You’ve got your architecture firm off the ground, and things are going smoothly. You are proud of the team you’ve put together and the quality of the work you’re producing. Your clients and contractors are happy. Everything is going well.

But, for some reason, the books don’t reflect your success. You’re turning a profit, but it isn’t enough to help you grow the business while living in the manner in which you’ve become accustomed.

Perhaps it’s time to start thinking of ways to boost profits at your firm. Here are a few simple ideas:

Profit Tip 1: Find More Clients

Perhaps your problem is simply that your book isn’t full - you need more clients in order to pull in a decent profit.

So how do you find more clients? Well, that’s the $75,000 question. Some suggestions are:

  • Join a local networking group, such as BNI or Business over Breakfast
  • Host a stall at a trade show
  • Write an article about architecture trends in your area for the local paper
  • Try some Facebook advertising
  • Revamp your website and update your SEO
  • Enter design and architecture awards
  • Take out an ad in a design publication

Profit Tip 2: Upsell the Client on Other Services

But what if your firm is at capacity already? If you can’t take on any more clients, you’ll need to figure out a way to make more money out of the ones you have. One idea is to upsell your client on additional premium services, such as project management of builds, quantity surveying, purchase and delivery of fixtures and fittings, or selling products directly.

When you present your original quote for the work to the client, include a section on additional services you can provide and the benefit of using you for these jobs.

Profit Tip 3: Change Your Pricing Structure

The simplest way to increase your profit is to raise your rates. Rises in rates are normal for most businesses and you should be able to introduce this increase without much hassle.

You may also wish to look at changing your pricing model. Many architecture firms are moving away from hourly pricing into a value-pricing model, which offers a fairer price taking into account all your costs and the value your services add to the client. Take the plunge … I bet you won’t regret it.

Profit Tip 4: Market to a New Type of Client

If you can’t squeeze any more value from your current clients, then it’s time to get new ones. Make it your focus to pull in high-value clients - the clients who will pay a premium for services and require $100,000 worth of work, instead of $10,000.

Establishing your firm in a higher value bracket can be a challenge. You may need to rebrand your practice, or create some new marketing collateral to appeal to new markets. Look at what other firms in high-value markets are doing, and try to adapt their techniques to your practice.

Profit Tip 5: Perfect Your Processes

This isn’t so much about earning more money as it is about ensuring you’re accounting for all your costs and expenses and not leaving any money on the table. Manual timesheets get neglected, staff can’t remember how many hours they’ve worked, supplies are purchased but not recorded, costs aren’t logged against jobs so they can be passed along to clients. A little here and there can turn into a huge profit suck for a company on a tight budget.

The easiest way to solve this issue is to use a time and project management system, like WorkflowMax. Designed with the needs of architects in mind, WorkflowMax provides: 

  • Seamless time sheeting - your whole team can track their time against a job, and you can then generate invoices directly from the timesheets. This way, you don’t forget a thing.
  • The ability to enter costs, time and purchase orders from anywhere, at any time - so you can manage projects from the road.
  • Costs stored in their proper place - against a job. These costs can then be automatically added to the invoice. Not a thumbtack nor a staple is left out.
  • Custom reporting - see which jobs earn the most money or which clients are your most lucrative. Use all this data to inform your decisions.
  • Drastically reduced admin costs - data entry that used to take hours can now be completed in minutes.

Want to know more? See how WorkflowMax has helped these architects streamline processes and recover tens of thousands of dollars of costs each year.

These are just a few ideas for boosting profits at your architecture practice. If you’re smart, you’ll find ways to improve profit without resorting to overloading your team with more work than they can handle. So where do you fit in the profit scale, and what are you doing to improve? It’s time you took off your designer hat, and put on your banker’s cap.