The Rule of 20: Why Small Architecture Firms Stay Small (and How to Fix It)

Stuck in Survival Mode

If you’re still running every project, reviewing every drawing, chasing down every invoice, and wondering how to keep the sales pipeline full while keeping your team paid, well, you’re not alone.

Most small firm owners I meet are in the same boat. They’ve built something great. They’ve got a solid reputation, a small but talented team, and a stream of work that keeps them busy.

The problem? They’re too busy. Too busy to hire, too busy to delegate, and too busy to step back and figure out how to grow the business without burning themselves out.

They’ve hit the ceiling, not of talent or potential, but of capacity.

Here’s the hard truth:
If your firm has fewer than 20 people, the system is rigged against you.

That’s not a dig, it’s just math, economics, and structure. And until you understand why that number matters, it’s easy to keep grinding without realizing there’s another way to work . . . and succeed.

The 20-Person Rule

There’s nothing magical about 20 people. But in architecture, it’s a turning point. It’s the number where you can stop doing everything yourself and start building a business that can actually scale.

Below 20, most firms are running on intuition. The owner is the rainmaker, the project manager, the QA team, and sometimes even the IT department. You’ve got just enough staff to get the work done, but that’s only until someone quits, or gets sick, or three projects land at once.

Then everything teeters on the edge.

What else is a problem? You’re teaching broad knowledge because you don’t have specialists. Your project volume whiplashes from feast to famine. Your software is out of date because there’s no time to upgrade it or train anyone on how to use it better. And the people you do have? They’re either burned out or stuck waiting for you to make the next move.

If this all sounds family, this isn’t a criticism, it’s just the reality of firms that haven’t scaled yet.

“To commit to a firm under 20 people is to commit to an unnecessarily difficult life running your business.”

I’ve seen it again and again. I’ve lived it. And I’ve helped companies break through it.

But it takes more than just hiring another drafter or hoping the next big project will fix your cash flow. It takes a strategy. That’s what the next section is about.

The Desert: Why Most Firms Stall Between 10 and 20

There’s a stretch of firm growth I call The Desert, and if you’ve ever tried to scale from 10 to 20 people, you’ve probably been lost in it.

Here’s what it feels like:

You’ve got more projects than your team can handle.
You know you need help, but you don’t have time to train anyone.
You’re stuck hiring mid-level staff who look great on paper but can’t hit the ground running.
You’re burning money on overhead without seeing much relief on your plate.
And worst of all, the firm still depends on you for almost everything.

Sound familiar?

This is the no-man’s-land where most architecture firms stall out. You’ve grown just enough to get overwhelmed but not enough to unlock the efficiencies that come with real scale.

Hiring feels risky. Delegating feels slower than doing it yourself. You want to invest in systems, but you’re too busy fighting fires to build them. You want to step into a leadership role, but you’re still knee-deep in redlines and RFI responses.

The problem isn’t that you’re doing anything wrong. It’s that you’re trying to grow without a strategy.

Most firm owners I talk to think they’re being cautious by holding off on hiring, or by waiting for just the right time to add that BIM manager, or marketing support, or admin help.

But the truth is, if you’re even thinking about hiring, you’re probably already too late.

That lag — between needing the support and actually getting it — is where chaos creeps in. Staff morale dips. Turnover spikes. You start losing the very people you were counting on to help carry the weight.

And suddenly, growth starts to look like a mistake.

But it’s not a mistake. You’re just stuck in The Desert. And there’s a way out.

What Changes at 20+

When firms cross the 20-person mark, everything shifts. Not overnight, but meaningfully.

You’re no longer building your business around individual hustle. You’re building around systems. Around structure. Around roles that exist to solve problems before they land on your desk.

Here’s what starts to happen:

You can afford specialists. Not just doers, but thinkers. BIM Managers who standardize your templates. Project Controllers who keep budgets on track. Admins who chase permits so you don’t have to.
You have enough people to build actual management layers. These are critical, not wasteful, because now, not every problem flows up to you. You have leads. Team captains. Coordinators. People who train others. People who fix things.
You gain time to think, to lead, to strategize. You can finally zoom out, look at your pipeline, adjust your pricing, and take a vacation without your firm catching fire.
You start saying yes to better projects. That museum, that urban infill, that net-zero build. None of them scare you anymore because you’ve got the bench strength to handle them.
You become sellable. Even if you’re not planning to sell, building a firm that could operate without you is the difference between owning a job and owning a company.

In short, when you scale smart, you don’t just survive. You become stronger. And resilient.

But let’s be clear. I’m not saying you should run out and hire 10 people tomorrow. What I’m saying is this:

“You can’t build a firm of 20 with the habits of a firm of 5.”

You need different tools. A different mindset. And, in most cases, a different approach to how you staff your team.

So let’s talk about how to get there without burning out or going broke.

How to Get There (Without Breaking the Bank)

Most firm owners I talk to agree, in theory, that growing to 20 makes sense.

But when it comes to actually doing it? They freeze.

Hiring is expensive. Training takes time. And in a down month, that overhead starts to feel like a threat.

So they stay small. Not because they want to, but because they think they can’t afford to scale.

But here’s the reality: You can’t afford not to.

The good news? There’s a smarter way to get there, and it’s one that doesn’t require betting the farm. It starts with changing how you think about staffing.

The InSourcing Advantage

At WeCollabify, we call it InSourcing. It’s not traditional outsourcing where you send drawings to a faceless team in another time zone and cross your fingers. And it’s not old-school offshoring either.

It’s about building an integrated global team where people work in the same time zone, collaborate in real-time, and embed themselves in your systems, processes, and culture.

You might have seen me write or talk about this before, but it’s always worth a reminder: One architecture firm used InSourcing to completely transform their business:

Revenue tripled from $1.2M to $3.6M
Profit margins flipped from negative to 25%
Turnover dropped from 30% to just 6%
Revenue per employee went up 25%
Expenses went down to the tune of 25% lower production costs
No local jobs were lost and in fact, they hired more U.S.-based staff

How? They used remote talent strategically.

Instead of overpaying for generalists, they hired specialized roles they’d never been able to afford locally like a BIM Manager, a Project Controller, and a Production Lead.

Instead of overworking their in-house team, they redistributed the load. Local staff got room to grow. Some stepped into leadership roles. Others focused on client relationships or design direction.

In short: they stopped doing it all themselves and started building a team that could grow with them.

Scaling doesn’t mean risking your firm’s future.
Done right, it means protecting it.

Rethinking the Role of the Owner

If you’re still redlining drawings at midnight, you’re not running a business, you’re actually running yourself into the ground.

I say that with all the empathy in the world. I’ve been there. And I’ve worked with firm owners who’ve been stuck there for years convinced that the only way to maintain quality was to do everything themselves.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

You don’t build a legacy by being the best drafter in the office.
You build it by creating a structure where other people can succeed and where your firm delivers great work even when you’re not in the room.

That shift, from “I do everything” to “I build the team that gets everything done,” is the difference between burnout and sustainability. Between survival and impact.

And it’s not just about you.

When you scale smart, your team wins too. Your project manager learns how to lead. Your junior architect gets their first chance to manage a drawing set. Your admin staff stops feeling like a catch-all and starts specializing. People grow. Morale improves. Turnover drops.

In our case study, the founders didn’t just earn more. They worked fewer hours, took real vacations, and actually got to think about where they wanted the firm to be in five or ten years.

That kind of clarity only comes when you’ve got the right people in the right seats and the breathing room to lead.

Final Takeaway

Scaling isn’t easy. But staying small comes at a cost and it’s one most firm owners can’t afford long term.

You don’t have to hire 10 people overnight.
You don’t have to build a corporate machine.

But you do need to stop doing it all yourself.

Start by getting the right support. Start by freeing up your time.
Start by building the version of your firm that can actually go the distance.

Because once you hit 20, the game changes.

Ready to Scale Smarter?

If this story sounds familiar, and you’re ready to get out of survival mode, let’s talk.

We’ve helped firms just like yours break through the 10–20 person ceiling and finally start building the team, systems, and structure they’ve been needing for years.

Fill out the short form below to get started.
No hard sell. Just a quick conversation about where you are now and what smart scaling could look like for you.

You’ll also get access to the full case study if you want the details.

Let’s build a firm that works — without working you to death.

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