This week we are privledged to have Architect Mark R LePage of FiveCat Studio also the host of the Entrepreneur Architect with us to discuss a topic that is relevant and important to anyone wanting to own a business. This interview will give creative business owners and freelancers some practical insights into the difference between being a creative and being the owner of a business that provides creative services. It’s common knowledge that most business fail. Several might make it through the first year, about half might make it through the second, and every year after that it seems, the number of people who stay in business just keeps on halving. This is true for everybody, including creatives. The question is, why is that? We have all the information we need, a lot of it for free, about how to start and run a business. On Amazon alone right now there are OVER 2 million books listed under the term “business”. We come from fortunate educated backgrounds and many of us have worked for successful companies. Why then do so many people fail, and what are we to do about it? My hunch, and I base this on personal experience, is that as creatives, almost all of us at some time reach a point where we start thinking, “Hey, I’m really good at my job, I don’t need this employer, I’m certain I could be much more successful financially if I worked for myself.” It’s at that point that they miss an extremely important distinction.. Being talented and successful creatively, does NOT qualify you one bit to run a business. This discussion is for the creative who is contemplating starting their own practice. They’ve most likely been working under someone else’s wing for a few years and are feeling the urge to get out on their own, probably for the flexibility and the dream of being their own boss and being in control of their finances. I admire them and encourage each one to do what their heart tells them, but before they go, this interview will arm them not only with a few basic truths, but some excellent ideas of what to do next to improve their knowledge and chances of success.  

PART ONE (EP30) - The advantages and disadvantages of the conventional business model relationship between designers and contractors PART TWO (THIS EPISODE) - Alternative models for delivering a project and sharing in the profits by choosing and negotiating with the right kinds of contractors. Patrick has been building his architectural practice for six years after a similar period working on building sites and later as a draftsman. Next year he turns 40. He now has two young children and is asking himself the difficult questions about where to head next. Where will he be in the next 10 years as a business owner and what will that look like? What can he put in place now to ensure a comfortable and profitable future? In this interview we explore the benefits and drawbacks of the “design only”, and “design and construct” frameworks of being a design business owner. Ultimately, can designers and contractors find a way to reciprocate/remunerate each other through the way projects are delivered and the way project costs are structured? Perhaps the grass is always greener but there is something appealing from both sides of the fence in the conversation about the advantages of offering design services vs, offering design services and in house construction capabilities as well. While contractors take on a larger proportion of the risk associated with a project, and therefore claim to be entitled to a greater share of the proceeds, designers create construction value, build trust and are often responsible for “making the sale” in the first place. So why does it so often seem that our contracting cousins often seem to be profiting so much more than us on each project? How is the daily charge out rate for a labourer double or even triple that of a designer? We are no more or less important than each other in delivering a project. Obviously, the completed built forms of a project being the tangible end product, are where most of the value lies in the eyes of the client. The fees we’re able to charge are so often less reflective of the experience, refined skills and time spent on fulfilling that role, as they are in balance with the construction cost of what we design and what clients might be willing to pay for our “intangible” product. We designers are merely the “guides” that show them the way. Or are we? After several years of being a “guide” many of us might be left wondering whether we’ve drawn the short straw. Is there another way to approach this? Can we structure the framework between ourselves, the contractor and the client in order to enjoy a greater share of the rewards? How might this change the way we are involved? Eg. Supplying certain materials, charging a contractor a support fee for the time required to attend to queries, attend site etc. In Part One of this interview, we shed some light on the advantages and disadvantages of the existing conventional business models. In Part Two, we explore ideas about the opportunities for designers to increase their profit share of any given project, without stepping over ethical lines, manipulating the market or adversely affecting working relationships.

Patrick has been building his architectural practice for six years after several years. Next year he turns 40. He now has two young children and is asking himself the difficult questions about where to head next. Where will he be in the next 10 years as a business owner and what will that look like? In this interview we explore the benefits and drawbacks of the “design only”, and “design and construct” frameworks of being a design business owner. Ultimately, can designers and contractors find a way to reciprocate/remunerate each other through the way projects are delivered and the way project costs are structured? Perhaps the grass is always greener but there is something appealing from both sides of the fence in the conversation about the advantages of offering design services vs, offering design services and in house construction capabilities as well. While contractors take on a larger proportion of the risk associated with a project, and therefore claim to be entitled to a greater share of the proceeds, designers create construction value, build trust and are often responsible for “making the sale” in the first place. So why does it so often seem that our contracting cousins often seem to be profiting so much more than us on each project? How is the daily charge out rate for a labourer double or even triple that of a designer? We are no more or less important than each other in delivering a project. Obviously, the completed built forms of a project being the tangible end product, are where most of the value lies in the eyes of the client. The fees we’re able to charge are so often less reflective of the experience, refined skills and time spent on fulfilling that role, as they are in balance with the construction cost of what we design and what clients might be willing to pay for our “intangible” product. We designers are merely the “guides” that show them the way. Or are we? After several years of being a “guide” many of us might be left wondering whether we’ve drawn the short straw. Is there another way to approach this? Can we structure the framework between ourselves, the contractor and the client in order to enjoy a greater share of the rewards? How might this change the way we are involved? Eg. Supplying certain materials, charging a contractor a support fee for the time required to attend to queries, attend site etc. In Part One of this interview, we shed some light on the advantages and disadvantages of the existing conventional business models. In Part Two, we explore ideas about the opportunities for designers to increase their profit share of any given project, without stepping over ethical lines, manipulating the market or adversely affecting working relationships.  

For the small business owner or freelancer, understanding whether you’re a freelancer or an entrepreneur is probably the single most important distinction that needs to be made, it affects every single decision that you will make for your business. It's worth taking a closer look because by understanding the way each think can allow you to improve your business in different ways. These two ways of framing the way your business works sit at opposite ends of the playing field. While it is definitely possible to for a freelancer to be a little entrepreneurial, and for an entrepreneur to be a something of a freelancer at times, if you spend too much time away from your goal out in the middle of the field, except by some chance of luck, you’re simply too far away to consistently score goals. And besides that it just gets downright confusing for you and those you try to do business with. Of course it’s very common for people to experiment between the two or even switch between the two across the course of their careers and that’s pretty healthy. An entrepreneur might dabble in consulting, or give presentations at a conference where they’re being paid by the hour, for example. A freelancer might set up a web page to sell prints of their work or a book that they’ve written that customers simply download. If you stick around to the end of the interview, you’ll have the chance to hear the story of how another fellow designer is taking steps to change direction in their career without losing their creative identity. We talk about the advantages and the disadvantages of being a freelancer as well as the benefits and challenges of taking the entrepreneurial path.  

Cash flow, or lack of it, is possibly the single most important aspect of surviving in business. Without it, everything stops. For the freelancer or small business, cash flow is the only way to enjoy any sense of stability, to be able to safeguard against or plan for the future, and to be able to measure the success of your business or talk to your bank manager about taking a loan some day. Despite this, we all know it’s something which almost all designers, from freelancers to established design firms continually struggle with. Why is that? Certainly a starting point may be to recognize designers and consultants as providers of a service. This differs from people who provide a product, in the first instance because consumers pay for products up front, but also because products tend to be a fixed, predetermined outcome. When you’re a service provider, particularly when you’re providing a service that is largely based on subjective judgement, dealing with intangible things, it’s expected that you will be paid, once your client is satisfied with the result, and all aspects of your agreed scope have been completed. Obviously there are many different ways of thinking about cash flow so we won’t be able to cover them all, besides we probably don’t have all the answers anyway. What we do have are our own experiences on this topic.  

I'm just about to leave my job for the second time so this is a solo episode in which I'm going to share with you a few chapters from my own story. First I want to tell you about my last business, which was a Landscape Architecture Practice I attempted to set up in Penang Malaysia. I don't have the time to explain all the details but you'll get a good idea of how it started and how it failed. I talk about all the poor decisions I made while I was there and how I ended up losing $30,000 in my first year. After that terrible fall, I knew I had to get back on my feet again and that it wouldn't be easy. Although I have taken a job for a while I think deep down I've always known that building my own business was the only way I would ever really be able to dig myself out the hole I was in. That took a lot of hard work so I’m also going to share with you exactly what my training regime was that helped me recover and reinvent myself. In this episode I also share what I’ve done to apply all the new knowledge and skills I now have from that recovery period in order to replace my current day job and my income with a new business framework. This new framework is presenting new opportunities for business and additional streams of income every single day.  Most importantly my new business allows me to work from anywhere, which has been a career dream of mine for over a decade.  

In this interview we're exploring the idea of the Inflatable Design Team, a framework that enables your practice, even if you're a freelancer, to expand and contract depending on the scope and scale of a project.  As the list of demands on the built environment grows and the complexity of our cities slowly multiplies it is very rare these days that any one design discipline is ever able to understand and deliver a holistic outcome for almost any project. This has given rise to a wave of collaborative design projects and design processes that see freelancers and small design practices coming together to tackle complex projects. Further to that the interests, ideas and even involvement of end-users in the design process is becoming increasingly commonplace too; the notion of “co-design” in which consultants from multiple disciplines along with actual end users, work together to achieve a meaningful outcome, is also on the rise. What does this mean for the design community? How does it affect our understanding of what a design practice is or could be? From a creative, problem solving perspective this all makes absolute sense, the more relevant minds you have working towards a solution, the more meaningful and relevant should be the response. From a business perspective however, this mode of operation could be littered with glitches and potential problems. Who retains control over each project? How do you keep track of everyone? How do you manage work ethic, productivity and reliability when few of the people working on your project are actually from your own company? Fortunately our guest takes all of these into consideration and offers you his thoughful perspective on the subject.

Getting new clients can be difficult, particularly if you don’t have any demonstrated experience in the particular area of design that you’re hoping to be involved in. This is a problem that all designers face at some time or another, whether it’s the freelancer looking for their first gig, or a well established design firm that wants to shift their focus, brand and reputation to another area of the market altogether. In this interview you'll get to spend some time with Andrew Boyne, a freelance architect who shares his refreshing down-to-earth perspective on how to get yourself that first gig (or early gigs). We talk about his own experiences as well as possible approaches you could try to either gain the trust of a potential client to boost your chances of them giving you a break, or how you might analyze the objections the same client might have in order to determine a course of action to overcome them.

For many designers, the decision to become eg. an architect was a selection made from a narrow understanding of the range of career opportunities that exist in the world. In the “bucket” of career possibilities were the more well known occupations like doctor, lawyer, accountant, vet, psychologist and so on. With the pressure from family and probably society as a whole, and being the creative type that you’d always known yourself to be, you jumped head first into a four or five year university course that would lead you to your destination. Fast forward to today. Is this career what you thought it was going to be? Have you moved from firm to firm, hoping to be working on the kinds of projects you’re truly passionate about and always envisioned you were really cut out for but they never came? Are you now working for yourself but finding something is still niggling at you.. Are you happy? Today's guest is a fantastic example of how you can turn things around, stay positive and be excited about a new future.  Christina Canters was recently a registered architect.  She went through uni, she did her masters and she subsequently  studied and did what needed to be done in order to be registered with the board of architecture.  As you will hear in this interview though, a few years into her new career, she started to feel, started to realize and accept, that perhaps she didn’t actually enjoy the realities of her chosen profession, of being an architect, she started to realize that despite her love of architecture and design, the actual tasks and day to day activity of being in her profession, of being an architect, wasn’t actually her. In this interview you will have the chance to listen to how Christina changed direction in her career by identifying and using all the skills she had gained in her profession and focusing them on what really makes her happy. We talk about what it was like to step away from the profession she once loved, about how the idea for her new direction came to her and how she learned all the new skills she now has that have launched her into a whole new career trajectory.    If you stick around to the end of the interview, you’ll hear the one thing Christina has started doing differently this year that ha had a huge impact on where she is today.  

This week Shah is in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon on a fact finding mission for his new remote design business. The original intention on this trip was to meet up with local creatives and put together an interview, but, well, that never quite happened and instead he talks through some of the things right at the front of his mind at the moment, setting goals and developing a strategy to achieve them, though not in those words. In this solo broadcast Shah re-frames what it means to develop a strategy and make plans for your business in a way that is a lot more interesting, much more exciting and inherently aimed at doing things differently. Forget about your business plan, your strategic plan and three year projections, in this episode we're going to help you come up with something far more cunning in just five steps. And possibly six - if you stay until the end of the interview you will also learn the one unusual practice Shah employs to test if his plan is going to work and to help him do away with written business plans altogether. This discussion is for the creative who feels that sometimes the kind of work they're doing "on" their business is the kind of stuff they think they're supposed to be doing. For those of you who would like an alternative way of planning for the coming months, this episode will surely give you a few ideas.