Archinect - News

Is Your Architectural Firm a Practice or Business?

2016-11-14T09:00:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

In my experience, most firm owners don’t appreciate the significance of being at the helm of a business. At the risk of sounding cliché, they run a “practice” and they operate it as if they’re just… well… practicing. This problem is evident in each firm’s mission statement. Of the many I’ve read, only a handful acknowledge the firm’s ultimate goal is to sustain itself and be a profitable, successful business. This is a primary reason why architects are notoriously under-compensated.

Mostly, firms use the mission statement as an opportunity to echo what every architecture school pounded into our brains: something touching upon the noble pursuit of our profession, improving the built environment, serving our clients and helping the planet. Neither our employees nor our clients can differentiate one firm from another. Imagine showing up at a conference and everyone is handed a name tag that reads “Joe.” Not much sense in that. Why bother ...

Quickly Recover from Missing Billable Hours and Miscalculated Project Costs

2016-10-10T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Learn how this Brisbane-based architectural firm is enjoying faster cash flow now.

About

Based in West End, Brisbane, Tim Bennetton Architects is a small, private architectural firm with a single director and three employees. They work in an intimate, responsive environment that collectively values good design, simplicity and positive relationships. This Australian firm goes above and beyond for their clients to ensure that the joy remains through the ups and downs of their projects – from the initial meeting through to completion. Tim Bennetton and his team offer unparalleled service that provides excellent design, as well as an experience in transforming that vision into reality.

Background

Prior to finding the right software for their firm, Tim Bennetton Architects encountered many time tracking issues that made it difficult to estimate project costs and profits. “We used something called Timesheet Professional, which tracked our ti...

Financial Management for the Small Architectural Firm 101

2016-09-12T08:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Providing great architectural services and running a financially successful firm are not mutually exclusive. It’s quite the contrary. If you are as good an architect as you think, you’ll be successful and it won’t be because of your design skills. However, what separates the great–struggling designers from the great-successful designers isn’t just luck.

It’s not your fault that after all the years of education and training you endured to become an architect, you don’t know the first thing about how to run a business. Sure, you can design – like nobody’s business – but do you truly understand the difference between income and revenue? How about a credit and debit? Do you know what an overhead factor is and why it’s so critical? Do you know what your minimum billing rate is? Did you ever sit down and map out your firm’s operating budget?

Chances are the answer to all these questions is no. So let’s get to work and get you on the right tr...

7 Bookkeeping Tips for Architects

2016-08-08T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Many architects struggle with staying on top of their finances. After all, they were trained to draw and design, not how to run a business. Here are seven bookkeeping tips to help you better manage your finances with innovative tools.

1. Get Comfortable with Reporting
The first tip is to get comfortable with the reporting system of your accounting software. You spend money on bookkeeping so that you can get valuable information out of the system. This is precisely where the reports come in. If you have a good working knowledge of the reporting area of your accounting system, then you can pull reports, analyze your business and make decisions based on that. Of course you should also consult your bookkeeping and/or accounting professional for help understanding the reports, especially if something doesn’t make sense to you.

2. Know Your Numbers
The second tip comes right on the heels of the second. You should have a working knowledge of ho...

Big Risk for Bigger Reward in Small Architecture Firms

2016-04-13T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Are you an architect who always had that special entrepreneurial drive? Were you mentored by another successful architect or by a friend or family member who was successful in their own business endeavor and aspired to be like them? Perhaps you were forced to open your own firm by necessity after getting downsized by a previous employer during the recent recession?

No matter what your background is, you as an entrepreneur and owner of a small firm comprise a strong portion of the architecture industry. According to Kermit Baker, chief economist at The American Institute of Architects, 63 percent of all AIA member-owned architecture firms have five or fewer employees.

Good news, smaller firms have reported a growing share of professional billing. Baker reported that for firms with five or fewer employees, the overall share of professional billing increased from 8 percent in 2005 to 9 percent in 2013. On the other end of the spectrum, fi...

Documents Live On in Paperless Architecture Firms

2016-03-14T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Physical paper may have given way to PDFs. Ink pens may have been replaced by stylus pens. What architecture firms don’t have to worry about being replaced or disappearing, however, are documents.

From initial engagement contracts to drawings, specifications, change orders and RFPs when dealing with governmental agencies, architecture firms face a mountain of documents – and the necessary task of organizing and archiving these documents.

(Or, at least, a firm should have a policy for organizing and archiving.)

Here are three reasons why your firm should draft a recordkeeping policy that everyone can get on board with:

1. Be Prepared to Litigate Lawsuits

A significant amount of time can pass between the time you accept an engagement, complete the project, and finally receive a letter from a client alleging an impropriety. Because a lawsuit can be filed years after a project has been completed, your firm will want to be prepared to defen...

Turning Down Projects and Tripling Revenue: One Firm’s Story

2013-10-01T11:38:00-04:00

Brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice

How does a firm make the jump from two to twelve employees in just a few years during a recession?

How could they possibly triple their revenue between 2005 and 2013? That just doesn’t happen. MattParker, Business Manager at Vertical Arts Architecture admits it’s unusual and that surviving and thriving during a recession wasn’t exactly easy.

They started with just 2 employees and a big dream—to be a premier high-end, multidisciplinary firm, able to provide clients with a full range of services. They wanted to meet and exceed the most discerning clients’ expectations and have Vertical Arts’ vision stamped on every aspect of production.

Since Vertical Arts opened its doors in ’05, they’ve been using ArchiOffice to handle billing and project management. They had fluctuations like everyone else during the roughest years of the recession, yet they’ve more than quadrupled their staff and have plans to expand even more in the coming years...