As a firm of one, Laëtitia Wajnapel of Los Angeles based firm Cinquième Gauche needed solutions that allowed the occasional contract employee to jump into her workflow easily. She found the answer in a combination of project management software Programa and architectural drawing software Rayon. She tells us how she made the switch. 

I’m a firm of one, with occasional contract-based hired help when I need extra hands. I needed a setup that was flexible enough to onboard people when I needed them, while providing enough support for me as a solo operator. I didn’t really fit with something like Studio Designer because my business is too small and I don’t need all those features. What I did need were tools to help me be more efficient and organized, and to support invoicing and scheduling. I used to have a collection of spreadsheets, but that wasn’t [working] for situations where I needed to onboard a contractor quickly. It was like, “Here’s a weird system that I put together.” 

I had a lull between projects and I finally had time to rethink my processes. I knew there were options that could make memore efficient, which means that my business would become more profitable because I would be spending fewer hours on admin and more time designing. I don’t want to waste clients’ hours on me rambling through Excel spreadsheets. When I first started with Programa, I used it to organize my design schedules for furniture and finishes. It also has features like inspiration pages, budgeting and invoicing. Then it added project management timers. Everything you could possibly want as a small design studio, or probably as a bigger one too, it has in one place. The way it’s designed is very simple, which appealed to me visually. It’s been useful as I transition from a flat-fee model to a more traditional flat-fee-plus-markup model without having to hire an extra bookkeeper. I can keep working with my normal CPA because this has all the markups integrated—it’s kind of like markup for dummies. For me, it’s exactly what I needed to wrap my head around this new way of billing.