Architecture can be a high risk and low-income profession. Planning to manage risks is essential. Workloads tend to be cyclical and managing lean periods and booms whilst being prepared for the next downturn is a key requirement. This book is a how-to guide to build business resilience into your architectural practice, offering methods for managing business-critical events and crises. It shows you how to analyse trouble, pre-emptively tackle pitfalls and gives you confidence in decision-making to stay ahead. Featuring case studies with expert insight into sole shareholder and director experience of a small practice, it’s aimed across all levels with straightforward, honest and accessible advice. It is structured with people and organisations as the core framework, exploring practice, staff, clients, projects, consultants and providers. It provides operational advice on the day-to-day running of practice and how to respond to disruption.

Architects are finding the procurement landscape increasingly complex and competitive. This book shows practitioners the ways that fees are calculated, negotiated and managed. It will increase your understanding of the different fee-earning roles for architects, professional services contracts, how to calculate sustainable fee levels and improve negotiation skills. It also includes information on how to monitor and manage fees and the resources required to deliver projects, managing change in the scope of the project and related services, where to add value and to highlight risk areas that may impact on sustaining the business. Case studies explain good and bad practice to illustrate effective fee management, drawn from the authors’ direct experience as practitioners and investigating client complaints.

How do you obtain permission? How can you satisfactorily tackle objections? How can you convince planning officers of the value of your work? Drawing on substantial experience from both applicant and local planning authority perspectives, this book provides tactics and practical steps to help architects secure early validation of applications and successful outcomes. It’s a practical guide to understanding the planning system and maximizing the potential for successful outcomes. Readers will develop a greater understanding of the principles that are vital in the preparation and negotiation of applications against the very complex detail of regulatory arrangements.

A professional guide for architects about calculating and negotiating fees to maximise profits. Packed with worked examples and comprehensive in its coverage, it explores how to evaluate costs, explains the anatomy of a fee offer, and advises on getting paid. It also outlines the essential management tools for keeping track of the whole process.