I entered the architecture profession in 1993 after graduating from Roger Williams University. The day I walked through studio for the first time, I heard the stories of a struggling profession; a culture built upon the belief that architects were artists and money was for those who sell out to the masses. That story is alive and thriving in today’s profession as well.
Independent Architects Must Lead the Charge
We have many problems with our profession and that story we architects are perpetuating is one of the most painful. Solving this problem is not going to be the result of our professional organization making promises for change. Our schools will be slow to evolve. The solutions will not be found within the halls of academia any time soon.
I believe the solution to our profession’s problems will be found with independent architects. You and I must take a stand. We must lead the charge. We must commit to making change in our own studios. Shift paradigms. Create collaborative cultures and build better businesses.
It Is Up To You
EntreArchitect was launched to inspire architects to build better businesses. If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time you know our mission, as a community, is to become an influential force. When architects focus on building healthy profitable businesses, things will change.
Can our profession be saved? It is up to you.
Write a business plan. Develop a marketing strategy. Learn to sell your services. Build a business that thrives, with systems to allow you to create the architecture that makes the world more beautiful and improves the lives of your clients. Focus on profit, then art.
Three Steps to a Stronger Profession
Start today. As we focus on our goals for the new year, here are three steps that will not only lead you to building a better business, but will most certainly contribute to a stronger profession for all.
1. Pursue Debt Zero
The first step in building a strong healthy business is to pursue debt zero. Despite what our banks try to sell us, debt is not the solution for success. Our society is addicted to debt. Impatience and misguided ambition has lead us to a dead end of credit cards and lines of credit.
Borrowing money holds you captive. Grow slow. Save your money and earn your way to success.
2. Raise Your Fees
The second step to success is to raise your fees. The independent architect will lead the revolution. When we each begin to push our rates up, the value of our services will increase in the mind of our clients. The fees we earn are the fees we set.
3. Share What You Know
Have you built a better business? Open your doors and share what you know with fellow architects. The more we share, the more the profession will benefit. When changes in the profession begin to occur, we will all benefit. We’ll all make more money, we’ll all build better businesses and we’ll all create better architecture.
Can our profession be saved? It is up to you.
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Photo Credit: Pixabay / Tama66
Mark, thank you for continuing to keep this unsolved problem, of our own sabotage of our profession, in our consciousness.
We who pride ourselves on being problem solvers, turn out to be our own worst enemy, as stated so well by Pogo; “We have met the enemy and it is us”.
You have also identified two of the biggest stumbling blocks: our professional organization’s failure to properly and appropriately recognize the needs of the largest segment of its members, the small firm and the sole practitioner and the curriculum of most of our higher education institutions that fail to understand and make readily available, as part of the undergraduate courses, the business courses that deal with management, leadership, ownership, financial management and the reality of what it means and requires to be successfully self-employed.
I am, and have been, taking a stand and welcome the opportunity to join you i leading the charge. I have long been committed to making changes in our profession, through the firms that recognize the need for paradigm shifts, creating accountable and collaborative cultures to help build better businesses and strengthen the role of the small, professional design firm.
Respectfully,
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Mark, I agree with you and Steve “that we are our own worst enemy”. I was lucky in some ways as I had to work my way through Collage. I tried to find employment in local Architectural firms with no success. They already had recent graduates working for starvation wages so why hire a undergrad. Not to be detoured I decided to apply with some local engineering firms. To my surprise I was hired as a low level draftsman because I could hand print almost as good as CAD does today. Why did I have that skill ? In my first few weeks of school the Dean of the Architectural Collage ask to see my drafting skills. He took one look at the sample I showed him and said, “I want you to submit to me one full printed page of notes (could be on any subject) every day until I tell you that you can stop”. Note, I was not taking a single class being taught by this person at that time. He was the Dean and that was that. It took almost my whole Freshman year before he finally told me I could stop. Ask any recent graduate today to show you their hand drafting skills. At the time I though he was being a little hard on me, but, him asking that one thing of me made my skill set unique and lead to my being hired by an engineering firm. I worked for this same firm all through Collage, both under graduate and graduate. I got to go out in the field to do survey and site work as well in office drafting and Engineering experience. I got the real world work experience along with the Art / Design experience all at the same time. Upon graduation with a BS four year degree in engineering and a 5th year B Arch. degree I set out to look for work in the largest city in my state with samples of my drafting and design skills. I was offered a job at every single firm I interviewed with. Now all I had to do was decide which firm offered the best opportunity to fill out my skill set to sit for the National Architectural Exam. Two years latter I took the exam all at once (not spread out over years as I see a lot of people doing now) and passed on my first try. Was it because of my schooling or because of my WORK experience. (As a side note I did graduate on the Deans list). When I enrolled in college there were 31 people in my class, when I graduated there were three of us left standing. Architecture is the greatest profession on earth as it combines art and science and creativity in a way that no other profession even comes close to achieving. Architecture is not just a profession it is a way of LIFE. On that point I just finished writing a book called LIFE-A-Tecture. Soon available on Amazon and Createspace.
Thanks for sharing your story Ernest. Nothing beats hard work when it comes to progress. Be sure to let me know when the book is available.