Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Hello "Admin"

Well, you've got to do what we have all done when we've started out on our own. You provide clients with info on projects you've been involved in, and describe your role honestly so you don't try to convey more than is the case. Just make it clear you did the project while at another practice.

Oh, and highlight your academic quals and professional memberships.

Do the same with all your colleagues in the practice, if there are other professionals involved. If you have skilled tradespeople too - draftspeople, interior designers, you highlight their experience on whatever projects they have worked on.

Then provide the info on your website, and talk about your experience via blogs and social networking.

To try to make your mark, enter design competitions and get on local TV, radio and in local press talking about your view of the world and what's happening in architecture. make yourself sound like the designer of my next house, office, theme park, hotel or high-rise apartment block - whatever niche you are targeting.

Offer to write for newspapers giving an editorial appreciation of your city's architecture.

Mentally project who the architect is that you want to be in 20 years - and now start acting like that architect with immediate effect.

But at all times maintain your humility.

Good luck.

ChrisB

PS Do yourself a favour. Complete your profile here so we know who you are and where you're working - makes it easier to give you targeted advice.

Chris is exactly right.
You need to rehearse your answer to the experience question. But my guess is that you are bothered by it more than your clients. Getting new business is never easy... plant a lot of sales seeds. Dont think of business development as serial, think of it as a parallel process.

I agree-- you are envisioning this a bigger problem than it may really be. You have completed buildings-- you list them as projects you have completed. Do not clean off contact info from the other firm. It is work completed while at xyz firm.

If you left your current company to work for another firm, they'd ask you about your experience -- and you'd cite your projects the same way. Think of it that way. You're leaving their employ to go to another-- except the company is yours.

Don't create fanthom projects-- it will dilute your message.

Dear Admin,

The advice you've received above? Read it all again.

All of it. Out loud. To everyone in your office.

If that's just an audience of one, read it anyway. SHOUT it if you have to. To hell with the neighbours! To become better, stronger, and greater, you must become fearless.

Do it. Do it NOW. I'm serious about this.

If that's just an audience of one, read it anyway. SHOUT it if you have to. To hell with the neighbours! To become better, stronger, and greater, you must become fearless. The sounds make the message stronger.

Then print the comments above, print them out BIG and paste them somewhere in your office, SOMEWHERE where you'd have to be blind
not to notice them. Paper the walls with them if you have to, but drive the message home again and again.

This is really important.

Next, read about great architects and ask yourself what would THEY do?

True story for you.

During the Chicago World's Fair, Daniel Burnham fired a young, bone-idle architect because this pretentious young pup spent most of his time working on his own stuff rather than on the drawings for the Fair.

Years later, this same young architect won a huge commission from a wealthy industrialist. Land was bought, surveys were taken, questions were asked; the positions of every boulder and tree were plotted to the inch. For three months AFTER all this, the architect did nothing, didn't even lift so much as a pencil. Then one day, the phone rings. The client is on his way. He'll be at the architect's office in less than three hours!

Oh crap! The jig's up! Surely it was all going to hit the fan?

For the next three hours the architect, who normally worked on small sheets of paper was fed with huge sheets, pencils, pens: the works. Sections, plans, elevations all flew off this guy's desk in flurry of activity the likes of which his staff had never seen before.

Then, just as the last line is drawn on the last drawing, the architect's receptionist strides in. Behind her is the client. The client says he's really looking forward to seeing the drawings for his Pennsylvania country retreat, a house overlooking a magical, boulder-strewn a waterfall, deep in the woods.

The architect stands, straightens his bow tie, combs back his flowing, light colored hair and strides towards the client, his hand outstretched in greeting. Then, as cool as a cucumber he says "Mr. Kaufmann? Frank Lloyd Wright! I've been waiting for you!"

You obtain authority and credibility in one of two ways: you claim it, or you are appointed with it. To be perceived as having credibility, you must PROJECT credibility.

There are no excuses for inactivity or a lack of forward motion. Ever. You've GOT to take responsibility. This means getting off your ass and DOING something. It means taking ACTION!

Right now, today, even before you finish reading this post, do two things, take two positive steps: call a prospective client and tell them what you'll do for them within the next 30 days; write a sales letter that tells your clients you'll kick the ass of every other architect in town (metaphorically speaking)!

Then do it.

But you've got to get out of this "Woe is me! The sky is falling!" mind set. Thinking like this will kidnap your self esteem, hog tie you, demand no ransom, shoot you in the head, and drop your body in a deep ravine where it will be gnawed on by wee timorous beasties with fangs.

Not good!

There's no use sitting there all meek and mild, moaning that your cupboard is bare ... you have got to fill it up! Dan Kennedy says "Little hinges swing big doors!"

Don't sit there a moment longer, get a screw driver, install some new hardware, and get cracking!

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

one way to build credibility is via the use of a "monkey's fist”. When a ship has to throw a heavy line to another ship, sometimes they start by throwing a light line with a heavy knot on the end (called a monkey's fist) to the other ship. and they tie a heavier line to the small line, and pull the heavy line across.

In a similar way, can you start with some very small projects which will be easier to sell? Could some small projects help you introduce your services to companies, help you build rapport with prospects, help you introduce some ideas, give you some quick cash flow, and slowly help you build a portfolio?

don't discount-- you don't need too