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Is it possible to have a profitable design only business?
I believe so, though I'll stop short of saying $80,000 per year is typical or realistic. First off, lets make one thing very clear. In order to operate a "design only" business and make 80K, you better have superior design knowledge and skills (see the post by Fine Edge). How else could you possiibly compete against the people doing free design work? You better be A LOT better than these people; and the others that do charge.
Second, it's all about your hourly fee and your billable hours. Say you charge $100 per hour and you average 20 billable hours per week. Over 50 weeks thats $100,000.
Third, a lot will depend on the type of projects you work on. Like AGLA said, you can design 80 projects for $1,000 or 40 for $2,000. I wouldn't recommend this. How about designing only 10 projects a year at $8,000 each in design fees? What type of projects bring in this fee? Very high-end residential can as well as public and commercial projects. These are projects that typically require conceptual plans (sometimes multiple), color and perspective renderings, well-conceived planting plans and full sets of construction drawings including written specifications. Going from Conceptual stage thru construction documentation is a TON of billable design hours. Also with these higher end projects, other design professionals are needed such as civil and structural engineers. You can hire them as sub-consultants and get a mark up on their fees.
It all comes down to how talented of a designer you are. If you are just average then you can't charge $100 per hour and people won't hire you for the larger more extensive design projects where there is money to be made.
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