Entrearchitect Podcast With Mark R. Lepage

CVG Architecture Business Plan Competition 2016 Recorded live from the Sonesta Hotel in Downtown Philadelphia the awards reception for the 2016 Charrette Venture Group Architecture Business Plan Competition. We chat with all the finalists, learn about the history of the competition and I sit down for a live one-on-one interview with the winner. We will learn more about their firm, how it was founded and their plans for the future, transitioning from design/build to architect as developer. This week on EntreArchitect Podcast we have a very special episode. And the winner is… What is the history of the Architecture Business Plan Competition? The Architecture Business Plan Competition is an annual event sponsored by Charrette Venture Group. Charrette Venture Group was founded by Matt Ostanik after Matt’s experience in both the architecture and technology worlds. He observed that many architects tend to struggle with successfully growing their business and he found through the tech industry that, in

How to Use Sketches to Pass the Architecture Registration Exam In and among the everyday workings of being an architect, or studying to become one, we often find ourselves with new and innovative ideas for doing what we do more efficiently, more effectively or just more enjoyably. We might develop these ideas into new systems or new processes to make our world a little better. If these innovative ideas work for you, they most likely will work for others as well. And in the world of instant connnectability and a community of like-minded architects growing every day on our many social media channels, there is no reason to not share your ideas with the world. You hear it at the end of every episode “Share what you know.” This week on this episode of EntreArchitect Podcast, I am chatting with a friend, whom I met while sharing what I know on the internet, to discuss an innovative idea that she had and is now sharing it with her world. Join me for a conversation with architect Lora Teagarden about her

Happy clients are the result of clients knowing what to expect, when to expect it, and how much it’s going to cost when their expectations are met. This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, Mark R. LePage shares How to Build a System to Manage Your Architecture Clients’ Expectations. How do we deliver services to our clients in a way that meets or exceeds their expectations? How do we ensure that every interaction results in a happy, satisfied client? Under promise, over deliver. Don’t say you’re going to do something and then fail to follow through. Always do, at the very least, what you say you’re going to do. Know the time it will take you to do something and give yourself more than enough time. Then delivery the results early whenever you’re able to. Manage expectations. Our clients want to know what to expect, when to expect it, and what it’s going to cost them when the expectation is finally realized. Managing their expectations manages their happiness. Create a sys

In architecture school, we all had a dream of what we would become when we became architects; designing beautiful spaces and making the world a better place with each project. We each told ourselves a story of success as an architect. We imagined a studio filled with light, working with talented people and surrounded by the iterations of our creativity. Powerful projects, patrons and processes of purpose that allowed us to pursue our passions. How is your dream looking today? Are you succeeding or are you struggling? This week at EntreArchitect Podcast, Mark R. LePage will share The 12 Critical Categories of Business That Will Take Your Architecture Firm from a Struggling Studio to Small Firm Success Story. Business is a game, and like any game, you have to be able to learn and play by the rules to win. There are critical steps that need to be taken in order for our firms to thrive and become the success stories of our dreams. The only way to small firm architecture success is to hit each one of these twelv

What if you were going to start your firm today, from scratch, with the knowledge that you now have? Would you do things differently? How could you ensure that the firm is prosperous and encourages equity for everyone involved? This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, Rosa Sheng, AIA joins Mark R. LePage to share The 7 Essential Elements of an Equitable Architecture Firm. Creating a Culture of Equity… by Design Rosa Sheng, AIA, is a founding member of the Bohlin Cywinski Jackson San Francisco office, whose work includes the Pixar Animation offices and Apple glass structures. She's also a founder of Equity by Design. Started as a grassroots effort to gauge the conditions of practice and what people were going through in the life of an architect, Equity by Design soon evolved to capture a larger conversation about the state of practice. What was and wasn't working? What can we do to better to improve the conditions for architects and designers as well as their clients? There are lots of hurdles thro

When we talk about firm culture, our first thoughts lead us to a busy studio full of staff working with dozens of clients. Don't we need a firm full of people before we can have a firm culture? What if we work alone, as many of you do? Do you have a culture? If so, how important is it to our ultimate success as an architect? As you may have guessed, Mark R. LePage has a few ideas on that subject. This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, Mark shares his thoughts on The Sole Practitioner Architecture Firm Culture. Culture is one of those things that sits there and becomes what it becomes if it’s not intentionally thought about and planned. Is your firm culture positive and healthy? Is it doing what it’s supposed to be doing? Is it a negative culture that’s harming your success? Take a look at last week’s episode for more about the importance of scheduling some time to think about your culture and develop your own Foundation of Values. Marica McKeel, guest writer for this week’s En

Architecture Firm Culture Many of us architects are so focused on our business, our design and all the things we have going on that we don't think about culture. We may not even think it's that important to the success of our firm compared to financial management, design, sales or marketing. What if you were told that a positive, healthy culture is critical to the success of any business? When Southwest Airlines' CEO Gary Kelly was asked his thoughts on the importance of culture, he said, I think it's everything. It's more than just critical, it's literally everything for a company . This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, Episode 118, Mark R. LePage discusses what firm culture is and shares some aspects that will build your team’s culture. A firm culture refers to the beliefs and behaviors that affect how your team interacts and how they handle transactions inside and outside the studio. There are many things that make up your firm culture: Interactions: Think about how y

Every new generation of architects hopes that they will make a difference and change society for the better. We have so many new skills, access to new tools, and a driving passion to serve others. This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, Mark R. LePage talks with the National President of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), Danielle Mitchell, about How the Next Generation of Architects will Change the World. Danielle Mitchell, President of American Institute of Architecture Students Starting as Chapter President in her second year at Penn State, elected to North East Quad Director (leading chapters from Virginia to Maine) and eventually being elected as the 59th National President of the AIAS, Danielle Mitchell’s mission is to promote leadership and excellence within architecture. She is working to create a community of architecture students looking to push forward and do more. The role of AIAS is to fill the void in an educational experience by promoting advocacy for what architecture

Presentation Skills for Architects Leadership is about visions and ideas and being able to clearly communicate that knowledge to an audience. This week on the EntreArchitect Podcast, I welcome back futurist and professional speaker David Zach and we talk about How to Successfully Prepare and Present Your Ideas as an Architect. What steps can you take when preparing for a presentation? Design the presentation of information in a way that will meet your audience where they are. Confirm that the technology works beforehand; do a run-through with the audio/visual team! Look at all the angles of what could go wrong and have backups of your presentation and printed documents. Do your due diligence on the audience to whom you're presenting; ask two questions, What gets your people up early in the morning because they're excited?, and, What keeps your people up late at night because they're worried? Know your subject to give yourself flexibility to adjust the presentation to give the same idea fr

Are you an expert on a specific topic or technique? Do you have a passion for a specific cause? Do you seek to influence a group of people? Are you a leader or want to be one for innovation and change? This week on the EntreArchitect Podcast, I will share How to Become a Thought Leader in Architecture. What is a Thought Leader? Jayson Demers, Founder and CEO of AudienceBloom, defines a Thought Leader as an individual who drives innovation and new ideas in a given industry . Thought Leaders advance causes, influence groups of people, drive an audience to your business to better serve your clients, and make an impact by helping others and giving back. So how do you put yourself in a position to become a Thought Leader? Be a leader in a specific subject. You have to have knowledge, expertise, and skill in a certain field you can't fake this! Create a personal brand so people know who you are. Establish a presence on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Periscope, Instagram, Slack Communities, etc.) Blog you

How to Build a Strong Balanced Team in Architecture As leaders, we determine who's on our team and how it will work. Getting this right is the difference between experiencing frustration verses experiencing a thriving team working toward your dreams. This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, I will share The Three Rs of Team Building. Where does building a great team start? It starts with us. We need to find people who complement our strengths and support our weaknesses. Step one: Figure out who are and what we're doing. What are my strengths and weaknesses? Step two: Build a business plan and develop systems. Step three: Build your team. When you're ready to build your team, how will you find the right people? How will you build a team that will get you where you want to go? Here are Mark's Three Rs of Team Building: Roles: You've established a process, and in that there are specific roles that you need to have filled to make that process work. What are the roles you're performi

Leadership for Architects Leadership can be overwhelming; where do we start? How do we grow a team and inspire them to work toward a common vision? Often, fear makes it difficult for us to try something new or take a step in a different direction. We find ourselves stuck in the same place we’ve always been, unable to change or grow into the person or business we want to be. This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, Mark speaks with counselor, facilitator and executive coach Steve Langerud about How to Start, Grow, and Inspire a Team as the Leader of a Small Firm Architecture Studio. Visit our Platform Sponsor FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) Referenced in this Episode You can find Steve at stevelangerud.com, on Twitter @stevelangerud, or connect with him via LinkedIn. The post EA113: How to Start, Grow, and Inspire a Team as the Leader of a Small Firm Architecture Studio [Podcast

How To Sell Architectural Services Throughout my years as an architect and since launching EntreArchitect in 2012, I have discovered that the number one weakness of small firm architects is Sales and the process of selling. We have no sales system or sales pipeline set up. We either don’t know that we should be selling, or we have a fear that we may become that stereotypical salesperson that we have all learned to hate. This week on EntreArchitect Podcast I invited Rochelle Carrington, President/CEO of Sandler Training to talk about a new way of selling. A process built around mutual comfort, which ends with the prospect asking us for the sale. We talked about building a strong sales system for architecture and How to Face Your Fear of Selling as a Small Firm Architect. Visit our Platform Sponsor FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) Referenced in this Episode Secondwind Sandler S

Every week we receive calls from potential clients; people who have come our way through word of mouth, a Google search or in response to our amazing marketing efforts. We answer those calls and we begin a process that will, hopefully, lead the most qualified of the bunch to signing a contract. That process is called our Sales System. But… how many of those calls are qualified to be our clients? How many people do we need to talk to in order to complete the process and sign a contract? How many contracts do we need to sign and how can we predict if we will meet those goals? How do we manage all those different prospects, in all different phases of our process? This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, I will share How to Manage Your Sales Pipeline as a Small Firm Architect. Visit our Platform Sponsors FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect)   A Sales Pipeline for Architects How d

When someone wants one thing and we want another, how do we successfully convince them to go our way? How do we find a solution that works for everyone involved? Negotiation doesn't always come easy to us small firm architects. We are lovers, not fighters. We just want to make beautiful art and live a happy stress-free life. Well, the truth is that we don't need to fight. Like much in business, there are rules for negotiation. Learn the rules and you will be more successful. This week at EntreArchitect Podcast, I will share How to Negotiate as a Small Firm Architect. Visit our Platform Sponsor FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) Photo Credit: Pixabay / JanDix   The post EA110: How to Negotiate as a Small Firm Architect [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects.

Sales… It conjures up images of slippery slick salespeople pushing their unnecessary products on to people who don't even want them. For many of us small firm architects, the idea of high pressure sales tactics and dishonest tricks and techniques makes us squirm and sweat. Well, I have good news. Sales tricks don't work. High pressure will repel your prospective clients and send them into the arms of your competition. There is a better way and many of you small firm architects are already good at it. This week at the EntreArchitect Podcast, I will share 5 Steps to Successful Sales for Small Firm Architects. Visit our Platform Sponsors FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) Photo Credit: Shutterstock / holbox   The post EA109: 5 Steps to Successful Sales for Small Firm Architects [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects.

With a twisted sense of pride, too many architects today accept the small firm stereotype of starving artist . Seeds planted in architecture school bloom into a full-on virus as professionals launch their own firms and find their way to small business. New firms are launched every day without proper planning, without an understanding of basic business fundamentals and often with an eager acceptance that life as an architect will be a difficult struggle. Even my choice of Architect as a career was based on my naive understanding of the profession. At the age of 10, I chose architecture for my career path because, Artists don't make enough money. Architecture is a profession like law and medicine. Architects are rich. As I entered architecture school, it happened too quickly. Within days of starting first-year studio, I began to hear the stories. Architecture is not about the money. We change the world through our art. You must love the art, because you will never make enough money as an architect. Do

It takes time and effort to learn what we need to know to be successful. As EntreArchitects, we need to build better businesses. Focusing on our finances must be a priority. Understanding how to prepare, and why to review, the financial reports for our business will make everything else we do easier. It will allow us to plan and predict and find the work we want. This week at the EntreArchitect Podcast, I will talk about Financial Intelligence for Small Firm Architects. Visit our Platform Sponsors FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) The Architecture Business Plan Competition Take your firm to greater success with a plan. It's free to enter and grand prize is $10,000. Learn more and register at ArchBusinessPlan.com Referenced in this Episode Basic Financial Statements for Small Firm Architects (blog) The Architect’s Guide to Small Firm Management: Making Chaos Work for Your

Are you an award wining architect? Would you like to promote your firm through the recognition of your design excellence? Design awards are a great way to differentiate your firm from others. This week at the EntreArchitect Podcast, I am speaking with two residential architects about a new design awards program that is specifically created to help you earn the recognition you deserve. We’ll share how to use design awards to promote your architecture firm. Visit our Platform Sponsors FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) The Architecture Business Plan Competition Take your firm to greater success with a plan. It's free to enter and grand prize is $10,000. Learn more and register at ArchBusinessPlan.com Referenced in This Episode ArCH: Architects Creating Homes ArCHdes Design Awards Program EntreArchitect Podcast Episode 33: Architects Crating Homes with Rand Soellner EntreArc

Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed your holiday and have started your new year with enthusiasm, determination and focus. It's going to be a great 2016. I'm sure you are noticing a few changes around here. We've been very hard at work during the year-end break. Today on the EntreArchitect Podcast, I am going to share what we've been doing here at EntreArchitect and why you should join the all-new EntreArchitect Academy. Learn more about EntreArchitect Academy Photo Credit: Shutterstock / Studio_G   The post EA105: The All-New EntreArchitect Academy [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects.