face in winning work, managing projects, improving finances, and developing efficient operations. That’s why we developed the Firm Maturity Index. Our goal provide firm leaders with a structured, data-driven approach to evaluating their business.
Beyond the firm maturity assessment, our flagship product is BQE CORE, our industry-leading firm management software, designed to streamline project management, time tracking, billing, and financial reporting and analytics. Our software integrates best practices directly into your daily workflows, ensuring that you not only identify opportunities for improvement but also have the tools to take action.
By bringing all aspects of firm management into one platform your data is always accurate, and up to date, and insights are available to help you make better decisions. Along with business basics, our platform also includes CRM capabilities, HR tools, and reporting dashboards that are customizable on a firm-wide or project-specific basis. The goal is to give you the tools, the data, and the insights to run a more profitable A&E business.
We believe that informed decisions lead to stronger businesses. Take the Firm Maturity Index Assessment today and let BQE help you build a more efficient, profitable, and scalable firm.
Lucas Gray is a recognized expert in business strategy and firm operations for architecture and engineering firms. As the Director of Content & Community at BQE, he researches, writes, and speaks on best practices that help A&E firms improve efficiency, profitability, and long-term growth. His work bridges the gap between design and business, providing firm leaders with actionable insights to build thriving practices.
With a diverse background in architecture, firm leadership, and business consulting, Lucas brings firsthand experience to his thought leadership. He co-founded Propel Studio Architecture in Portland, Oregon, in 2013, where he led business development, marketing, team management, financial planning, and design direction. Specializing in solving housing challenges, he has designed over 50 Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), infill housing developments, and custom homes.
Lucas’s career spans international experience in Shanghai, Bangkok, and Berlin, where he worked on large-scale design projects and community engagement initiatives. After two decades in architecture, he transitioned into business consulting for A&E firms, guiding small and growing practices toward operational excellence and financial success.
Beyond his work at BQE, Lucas is deeply passionate about the built environment, urban planning, transit, and public art. He shares insights on these topics through writing and public speaking and explores his creativity through abstract art and taking on small design projects.
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