Operating Your Own Architectural Or Engineering Practice

Starting your own architecture or engineering firm may seem a bit daunting. In Operating Your Own Architectural or Engineering Practice, author Walter J. Smith presents a handbook to help you navigate that process in order to be successful in the long term. Based on information gleaned from creating and running his own firm, Smith details what it takes to plan, organize, staff, direct, and control a business. Filled with valuable tips and advice, this guide also contains a host of sample forms and documents integral to establishing and maintaining a thriving practice. Praise for Operating Your Own Architectural or Engineering Practice "An invaluable resource for a young professional wanting to start his/her own practice. From his years of experience in the profession, Mr. Smith provides insight on planning, financing, and managing relationships with staff and consultants-topics untouched in today's typical academic environment. Knowing on 'day one' what is really involved in the intricacies and mechanics of running a business will increase your potential for success." -Kelly Wieczorek, intern, Bay Design Associates Architects, PL "What started out as a 'pocket guide' for architects and engineers actually turned into a handbook for all disciplines in the building process. Contractors, owners, consultants, and financial professionals will receive great insights from reading this book." -Myron Mickelson, president of Mickelson Construction Services Inc.

Starting your own architecture or engineering firm may seem a bit daunting. In Operating Your Own Architectural or Engineering Practice, author Walter J. Smith presents a handbook to help you navigate that process in order to be successful in the long term. Based on information gleaned from creating and running his own firm, Smith details what it takes to plan, organize, staff, direct, and control a business. Filled with valuable tips and advice, this guide also contains a host of sample forms and documents integral to establishing and maintaining a thriving practice. Praise for Operating Your Own Architectural or Engineering Practice An invaluable resource for a young professional wanting to start his/her own practice. From his years of experience in the profession, Mr. Smith provides insight on planning, financing, and managing relationships with staff and consultantstopics untouched in todays typical academic environment. Knowing on day one what is really involved in the intricacies and mechanics of running a business will increase your potential for success. Kelly Wieczorek, intern, Bay Design Associates Architects, PL What started out as a pocket guide for architects and engineers actually turned into a handbook for all disciplines in the building process. Contractors, owners, consultants, and financial professionals will receive great insights from reading this book. Myron Mickelson, president of Mickelson Construction Services Inc.

Part narrative, part business book; Architect + Entrepreneur is filled with contemporary, relevant, fresh tips and advice, from a seasoned professional architect building a new business. The guide advocates novel strategies and tools that merge entrepreneurship with the practice of architecture and interior design. The Problem:Embarking on a new business venture is intimidating; you have questions. But many of the resources available to help entrepreneur architects and interior designers start their design business lack timeliness and relevance. Most are geared toward building colossal firms like SOM and Gensler using outdated methods and old business models. If you're an individual or small team contemplating starting a design business, this is your field guide; crafted to inspire action. The Solution:Using the lean startup methodology to create a minimum viable product, the handbook encourages successive small wins that support a broader vision enabling one to, "think big, start small, and learn fast." It's a unique take on design practice viewed through the lens of entrepreneurship and is designed to answer the questions all new business owners face, from the rote to the existential. Questions about: - Startup costs - Business models (old and new) - Marriage of business and design - Mindset - Branding & naming (exercises and ideas) - Internet marketing strategies - Passive income ideas - Setting your fee - Taxes - Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) - Securing the work - Client relations - Software - Billing rates - Contracts Building a business isn't a singular act; it's a series of small steps. Using the outline found in Architect + Entrepreneur you can start today. The chapters are organized to guide you from idea to action. Rather than write a business plan you'll be challenged to craft a brand and you'll sell it using new technologies. Follow the guide sequentially and you'll have both the tools and a profitable small business.

This is your essential one stop shop for information on starting and running a practice. Case studies and advice from practitioners, big and small, run alongside outlines of all the key topics, to give you an insight into the problems and challenges others have faced when setting up a design business. Accessible and informative, this handbook is the ideal first point of reference when starting a practice. Architects have many different reasons for setting up in practice; equally, there are many ways of running your own business. This handbook helps you consider whether or not you should set up on your own, examining issues such as financing, office space, recruitment, IT and workingo ut a business plan. Some architects want to stay small, while others have ambitions to grow into large businesses. Some grow big accidentally. And then there are those who pick and choose their work carefully, and even turn down undesirable contracts, while others will grab at everything possible. This book woudl explore these different models and illustrate how different kinds of practice develop into successful businesses. Importantly, the book will stress that these issues are crucial - you may be the best designer in the world, but unless your business is well managed you will fail. On the other hand, some successful architects spend a lot of time looking for new work and attending to management issues, rarely finding the time for design work. This book would illustrate how architects have struck a balance between these two extremes.

A comprehensive guide to the management of professional architectural and engineering practice. Presents concepts and methods of management specifically tailored to the design enterprise. Includes a description of the ``passages'' in the evolution of a design firm, with pointers on managing the firm's growth; the latest approaches to managing marketing, human resources, professional performance, and finances; legal forms of organization, valuation of established firms, and formats for transferring ownership.

Starting an Architecture Firm is a beginner's guide for architects who are ready to start a practice. This eBook covers the essential information that an architect will need to start their business, manage the firm's finances, understand the basics of contracts, develop a brand, and develop relationships with clients.

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.

Want to make it big on Broadway—as a techie? Or how about working in smaller regional theater? Careers in Technical Theater explains more than twenty different careers from the perspective of successful theater artists. Included are specialties that have been around for decades, as well as those still emerging in the field. Concise information is provided on job duties, estimated earnings, recommended training, examples of career paths, and the insights are given of working pros in management, scenery, audio/visual, costumes, video and projection, engineering, and theatrical systems. There’s even a detailed appendix on finding on-the-job training as an intern, apprentice, or paid worker. For anyone interested in a behind-the-scenes life in the theater,Careers in Technical Theater is a priceless resource. Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.