It was Spring Break 2021 and I had a pile of printed material that I had found and downloaded from the AIA Trust’s website. These included “Creating and Maintaining a Professional Practice”, “Making the Transition to Running Your Own Firm”, and “How to Start and Run Your Own Firm”.
I had recently decided to start an Architecture practice with my husband after 12 years with the same firm. I started my professional career with this firm following graduate school. My primary mentors were the two founding principals and I didn’t feel comfortable given the circumstances, to ask them for advice. Instead, I turned to Google and the AIA.
The resources I found under Start a Firm still live in a binder, along with the other start-up necessities: computer lease agreements, EIN documentation, numerous articles on small business management and even a gratitude list I created about the job I was leaving.
When I look through this binder a year later, many of the notes I wrote in the margins are still our guiding principles. Just recently, my husband/business partner said, “We built a business.” We did. We felt secure to do so with the AIA Trust’s support.