Eat the Elephant!

 

Eat the Elephant!

Robert S. Michaud, P.E.

9/30/20

You have probably heard the old saying: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!” Maybe you have heard it a bunch of times but haven’t really thought about what it means or how it might apply to you. It is one of those clichés that kind of gets lost in the language, but like most clichés, they originated from an abundance of truth.

Take your backlog of work, for example. Odds are there are some items on that list that are there simply because they are “elephants” – tasks that are either so big, complicated, ill defined or just plain difficult that they never get the attention needed to complete them. Perhaps the problem is a lack of time, or a lack of the right skill set on your team, or insufficient resources to get the job done. Any one of these challenges can put the brakes on a project.

There are a number of ways to deal with this problem, and it is very likely that you will need to employ more than one or maybe even several strategies to get it done. The first strategy, however, should be to break the project up into small, manageable tasks – and then start attacking the tasks that CAN be done. That does a couple of things: it moves you forward towards overall completion of the project, and it begins to build momentum for yourself and your team to not only demonstrate that it can be done, but that it is, in fact, getting done. Success, even in small portions, is a powerful motivator.

Then you get stuck again. You have grabbed all of the low hanging fruit, so to speak, and the tasks that remain are outside you or your team’s capacity. Don’t stall out here, you have already made good progress. Take some time and identify the remaining tasks and the resource shortfalls that prevent you from completing them. Consider even breaking the tasks into smaller sizes to again make them more manageable. Then, seek outside help. If you and your team find yourself stuck without the right tools for the job, find someone that has them. This might be others within your own company, but more often it means hiring a contractor or consultant with expertise in a specific field. Since you have broken the tasks into bite sized chunks, you won’t be paying for a lot of services you don’t need. Instead, you can be laser focused and contract out just those tasks that you can’t self perform. Companies such as ours have make it our mission to fill in those needed resources to accomplish tasks that often are somewhat unique.

Don’t let those elephants continue to grow and stomp out your profits. Get someone to help you eat it – one bite at a time!

© Michaud Engineering Inc. 2020

Re-purposing Commercial Buildings for Residential Use

 

Re-purposing Commercial Buildings for Residential Use

Robert S. Michaud, P.E.

9/22/20

In some parts of the country, residential inventory on the real estate market is low, and the availability of rental properties is also tight. Some owners of commercial property buildings are considering converting them to apartments, condominiums, or even single family homes. This solution won’t work for every commercial property, obviously, but if you have a building or buildings that you think might be able to be re-purposed, this may be the right time to take advantage of the current real estate market.

If you have made the decision to explore your options when it comes to re-purposing your buildings, you will likely need some assistance to determine whether or not such a conversion will be feasible. Some of the questions might include:

• Are there any zoning issues that might prevent the conversion?

• Will the building(s) structurally support the physical changes needed to be converted?

• What sort of code requirements are different for residential property compared to its current use and how much will this add to the conversion cost?

• Are there sufficient utilities and space (for parking, etc.) to support the desired conversion?

For the questions above, a qualified engineering consulting firm with expertise in these areas can provide you with the answers you need so that you can make the best decisions for your property.

In order to determine whether or not to proceed with any sort of conversion, you will need to gather all of the relevant information. This due diligence effort involves an evaluation of the market conditions, rental and residential property values in the area, availability of competing properties, and expected turn around times. These focus on the revenue side of the equation – what you might expect to earn from the conversion. On the expense side of the equation, you will need to estimate construction costs, the addition of any resources or building features that may not be currently available, the feasibility with respect to zoning ordinances and code requirements, etc. If the expected revenue and probability of a quick turn around in terms of rental or sales outweighs the costs associated with the conversion, it may very well be a good choice for your assets.

Michaud Engineering Inc. can assist in these areas and also work with real estate professionals to help determine whether these changes will deliver the returns you expect in those locations. Give us a call and we can start a discussion to determine whether this might be a good choice for you.

© Michaud Engineering Inc. 2020