The Mini-MBA series has passed. Please subscribe to our email list to be updated with our next Professional Development series!

Mini-MBA for Emerging Professionals

The Mini-MBA for the Emerging Professional will introduce basic business principles of the design profession. To succeed in today’s marketplace, emerging professionals must have a strong business foundation to survive and thrive -- both as entrepreneurs and as part of an organization. This seminar will empower the emerging professional by offering insights into how a firm is created, managed, and sustained - as well as what role individuals can play in their firm's success.

Topics covered:

• Financial Considerations: Understanding of the fundamentals of responding to RFPs, developing design fees, multipliers, billing rates and accounting methods.

• Stakeholder Roles in Architecture: Understanding of the relationships between the main interested parties in the design process—client, contractor, architect, user groups, local community—and the roles to reconcile stakeholder needs.

• Project Management: Understanding of the methods for selecting consultants and assembling teams; identifying work plans and recommending project delivery methods.

• Business Practices: Understanding of the basic principles of a firm’s business practices, including financial management and business planning, risk management, marketing, organization, and entrepreneurship.

• Legal Responsibilities: Understanding of the architect’s responsibility to the public and the client as determined by regulations and legal considerations involving practice of architecture and professional services contracts

• Professional Conduct: Understanding of the ethical issues involved in the exercise of professional judgment in architectural design and practice and understanding of the role of the NCARB Rules of Conduct and the AIA Code of Ethics in defining professional conduct.

Instructor:

 James R. Kimball, Jr., AIA | Principal, Phase Zero Design, Inc. | Adjunct Faculty, Boston Architectural College:

Seminar Materials:

• The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice, Fifteenth Edition. (ISBN 978-1-118-30882-0)

• Handouts and Discussion

• The Architect’s Guide to Small Firm Management (ISBN 978-0-470-46648-3)

SESSION 1

THE PROFESSION OF ARCHITECTURE

• Ethics and Professional Practice

• Firm Organization and Structure

SESSION 2

SALES + MARKETING

• Marketing and Business Development

• Loyalty in Business

• Social Media and Networking

• Proposals
  

SESSION 3

FINANCE + BUDGETS

• Firm Financial Management

• Understanding Multipliers

• Developing Fees

• Billing and Collecting
  

SESSION 4