flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

Turning Down Projects and Tripling Revenue: One Firm’s Story

Turning Down Projects and Tripling Revenue: One Firm’s Story

How does a firm make the jump from two to twelve employees in just a few years during a recession? Matt Parker, Business Manager at Vertical Arts Architecture, admits surviving and thriving during a recession wasn’t exactly easy. 


By BQE Software | November 21, 2013

They started with just 2 employees and a big dream—to be a premier high-end, multidisciplinary firm, able to provide clients with a full range of services. They wanted to meet and exceed the most discerning clients’ expectations and have Vertical Arts’ vision stamped on every aspect of production.

Since Vertical Arts opened its doors in ’05, they’ve been using ArchiOffice to handle billing and project management. They had fluctuations like everyone else during the roughest years of the recession, yet they’ve more than quadrupled their staff and have plans to expand even more in the coming years.

Their revenue has gone up 300-350% in eight years’ time. Their accountant has even started recommending ArchiOffice to neighboring firms.

They’re able to offer a full service architectural experience—coordinating surveyors, helping clients orchestrate moves or get home inspections done, and allowing consultant billing to come through them.

How Do They Do It?

They Invoice in Half a Day or So

Using ArchiOffice means they can get billing done for all their complex projects in half a day to a day. So all employees’ hours are always billable, and Parker, the company’s only administrative employee can tackle billing efficiently, getting on to his other responsibilities. “If we didn’t have ArchiOffice, we’d have to hire at least one more person, part or full time,” he admits.  Instead, they can take on more jobs and projects because their staff isn’t tied up doing administrative work.

They Organize Projects Ridiculously Well

Parker explains: “We have one specific project that we’ve chosen to divide into with 9 sub-projects, so that we can individually track time and expense per sub-project. And ArchiOffice keeps that whole world organized for us. ArchiOffice allows us to manage more jobs and projects with still just one support staff member.”

 


Since Vertical Arts opened its doors, the firm has been using ArchiOffice to handle billing and project management. The firm can get billing done for their projects in less than a day.

 

Their Client Relationships are Rock Solid

“It streamlines our process and gives us access to tons of information and reports quickly so we don’t spend much time answering questions for clients—we just generate it and send it right back. I know our clients trust our billing and our process. It’s really strengthened our client relationships.”

They Became an Incredibly Impressive Firm

“Overall ArchiOffice is just a great billing and project management software—to be able to go to one place and see all your time, all your budgets, all your invoices and transactions, it just streamlines the administrative side significantly,” explains Parker.

Now, Vertical Arts doesn’t have to settle for taking on uninspiring projects. They do most of their work with a number of individual clients. They’ve achieved their dream of being a multidisciplinary high-end firm—they have an interior designer on staff, a landscape architect, as well as a full architectural team, so they’re able to provide the full range of services they know their clients deserve.

Learn more about ArchiOffice Software here.

Check out Vertical Arts Architecture here. 

Tags

Related Stories

| Oct 4, 2012

2012 Reconstruction Award Platinum Winner: Building 1500, Naval Air Station Pensacola Pensacola, Fla.

The Building Team, led by local firms Caldwell Associates Architects and Greenhut Construction, had to tackle several difficult problems to make the historic building meet current Defense Department standards having to do with anti-terrorism, force protection, blast-proofing, and progressive collapse.

| Oct 4, 2012

2012 Reconstruction Awards Platinum Winner: City Hall, New York, N.Y.

New York's City Hall last received a major renovation nearly a century ago. Four years ago, a Building Team led by construction manager Hill International took on the monumental task of restoring City Hall for another couple of hundred years of active service.

| Oct 4, 2012

BD+C's 29th Annual Reconstruction Awards

Presenting 11 projects that represent the best efforts of distinguished Building Teams in historic preservation, adaptive reuse, and renovation and addition projects.

| Oct 4, 2012

Electronic power tool builds project transparency

As building projects have grown in scope and complexity, so, too, has the task of document management. A new online tool is helping Building Teams meet that demand.

| Oct 4, 2012

HMC Architects in service to the community

HMC employees give back to their communities through toy drives and fundraising efforts like CANstruction, which benefits local food banks.

| Oct 4, 2012

Career development, workplace environment programs key to retention at HMC Architects

Architecture firm take a multifaceted approach to professional development.

| Oct 4, 2012

Foundation tightens HMC Architects bond with local communities

Founded in 2009 with an initial endowment of $1.9 million, HMC’s nonprofit Designing Futures Foundation (DFF) has donated about $230,000 in its three years of existence, including $105,000 in scholarships to California students. The grants help promising high schoolers with an interest in architecture, design, engineering, education, or healthcare pay for expenses like test preparation services, computers, and college entrance exam fees and tuition. The scholarships can be extended for up to five years of college.

| Oct 4, 2012

Gilbane publishes Fall 2012 construction industry economic report

Report outlines fluctuation in construction spending; predicts continued movement toward recovery.

| Oct 3, 2012

Fifth public comment period now open for update to USGBC's LEED Green Building Program

LEED v4 drafts and the public comment tool are now available on the newly re-launched, re-envisioned USGBC.org website.

| Oct 2, 2012

Mirvish and Gehry unveil conceptual design to transform Toronto’s entertainment district

Reimagining of King Street Entertainment District supports Toronto’s cultural corridor.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category


Construction Costs

Data center construction costs for 2024

Gordian’s data features more than 100 building models, including computer data centers. These localized models allow architects, engineers, and other preconstruction professionals to quickly and accurately create conceptual estimates for future builds. This table shows a five-year view of costs per square foot for one-story computer data centers. 


Sustainability

Grimshaw launches free online tool to help accelerate decarbonization of buildings

Minoro, an online platform to help accelerate the decarbonization of buildings, was recently launched by architecture firm Grimshaw, in collaboration with more than 20 supporting organizations including World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), RIBA, Architecture 2030, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) and several national Green Building Councils from across the globe.


halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021