Foreword

Running an architecture business effectively is not just a matter of pursuing ‘profit’ or ‘staying afloat’-there is an ethical issue at stake too. Honouring your promises to staff, consultants and other suppliers and paying them on time is a mark of your integrity. Expecting your clients to pay you promptly while your staff have to wait for their money, or work long hours for nothing, is evidence of double standards.

In this lucid and practical book about a difficult subject, Brian Pinder-Ayres draws on his diverse experience of medium-sized practices and the tax affairs of many smaller firms, and offers a range of proven, effective tools for keeping track of cash, looking ahead and minimising risk.

He says: ‘All of the architects I have ever met have been far more concerned about the quality of the finished building and its design integrity than about the making of money’ (page 8). His observation that ‘The vast majority of businesses that go under simply run out of cash’ (page 9), leads inevitably to the maxim: ‘Cashflow is the lifeblood of the practice’ (page 60). If you need to remember one thing about this subject, it’s probably that.

Financial management of architectural practice is not simple. It is complex, and we underestimate it at our peril. It should be imaginative and creative, but rigorous – just like architecture.

Steven Pidwill,
Shepheard Epstein Hunter