After years of working for other people—and becoming increasingly frustrated by it—I'm finally going into solo practice. Aside from my initial decision to go into architecture, this is certainly the biggest career decision I've made to date.
Can other sole practitioners offer their perspective? What are the pitfalls? What are the benefits?
The only part that truly makes me nervous is searching for work. I have a few small jobs now, but when those dry up....what does an architect do? How do you go about getting new work?
I know the comments about drinking heavily are tongue-in-cheek, but is it honestly far more stressful to be on your own?
I find that most of my stresses in an office revolve around office politics, and having no control over decisions (or, rather, that decisions are made but then overturned at the whims of whoever's in charge.) Always catering to someone else's needs. Doing a lot of work, only to have it all changed or scrapped at the last minute.
every job has pros and cons. very few jobs are without stress. owning your own place?
you will always be thinking about work. always.
where is the next job coming from?
too little work?
too much work?
employee not as effective as you had hoped?
paying bills
healthcare
taxes
contantly promoting yourself and building connections.
need to buy new hardware and software
insurance and liability
sick time? no time to get sick
vacation? what vacation
just to name a few things that you need to do that you never had to think about while working for someone else. i'm not saying these are all bad things just different. after working for myself for six years, i can't imagine working for someone else again. i'd imagine most others who work for themselves feel the same.
what e said.
i'd respond further but i'm too busy/stressed right now...
here's one for you.
i've got a commercial project that recently went in for plan check. client emails me and asks for a meeting. they miss the meeting and reschedule. they make the second meeting and basically say that the hard cost funding now has a deadline associated with it, so the project needs to be bid and awarded within 5 weeks.
how's that for stress?
i'm on my way to the repro house right now to drop off the drawings.
fortunately i can choose the contractors so i'm limiting it to two firms i've worked with in the past and trust.
i'm not sure what i'll do if the bids start coming in high with little time to adjust the drawings and reprice - heavy stimulant use i suppose.
the point is that as a sole-practitioner i have little excess productive capacity to handle such emergencies. = STRESS.
I think to save you that could tender this thread to be more about marketing for self-practice. Asside from those liberty mentioned there are a few others floating around.
The stresses of long hours and too much to do I can handle, for the most part. It's sort of a given in architecture anyway.
What I'm more concerned about is how to find that next job, how to market a small practice. How to find clients who don't just want a Tuscan-style kitchen remodel, but are maybe looking for actual architecture.
farwest1, location is extremely important. Starting up anywhere but Los Angeles would have been inconceivable to me. There's no shortage of land and people with money and interest in modern design.
As far as keeping a steady flow of work coming in, I'm still figuring it out...
hate to be the negative one here, but it can be very difficult to get enough work, esp. interesting work, to support yourself. all of our work has been through referrals and we've had plenty of happy customers, but there's a lot of competition for small design jobs and honestly not that many people who have anywhere near the money to do what they want... the market is also slowing and we're feeling it.
we've tried advertising a bit at charity events, we're listed on a referral website, and we have our own website for which we sent out postcards. we also have signs at the jobsites and t-shirts for the construction company. i would say none of that has helped much, other than the website which people seem to like (though i don't know if we've gotten more than 1 or 2 jobs from it).
if there's two of you and you have kids (our case, small design/build firm), it seems nearly impossible unless you have outside funding (parents or trust fund?) and/or friends with deep pockets, very deep pockets.
we've been doing it for about 4 years, and we have managed to survive but the stress, lack of many interesting projects, low income, and one baby (hoping to have another soon) haven taken their toll and we're talking very seriously about closing up shop :-(
health insurance is a real killer!
we love working for ourselves, and love working with clients for the most part, even love the subs, but in the end we just don't have enough big jobs to sustain us. if we were on the west side of los angeles, we guess we might be doing better because there is a lot more money there, but it's hard to say. we might also be doing better if we had worked for other people longer and waited to start our company (we're in our mid 30s).
and honestly there are a lot of firms doing much more interesting work than the jobs we get, and i don't think i would mind going back and working for someone else if the situation was right. we're realizing that the number of years it would take to get to where we want to be may just not be possible financially (in terms of waiting for bigger interesting jobs to come along).
and it's possible we don't have the right personalities or sales ability as well - there are just so many aspects to running a business and being a good/conscientious designer and a hardworker is only a small part.
Not that those are bad things! But in my experience they make it harder to do the constant networking required to keep the jobs rolling in.
Tonight I'm going to a cocktail event at the decorator show house where we did a room. This would be fairly fun* except that I hate doing any evening event that takes me away from my kid - the guilt is too immense, event hough it shouldn't be, it is.
If I didn't have a child, I'd expect to be out at social/networking events 3-5 nights a week. Young Entrepreneurs, CSI, cultural institutions' events/boards. etc. THAT is the side of business ownership that takes a ton of time but seems absolutely necessary in our field.
And that's how you BUILD the client base. To KEEP the client base, you do good work at a fair price, be honest, and your clients will refer more clients to you.
* Actually, it's not that fun because the people who come to decorator show house private events tend to have a way overdeveloped sense of privilege. Last year on the night a local law firm bought up all the tickets for the event the volunteers who came in to clean up the next morning found that someone had peed in the indoor potted palms. "Someone?" Yes, a bunch of frickin' lawyers, supposedly the intellectual leaders of our community. Sigh.
Excellent post as always, RA - perhaps in a few years there will be a thread on "Abandoning my own firm to go back to being an employee - any advice?".
It's hard, farwest. Not to discourage you, but it is really hard.
you will always be thinking about work. always. ALREADY DO THIS
where is the next job coming from? ALREADY DO THIS
too little work? ALREADY DO THIS
too much work? ALREADY DO THIS
employee not as effective as you had hoped? ALREADY DO THIS
paying bills - NOT THIS
healthcare - SOMETIMES WHY PAY SO MUCH THIS
taxes - NOT THIS
contantly promoting yourself and building connections. ALREADY DO THIS
need to buy new hardware and software ALREADY DO THIS
insurance and liability DONT DO THIS
sick time? no time to get sick ALREADY DO THIS
vacation? what vacation ALREADY DO THIS
MOST EMPLOYEES ARE ALREADY GETTING TO THIS POINT NOW DAYS (
It gets scary sometimes when the work flow slows down, and now is one of those times. I've reached the point of now return though; if I go belly up I can't go back to a firm... Its carpentry for me.
silverlake I think my husband (contractor/carpenter) is there with you... the only problem being I won't be back at work full time for a few more years (if family planning works out), plus he can make so much more money than an architect working for a big construction company.
i'm trying to be optimistic about giving it up, but frankly I am worried that we won't manage to find the right situation that will give us enough control to not be miscontent but provide the stability & interesting work we need.
hopefully with experience finding the right situation gets easier?
I have a friend with kids who was on her own for several years - after 7 years or so she decided to go back to work for other people - think she's on her 4th or 5th job now and its been really hard for her to find the right fit (though being a working mom is a big part of the difficulty). she finally found what sounds like a great office - good work, good people, but horrible commute - who knows if it'll work out but she's been back on her own and that wasn't satisfying either.
i just had a meeting with my friend julie who remodeled the elwood house on the beach.
we were just brain storming about how to make more money.
she is published in a lot of magazines and it is strange that she is hardly making a living with all the publicity and she doesn't have office rent and employee overhead either.
looks like some people are already starting to shrink their practices in so cal.
r.a. you are not the first one i am hearing with contengency plans. it is disappointing to see talented and ethical upstarts are hurting the most and people with fat clients who are not concerned about the fees and finishes in their 10000 sq. ft. projects are doing well and shit.
Thanks for the great comments. I know they're not meant to be discouraging, but the reason I went into architecture was to eventually go into solo practice —maybe that's why everyone does it. I knew too little about practicing when I got my degree.
Honestly, the prospect of working in an office as an underling for the rest of my life (or even working toward partner in a large but so-so firm) really gives me the willies. One way or another, I need to be on my own.
I'm married with no kids, but we will have kids eventually. Luckily, my wife does something very different from architecture, and makes a decent living at it. But in some ways, the prospect of me going on my own scares her more than me.
It is really disappointing, especially when you feel that you really do a good job for the clients, and they're happy, and the sub-contractors are all happy and tell you how nice it is to work with you, and we're charging very reasonable fees to boot...
I guess the lesson, and it is an important lesson, is that there's so much more to success in any given business than you might think before going out on your own.
And that running an honest, ethical business can be a huge handicap. We always tell things like they are, and most people appreciate it, but in the end it comes down to cost. Unless you have a 'name', people will go for the lowest bidder, at least where budgets & construction are concerned.
When it comes down to it, we're not willing to tell people what they want to hear, or compromise on safety, or sell a project that we don't believe can be realistically achieved with the given budget. In the case where there seems room to maneuver, we go for it, but I think we do lose out at times to people who are 'more enthusiastic' about what can be done for the busget, or who simply grossly underbid.
I would say that after a lot of soul searching, what I really want is to work on good architecture. If the right firm can be found (basically not crazy working hours, no bosses that yell or don't talk to their employees, no huge commute), I think I would be happy to work hard as part of a team that produces solid work for interesting clients and not have to be 'the one'. I also realize that I really enjoy working as part of a larger team, and it's a long time before you've got multiple employees if you're on your own.
I wanted to give it a try because I was bored with the firm I was at (semi-corporate institutional), and my husband wanted to be on his own, and we had some jobs lined up.
What has been the best about the experience is the knowledge I've gained about running a business, being able to spend a lot of time with the good clients (without pressure of other jobs that I've been forced to take on), and flexibility when my daughter was born. But yes, I will give it all up for financial stability and the chance to do interesting work, because the most interesting work we've done the whole time is for ourselves and we can do that anyway...
We may be in for a rough ride....Petro may rule! Less work and more
expensive materials....so the work that will be out there is going to involve people wanting what they were used to but not wanting to pay for it. So here we go again! I just heard that the govermental agency which oversees the installation of private septic systems for a major portion of our state is looking at cutting back hours...and might be laying off people in the near future. So it tells me that in general the slide is starting.
yeah that would be a side note - we've gotten a lot fewer calls this spring for work than the previous years, and those we have talked to have very little money...a lot of people have started thier own offices in the last few years because there was so much work to spread around. I definitely think the residential market at least is contracting. Maybe not the very high end, but everything else...
networking is so important it is absurd. if you don't have time for it or are not interested in this sort of thing then forget about running your own office. join ULI (seriously!), if you are young become a "future leader" in ULI and shmooze like fcuk. If that sounds tedious (it can be) then don't bother with an office unless you are independently wealthy (many famous architects fall into this category, not just phillip johnson).
make friends with bankers and brokers and developers. if you are into education then give lectures and meet the folk who are going to be giving you the jobs, if into arts then go to the galleries and get on the boards...etc.
since i started working on my own i have been (by chance) meeting and talking to starchitects and future starchitects about how they get work...and they ALL tell me they get jobs from contacts... often rather obscure connections in the arts, and in banking and in medicine, etc. basically they get around and get known and enjoy themselves being the architect in a room of professionals from other fields...i don't think i know anyone who relies on word of mouth.
a few people i have met recently have taken their brand name and years of experience as (star-)architects to start working as developers and getting their own work going...this is also surprisingly common. even ando tadao does this. but it is really more an example of being pro-active and pushing to find work than a method i reccomend.
anyway, what it all comes down to is being aggresively pro-active. and if you can do it then try to have a backup job to pay bills when times are tight. it is no accident that steven holl didn't have a paying gig for 10 years, rem koolhaas for what 15 years?, and zaha? don't get me started...either way it ain't going to be easy, and you will find much of your time is spent doing things not remotely related to design...at which point you will find yourself incredibly impressed by all those great achitects who somehow manage to actually do architecture as part of their business...;-)
goodness grascious i hope that ain't so treekiller.
my partner and i are doing residential now, but there is seriously no money in it except at very high and or in high volumes...working hard to make switch to bigger things...
The biggest stress that I found with running my own business that I did not anitcipate (or appreciate) is the fact that your the guy. When the really hard question comes and there is nobody to defer to. . . No way to say that you have to check with your boss . . .
And I am not talking about design decisions, I am talking about the really difficult situations. As an employee, I never truely appreciated how easy it was to have a boss in a tough situation. Even if I rarely, if ever, defered questions/situations to him, it was always there.
this has been a great discussion. going back to what jump said about the architect as developer, has anyone here tried this as a model for practice? it seems like if you're your own client, it makes the process of design that much easier. you don't need to be a starchitect to do it; you just need a major funding source (partnership? loans?) to get that first project off the ground.
you can be your own client. that don't mean the bank is gonna give you any money to be a developer. otherwise, fuck i would be a developer and leave all the crap i do to someone else. most developers have gotten their money from other sources as well. one of our client/developers made a fortune in industry and then got into develop. mainly he races cars.
Don't burn bridges, even if you don't get the job from a potential client, just got a call from a client we had been short listed on a project about 2-3 years back and they want to build again and they want us to do the work. Repeat business is the best business as it takes a ton less time spent schmoozing. All our work is through repeat, or word of mouth. I do virtually zero marketing, but I am always networking and meeeting new people who knows someone who might need an architect. First impressions are important.
I am suppose to meet with somebody today who wants me to engage her as a busines development person, I am not sure what I will have her do because I have to turn down work more often than not. Now I realize that's not always going to be the case so its long term project building ie 2-3 years from now. I always look for a mix of short term and long term projects. Planning projects are good as they tend to roll out over a long period and then have smaller buildings that can evolve out of them.
Get to know your local planning officials, get on their good side, Often clients will come in to see them and they ask for recommended architects and you want to be the first name on the top of their list. You need to dedicate time to developing a good proposal format, ( also need to revisit it from time to time to be current)
Occassionly make efforts to go after the big projects even though you don't have a chance as it introduces you to others and also keeps you sharp for the smaller projects, sometmes you need to team up with others which can be hard for us egocentric types but it can give you a better idea of how others ( including your competition work )
But isn't it also true that a person can be aggressive and get out there and sell themselves and sell their work, without having to be pulled by others to go out on their own? Until I started making this shift, I didn't really have the time or the confidence to say "sure, I'd love to do that job," because I worked for someone else and was on some level beholden.
But now, everywhere I go, I'm excited to say that I'm starting my own practice and show off my new business cards and so on. A mixture of confidence and networking and the desire to work hard seem to be prerequisites (with decent design ability a given.)
I'm with OldFogey - think his assessment of needing the connections and a very good base are right on. At least in our experience - we got a few large jobs right at the beginning, the clients have been more than happy and always trying to refer us (we even have one who is sending out emails and basically trying to find us work because she doesn't want us to go out of business), but almost nothing has come from those jobs yet.
I've decided that there is something like a 2 degree of separation limit for people when they're hiring an architect or contractor, unless you are very well known/published and/or have done work for famous people. Meaning that most people will hire either the person who has been recommended by a close family member or friend, or the lowest bidder (though for design jobs the fees don't seem that important in the decision).
So, unless you have a huge circle of close friends and family with money enough to build and your taste in design (and you'll need jobs at least over 200K, preferably 350K and up to really make it work in the long run), you won't be able to sustain it... we get referrals from a couple of friends with a wider network, but generally they give us the smaller jobs that aren't interesting or profitable. The most interesting jobs have come from the family/friend connection, and we just don't have enough of those people to go around. In another 10 years or so they might have more money & time to invest in a home, but not right now, esp. not with the way the market is going.
Also, none of the commercial jobs we've looked at have panned out - people have even less money when it comes to opening or running a business, and the finances are shaky even when they're there...
Sad to say that the only people we know who have started their own firms and had success (modest, in that they have some employees and some decent jobs that are multi-family, commercial, etc.) either have family money, close ties to important entertainment industry people (as in spouses or family members), or both. We know a lot of people in the same boat as us who have been doing it for a few years and have barely enough to sustain themselves in addition to teaching, but my guess if the market keeps shrinking is that most of us will be back at work for other people in the next few years.
Not to say that those with connections don't work really hard or have talent - they do, they're very smart great people, but they just have that built-in network that really is crucial to success. On the construction side, we thought that our network of architects would be enough to sustain us, and we were very wrong. In fact we haven't gotten one single job from an architect - we always get underbid. It also seems that most people with established firms have one or two contractors they like to work with and, just like everyone else, they don't want to take a risk, even if they know and like you. We've been very lucky that we have found a few people willing to take the leap and trust us, but as Old Fogey said those people are few and far between.
OF speaks the truth. yes, passion and hard work are necessary, but connections are critical. it has taken me six years to gain some traction on connections that i have established in seattle. only now am i starting to feel a little more comfortable.
speaking of connections on a differing front OF, when are we getting getting together for the next seattle archinect summit?
Of course it's hard to make it on one's own, or everyone would be doing it. And of course networking and connections are vital. Anyone going out on their own would assume that.
But some of you are painting solo practice as a doomed life, essentially implying that if you're not born a Rothschild and don't know Brad Pitt, then you'll be selling apples on a streetcorner in a matter of months.
I'm a realist, but I can't believe it's quite as grim as that. I know tons of small practices that have sustained themselves over years. Sure, maybe they don't do the latest swank museum or cool skyscraper, but they seem to do ok. I understand that there will be lean years and that it will be hard work and stressful.
How about some positive stories about small firms actually making it? Are there none?
first question? why would i hire you as opposed to someone else out there? can you really start an office with no client base? i don't think so . not to be negative. i think most people dream of being the boss of themselves. but...
This thread has been incredibly helpful. I'm just trying to keep this positive and constructive.
I don't mind a dose of reality, but I'm also hoping for good advice about how to keep a practice running, assuming I've made the (possibly foolhardy) decision to go it alone in the first place. I have a couple of clients, enough to get off the ground, and since I've determined that I'm going on my own, I'm looking for a little advice (as opposed to discouragement.)
I appreciate the help -- I think it's good for any architect reading this.
With my relatively little experience in the field so far, I've seen architects start to branch out on their own with one foot still close with their current firm from which they've gained exposure and has had good relations with. If the project is small and not quite the kind of job the firm usually takes, for example, one of the partners might give the project to the "young" architect. This of course requires great amount of trust, respect, and honesty from both sides. As long as they're not direct competitors, this is a model that I think is the least risky with great benefits. Not sure how this works in corporate situations, but I've seen this first-hand in smaller practices with pretty good results.
One great example of that was the recent departure of both Dan Wood and Josh Ramus from OMA. Wood, as I understand, departed on bad terms and was subsequently badmouthed by Rem (and didn't take any projects with him.) Ramus stayed on good terms and as a result is both still collaborating with OMA a little, and has some nice fat projects that he brought with him, with Rem's blessing.
Staying on good terms with your former firm always seems like a smart business move.
The rule of thumb when I started out was that you need 6 months of work to carry you along, and then need to be working 60 plus hours a week by your self and still have six months work before you hire the first staff person. I used that as a target and have a staff of four and pay my wife to stay at home using that basic formula. I think its very crazy to take the leap on your own with no projects, particularly with larger economic issues in the states which would seriously affect a small start up which would typically survive with small projects ( ie renos etc ) in an economy that is a little more flush with cash.
Important note when the economy shrinks go after public projects because during those times the government tends to throw funds at public agencies to spur on the economy.
Often one key project helps, a magazine article or a hint of media exposure to get the first call / project. Keep in mind lots of people take advantage of new designers but it also works both ways and I can remember working extra hard for a few clients who I knew had friends and we got lots of work from them after.
I think the only unfortunate thing about this is that not everyone will get this kind of opportunity, no matter how good of an architect he/she is (with good social skills and initiative). It goes way beyond the typical employee - employer relationship and often can be a reflection of the employer rather than the employee. As depressing as it is to type this, it is probably true that there are talented architects that never get the chance because they do not have the network necessary (whether this is through being unlucky or just not having the required exposure). The Ramus and Wood is a good example, but doesn't always pertain to star-architects.
Solo Practicing only gets better if you marry and architect. I haven't figured out if you would call us Solo....or what. However there are two of us and we are making it. We do a variety of work, and yes most of our work comes from past clients who refer us or people in the community who know us thru our involvement in the community. It is however always suprising when we encounter someone who just stumbled upon us, and they turn out to be great clients and friends.
Starting My Own Practice (Advice)
After years of working for other people—and becoming increasingly frustrated by it—I'm finally going into solo practice. Aside from my initial decision to go into architecture, this is certainly the biggest career decision I've made to date.
Can other sole practitioners offer their perspective? What are the pitfalls? What are the benefits?
The only part that truly makes me nervous is searching for work. I have a few small jobs now, but when those dry up....what does an architect do? How do you go about getting new work?
farwest: start here.
Then visit here.
then visit here
And start drinking heavily...
yes, drink heavily.
Thanks for the responses.
I know the comments about drinking heavily are tongue-in-cheek, but is it honestly far more stressful to be on your own?
I find that most of my stresses in an office revolve around office politics, and having no control over decisions (or, rather, that decisions are made but then overturned at the whims of whoever's in charge.) Always catering to someone else's needs. Doing a lot of work, only to have it all changed or scrapped at the last minute.
What are the stresses when you're solo?
every job has pros and cons. very few jobs are without stress. owning your own place?
you will always be thinking about work. always.
where is the next job coming from?
too little work?
too much work?
employee not as effective as you had hoped?
paying bills
healthcare
taxes
contantly promoting yourself and building connections.
need to buy new hardware and software
insurance and liability
sick time? no time to get sick
vacation? what vacation
just to name a few things that you need to do that you never had to think about while working for someone else. i'm not saying these are all bad things just different. after working for myself for six years, i can't imagine working for someone else again. i'd imagine most others who work for themselves feel the same.
what e said.
i'd respond further but i'm too busy/stressed right now...
here's one for you.
i've got a commercial project that recently went in for plan check. client emails me and asks for a meeting. they miss the meeting and reschedule. they make the second meeting and basically say that the hard cost funding now has a deadline associated with it, so the project needs to be bid and awarded within 5 weeks.
how's that for stress?
i'm on my way to the repro house right now to drop off the drawings.
fortunately i can choose the contractors so i'm limiting it to two firms i've worked with in the past and trust.
i'm not sure what i'll do if the bids start coming in high with little time to adjust the drawings and reprice - heavy stimulant use i suppose.
the point is that as a sole-practitioner i have little excess productive capacity to handle such emergencies. = STRESS.
I think to save you that could tender this thread to be more about marketing for self-practice. Asside from those liberty mentioned there are a few others floating around.
Wish you luck.
e summed it up...
No matter how stressful and exhausting it gets, its worth it. Nothing compares to doing my own work now....
The stresses of long hours and too much to do I can handle, for the most part. It's sort of a given in architecture anyway.
What I'm more concerned about is how to find that next job, how to market a small practice. How to find clients who don't just want a Tuscan-style kitchen remodel, but are maybe looking for actual architecture.
Any ideas?
farwest1, location is extremely important. Starting up anywhere but Los Angeles would have been inconceivable to me. There's no shortage of land and people with money and interest in modern design.
As far as keeping a steady flow of work coming in, I'm still figuring it out...
hate to be the negative one here, but it can be very difficult to get enough work, esp. interesting work, to support yourself. all of our work has been through referrals and we've had plenty of happy customers, but there's a lot of competition for small design jobs and honestly not that many people who have anywhere near the money to do what they want... the market is also slowing and we're feeling it.
we've tried advertising a bit at charity events, we're listed on a referral website, and we have our own website for which we sent out postcards. we also have signs at the jobsites and t-shirts for the construction company. i would say none of that has helped much, other than the website which people seem to like (though i don't know if we've gotten more than 1 or 2 jobs from it).
if there's two of you and you have kids (our case, small design/build firm), it seems nearly impossible unless you have outside funding (parents or trust fund?) and/or friends with deep pockets, very deep pockets.
we've been doing it for about 4 years, and we have managed to survive but the stress, lack of many interesting projects, low income, and one baby (hoping to have another soon) haven taken their toll and we're talking very seriously about closing up shop :-(
health insurance is a real killer!
we love working for ourselves, and love working with clients for the most part, even love the subs, but in the end we just don't have enough big jobs to sustain us. if we were on the west side of los angeles, we guess we might be doing better because there is a lot more money there, but it's hard to say. we might also be doing better if we had worked for other people longer and waited to start our company (we're in our mid 30s).
and honestly there are a lot of firms doing much more interesting work than the jobs we get, and i don't think i would mind going back and working for someone else if the situation was right. we're realizing that the number of years it would take to get to where we want to be may just not be possible financially (in terms of waiting for bigger interesting jobs to come along).
and it's possible we don't have the right personalities or sales ability as well - there are just so many aspects to running a business and being a good/conscientious designer and a hardworker is only a small part.
farwest, are you married or worse have kids?
Not that those are bad things! But in my experience they make it harder to do the constant networking required to keep the jobs rolling in.
Tonight I'm going to a cocktail event at the decorator show house where we did a room. This would be fairly fun* except that I hate doing any evening event that takes me away from my kid - the guilt is too immense, event hough it shouldn't be, it is.
If I didn't have a child, I'd expect to be out at social/networking events 3-5 nights a week. Young Entrepreneurs, CSI, cultural institutions' events/boards. etc. THAT is the side of business ownership that takes a ton of time but seems absolutely necessary in our field.
And that's how you BUILD the client base. To KEEP the client base, you do good work at a fair price, be honest, and your clients will refer more clients to you.
* Actually, it's not that fun because the people who come to decorator show house private events tend to have a way overdeveloped sense of privilege. Last year on the night a local law firm bought up all the tickets for the event the volunteers who came in to clean up the next morning found that someone had peed in the indoor potted palms. "Someone?" Yes, a bunch of frickin' lawyers, supposedly the intellectual leaders of our community. Sigh.
Excellent post as always, RA - perhaps in a few years there will be a thread on "Abandoning my own firm to go back to being an employee - any advice?".
It's hard, farwest. Not to discourage you, but it is really hard.
doesn't always work out, either.
e'S LIST GENERATED SOME LAUGHS HERE CAUSE....
you will always be thinking about work. always. ALREADY DO THIS
where is the next job coming from? ALREADY DO THIS
too little work? ALREADY DO THIS
too much work? ALREADY DO THIS
employee not as effective as you had hoped? ALREADY DO THIS
paying bills - NOT THIS
healthcare - SOMETIMES WHY PAY SO MUCH THIS
taxes - NOT THIS
contantly promoting yourself and building connections. ALREADY DO THIS
need to buy new hardware and software ALREADY DO THIS
insurance and liability DONT DO THIS
sick time? no time to get sick ALREADY DO THIS
vacation? what vacation ALREADY DO THIS
MOST EMPLOYEES ARE ALREADY GETTING TO THIS POINT NOW DAYS (
Great insight RA & LB...
It gets scary sometimes when the work flow slows down, and now is one of those times. I've reached the point of now return though; if I go belly up I can't go back to a firm... Its carpentry for me.
*no return
silverlake I think my husband (contractor/carpenter) is there with you... the only problem being I won't be back at work full time for a few more years (if family planning works out), plus he can make so much more money than an architect working for a big construction company.
i'm trying to be optimistic about giving it up, but frankly I am worried that we won't manage to find the right situation that will give us enough control to not be miscontent but provide the stability & interesting work we need.
hopefully with experience finding the right situation gets easier?
I have a friend with kids who was on her own for several years - after 7 years or so she decided to go back to work for other people - think she's on her 4th or 5th job now and its been really hard for her to find the right fit (though being a working mom is a big part of the difficulty). she finally found what sounds like a great office - good work, good people, but horrible commute - who knows if it'll work out but she's been back on her own and that wasn't satisfying either.
evil, i find your comments equally comical. thanks for the laugh.
i just had a meeting with my friend julie who remodeled the elwood house on the beach.
we were just brain storming about how to make more money.
she is published in a lot of magazines and it is strange that she is hardly making a living with all the publicity and she doesn't have office rent and employee overhead either.
looks like some people are already starting to shrink their practices in so cal.
r.a. you are not the first one i am hearing with contengency plans. it is disappointing to see talented and ethical upstarts are hurting the most and people with fat clients who are not concerned about the fees and finishes in their 10000 sq. ft. projects are doing well and shit.
you could skip the 'start your own practice' b.s. and just start drinking heavily anyway...
Thanks for the great comments. I know they're not meant to be discouraging, but the reason I went into architecture was to eventually go into solo practice —maybe that's why everyone does it. I knew too little about practicing when I got my degree.
Honestly, the prospect of working in an office as an underling for the rest of my life (or even working toward partner in a large but so-so firm) really gives me the willies. One way or another, I need to be on my own.
I'm married with no kids, but we will have kids eventually. Luckily, my wife does something very different from architecture, and makes a decent living at it. But in some ways, the prospect of me going on my own scares her more than me.
It is really disappointing, especially when you feel that you really do a good job for the clients, and they're happy, and the sub-contractors are all happy and tell you how nice it is to work with you, and we're charging very reasonable fees to boot...
I guess the lesson, and it is an important lesson, is that there's so much more to success in any given business than you might think before going out on your own.
And that running an honest, ethical business can be a huge handicap. We always tell things like they are, and most people appreciate it, but in the end it comes down to cost. Unless you have a 'name', people will go for the lowest bidder, at least where budgets & construction are concerned.
When it comes down to it, we're not willing to tell people what they want to hear, or compromise on safety, or sell a project that we don't believe can be realistically achieved with the given budget. In the case where there seems room to maneuver, we go for it, but I think we do lose out at times to people who are 'more enthusiastic' about what can be done for the busget, or who simply grossly underbid.
I would say that after a lot of soul searching, what I really want is to work on good architecture. If the right firm can be found (basically not crazy working hours, no bosses that yell or don't talk to their employees, no huge commute), I think I would be happy to work hard as part of a team that produces solid work for interesting clients and not have to be 'the one'. I also realize that I really enjoy working as part of a larger team, and it's a long time before you've got multiple employees if you're on your own.
I wanted to give it a try because I was bored with the firm I was at (semi-corporate institutional), and my husband wanted to be on his own, and we had some jobs lined up.
What has been the best about the experience is the knowledge I've gained about running a business, being able to spend a lot of time with the good clients (without pressure of other jobs that I've been forced to take on), and flexibility when my daughter was born. But yes, I will give it all up for financial stability and the chance to do interesting work, because the most interesting work we've done the whole time is for ourselves and we can do that anyway...
right on Rudolph, right on. It'll be 10-15 years before the ethical right way really starts to come back around as rep spreads
We may be in for a rough ride....Petro may rule! Less work and more
expensive materials....so the work that will be out there is going to involve people wanting what they were used to but not wanting to pay for it. So here we go again! I just heard that the govermental agency which oversees the installation of private septic systems for a major portion of our state is looking at cutting back hours...and might be laying off people in the near future. So it tells me that in general the slide is starting.
yeah that would be a side note - we've gotten a lot fewer calls this spring for work than the previous years, and those we have talked to have very little money...a lot of people have started thier own offices in the last few years because there was so much work to spread around. I definitely think the residential market at least is contracting. Maybe not the very high end, but everything else...
now back to work on my Ikea kitchen layout!
BUSINESS PLAN IMPORTANT!
BANKER IMPORTANT!
DESIGN MATTERS, IMPORTANT!
There seems to be a rule that if you want to be a solo practitioner, you must do residential work! guess I'll never be a one tree shop!
networking is so important it is absurd. if you don't have time for it or are not interested in this sort of thing then forget about running your own office. join ULI (seriously!), if you are young become a "future leader" in ULI and shmooze like fcuk. If that sounds tedious (it can be) then don't bother with an office unless you are independently wealthy (many famous architects fall into this category, not just phillip johnson).
make friends with bankers and brokers and developers. if you are into education then give lectures and meet the folk who are going to be giving you the jobs, if into arts then go to the galleries and get on the boards...etc.
since i started working on my own i have been (by chance) meeting and talking to starchitects and future starchitects about how they get work...and they ALL tell me they get jobs from contacts... often rather obscure connections in the arts, and in banking and in medicine, etc. basically they get around and get known and enjoy themselves being the architect in a room of professionals from other fields...i don't think i know anyone who relies on word of mouth.
a few people i have met recently have taken their brand name and years of experience as (star-)architects to start working as developers and getting their own work going...this is also surprisingly common. even ando tadao does this. but it is really more an example of being pro-active and pushing to find work than a method i reccomend.
anyway, what it all comes down to is being aggresively pro-active. and if you can do it then try to have a backup job to pay bills when times are tight. it is no accident that steven holl didn't have a paying gig for 10 years, rem koolhaas for what 15 years?, and zaha? don't get me started...either way it ain't going to be easy, and you will find much of your time is spent doing things not remotely related to design...at which point you will find yourself incredibly impressed by all those great achitects who somehow manage to actually do architecture as part of their business...;-)
luck
goodness grascious i hope that ain't so treekiller.
my partner and i are doing residential now, but there is seriously no money in it except at very high and or in high volumes...working hard to make switch to bigger things...
The biggest stress that I found with running my own business that I did not anitcipate (or appreciate) is the fact that your the guy. When the really hard question comes and there is nobody to defer to. . . No way to say that you have to check with your boss . . .
And I am not talking about design decisions, I am talking about the really difficult situations. As an employee, I never truely appreciated how easy it was to have a boss in a tough situation. Even if I rarely, if ever, defered questions/situations to him, it was always there.
this has been a great discussion. going back to what jump said about the architect as developer, has anyone here tried this as a model for practice? it seems like if you're your own client, it makes the process of design that much easier. you don't need to be a starchitect to do it; you just need a major funding source (partnership? loans?) to get that first project off the ground.
you can be your own client. that don't mean the bank is gonna give you any money to be a developer. otherwise, fuck i would be a developer and leave all the crap i do to someone else. most developers have gotten their money from other sources as well. one of our client/developers made a fortune in industry and then got into develop. mainly he races cars.
Don't burn bridges, even if you don't get the job from a potential client, just got a call from a client we had been short listed on a project about 2-3 years back and they want to build again and they want us to do the work. Repeat business is the best business as it takes a ton less time spent schmoozing. All our work is through repeat, or word of mouth. I do virtually zero marketing, but I am always networking and meeeting new people who knows someone who might need an architect. First impressions are important.
I am suppose to meet with somebody today who wants me to engage her as a busines development person, I am not sure what I will have her do because I have to turn down work more often than not. Now I realize that's not always going to be the case so its long term project building ie 2-3 years from now. I always look for a mix of short term and long term projects. Planning projects are good as they tend to roll out over a long period and then have smaller buildings that can evolve out of them.
Get to know your local planning officials, get on their good side, Often clients will come in to see them and they ask for recommended architects and you want to be the first name on the top of their list. You need to dedicate time to developing a good proposal format, ( also need to revisit it from time to time to be current)
Occassionly make efforts to go after the big projects even though you don't have a chance as it introduces you to others and also keeps you sharp for the smaller projects, sometmes you need to team up with others which can be hard for us egocentric types but it can give you a better idea of how others ( including your competition work )
OldFogey,
But isn't it also true that a person can be aggressive and get out there and sell themselves and sell their work, without having to be pulled by others to go out on their own? Until I started making this shift, I didn't really have the time or the confidence to say "sure, I'd love to do that job," because I worked for someone else and was on some level beholden.
But now, everywhere I go, I'm excited to say that I'm starting my own practice and show off my new business cards and so on. A mixture of confidence and networking and the desire to work hard seem to be prerequisites (with decent design ability a given.)
I'm with OldFogey - think his assessment of needing the connections and a very good base are right on. At least in our experience - we got a few large jobs right at the beginning, the clients have been more than happy and always trying to refer us (we even have one who is sending out emails and basically trying to find us work because she doesn't want us to go out of business), but almost nothing has come from those jobs yet.
I've decided that there is something like a 2 degree of separation limit for people when they're hiring an architect or contractor, unless you are very well known/published and/or have done work for famous people. Meaning that most people will hire either the person who has been recommended by a close family member or friend, or the lowest bidder (though for design jobs the fees don't seem that important in the decision).
So, unless you have a huge circle of close friends and family with money enough to build and your taste in design (and you'll need jobs at least over 200K, preferably 350K and up to really make it work in the long run), you won't be able to sustain it... we get referrals from a couple of friends with a wider network, but generally they give us the smaller jobs that aren't interesting or profitable. The most interesting jobs have come from the family/friend connection, and we just don't have enough of those people to go around. In another 10 years or so they might have more money & time to invest in a home, but not right now, esp. not with the way the market is going.
Also, none of the commercial jobs we've looked at have panned out - people have even less money when it comes to opening or running a business, and the finances are shaky even when they're there...
Sad to say that the only people we know who have started their own firms and had success (modest, in that they have some employees and some decent jobs that are multi-family, commercial, etc.) either have family money, close ties to important entertainment industry people (as in spouses or family members), or both. We know a lot of people in the same boat as us who have been doing it for a few years and have barely enough to sustain themselves in addition to teaching, but my guess if the market keeps shrinking is that most of us will be back at work for other people in the next few years.
Not to say that those with connections don't work really hard or have talent - they do, they're very smart great people, but they just have that built-in network that really is crucial to success. On the construction side, we thought that our network of architects would be enough to sustain us, and we were very wrong. In fact we haven't gotten one single job from an architect - we always get underbid. It also seems that most people with established firms have one or two contractors they like to work with and, just like everyone else, they don't want to take a risk, even if they know and like you. We've been very lucky that we have found a few people willing to take the leap and trust us, but as Old Fogey said those people are few and far between.
OF speaks the truth. yes, passion and hard work are necessary, but connections are critical. it has taken me six years to gain some traction on connections that i have established in seattle. only now am i starting to feel a little more comfortable.
speaking of connections on a differing front OF, when are we getting getting together for the next seattle archinect summit?
Of course it's hard to make it on one's own, or everyone would be doing it. And of course networking and connections are vital. Anyone going out on their own would assume that.
But some of you are painting solo practice as a doomed life, essentially implying that if you're not born a Rothschild and don't know Brad Pitt, then you'll be selling apples on a streetcorner in a matter of months.
I'm a realist, but I can't believe it's quite as grim as that. I know tons of small practices that have sustained themselves over years. Sure, maybe they don't do the latest swank museum or cool skyscraper, but they seem to do ok. I understand that there will be lean years and that it will be hard work and stressful.
How about some positive stories about small firms actually making it? Are there none?
first question? why would i hire you as opposed to someone else out there? can you really start an office with no client base? i don't think so . not to be negative. i think most people dream of being the boss of themselves. but...
farwest, i think most people here are only trying to help you by making you aware of some of the pitfalls and things you should consider/look out for.
This thread has been incredibly helpful. I'm just trying to keep this positive and constructive.
I don't mind a dose of reality, but I'm also hoping for good advice about how to keep a practice running, assuming I've made the (possibly foolhardy) decision to go it alone in the first place. I have a couple of clients, enough to get off the ground, and since I've determined that I'm going on my own, I'm looking for a little advice (as opposed to discouragement.)
I appreciate the help -- I think it's good for any architect reading this.
With my relatively little experience in the field so far, I've seen architects start to branch out on their own with one foot still close with their current firm from which they've gained exposure and has had good relations with. If the project is small and not quite the kind of job the firm usually takes, for example, one of the partners might give the project to the "young" architect. This of course requires great amount of trust, respect, and honesty from both sides. As long as they're not direct competitors, this is a model that I think is the least risky with great benefits. Not sure how this works in corporate situations, but I've seen this first-hand in smaller practices with pretty good results.
Philarch,
One great example of that was the recent departure of both Dan Wood and Josh Ramus from OMA. Wood, as I understand, departed on bad terms and was subsequently badmouthed by Rem (and didn't take any projects with him.) Ramus stayed on good terms and as a result is both still collaborating with OMA a little, and has some nice fat projects that he brought with him, with Rem's blessing.
Staying on good terms with your former firm always seems like a smart business move.
The rule of thumb when I started out was that you need 6 months of work to carry you along, and then need to be working 60 plus hours a week by your self and still have six months work before you hire the first staff person. I used that as a target and have a staff of four and pay my wife to stay at home using that basic formula. I think its very crazy to take the leap on your own with no projects, particularly with larger economic issues in the states which would seriously affect a small start up which would typically survive with small projects ( ie renos etc ) in an economy that is a little more flush with cash.
Important note when the economy shrinks go after public projects because during those times the government tends to throw funds at public agencies to spur on the economy.
Often one key project helps, a magazine article or a hint of media exposure to get the first call / project. Keep in mind lots of people take advantage of new designers but it also works both ways and I can remember working extra hard for a few clients who I knew had friends and we got lots of work from them after.
I think the only unfortunate thing about this is that not everyone will get this kind of opportunity, no matter how good of an architect he/she is (with good social skills and initiative). It goes way beyond the typical employee - employer relationship and often can be a reflection of the employer rather than the employee. As depressing as it is to type this, it is probably true that there are talented architects that never get the chance because they do not have the network necessary (whether this is through being unlucky or just not having the required exposure). The Ramus and Wood is a good example, but doesn't always pertain to star-architects.
Solo Practicing only gets better if you marry and architect. I haven't figured out if you would call us Solo....or what. However there are two of us and we are making it. We do a variety of work, and yes most of our work comes from past clients who refer us or people in the community who know us thru our involvement in the community. It is however always suprising when we encounter someone who just stumbled upon us, and they turn out to be great clients and friends.
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