I want to talk about why profit is so VITAL to an architectural practice (or any business). Why architects should stop viewing it as a bad thing.
I had a recent discussion with MAMUNA RASHID about profit and the general view that it’s a bit of a dirty word in architectural education and in practice.
I have to say that when I set up, I found it very hard to get over feeling greedy for charging more money.
The BIGGEST MISTAKE I made was only aiming to pay my bills and crucially with no surplus.
This meant that there was nothing left over after I had paid myself. There was nothing spare to invest in improvements – software, learning, mentoring, top people. There were no reserves to ride the inevitable project gaps. Nothing at all to survive an economic downturn of any kind.
This is just plain daft! Riding on the edge like this is no fun at all. It causes huge amounts of stress, none of which aid creativity. In fact it does the exact opposite, it inhibits ability to do your job well. It leads to burnout, illness and leaving the profession.
None of which anyone wants – least of all your client!
I didn’t want this doom-laden forecast, but first I had to get over my huge money blocks such as:
– Scarcity mindset – there’s a lack of work out there so I need to charge less
– My work isn’t as good as X, so I need to charge less
– It’s greedy to charge more
– It’s not fair on the little people to charge so much
– Design should be for everyone, if we charge more how will people get access to good design?
– My clients can’t afford that
Chances are, you’ll need to work on the above too if you’re holding back from charging your worth. There are some great books/podcasts on this.
In addition to overcoming the blocks above, the actions I took next are all in my eBook ‘ 5 ways to increase profit for architectural business owners’ that you can download FREE here.