Architect and Entrepreneur: A Field Guide to Building, Branding, and Marketing Your Startup Design Business
Eric Reinholdt
Part narrative, part business book; Architect + 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 practice 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 business 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 Most are geared toward building colossal firms like SOM and Gensler using outdated methods and old business models.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 startup 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:
- Startup costs
- Business models (old and new)
- Marriage of business and design
- Mindset
- Branding & 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 + 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. Follow the guide sequentially and you’ll have both the tools and a profitable small business.
The Author
Award-winning architect, Eric Reinholdt has built his design practice, 30X40 Design Workshop using the strategies outlined in the book. He has successfully transitioned from an employee to architect entrepreneur and continues to refine his brand message, help other architects build their independent practice and serve his clients all from a Longhouse he designed for his family on Mount Desert Island in Maine.