Profit Motive & The Business of Design
2022-AIALA03
Included in subscription
1.00
LU
3.88
Course expires on: 03/24/2025
Included in subscription
Description
Who deals with the money, and how?
This session focuses on how finance, metrics and performance influence an A+D practice’s wellbeing and its success moving forward, as well as the firm culture and its bottom line. Think-Time Tuesdays host and SO|arch founder, Elisabeth Sporer, AIA CIC, provides an overview about the metrics behind the business of design and how A+D founders and leaders can achieve and maintain fiscal health for their businesses—from basic best practices to advanced systems that can help measure, predict, and manage their firm's performance.
The session demonstrates and discusses the Key Performance Indicators an A+D firm needs to monitor [operating profit rate / utilization rate & target utilization / payroll multiplier & net effective multiplier / overhead & break-even rate] and discusses best practices of monitoring cash flow, AR, backlog volume and proposals pending. Then in conversation with her clients, Elisabeth presents case studies that founders, and leaders of small studios and midsized firms will find useful:
- Transitioning to professional systems for midsized firms with Cecilia Quezada [Quezada Architecture]
- Optimizing basic systems for small firms with Khal Khaireddin [K2A]
Course expires 03/23/2025
Learning Objectives
Discern how financial management practices can improve their bottom line
Gain an understanding of key performance indicators for A+D practice
Gain additional knowledge of best practices for finance, metrics and performance
Adapt best practices for their own business.
This session was presented and recorded live on November 16, 2021 by AIA Los Angeles as part of the Think-time Tuesdays Series.
Khal (short for Khaldoon) is an Architect by trade and an entrepreneur in spirit. He leads K2A with a perpetually positive attitude and instills in his peers and staff a dedication to service, and excellence, in the practice of architecture. Khal’s greatest asset is his holistic viewpoint and ability to see architecture’s interconnections within a broader real estate and development context, without losing sight of architecture’s power to enhance communities and inspire individuals.
Khal obtained his BArch from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo
As President of Quezada Architecture, Cecilia has compiled extensive local, national, and international A+D experience spanning her 25 years career. Her architectural experience encompasses a wide range of client types, project scales, and sectors including commercial, hospitality, retail, residential, and mixed-use projects. Her extensive travels give Cecilia much to draw on when approaching design and she enjoys the challenge of helping clients realize their vision together.
Cecilia holds a BArch degree from the University of Cincinnati.
Elisabeth Sporer, AIA, CIC works with CEOs, founders and leadership teams to build successful A+D firms through an integral approach. She is a licensed architect in California and Berlin/Germany, a LEED Accredited Professional, and a New Ventures West certified integral coach. Her multi-faceted professional experience spans design and architecture to business strategy and business management in her native Germany and in the US for firms such as EHDD, Perkins + Will and STUDIOS, and her own firm SO|arch. Based in Northern California, she has presented at major AIA chapters in California, including AIA San Francisco, AIA Los Angeles, AIA East Bay and AIA Central Valley, on topics like business strategy [“Blueprint for Success” in 2020 and “Think-Times Tuesdays” in 2021] , entrepreneurship [“The Free Solo Practice” in 2019] ], ownership transition [“Ownership Transition in the Entrepreneurial Era of Gen X”], mentorship [“High Performance Mentorship” in 2020 and international practice [“Unlearning the Metric System” in 2019 and “Career Strategies for International Professionals” in 2021].