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Seth posts How to Succeed in Business (to Business). He writes about the importance of patience, not overpromising and finding one thing that clients need, then being the very best at that one thing.
I think its pretty good advice for us architects as well. Anyone practicing architecture for more than a few months knows that patience is a prerequisite. An efficient “process” of architecture is all about decision-making, and in order to obtain decisions from some clients takes the patience of Job. A smile, a deep breath and a complete understanding of the source of the delay will always help a difficult situation.
The fine art of under-promising and over-delivering is a key element in the success of any business. Missing deadlines or, even worse, not managing the expectations of your client will destroy a working relationship in one meeting. Promising a delivery in 4 weeks and delivering in 2 will keep the referrals coming for years.
In the name of diversification, many architects spread their workload across many building types and many markets. Too much diversification will dilute your brand and make it difficult for prospects to recongnize your firm as a market leader. How many times will you see an architect’s promotional material stating, “specializing in residential and commerical architecture”? Can a firm “specialize” in more than one market? Without being centered and focused, can a firm develop the skills required to be “the best”? What do you think?
Click the “comments” link above and share your thoughts and ideas.
When in architecture school, we each had a professor who told us that architecture should be practiced for the art and the art alone. “If you want to make money”, he said, “quit now, take a walk across campus and enroll at the business school.” Some took the advice, left the profession and today are earning a nice comfortable salary. Others heeded the warning, believed it and carried on the long standing tradition of starving artist.
I believe there is another way.
Despite the bitter professors out there, there is nothing wrong with being a financially successful architect. We can be true to the art and still be compensated well for what we do. In fact, we SHOULD be compensated well for what we do. (I will save that rant for another post, another day).
There is a new generation of architect emerging from the defeatest mentality of the last few decades; architects who want to “change the world” AND be profitable doing it. I call us the Entrepreneur Architects.
Many Entrepreneur Architects are pushing the boundaries of the traditional practice and taking it to new heights. Others are using technology to offer new or improved services. Many more are supplementing their work as architects with personal passions such as writing, speaking or teaching. Many retail ventures have also been launched by architects, offering products such as lighting, plumbing, furniture or accessories.
The architect is, once again, emerging as “leader”. Master Builders (architect-led design/build services) are recovering from near extinction and offering services to the high-end, as well as mass market clients. Home plans are being designed by architects and offered as an alternative to the mass produced “builder” market. Advocates for “good design” have built very profitable businesses around evangelism for their cause.
The renewed interest in “green architecture” is creating an entirely new market ready to be lead by architects. Niche firms speacializing in sustainable architecture and prefabricated homes have emerged.
Society is looking to architects to solve global problems. We have an opportunity to use our problem-solving skills to alter the future of civilization AND make money doing it.
Entrepreneur Architects have a strong belief in the opportunities they persue and are willing to take substantially high levels of personal, professional and financial risks to persue that opportunity. With high risk, comes substantial reward for the architects, their employees and for society as a whole.
In the coming months, I will feature Entrepreneur Architects who are persuing their passions, taking risks and are reaping rewards for doing so.
If you are an Entrepreneur Architect and want to spread the word, here are a few suggestions:
1. Click the “comments” link above and share your story, thoughts and ideas.
2. Send a link for the Entrepreneur Architect blog to everyone you know, whether they’re architects or not.
3. E-mail blog@fivecat.com and tell me about your entrepreneurialism. I may feature you, your idea or your business on Entrepreneur Architect.
4. Receive Entrepreneur Architect in your inbox everyday by safely subscribing through FeedBurner. Click the link in the upper left margin of this page and follow the instructions.
The February issue of Architect magazine includes an article written by Fred Bernstein titled, Getting The Publicity You Need.
In December, Claire Whitaker closed the doors of The Kreisberg Group, a P.R. firm she lead as president for five years, and moved across town to her new position as the head of public relations for the Pritzker Prize winning architect, Santiago Calatrava. Here are six tips from the article for architects trying to attract publicity without spending a lot of money.
1. Send out regular mailings.
2. Publicize losing competition entries.
3. Piggyback on your clients PR budget.
4. Talk to the client in advance about whether you’ll be allowed to publish.
5. Word of mouth is the most important thing.
6. Get friendly with journalists but don’t plague them.
Check out this month’s issue of Architect magazine for the entire article.
Traditionally, architects have obtained commissions through word of mouth. Complete a project successfully and your client will recommend your firm to their friends and family.
What if your clients not only recommended your firm, but worshipped it? What if they were so happy with your services that they went out of their way to spread the good word about your firm as fast and as far as they could? What if you could create a legion of loyal Customer Evangelists?
I first read Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba’s Customer Evangelist Manifesto back in 2004 when it was first published at ChangeThis.
Within their manifesto, Ben and Jackie give us six strategies that benefit from remarkable levels of customer evangelism. They call these strategies their six tenets:
1. CUSTOMER PLUS-DELTA: Continuously gather customer feedback.
2. NAPSTERIZED KNOWLEDGE: Make it a point to share knowledge freely.
3. BUILD THE BUZZ: Expertly build word-of-mouth networks.
4. CREATE COMMUNITY: Encourage communities of customers to meet and share.
5. MAKE BITE-SIZE CHUNKS: Devise specialized, smaller offerings to get customers to bite.
6. CREATE A CAUSE: Focus on making the world, or an industry, better.
Download their entire manifesto (it’s a short, easy read) and learn how to employ each of the six tenents to supercharge your word of mouth marketing. When you’re finished with that, be sure to check out their Church of the Customer blog.
Many years ago, before Annmarie and I started our residential architecture firm, I was a project manager with Kaeyer, Garment & Davidson Architects in Mt. Kisco, New York. I worked very closely with the senior partner at the time, Dick Kaeyer.
My first assignment as Project Manager was a major addition and renovation project for a church and facilities in Yorktown Heights. Dick designed the project and I developed it through construction drawings. Then, in order to learn the tips and tricks of construction administration, Dick and I worked as a team through construction.
Everything was going very smoothly and I was feeling very confident, until the windows were delivered. I will never forget the day. A sunny summer afternoon, I was attending the project meeting alone and the first window was being installed. The owner looked at the new Andersen Sandtone window and said, “The windows are wrong. We wanted white windows. Why are they not white?”
Panic pushed massive amounts of adrenaline through my brain. I specified Sandtone windows months ago during Design Development. Dick and I selected a neutral earthtone color scheme and I thought the deep tan color of the Sandtone finish would look great. There was never a request for white windows from the owner. They just expected that they would be white, and they weren’t. I never informed Dick of my decision, so this was all on me.
I was scared. I was 26 years old and this project was my first big responsibility. I went back to the office and told Dick about the problem. The contractor wanted the issue resolved immediately. Reordering the windows would push the project weeks off schedule and the rest of the building was enclosed and ready for siding.
I explained to Dick how I specified the color and that it was all my fault. I took full responsibility and offered to pay for the new window order. I don’t think I completely understood what I was doing. It was a $15,000 order and I was making about $35,000 per year.
The next day, I met with the owner, apologized, again took full responsilibity and explained what I had suggested to Dick.
What happened next was very interesting. Not only did the owner accept my apology, I gained his full respect. From that point forward he knew, without a doubt, that I was working for him. My honesty and integrity gave him a whole new level of comfort and confidence.
Dick’s years in the industry paid off that week. He pulled some strings and had a new order of white windows delivered the following week. The supplier accepted the Sandtone windows in exchange and my salary was unscathed.
The lessons I learned on that project have been with me ever since;
1. Manage your client’s expectations. Make sure they know what they’re getting…before they get it.
2. When you make a mistake, take full responsibility as soon as possible. Not only will you gain respect, you will minimize the impact of the error.
3. Use the words, “I am sorry”. It will instantly defuse the anger of the offened party.
4. Find a solution, no matter how much it might hurt.
I have discovered throughout the years that if you are honest and have integrity in all you do, it will ALWAYS work out. The relationship you have built with your client will be streghthened in ways that would be impossible otherwise.
Then, once the problem has been completely resolved, make sure it NEVER happens again.
Do you have a story about a successfully resolved mistake? Tell us about it by clicking the “comments” link above this post.
The February issue of Contract magazine includes an article titled, Design Business. In addition to the prerequisite MBA, top corporations are seeking candidates with empathizing, problem-finding and creative design skills. Many business schools are integrating design courses with their MBA curriculum.
Design schools are finally getting the message as well. Business skills are an important ingredient in the future success of design and architecture students. The Illinois Institute of Technology is the first school to offer a dual degree, combining an MFA with an MBA.
I am constantly looking to other industries to find ideas for my own business (a great tip for architects in itself). Here’s a very interesting post about customer service by Joel Spolsky, CEO of Fog Creek Software.
I received an e-mail today from Phil Simon, AIA National Managing Director, Marketing and Promotion about the new national marketing campaign. Here’s what he wrote:
Dear AIA Colleague:
The 2007 national advertising campaign began last week with the first of more than 430 commercial radio network spots that will air until the end of June. A trade magazine ad campaign to build on the radio ads is also underway in six distinct market sectors where architects offer their services. To learn more about the 2007 radio and magazine advertising effort, please visit the members-only side of aia.org and click on the Advertising Campaign section.
Additionally, I am pleased to announce the launch of a new web site—How Design Works —that extends the radio and magazine advertising messages to the Internet. Developed with guidance from the 2006 Advocacy Committee of the national AIA Board of Directors to test the effectiveness of the Internet as a communications platform, this new online component of our effort to educate the public about the experience and process of working with an AIA member and the value of good design is ready for all to see. I encourage you to browse and share the site widely with your colleagues, clients, prospects, friends, and family.
http://howdesignworks.aia.org/c/
The objective of How Design Works is to show how AIA architects are approachable, are good listeners, and that they welcome and respect the input of their clients. The site uses videos case studies to show the interplay and the experience. How Design Works shows satisfied clients and their AIA architect describing in their own words how they worked together from start to successful finish.
As the person moves from curiosity and delves deeper into the site, we begin to introduce terms architects use to describe their services. We also provide links to user-friendly decision-making tools, such as “Questions to Ask Your Architect” and “You and Your Architect” as well as a link to the AIA Architect Finder service.
Visitors can also share the site with others via an e-mail link or provide feedback directly to the AIA. This will allow us to hear directly from those who interact with the site. Plans for announcing How Design Works to the national news media are finalized. Already, we have begun optimizing the site for easy indexing by the major search engines and will begin paid online promotion of the site in March. Please know that we will capture a rich pool of data to measure the effectiveness of the site which will be used to help determine if other video case histories will be added.
The first two projects being showcased are:
Single-Family Residential Sector
Project: The Woods Residence: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Architect: Sarah Nettleton, AIA
Firm: Sarah Nettleton Architects
Note: Sarah is an AIA/Taunton Press joint imprint author. This residence will be featured in Sarah’s forthcoming book The Simple Home.
K-12 Education Sector
Project: University Charter High School, New Jersey City University. Jersey City, New Jersey
Architects: Michael Shatken, AIA, LEED-AP, Merilee Meacock, AIA, LEED-AP
Firm: KSS Architects, Princeton, New Jersey
Note: This project earned a Merit Award in the 2005/2006 AIA Committee on Architecture for Education Design Awards.
A broadband Internet connection is required to fully experience the site. So turn up your speakers and click on http://howdesignworks.aia.org/c/ . And please remember to forward the link to a colleague, friend, client or prospect or use the Share this Site button.
We are confident that How Design Works actively engages those interested in learning more about good design and working with an AIA architect. It provides the tools and resources that can help them better understand that good design makes a difference.
Please reply to this email if I can answer any questions.
Sincerely,
Phil Simon
Managing Director, Marketing and Promotion
(202) 626-7463
Josh points us to a great quote by Frank Lloyd Wright:
“A vital difference between the professional man and a man of business is that money making to the professional man should, by virtue of his assumption, be incidental; to the business man it is primary. Money has its limitations; while it may buy quantity, there is something beyond it and that is quality.”
…and Frank died penniless.
Josh posts about the architect’s perennial dilemma between making money and being good. He argues that an intangible plan to be “the best” is more important than a traditional written business plan. I see that argument, in itself, as one of the biggest problems we face in the profession.
Every architect strives to be the best. We all want to be original. We all want to be the next Frank Gehry (not necessarily by design, but by success). While being “the best” is a great goal, there can only be one best.
What’s more important than being the best is that people THINK you’re the best. Is Frank Gehry “the best”? Many will argue that he is not. He IS the best, I will argue, at convincing people to THINK that he is the best. In the business world, they call that marketing. Each of Gehry’s buildings are, as Seth Godin calls it, a Purple Cow. The “crumpled paper” remark-able design, that is signature Gehry, generates excitement, which gets people talking and attracts a lot of attention. That all translates into a buzz that Gehry is the “best” architect on the planet.
Not all of us want or need to be a Frank Gehry. The thing we should all learn from Gehry though, is that we each NEED marketing. We each need a marketing plan, and before we can develop a marketing plan, we need a business plan. If your business (and “business” is a term architect’s should use more often) has no plan, how will you ever get to where you want to go. If being “the best” is most important to you, then a strong business plan will give you the best chance of reaching that goal.
Here’s a post for all the architects who say that marketing doesn’t matter.
Seth Godin points us to Glass House Denver, a 23 story residential complex in Denver. Using a permission-based marketing strategy, the developer sold every one of the 389 units before the building was even completed. They credit Seth’s book, Permission Marketing
