The most recent report from the RIBA's Business Benchmarking for Chartered Practices is interesting in that it refers to data from the booming business environment of early 2008. It therefore records a moment when work was plentiful and the future looked rosy-so much so that most practices were predicting growth in the coming year. How quickly times have changed. Usefully though, the results of this survey contain many helpful pointers for practices facing an increasingly hostile economic climate. Despite the burgeoning market at the time, this report does not paint a picture of a profession that is making the most of its opportunities. Yes, many practices are doing pretty well, but the figures mask a remarkably sloppy approach to business management and, in many cases, a profligate disregard for financial management and forward planning, While most of the practices in this survey met the benchmark of achieving 15% profitability, a third did not, and many smaller practices were clearly struggling to make ends meet, despite the favourable economic climate (see graph, above left). However, the lack of focus on financial management is apparent even in the profitable practices. For example, having done the work, it took an average of 15 weeks for the practices in this survey to get the money in the bank; a fifth did not report regularly on cash flow and an even higher percentage did not report on debtor days, creditor days or work in progress.
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