3 ms·
Architects have a subtly different but related problem. They bill at the end of the month, and the standard, as everywhere else, is to send Net 30 invoices. So
by swombat 17y ago
Architects have a subtly different but related problem.
They bill at the end of the month, and the standard, as everywhere else, is to send Net 30 invoices. So it can be 30 days before the client is officially "late", by which time they've done 2 months of free work. In these uncertain economic times, a lot of clients are actually going bust without making a lot of noise, so architects end up exposed to losing 2 months' worth of fees.
There's an even bigger "free work" problem for them, though: a lot of their work is speculative - responses to "competitions" which other architects are applying for too. Whoever wins the competition does get the job, usually, but that still leaves out a bunch of people who worked for free to submit designs for that competition (and often elements of their submissions might make it into the final design, based on client requests, after the competition is lost).
Hard times to be an architect...
- edw519 17y agoWriting a proposal isn't free work, it's marketing expense. The other things you mention are just the things you have to put up with in a service business. Sure you can lose a bid and have someone else implement your idea. It's the nature of a service business to have a customer into you for 2 months. I have found that the best way around this is insisting on different terms. If I know a customer may be having "issues", I have insisted on Net 7. They always object, but give in if they can handle it. If they won't give in, I figure that I've just sidestepped a big potential headache. You need to fire your bad customers as early as possible. I sympathize with your industry. It sure is a tough time to be an architect. Best wishes.
- swombat 17y agoI'm not an architect, actually, I just run a service/product for them (http://www.woobius.com http://www.woobius.com), and I've learned a few things about their industry those last few years... I agree with your point about competitions vs proposals, btw - that doesn't make it nice though!
- dgallagher 17y agoI like your website. Clean with good use of whitespace. Something a lot of current web startups are lacking in. :)