Year-end has a way of concentrating every people question into the same few months.

Performance reviews. Raises. Bonuses. Benefits renewals. High performers you really do not want to lose. Employees who are struggling. Long-tenured team members who may be nearing the top of their compensation range. And, underneath all of it, the inconvenient reality that the firm’s budget may not allow you to simply spend your way out of every problem.

Your financial plan and your business development plan are the same plan.

Architecture firms spend a lot of time planning for the year ahead. Revenue goals get set, budgets get built, market leaders talk about where they want to grow, and marketing and business development teams start filling the pipeline. Too often, those conversations happen separately.

Moving from generalist to specialist means getting clear on the work you want, the expertise you bring, and the business needed to support it. Enter AVEC: Generalist to Specialist explores how positioning, operations, leadership, and marketing work together to build a more focused practice.

As architecture firms grow, the systems, structures, and leadership habits that got them this far don’t always get them where they want to go next. Decisions still run through the same few people. Senior leaders stay deeply involved in project work.

Your brand is much more than a logo. It's how clients and team members current and future understand who you are.

In our recent webinar, we explored how to evaluate branding as a business decision — not just a marketing tactic. Participants learned to see the signs (and convince others!) a firm may have outgrown its brand, the difference between a brand refresh and a full rebrand, and how a strong brand supports recruiting, business development, and internal alignment.

As firms navigate hybrid work, changing communication habits, leadership transitions and a new generation entering the profession, one idea kept surfacing: what used to be caught now has to be taught.

Succession doesn’t start when a founder is ready to leave. It starts years earlier—with stronger systems, more capable leaders, clearer accountability, and a business that can operate without every decision flowing through one person.

Today’s pipeline was built by the relationships you started months, even years, ago. But when work gets thin, it’s easy to forget that and reach for marketing like a quick fix.

At this year's AIA National Conference, one theme surfaced again and again: architecture firms are thinking hard about the future.

One of the things we appreciate most about attending conferences like AIA is the opportunity to compare what we're hearing from clients with what the broader industry is experiencing.

May 2026 - Insights from the AVEC community and ASLA’s SKILL | ED Pulse Check: Building Resilience to Market Volatility

Across the architecture and landscape architecture industries, uncertainty has become less of a temporary condition and more of a persistent operating environment.

Being busy isn’t the same as moving forward. Firms that navigate growth well don’t necessarily spend more time planning. What they do differently is make clearer decisions—and use those decisions to guide what they take on, and what they don’t.

At BB Architects, the principal usually works sixty to seventy hours a week. Often he is in his office until eight or nine o’clock at night, regularly works on weekends and takes work with him when he does go home. He would like to spend more time doing other things, but the demands of his six-person practice seem to make that nearly impossible.

Let’s be honest, most leaders of architecture and landscape architecture firms have a love–hate relationship with strategic planning. You know you need one. You might even want one. But the minute someone suggests, “Let’s do a strategic plan,” your eyes glaze over. And often for good reason.

The argument to use video in social media for architects is strong. Video can showcase the office culture, design iterations, construction process, and the completed projects in a more engaging way than static photography. There are several good reasons to consider incorporating video on Instagram.

You didn’t start your firm just to see it disappear when you hang up your drafting pens (or your Revit license). But here’s the truth: many architecture and design firms close their doors when the founding owner retires; not because the business failed, but because there wasn’t a plan.

Originally hosted by our friends at BIM6x, this casual conversation between AVEC's CEO, Todd Reding, and V.P. of Marketing, Emily Hall, addresses a few simple things small firm architects can do to change unproductive business behaviors. We'll reference lessons learned from our direct experience.

Running a small architecture firm requires juggling dozens of responsibilities. But even the most passionate and talented firm leaders can fall into bad business habits that drain time, reduce profitability, and hold teams back from their full potential.

This article explores how the practice of business development for architects is like driving a car, where a well-defined path, strategic maneuvers, and constant effort to move forward are essential.

So you’ve decided to take the plunge and update your brand…where to start? If you’re working with a creative team, you can expect them to lead you through a discovery process that results in a creative brief. Ultimately, the brief outlines your project’s goals—an important foundation for several reasons.

If you’re considering naming or renaming your architecture firm, you probably know what you don’t want. Those names that make your eyes roll. Tacking on another last name to the string of names. The much-settled-for acronym. One client said, “I don’t want a name that sounds like it could be a cannabis store.”

In our 10+ years of advising small and mid-sized architecture firms, AVEC has spoken with thousands of firm leaders and completed custom business assessments for over 100 companies.

Inside the Firm’s Alex Gore and AVEC’s Rena Klein, FAIA, discuss a range of topics covering architecture firm valuation, what it means to share ownership, buying into a firm, and her “greatest hits” of advice for small architecture firm leaders.