Context & Clarity for Small Firm Architects

Expectations are a two-way street. Your client expect you to meet a certain schedule and you probably have to manage the workload to meet their schedule plus the schedules of your other clients as well. How are you going to meet their schedule and manage the work load? Maybe a better question is, are you actively working to set their schedule and manage their expectations?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

Architecture is not a perfect profession. There's plenty to love, but from starchitects, to McMansions, to developers, to the HGTV effect, there are plenty of complaints being voiced as well. Do you remember how we got here? More importantly, do you know how we can change the course of the future of the profession? Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

Is Twitter a useful tool for architects? Are you on Twitter? If you're there are you actually tweeting anything out? Is posting there even the best use of the platform? Here are two things you can do on Twitter that may be even more useful for architects than posting a link to your latest project or article.Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

We all need to have boundaries, if for no other reason than to protect your relationship with your client. Are your clients calling, or emailing, or even texting all hours of the day and night? Do they expect you to pick up or provide an immediate response? How do you handle a client that gets upset if you aren't available 24/7? When do you set your boundaries? How do you set your boundaries and, maybe more importantly, how do you enforce those boundaries?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

Context & Clarity LIVE - Change your business, feat. Mike MichalowiczWhat's the most important change you need to make right now?That's the question we'll start with today on Context & Clarity LIVE.Today, Katharine White MacPhail and I will welcome Mike Michalowicz, author of "Profit First," "Fix This Next," and a number of other business books you should read.• What do you need to fix?• How do you know?• Once you know, how do you fix it?• Can you do it on your own?• How do go from zero to profit?These are just some of the topics we'll discuss. We'll take questions from the live audience, so what questions do you have?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

Have you ever ended up in a bind because you didn't get explicit approval from your client to move forward to the next phase of work? On one hand, that idea sounds odd because you're the professional and you should be directing the work, but how are you tying your invoicing, maybe even additional services to your phases of design services? Do you have a process for getting approval before you move to the next phase?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

Have you ever said, “My clients aren’t on LinkedIn”? Is that really true? Are they really not on LinkedIn or do you just think they’re not on LinkedIn? Are you actually trying to reach clients or are you trying to connect with consultants, or maybe even people that influence your clients? Whatever your goal, if there's someone on LinkedIn that would be valuable to connect with, what are best practices for architects? How do you create a profile that attracts those people? What else should you be doing on LinkedIn?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

Lack of repeatable systems is a real threat to any architecture firm, but if you don’t know you have a problem, or what the problem is, you can’t have a system to solve it. I don’t care if you don’t have a certain system in place today. What I care about is that when you realize you have a problem, when you realize that you need a system, that’s when you need to develop the system, or more likely find and get the system, and implement it from there. You need to make progress. You to be focused on improvement. Think about this, 1% improvement every day leads to exponential change. Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

I believe that you’ll be most successful if you develop a niche and keep digging deeper. I realize that there are times, like the time that we’re in right now, that you can get burned. If your niche is hospitality or entertainment industry projects, the last 11 months have probably been very hard for you and the next few years may be too. You may feel like you lost the bet, but we’re in a rare historic moment and hotels and restaurants will come back, but the reality is that someone that’s focused on a specific problem is almost always more in demand and is able to command higher fees than the so-called generalist.Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

I’ve run across a number of projects over the years that I didn’t want to take for one reason or another. Maybe they were too small or outside of my comfort zone. There have been some where something didn’t feel right, maybe the client didn’t feel like the right fit. Some of those, despite everything in front of me I took anyway, usually because I just needed the work. What about you? Are there projects you won’t take? Why won’t you take them?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access