So you’re growing your Architectural firms nicely – first you were a solo operator, then had a few staff, and now you’re an established business!
Does that mean that you no longer taken on smaller clients?
In an ideal world – absolutely. Just go for bigger, better paying clients and enjoy a hassle free business… totally free from stress!
If you gawked at that last line, then you know all too well that business isn’t always ups – there must be downs too!
All business happens in waves – we have boom years, and bear years, and plenty of years in between.
And to follow that cycle of Architectural business, we need to occasionally take a step backwards in preparation for our next several steps forwards.
So every recession, you will inevitably have to shrink. But what do you shrink? You have three options:
- Lower you Architectural fees (hint: this is a very bad idea).
- Reduce your staff to match the lower project intake. Or:
- Take on some smaller projects to tide your staff over until better times.
From a purely business perspective, option 2 is invariably the best. Less work means less people. Less people means less mouths to feed. And your systems, which are already built, will be there when you scale back up again.
But the human within the businessperson knows that firing staff is hard, and the emotional toll of letting go of your Architectural family is often too great to make the right business decisions. Not to mention that actually making someone redundant is not as easy as it seems from a legal perspective.
So that leaves us with option 3 – take on some smaller projects to keep the gears rolling.
But let’s set some guard-rails before we do that, or we’ll fall into the biggest pitfall in Architecture – taking on unprofitable work, and watching it drag you down long after the recession skulks back into its cave for hibernation.
- Don’t take on any small work that will take longer than the anticipated recession. That means no projects longer than 1 year in duration.
- If you compromise on project size, DO NOT also compromise on fee. Ensure the smaller projects are still profitable.
- Don’t let the small work erode your willpower towards elevating your business. It’s easy to get lost in today’s details, and forget what you’re building towards.
Follow those three principles, and taking on some smaller Architectural projects may just keep your team together and watch you burst out of the gates once the recession ends.
And when you’re ready to scale in boom years – you know where to find me!
