Archive for the ‘professional Services’ Category

ELKRIDGE – One path to growth for professional services firms is 50% more profitable, requires less spending on marketing, receives premium valuations in the marketplace and nets growth that is nine-fold faster.  These summary points, from last week’s presentation by Lee Frederiksen, PH.D.at the group’s monthly TechFocus program, resulted from Frederiksen’s research on 200 companies across various services industries.  The highlights:

• Companies that spend more on marketing grow more; average is 5.1% of gross revenue
• Specialization leads to faster growth because it means easier targeting and solving similar problems
• Frequent research keeps companies in touch with their clients, which leads to more growth and profitability; most clients say they don’t know the full range of services their vendors offer
• Brand = reputation x visibility, which leads to 32% higher billing rates on average; top law firms charge 50% more than others, and PR firms with strong brands bill 33% higher.

These and other nuggets are in Frederiksen’s book Spiraling Up.

As a member of the Chesapeake Regional Technology Council's events committee, your ABN publisher Chris Ourand invited Lee Frederiksen to present his findings (pictured here is Lee with CRTC's Kris Valerio).

ANNAPOLIS – TRACE has revised its due diligence manual to provide multinational companies with advice on how to select intermediaries, assess categories of risk, what types of information to collect during the due diligence process and how to manage third-party relationships.  The original guidebook, published in 2002 represented the first comprehensive benchmarking research of its kind.

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ANNAPOLIS – Hyatt & Weber, P.A. has added Seth B. Zirkle as an associate who will focus on business and banking.  Previously he served as the legislative and policy analyst for the City of Annapolis, Office of Law and as the liaison to the City’s Ethics Commission.

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ANNAPOLIS – Margriet Mitchell has been named president of advertising firm Weitzman Agency.   Mitchell started at Weitzman as an intern in 1993, and has been executive vice president since 2008. 

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ANNAPOLIS – The new regional HQ of Long Fence in Odenton has opened for business with 60,000 square feet of warehouse and office space.  The ‘green’ structure was designed by Purple Cherry Architects and incorporates recycled cotton insulation, renewable linoleum flooring and ceiling tiles made from recycled materials, and structural steel that is 75 percent recycled.

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ANNE ARUNDEL – MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services, LLC has promoted Lacey O’Neil to vice president, commercial sales and leasing.

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GLEN BURNIE – Direct marketing company Harte-Hanks, Inc. has promoted Brian Dames as chief marketing officer.  Dames had been managing director in charge of data services and data solutions since 2007.

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HANOVER – In its quarterly IT and Talent Survey, TEKsystems found that 81 percent of IT leaders expect to increase or keep their IT staffing levels the same over the next six months, and that temporary IT hiring is expected to slightly outpace permanent IT hiring.  Inavero Institute joined TEKsystems in conducting the evaluation of nearly 1,000 CIOs and IT decision makers in the U.S. and Canada.

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ANNAPOLIS – Compass Marketing has added a new group led by James C. “Chip” DiPaula, Jr. to facilitate clients’ reach into international markets.  DiPaula came to the consumer product marketing firm from developer Petrie Ross Ventures.

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COLUMBIA – The Law Offices of Kirk Halpin & Associates, P.A. and Business & Technology Law Group have formed a strategic alliance to serve clients with litigation and real estate law. The agreement is an outgrowth of past referral efforts.

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