ICON - The magazine of the American Society of Interior Designers - (Page 52) penses such as travel and equipment, bringing the net to about $108,000—a respectable income. In Gilman’s suggested scenario, however, the sole practitioner would hire a young associate at $35,000 per year and charge clients $150 per hour for that associate’s time, bringing to the firm additonal gross income of $180,000 (based on 1,200 hours per year). Even with the additional costs of employing the associate (about 25 to 30 percent of their salary), as well as costs for equipment, the net income to the firm could be as much as $134,000 per year for that associate, enough margin to pay for a financial or accounting consultant or upgrade computers, software and office space. Experts agree that you should plan carefully before starting a business or preparing to grow the one you already have. If you are about to start a business, take a business management course and learn basic accounting terms and practices. Expect to spend at least three to six months marketing and presenting proposals to potential clients before you get a project, and be prepared to go without income for at least a year. When preparing to add an associate to your firm, Shepherd cautions that you should do the analysis “to see what the costs will be” and make sure to hire someone who has abilities that will cover his or her costs by two or three times what you pay that person. Furthermore, designers shouldn’t expect to grow their businesses in “a linear fashion,” Shepherd cau- Designers should recognize what they do best and then partner with experts from other aspects of design. tions. They should anticipate growth “more like a stair step, with plateaus and leaps from time to time.” And though he believes that major decisions, such as whether or not to add more people to your staff, can be subjective and hard to evaluate, he says, “If you’ve been in this business for awhile and you come to the same fork in the road three or four times, you probably need to do something—so just do it.”] Julie Warren is a freelance writer with a special affection for interior design. See the Resource Guide on page 78 for additional resources and information about “Optimizing Profitability.” InformeDesign® Research on Optimizing Profitablilty Summaries of these, and other studies related to this article can be accessed from the InformeDesign® Web site at www.informedesign.umn.edu. Connection between Organizational Design and Employees Human Resource Planning Simplicity Improves Firm Organization and Performance Academy of Management Journal Trade Only membership at flor.com/trade/asid3 52 ASID ICON | THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF INTERIOR DESIGNERS 335980_Interface.indd 1 8/14/07 8:40:09 AM http://flor.com/trade/asid http://www.informedesign.umn.edu
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