How can I maximise the earning potential of every commission without sacrificing the quality of the architecture? John Henry answers your question...
Quality of architecture relates to your skills as a designer. Maximising the earning potential of a commission relies on your ability to manage your time. Firms can muck around for hours because they are not disciplined enough to arrive at well thought solutions quickly.
Successful architectural practices are successful because they manage their office efficiently. This is a different skill set to being an adventurous designer. If you’re missing one skill set, buy it in or develop it quickly.
There is no mystery to making a profit on a job. You work out how much time it is going to take you for each part of the commission, set the tasks for your staff, monitor the time and project progress on a regular basis and make decisions early to ensure that the project is delivered on time and on budget with all parties happy. “Utopia!” I hear you say — no, it is a world where discipline and common sense are the keys to keeping your practice viable.
The easiest commissions are hourly rate commission as you get paid for the time spent. Your overheads and profit margins are built into your rates. Fixed dollar sum fees are much harder. You have to calculate the time you need to spend on a job and if that is not correct then you obviously lose. Percentage of total project cost is the best way in my view so long as you manage the client’s project cost. But in all cases your planning and costings need to be right, your work plan thought through and the design is signed off before construction documentation is done, then the rest is easy. But life is not meant to be easy, apparently.
Once you have taken a brief, you should understand what you have to do and the hours you have to do it. You prepare a work plan detailing hours associated to tasks. Keep your eye on the project and the time sheets. That is how you maximize the earning potential of each and every commission and probably win the respect of your client as it is simply demonstrating good business practice and professionalism.
Often the design is not resolved before a job goes into construction documentation. This can occur for any number of reasons. The client changes the scope or you don’t get the design right before the time spent on design runs out. These factors then affect the time spent on the remaining phases of the job. I believe in a fundamental premise that you need to document the job properly in your office to avoid problems occurring with your documentation later on site. If you don’t do this, every alteration has to be cross referenced and checked to other drawings and the time and pressure to get information to a builder can lead to oversights. This can also lead to much more contact with the builder having to resolve all the contradictory information on the drawings and the inevitable lack of information coming from design on the run. That is where it can cost you in terms of your reputation and money.
Trained and motivated staff will assist you to deliver profitable jobs. Train your staff to think like you think, train them to be aware that time management and financial management is as great a skill as award winning design in an architectural practice.
Staff will teach other staff and that is how you create practice ethos. Tell them about the processes and the pitfalls. Teach them to think about what they are doing. My way of interacting with staff is to get them to build the building on the paper or the screen. I explain that architects don’t tell the builders how to build; we tell them what it is to look like and generally how it should be put together. It’s up to the builder from there. Common sense and practical construction knowledge will save many hours of costly rework. The profit or loss made on a commission relates to how much time is budgeted as compared to the time spent on the project.
