Finance – Page 2 – From BLUEPRINTS to GREENBACKS

18Apr

By Mike HellinghausenNo Comments

Finance, General Interest

Organized Labor

We've got to get organized here! Okay, admittedly, that was a pun. I'm not proposing that we organize a labor strike, but rather, that we quantify our firm's labor. We're interested in labor dollar signs, not protest signs. (more…)

4Apr

By Mike HellinghausenNo Comments

Finance, General Interest

Eggs in a Basket

This would seem the perfect time for an Easter egg analogy. Gather 'em up, put 'em in a basket. And count 'em up. Each one is a little unique, different from the others. But still an egg. Last week, we began describing the concept of forecasting revenues and expenses. Let's start with revenues. For the sake of our egg analogy, we're going to treat each of our revenue-generating projects as an egg. Large and small, beautiful or ugly, let's identify them all, and yes-- put them all in one basket. (more…)

28Mar

By Mike HellinghausenNo Comments

Finance, General Interest

Peering Into the Crystal Ball

The fortune-teller peers into her crystal ball and claims to see the future. Who knows what she is really seeing, if she sees anything at all. Perhaps she is making up the story as she goes. If we could see the future for ourselves, she'd be out of business. Let's do that-- let's create a way to see our own future. We just need our own crystal ball. (more…)

21Mar

By Mike HellinghausenNo Comments

Finance, General Interest

On the Road

Picture the firm as a car racing down the road, pedal to the metal. A torrent of information rushes at us as we drive. We can see where we’re going by looking out the front windshield. That's our immediate future. We can see where we are right this moment by looking to either side. The present. And we can see where we’ve been by looking at the rearview morror. Our past. Okay, that’s a cute analogy, you say—but how does it help us manage the firm? Here’s how. (more…)

14Mar

By Mike HellinghausenNo Comments

Finance, General Interest

Solving the Profit Riddle

In the 2009 feature film, Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective works frantically to put together enough clues to solve the mystery of what is about to happen, before it happens. If he can solve the riddle in time, and then predict what could happen, he can then change what actually happens. Wouldn't it be great if we could pull this off in real life when it comes to what will happen with our firm's profitability? In other words, be able to predict it, and thus buy ourselves some time to improve the situation, if necessary? Well, we can. (more…)

7Mar

By Mike HellinghausenNo Comments

Finance, General Interest, Operations

It’s Elementary

This month of March is that unpredictable, yet hopeful time between winter and spring. A time for students to take a break before continuing on with their school year. For gardeners, a time of preparation. A kind of starting over. Beginning again. I'd like to spend this month in similar fashion. I want to go back to the beginning in terms of thinking (mine, at least) about the design business. Back to the basic, and yes, elementary. You may feel a bit like these kids in the picture, forced to review their times tables. My posts are brief out of respect for how little time we all have, so I prefer to break things down to bite-sized and simple. You more advanced scholars may not be as challenged this month, so for extra credit, feel free to peruse the Key Indicators, and le...

28Feb

By Mike HellinghausenNo Comments

Finance, General Interest, Operations

A Culture of Profitability

Over the years, I've presented a number of workshops on financial management for design firms, and I have often sensed a skepticism in my audiences about making a design firm consistently profitable. I think there may be a prevalent mindset that the design profession just isn’t very profitable. Case in point— the old joke that asks what a practitioner would do were he or she to win the lottery— the punch line being that the practitioner would just continue working until the money ran out. I've had people tell me that you just can't make this business profitable. Period. (more…)

21Feb

By Mike HellinghausenNo Comments

Finance, General Interest

Profit: The Air We Breathe

If we want to practice architecture, interior design, or landscape design for very long, we must find a way to make a profitable business of it. It cannot be merely a happy accident. Or an occasional thing. Profit must be the very air we breathe. I'm not advocating profit for profit's sake, mind you. But, rather, because it frees us to do our best work. It's also the difference between life and death for the firm. (more…)

14Feb

By Mike HellinghausenNo Comments

Finance, General Interest

How is the Firm Like a Project?

They can both make us crazy? No, that title really wasn't intended as the first line of a joke. But there are a couple ways that a firm is like a project for me. The first is that we are always striving to build something meaningful and lasting. It's the second one I want to talk about, because it can simplify how we think about the firm's financial management. (more…)