Dos and Don'ts of an Architect's Professional Practice Plan – (APP- Plan)

“A business plan is a road map that gives direction to a business." says Joseph Mancuso

The APP plan is the first thing that our financiers, associates, supporters, and well wishers ask to see. It is natural that at a start up stage, we may miss some important issues while writing a winning APP plan. Thus, before you submit an APP plan for your architectural firm, consider these 10 dos and Don’ts of writing an APP plan.

DOs

1. Keeping the company's goals in mind, answer key questions such as who, what, where, when how why, and how much.

2. Make a short term plan (of less than one year) in detail and long term plan in wider perspective as reality of your practice can be different from your initial concept.

3. Be extremely conservative in predicting capital requirements, timelines, no. of projects and profits. False Optimism will waste your time, money and energy at a later stage.

4. Consider all your competitors.

5. Use simple language in explaining the issues. Make it easy to read and understand.

6. Carry out a detailed research to find appropriate references to make a business plan suitable to your company's objective. .

7. Submit your APP plan to experts in your intended business for their advice.

8. Spell out your strategies on how you intend to handle advertising & marketing. This is an area which most people miscalculate their fiancés. Be more practical while planning your marketing needs,

9. Freely and frequently modify your APP plan to account for changing conditions.

10. Design your plan to look professional and attractive to financiers and supporters. An APP plan is an image of your company. Thus, present it to your best ability.

DON'Ts

1. Don’t Skip the step of preparing a business plan before starting.

2. Don’t depend entirely on your special strength, for example design strength. Success comes to those architects who start business with great economics and not necessarily great inventions.

3. Don’t proceed without adequate financial and accounting know-how.

4. Don’t try to fit your plan into a standard template. Be creative.

5. Don’t assume you are required to use a business planning software.

6. Don’t fill your plan with meaningless jargons and fluffs. Be simple.

7. Don't assume that the banker/financier will know everything about the specific kind of business you're in. He may, he may not. Be clear in your explanation.

8. Don't forget to include how you see the borrowing being repaid.

9. Don't misspell words or make grammatical errors.

10. Don’t ignore ongoing political, social and economic trends in the market to chart your company’s future and its position.

Coming up soon in the next blog:
Sample APP plan for an architect