Small firms, big impacts.

Small firms, big impacts. Small businesses account for 99.7 percent of all US employers, and for 63 percent of net new jobs created in the past decade. More than half of all US workers either own small businesses or work for them. Most AIA member firms consist of four or fewer persons, and many are sole practitioners.

The costs of capitalizing professional architecture practice today are significant—to acquire and maintain design software, to build office infrastructure, to carry insurance, to lease or buy space, and simply to be an employer. This translates into a need for sound business acumen among architects working in small practices.

The AIA must pay more attention to profitability and to the other factors that make or break smaller firms as going concerns. This means systematic sharing of information—about business and practice models, about sales and marketing techniques, about delivery methods, about pricing, and about all of the other factors we face as private practitioners in small firms.

Various advocacy groups regularly lobby Congress on small business issues, including paperwork reduction, tax relief, and growth incentives. The AIA can certainly support initiatives that help small business, but we face issues that are unique to architecture—internships, professional development, partnering and liability, specialty certifications—and these are the issues upon which AIA must focus resources.

Responses to AIA "Strategic Plan" questions

Strategic Council is gathering responses to three questions for its strategic plan. Candidate Thomas Vonier provided these responses.
The Institute's new

What issues should we address in society?
We often hear voices in the profession — indeed, we hear the AIA itself — asking the public to understand architects, and what architects do. Of course! But what are we doing to understand the public and its needs? We must pay greater attention to the political, social and business factors that influence practice, and engage with them more effectively. Our advocacy and influence programs must align with the issues of greatest concern to the public, and we also need to voice our concerns and convictions — for example, about the abysmal state of our infrastructure.

How might the architect's role change?
The requirements for capitalizing professional practice have risen — the costs of equipment, office infrastructure, practice insurance, and the mere costs of being an employer. This translates into large need for basic business acumen. As a professional body, we need to pay much more attention to profitability and the factors that sustain firms. This will mean a greater need to stress — and to deliver — valuable design and advisory services. As architects, we're better positioned, educated and qualified than our competitors. Let’s act that way.

On what should we focus in the near term?
With a reinvigorated emphasis on public outreach, and with new efforts to reshape the fee environment in which we practice, we’re moving in the right directions. We must work harder to reach the most influential policymakers and opinion leaders — not just to help them understand the value of well-designed communities and buildings, but to help them promote these values.

Sidewalk cafés

Café society

Eat, drink, and make money on the sidewalk

Business and amenity: Sidewalk cafés symbolize Paris for many visitors, but they are also a multi-million Euro source of business for the city. Café owners know that even a little piece of the public sidewalk can be worth a fortune. Today some 8,750 terraces decorate the city and each year brings as many as one thousand new applications.

As good as gold: One owner of a typical small café in the sixth arrondissement reports that only two small tables outdoors, with room for just four chairs, increase his daily gross revenues by 200,00 € (about $265.00), or some 20 percent of receipts over the course of a year.

Revenues for the city: The city of Paris collects between 25 € and 30 € million ($32.5 to $39.0 million) each year in taxes on sidewalk café spaces. The owner of one café on the avenue des Champs-Elysées pays the city 38.000 € ($49,500) each year for use of an unenclosed terrace of 68m2 in area (about 900 ft2).

Smoking ban adds push: Paris city officials estimate that sidewalk terraces—both enclosed and open—have increased in number by about 20 percent over the past five years. Many more terraces have opened or been significantly upgraded since 2008, when a citywide smoking ban went into effect for all interior public spaces.

Cost to operators: Sidewalk café “rental” charges range from 15,00 € – 82,00 € per m2 per year. The most expensive are on the major avenues, and the least expensive on the exterior boulevards. Costs can quadruple if the sidewalk space is enclosed.





Research: Thomas Vonier Architect LLC