ABSTRACT
The agreed fee ought to represent the value people contribute to a project, their performance over the course of the project programme and the agreed outputs. Most small start-up businesses, including micro and small architectural practices, are undercapitalised. This means they lack sufficient financial resources to adequately invest in buildings and equipment. More importantly, they also lack the cash to finance outgoings over the period between having met resourcing performance in terms of outputs and receiving payment; i.e. they lack working capital. The lesson is to highlight the effects of growing too quickly on the working capital required to cover the period between increasing staff costs and receiving fee payments. Sometimes the amount of work carried out on a project in a particular month will be relatively small. In such cases, the time taken to prepare an invoice may seem disproportionate to the amount.
