Architect and Entrepreneur: A Field Guide: Building, Branding, and Marketing Your Startup Design Business

Part narrative, part business book, Architect and Entrepreneur is filled with contemporary, relevant, fresh tips and advice from a seasoned professional architect building a new business. The guide advocates novel strategies and tools that merge entrepreneurship with the practices of architecture and interior design.

The problem:

Embarking on a new business venture is intimidating. You have questions, but many of the resources available to help entrepreneur architects and interior designers start their design businesses lack timeliness and relevance. Most are geared toward building colossal firms like SOM and Gensler using outdated methods and old business models.

If you're an individual or small team contemplating starting a design business, this is your field guide, crafted to inspire action.

The solution:

Using the lean start-up methodology to create a minimum viable product, the handbook encourages successive small wins that support a broader vision, enabling one to think big, start small, and learn fast.

It's a unique take on design practice viewed through the lens of entrepreneurship and is designed to answer the questions all new business owners face, from the rote to the existential.

Questions about:

Start-up costs Business models (old and new) Marriage of business and design Mind-set Branding and naming (exercises and ideas) Internet marketing strategies Passive income ideas Setting your fee Taxes Standard operating procedures (SOPs) Securing the work Client relations Software Billing rates Contracts Building a business isn't a singular act; it's a series of small steps. Using the outline found in Architect and Entrepreneur , you can start today. The chapters are organized to guide you from idea to action. Rather than write a business plan, you'll be challenged to craft a brand, and you'll sell it using new technologies.