Here's a look from one of 3 directors at a 6-year old architecture firm with 12 employees located in rural Ireland:

Projects:

Multi-unit residential and some commercial work.

Office Situation:

We own. The mortgage is €3k per month. It's a 175 year old heritage building. Constant drain on energy and resource with issues of an old building.

Salary:

€90k salary. Benefits include healthcare and a company car. Bonus depends on profit/cash at the end of the year and it varies €0 to €30k.

My salary started at €40k and I've been steady at €90k for the last 2 years. I don't anticipate a rise next year.

Work/life balance:

Excellent! We have a 4-day office week, 8am-6pm Monday to Thursday. I typically work a hard day every second Friday.

Debt:

€300k mortgage at 4%. €50k in Professional Indemnity (PI) insurance is paid with hire purchase at 3%.

Revenue:

We've grown roughly 12% each year since we started. Our annual revenue was €300k year one and now, 6 years later, it's €1.4 million. Our profit margin is ~15%.

We're constantly investing in software upgrades and staff training; currently in the middle of a transition from 2D to Revit.

Our goal is to get our profit margin between 20-25% and hit €1.5M in annual revenue.

Best & Worst Expenses:

Best expense is my company car. It's an EV and very tax efficient. PI insurance is a pain and our worst expense. It was €78k 3 years ago but down to €45k now.

Biggest Mistake:

Buying the office was probably a mistake. But we needed to improve our office environment and it looked like a good opportunity at the time.