Small Firm Exchange

• Please answer Question #1 and select at least four others from the list.
• Provide answers in paragraph form, not bullets.
• Aim for no more than 300 words.
• Include examples or stories as illustrations.
• Provide photos (with photo credit for the photographer) if needed to illustrate your answer.
• Please submit answers no later than August 7.

1. REQUIRED: What do you see as the greatest challenge to running a practice in 2026?
2. Briefly describe firm culture at your office.  What do you think are the most positive things you do to create a fair and enjoyable workplace?
3. How have you used or applied the Framework for Design Excellence in your practice?
4. As designers we are trained to give each design project our all.  How do you manage this mentality with work-life balance or making a profit?
5. Since things are now all about AI: what is one tool that you now use that you could not imagine life without?
6. What firm/project management software do you use and how did you choose it? How has it changed how you manage your practice?
7. If you are a small or midsize firm: what strategies have you used to be competitive when up against large firms?
8. What is one thing you have learned during your time in practice that you wish you had known at the beginning of your career?

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Eva Read-Warden AIA
The Arkitex Studio Inc
Bryan TX
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Responses to 5 questions:

Question 1- What do you see as the greatest challenge to running a practice in 2026?

The greatest challenge we face is keeping the work load balanced with staffing. Feast or famine- work load rarely aligns with who is available and invoicing never matches up. From December 15 to March 1, we always are waiting for checks to role in. We operate as a cash basis S-Corp. We attempt to pay as many bills in December ahead such as rent, utilities, software renewals, insurance, etc. so we can just cover payroll during the first 10 weeks from mid December until March 1 (5 bi-monthly pay cycles). Our clients seem to use us as a bank- delaying payments until the new year is well under way. But we can't not pay our staff and we never want to furlough our best and most capable.

Question 2- Briefly describe firm culture at your office.  What do you think are the most positive things you do to create a fair and enjoyable workplace?

Our firm culture is about transparency and trying to train up our staff, not just to design skills, but more importantly, training up future leaders/owners. We work really hard on showing staff how we match up fees with project budgets, how we need to produce work in a time efficient manner, and how the goal is to make a profit. In addition to lunch-n-learns, we provide lunch at least monthly to discuss leadership, profit taking and sharing, understanding the firm budget, and managing scheduling. We offer assistance to staff to take training courses and to prep for the exams. We spend a lot of time educating staff- sharing our experience, learning codes, explaining what is on the exams and how what they are doing is relevant. We offer flex scheduling so they can work early or late or makeup time on Saturday to have time for family such as banking, children's extracurriculars, and paid time off.

Question 4- As designers we are trained to give each design project our all.  How do you manage this mentality with work-life balance or making a profit?

Our team attempts to lead by example. In addition to working in the office, we encourage our staff to volunteer, to set aside time for family, and to enjoy what they enjoy doing (whatever that might be). We serve in local government boards & commissions, church committees, school advisory councils, design review committees, architect & planning committees, and interscholastic activities such as sports and Future Cities, etc.  We give staff a budget of a specific number of hours to complete each task so they can have enough time for the task but allow them to manage what happens, when, and how to work around the outside activities, vacation, office closures, etc.

Question 6- What firm/project management software do you use and how did you choose it? How has it changed how you manage your practice?

For a small firm such as ours, we build most of our project management tools using Excel rather than purchase premade solutions. We have investigated a number of PM solutions including Monograph, Monday, BQE, Asana, and Deltek but we cannot justify the per seat model of software subscriptions. We spend a great amount of time creating spreadsheets, inputting into Quickbooks, and reviewing hours, bills, and invoicing. We are hoping to gradually increase revenue and profits to be able to handle the extra expense of more software. We understand most of these PM products can help us be more efficient- just need to figure out how to have enough room in our financing model to cover this extra cost.

Question 8- What is one thing you have learned during your time in practice that you wish you had known at the beginning of your career?

Looking back, I wish I had been exposed to financial management, bookkeeping, time management, and staffing a lot earlier in my career. Even at the most progressive firms that I was employed by, I was rarely given any responsibilities other than interacting with clients, designing, document production, and construction administration. If we are going to be successful and grow the next generation of architect firm owners, we must teach how to balance time and money, how to manage resources, how to market, how to invest so you have the money to buy shares, etc. Our staff needs to be trained up on how to run a business and how to make it successful.

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Michael "Robin" Benning AIA
Sketch Architecture Company
Mesa AZ
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