Working at the margins

摘要

In theory, profit is a pretty straightforward concept: maximise your income, minimise your outgoings and you'll make a healthy one. In practice, it's all a bit more complex. In the 2012/13 Business Benchmarking Survey of RIBA Chartered Practices, we were pleasantly surprised to see that practices averaged almost 22% profit, substantially higher than the benchmark of 15%. An encouraging headline - but this figure conceals dramatic variations in fortunes across the country.