Contingency is an allowance included in an estimate to account for reasonable uncertainties that may affect the cost of completing a project. It's not profit. It's not overhead. And it certainly isn't a substitute for poor estimating or poor management. It's a recognition that even the most carefully planned project rarely unfolds exactly as expected.

If you use markups, understand the margins they produce. If you establish a desired profit margin, calculate the selling price necessary to achieve it. And make sure you've accounted for the full cost of performing the work. Because the difference between markup and margin isn't just a matter of terminology. It's a matter of profitability.

Plenty of people start a business because they want independence. Then they discover they've built something that demands more of their time, attention, and freedom than the job they left behind.

landscape architecture covers a great deal more ground than landscaping. We plan, design, and shape the outdoor environments where people live, work, play, travel, and connect with the natural world. That means parks, plazas, neighborhoods, streetscapes, campuses, waterfronts, playgrounds, and public spaces. It means residential properties, commercial developments, transportation corridors, resorts, and entire communities.

Clients don't buy master plans, planting plans, or grading plans. They buy outcomes. The developer isn't excited about a set of drawings — he wants to know if the site will get approved, if it'll be marketable, if the infrastructure costs stay in check. The homeowner isn't buying a planting plan — she wants shade over the patio, privacy from the neighbor, and a yard that doesn't turn into a retention pond every August. The drawing is the delivery mechanism. It was never the v

If you're studying landscape architecture right now, you're entering a profession that may change more during your career than it has during mine — and I started when a set of construction documents required a small army of people to produce.

Every dollar that comes into your business can only go to one of three places. Direct Costs. Indirect Costs. Profit.

In the landscape profession, some of the most valuable lessons are not learned in an office or from a set of drawings. They are learned in the field—watching materials being installed, asking questions, and exchanging ideas with the people who build the landscapes we design.