Episode Details

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 twelve critical categories:

1. Finance // Are your books in order? The numbers are how we make it all work financially. How do you manage your money? How do you put together your financial reports? Should you use debt to grow or not?
2. Business Development (Sales) // If you don't have sales, you don't have business, you don't have an architecture firm. Are you selling your services?
3. Leadership // Are you a strong leader? How can you become a small leader? Do you know how to build strong teams? Are you familiar with the roles, responsibilities, and results expected in your firm?
4. Culture // Have you defined what your firm’s culture looks like? Are you intentionally developing your firm culture?
5. Client Fulfillment // How do you manage the expectations of your clients? How do you develop systems that help you fulfill clients’ needs? How can you develop strong project management skills? Are you using the EntreArchitect Hybrid Proposal?
6. Technology // What design software are you using? Are you using the best equipment and software that you can afford to make you into the most productive in what you do? Is your technology relevant and are you looking to the future technologies that architects will be using?
7. Business Management // Who are the people in our firm and how are they working? What are the processes that those people are working with? What are the products and services that we’re creating and serving with? Do you have an interview process, a hiring process, a conflict/resolution process, a firing process? Are they documented?
8. Personal Development // Are you learning and exploring to build a better you? What are you doing on a daily basis to care for yourself mentally and physically to make sure that you stay strong and healthy? Are you sharing what you know with others?
9. Marketing // What strategies and systems of marketing do you have in place now? What types of marketing should you be developing? Are you connected through social networks? Is your website telling your story in a captivating way? Is it a way for you to connect further?
10.  Life // How do you integrate your firm with your personal life? Are you learning the skills of scheduling and prioritizing to live a better, more integrated life?
11. Community // How can you build a business that does good for others while building a business that does well?
12. Planning // Do you take time to look back at what you’ve been doin