Navigating Home Design Costs with Michael Sweebe | 124
Fixing Budget Misalignment in Residential Projects.
A conversation with Michael Sweebe on Build Cost Estimation. Host Jon Clayton interviews residential architect Michael Sweebe of Sweebe Architecture about the common problem of homeowners’ design goals outpacing their budgets and the lack of early tools to define scope and estimate costs. Mike shares how his childhood experience in an unsuitable apartment shaped his focus on homes as expressions of memory, identity, and aspiration, and how 20 years in commercial practice led him to residential work. He explains how a COVID-era, space-by-space cost spreadsheet helped him give live ballpark project costs, preventing clients from spending money on drawings they couldn’t afford to build. That approach evolved into Scopify, a free homeowner app (beta) that estimates “soup to nuts” build costs by U.S. postal code and delivers pre-qualified leads to architects, reducing unbillable qualification time.
Today’s Guest
Michael Sweebe is a practicing architect & the founder of Sweebe Architecture. Mike’s practice specialises in residential architecture & interior design – designing homes that bring families closer together. Mike is also the founder of Scopify – a new app helping homeowners to estimate & control their build costs from the outset & to connect them with the best service providers.
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Episode Highlights
00:00 Introduction
01:01 Meet Michael Sweebe
01:36 What We Will Cover
02:08 A Childhood Home Mismatch
03:00 Drawing Plans At Age Nine
04:19 Finding Purpose Early
05:41 From Uni To Real Practice
06:40 Why Homeowners Matter More
08:42 Residential Brand Mindset
09:44 Residential Project Pitfalls
10:23 No Tools For Early Costing
12:16 Chicken and Egg Problem
13:14 Building Without Architectural Guidance
14:46 COVID Spreadsheet Solution
15:47 Space By Space Estimating
16:47 Why Homeowners Think In Rooms
18:15 Live Pricing Saves Projects
20:24 Stop Gatekeeping Cost Info
21:51 Limits Of One To One Help
22:29 Sales Funnel Sparks Scopify
24:52 Scaling Impact Nationwide
26:47 Scopify Beta Overview
27:28 Homeowner Experience And Pricing
28:12 Postal Code Cost Algorithm
29:15 40 40 20 cost rule
30:00 Qualified Leads For Architects
30:54 Beta Results And Conversions
34:05 Homeowners Know 85 Percent Of What They Want
34:54 How To Try Scopify
35:23 Key Takeaway
36:16 Must Have Business Resource
39:11 Where To Find Michael Sweebe
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Key Takeaways
Help homeowners understand costs before they hire anyone.
If you work in architecture or home design, one of the biggest problems you will see is that homeowners have no idea what things cost. When they find out late in the process, it can kill the whole project. You can save everyone a lot of time and money by giving people a rough idea of costs right at the start — before they pay for drawings or sign any contracts.
Think about spaces the way the people living in them do.
When you are working with homeowners, remember that their home is about more than just building materials and square footage. It is about who they are, what they care about, and what kind of life they want to live. If you keep that in mind, you will do better work and build stronger relationships with your clients.
Technology can help you reach more people and save time.
If you are a small practice, you can only help so many clients on your own. But if you use the right tools — like an app that lets homeowners self-qualify before they even speak to you — you can spend your time with people who are actually ready to go ahead. That means less unpaid time in meetings that go nowhere, and more clients who are a good fit for your work.
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00:00 - Introduction
01:01 - Meet Michael Sweebe
01:36 - What We Will Cover
02:08 - A Childhood Home Mismatch
03:00 - Drawing Plans At Age Nine
04:19 - Finding Purpose Early
05:41 - From Uni To Real Practice
06:40 - Why Homeowners Matter More
08:42 - Residential Brand Mindset
09:44 - Residential Project Pitfalls
10:23 - No Tools For Early Costing
12:16 - Chicken and Egg Problem
13:14 - Building Without Architectural Guidance
14:46 - COVID Spreadsheet Solution
15:47 - Space By Space Estimating
16:47 - Why Homeowners Think In Rooms
18:15 - Live Pricing Saves Projects
20:57 - Stop Gatekeeping Cost Info
22:24 - Limits Of One To One Help
23:02 - Sales Funnel Sparks Scopify
25:25 - Scaling Impact Nationwide
27:20 - Scopify Beta Overview
28:01 - Homeowner Experience And Pricing
28:45 - Postal Code Cost Algorithm
29:48 - 40 40 20 cost rule
30:33 - Qualified Leads For Architects
31:27 - Beta Results And Conversions
34:38 - Homeowners Know 85 Percent Of What They Want
35:27 - How To Try Scopify
35:56 - Key Takeaway
36:49 - Must Have Business Resource
39:44 - Where To Find Michael Sweebe
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Have you ever worked with a homeowner whose build went over budget or
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designed a great space that ultimately your client couldn't afford to build?
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A misalignment between your client's design aspirations and their budget
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is a really common problem, but the good news is it's fixable.
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In this episode, you'll hear about how our guest's own clients struggled
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with build costs, our guest's solution to help his clients better understand
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building costs
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, and hear about a new cost estimation app for both homeowners and specifiers.
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And stick around to the end where our guest shares a business
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resource he can't live without.
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Welcome to Architecture Business Club, the show that helps you build
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a better business in architecture so you can enjoy more freedom,
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flexibility, and fulfillment.
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I'm your host, Jon Clayton, and if you're joining us for the first time,
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don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you never miss another episode.
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We're joined by Michael Sweby, a practicing architect and the
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founder of Sweby Architecture.
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Mike's practice specialize in residential architecture and
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interior design, designing homes that bring families closer together.
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Mike is also the founder of Scopify, a new app helping homeowners to
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estimate and control their build costs from the outset and to connect
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them with the best service providers.
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To learn more about Scopify, head to Scopifyapp.com or
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click the link in the comments.
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We are going to talk about build cost estimation, but we're also
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gonna hear a bit about, um, your story, so what inspired you with
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your career in architecture, so a bit about your background as well.
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So you grew up in a home that it just wasn't quite right
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architecturally, so to speak.
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Could
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you tell us a bit about that and how that early experience shaped
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the way that you think about spaces?
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Sure.
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So, um, to me, spaces are really about memory, identity, and aspiration
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of the occupant of the space.
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Um, and as much as a mirror can reflect those aspects, that to
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me is what architecture is about.
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We know that children are impressionable, right?
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Um, and yes, my, my parents were divorced when I was nine years old,
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and my mom and I moved, uh, from our family home into an, an apartment
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that was, mm, kinda makeshift.
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Um, it was really kind of inappropriate for residential living,
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uh, and code-wise, a bit illegal.
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So regarding spaces that serve memory, identity, and aspiration, there was a
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ton of work to do in this apartment.
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Um, and at nine years old, the tool I sort of picked up to help my mom
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along, um, although I had, you know, no means to do so, um, was architecture.
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That's, that's how my architecture interest started, by looking at the
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spaces of this apartment, looking what my mom needed, and trying to basically
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just drawing floor plan after floor plan of how to fix our situation,
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You know, and I, of course, I had friends that lived in normal houses.
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Um, I would go over there and play, nine years old, and, um, I was
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really-- ad-admired their spaces and so borrowed from homes, trying to
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correct our, our home, our apartment.
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Drawing through the means of architecture, that was really what I was addressing.
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So our identity as a family, our aspirations could be supported
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by the spaces that we occupied.
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That's really interesting, and, um, very early as well to, to, to find something,
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um, that's ultimately been your, your career path and to draw inspiration
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from your, your situation at home.
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That's a, a really interesting path into it
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Yeah, it's a little bit odd for someone so young to say, "I'm gonna be an
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architect when I grow up." Um, it happens for some people, I think mostly not.
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Um, but I think it was situational and, um, my mom was an art teacher,
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so I had the sort of design influence anyway, um, genetically.
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It just made a lot of sense that this was, this was my purpose
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That's so cool.
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Uh, that, that you found something so early as well when, um, I mean, a lot of
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us, um, are still struggling, um, e- even as adults to, to kind of find our purpose.
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So that you were able to find something, um, to draw inspiration from a situation
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w- with the, the apartment that maybe could have been seen negatively, that
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you've managed to draw something really positive from it, and it's inspired,
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you know, they've been a catalyst for your whole career, essentially.
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Yeah, it's phenomenal in a way and very lucky at least, yes
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Absolutely.
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Now, you, you didn't start out in architecture.
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You, you didn't immediately start out with your own firm.
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You did work for, um, nearly 20 years working for other architectural firms.
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What was that experience like, and how did that lead to you eventually
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starting your own practice?
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Sure.
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So, you know, graduating uni- university, I was coming from, you
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know, the cleverest design wins, right?
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It's v- really competitive.
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Um, you know, success was framed around the uniqueness
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of your output as a designer.
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And, you know, every firm I worked in before going on my own was mainly
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focused on commercial projects.
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And my experience with commercial work, um, those spaces have little to do with
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memory, identity, and aspiration of the individual occupant, and more so
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to do with brand, vision, mission of a business, all positive things as well.
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But I, I mostly, over 20 years, as you stated, I came to realise most
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commercial project owners did not garner much personal meaning in their
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projects, not as much as homeowners did.
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And I always tell my prospective clients, all homeowners now for the
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past 13 years, uh, "If your project means a lot to you, it means a lot to
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me, and I have reason to be working with you." Because I'm not really
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interested in having the cleverest design.
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Some of my professors said, you know, everything's already been
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designed in a way, so it's just your reinterpretation of what's already there.
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So as far as the object, um, I have less and less interest in that and
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more and more interest in the subject- subjective matter of the homeowner.
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it somewhat mirrors my own experience, my own, um, earlier career working in,
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in practices and, um, a, a lot of the work was commercial projects, and I
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would occasionally get the opportunity to work on small residential design
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projects, and then often there'd be, um, friends and family that would
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ask that, you know, they might have been planning a renovation of some
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kind, they would ask for help with it.
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Um, that eventually did lend, uh, led to me taking a similar path to you and
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starting my own practice because I did find that, that similar experience that,
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um, when it was your own home, you're so much more invested in the project.
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It, it matters so much more to you personally, and, um, directly working
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with, um, th- them as the, as your client when they are ultimately gonna
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be the end user of that space as well.
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It's not just that you're designing it for a client that's, um, you
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know, the owner of a commercial business or office or something.
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I don't know, a medical practice.
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They're not necessarily going to be the actual people that
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are occupying that building.
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Um, and that's very different with residential architecture because you
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are usually, you are working directly with the end users of that space,
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and it does mean an awful lot to them
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Yeah, exactly.
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And, and to flip it a little bit, it's-- I tell my clients, you know,
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identity, what your identity is casted upon your spaces, that is kind
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of the homeowner's brand as well.
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So commercial brand, residential brand, we're still kind of designing to the same.
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I just think homeowners care more about their brand than
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businesses care about their brand.
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You know, I have my own business.
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I have a-- It's branded.
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Um, do I care about that more than my family's brand?
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No, I don't.
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So, but yeah, it's-- And the target, my target client, um, is
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really the moms out there that are trying to provide for their family.
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So it-- And, and I didn't realise this until recently, that it, it
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sort of came full circle how I was trying to help my mom as a child,
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now I get to help other moms for, you know, for real, um, in my practice.
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So it's, it's, it's just more the interest in residential and what
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it means to the occupants that really drives what I'm doing here.
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So you've had your own practice now for, for over a decade, and, you know, I'd
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love to say that everything is smooth sailing working with residential clients.
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Uh, you know, we know it isn't, but, you know, there's, any architectural
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project has its own challenges, and there's some particular challenges
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particularly for residential projects.
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Um, there were some common themes, though, with things that, um, would
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potentially go wrong with, with these projects before they even got
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started, like common problems that cropped up in the early stages.
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Could we talk a bit about that?
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Sure.
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So like the challenges my mom and I faced in that apartment in 1980,
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homeowners do not have tools available to outline their needs or their-- or
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estimate their construction costs.
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That's really the biggest hurdle, and that's before I even talk
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with them as an architect.
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They, they don't have a way to set themselves up to
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be prepared for a project.
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and because of that, they, they go to architects or builders looking
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for them to define what their project should be and what it should cost.
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And what I've experienced in my practice, certainly three out of four times, that
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doesn't end well for the homeowner.
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Uh, generally resulting in loss of tens of thousands of dollars downstream at
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the time when a contractor's estimate blew away the, the homeowner's budget
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or what they thought the budget was.
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Um, and unfortunately, that kills a lot of projects.
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So there's quite a burn that homeowners experience through a typical
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project process where they don't know what the project is exactly.
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Uh, they don't know what it's going to cost.
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They hire architects to do drawings, and drawings really defer pricing to
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the contractor after their drawings are done, after they've collected their fee.
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Um, and at the moment of the bid process, it, it's just sticker shock
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left and right for homeowners, and that's the biggest challenge I see with any
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project really for the past 30 years.
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Oh, that's so relatable, Mike.
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Um, yeah, I, I've seen this time and time again.
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It is a real problem.
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It really is.
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Um, and yeah, it, it is a bit chicken and egg, uh, traditionally because,
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uh, homeowners, right, you say they, they don't really know, often don't
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really know what is the best thing for them in terms of how they could adapt
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or, or extend or renovate their home to, to meet their family needs better.
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Um, and they do over-rely then on, you know, they'll commit to some drawings
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maybe, depending on who they're getting the support from to do that.
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They might not actually get the, the right guidance.
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You know, they could just go to somebody that just draws something based on what
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they've asked for, whether it's the right solution or not, whether they could afford
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it or not, and, um, yeah, then could find out several months down the line after
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investing a lot of money, a lot of time to find that they can't afford to build it
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That's exactly right.
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And worse is if, you know, in the United States, actually South and
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West United States mainly, projects can proceed without an architect.
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They can go directly to builders.
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And builders are good at building, um, but as far as solving the challenges
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that homeowners face, they're just building what they built last, last
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month and recycling that, and also recycling the cost of that, which might
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be completely, usually is completely inappropriate for their new client.
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you know, I'm, I'm interested mainly in how architects can facilitate preparing
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homeowners, contractors need that as well.
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Um, and there are a lot of tools out there that are contractor-facing
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that help, um, you know, take estimates off of square footages.
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But if you don't have s- if a homeowner doesn't have anything drawn yet,
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what are they pricing literally?
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Um, so it's, it is a, a lot about chicken before, uh, chicken and egg, h- horse
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before cart in a way, um, that it's just, it's quite chaotic, the whole
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process, and it has been for decades.
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Hmm.
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I'd, I'd love to say that the situation was better in the UK.
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I- it's much the same, to be honest, Mike.
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Yeah.
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It's, um, i- it's very, very similar.
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There's a lot of parallels.
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Um, so, uh, yeah, it, it's a bit of a mess over here too.
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talking though about solutions that during COVID, um, you built a spreadsheet,
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didn't you, to help homeowners to better understand build costs.
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During COVID, uh, when access to, you know, information, a-access to pricing,
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access to contractors, being able to do a project was severely inhibited,
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the spreadsheet really came about as a tool to help fix my, my practice.
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And so it was, it was really kind of an inward-looking solution hunt, um,
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to be able to move projects forward.
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And what the homeowners needed, even more so during COVID than
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prior, although they needed it prior, um, was what do things cost?
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Because, you know, supply chain and price spiking, uh, was just making
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projects even more mysterious as far as how to, how to budget for one.
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So the spreadsheet was really a way for me to kind of do what the contractors were
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doing, is looking at past projects that were priced by contractors and applying
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that pricing algorithm to a spreadsheet.
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So during a consultation when I was talking with a homeowner about
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what they wanted to do, they named things like, "Oh, we need to, we
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need to gut and redo our kitchen.
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We need a new master bathroom, primary suite." Um, I was able to
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just capture inventory that, and based on previous projects I did
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with contractors, know what this kitchen gut and redo is going to cost.
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So I-- the spreadsheet was really breaking out space by space, um,
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what a typical rebuild, renovation, or an addition, um, will cost,
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but on the space by space, factor.
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Contractors, they price materials, so, and it, and they price by trade and,
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as far as I know, and they still do.
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Um, anytime a homeowner sees an estimate, um, it's, it's
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generally undecipherable to them.
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Like, "Well, this is a really expensive project.
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What if we reduce the steel price?" They don't know how to say, "Well,
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how do we reduce the steel price?"
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Homeowners respond better to spaces.
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Like, "If we add a, a half bath, what is that going to cost? Oh, well, that pushes
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our project over what we wanted to pay, so let's take the half bath out." And
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you don't have to worry about materials.
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it r- it really helped, it, it, you know, keep my pro- my business
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moving along, being able to consult.
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But I started, you know, I started to see, well, this is really helping, uh,
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homeowners understand the information that they need to be equipped with
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before they even talk to an architect.
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And the spreadsheet, although it was Under my control, I was filling it out,
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um, live on a consultation, and the consultations were virtual, so I was able
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to use my computer, um, and software, which was a little bit convenient.
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Um, that's one of the benefits of, of, of COVID, um, was to be able to work
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remotely and have all my files at hand.
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So, um, it, it just-- it started to clarify the problems
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that we had before COVID.
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Um, and, response from the consultees, the homeowners, because
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I was giving them a price for their whole project pretty much live.
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Um, and most of the time it was two or three times, certainly during
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COVID, three and four times more than they thought it was going to cost.
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And, um, that really pumped the brakes on their project for them before they
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signed a contract, before they paid for retainers, before they had an
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architect or me, um, produce drawings.
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So it became very clear that it was a, a time saver and a risk saver.
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And so a lot of the-- good response from the, from the consultees.
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They said, "Wow, if this is what it's going to cost, I can't do this
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project. Thank you for doing this for us." Um, it just, it really prepared
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them for, um, avoiding danger.
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I think that's the thing that we sometimes can forget, that when we are, you know,
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whilst we might not necessarily be in our day-to-day pricing up buildings,
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you know, like, like doing bill of quantities and things like that, but
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we have, um, experience with this, and we have an inkling as to what
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things cost, you know, as part of our day-to-day work as, you know, building
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professionals, building designers.
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Um, but homeowners don't have the benefit of that experience.
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Um, I remember having a conversation with a past client, um, just a, a small
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project they needed some advice on.
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They had absolutely no clue about building cost.
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They were like, "You know, honestly, we, we don't know.
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We don't know if a bathroom refit is gonna cost, like, 500 or 5,000 or 20,000.
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We have got absolutely zero idea what it's gonna cost." Um, so it is really hard if
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you, if it's not something you're familiar with, you've not done a project before.
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So if you're a first-time renovator, so difficult to get
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that understanding of cost.
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Yeah.
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And the disservice that sometimes happens is just the eye-rolling from
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the architect and certainly the builder that, "Oh, this person doesn't know what
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they're getting into, so let me sort of take over the whole process and keep
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the price co-covert until much later when we present it." it's separating,
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you know, both sides of the market, um, detrimentally, and it doesn't help the
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homeowner at all to not educate them.
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You know, give them the chance.
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It's not their fault they don't know this stuff.
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Um, and so the profession needs to step up and say, "Hey, let's prepare
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these homeowners a lot better, um, so there aren't arguments." It's not
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that they're dumb and we're smart, it's we're prepared and they're not.
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Um, and that needs to be changed.
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So this approach, it, it worked really well.
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It was really helpful.
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Um, you could obviously see the benefit that these, uh, clients were getting from
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this, um, by helping to educate them about what things cost, um, as early as possible
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in the process so that you can provide the right level of service for them
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really, and to provide designs, um, that are going to be buildable, that are gonna
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help meet their needs, but also that's more aligned to more realistic budget.
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uh, you know, there's only so much you can do, um, only so many households that
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you can help if you're just doing that on a one-by-one basis with your own clients.
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Um, so you do realise that there are some limitations there to how many people you
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could help with this particular problem.
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Was there anything in particular that led to that kind of realisation
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point about, you know, there's only so many people that I can help here?
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Could we talk a little bit about that?
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Was there a specific point or time where you realised that, "I, I maybe
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need to do something differently," and, and how that then led to Scopify?
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Sure.
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So actually on, um, Architecture Business Club, episode 111, if I can,
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if I can pitch that, um, highlight that.
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You spoke with Brian McCartney, and Brian McCartney is a wizard for
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all things SEO and AI and how it helps, um, architecture firms, small
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architecture firms in particular.
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So Brian and I wor- worked, um, started working together back
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in 2022, and initially he was, um, going to be SEO consultant.
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So we started that engagement, and he also revamped my website.
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But one of the key, um, instruments that Brian suggests that I deploy on my website
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is really a, you need a funnel, some sort of a marketing and sales funnel.
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Yeah, people can come to your website and they can look at your portfolio,
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but we can't, as architects, we can't stop there, um, because that's
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really just people are shopping.
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Um, so we really need a magnet to pull them into, um, the sales, a
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sales funnel that ultimately lands on signing a contract with you.
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He introduced basically a, a simple, uh, form, a contact form, and it
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asked very basic questions like, "Where do you live?" And, "What do
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you wanna do with your project?"
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And not much more than that.
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Um, so it was, it was very gentle.
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Um, at the same time, I was developing the spreadsheet we spoke about, and
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Brian saw, well, the, y- you know, you're asking a lot of really granular
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questions on your spreadsheet and, you know, that helps you and your, your stock
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of consultations that you're acquiring.
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Um, and there's a certain rate based on my service area, and
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my service area's pretty small.
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It's really Essex County, New Jersey, and a few of the surrounding, um,
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counties, but mainly Essex County.
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It'll bring a number of leads.
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It'll translate into a number of consultations and translate into
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a number of conversions, client conversions, and that, you know,
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that's good for my business.
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and I'd sort of figured, look, if I'm going to try to retire and as
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an architect or as, as an American these days, it's like retirement
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is sort of becoming out of reach.
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But for hypothetical, if I do retire at 65, how many more
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families can I help in my area?
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And I figured probably 120.
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And I started to see the value of the spreadsheet and Brian's structuring
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of lead capture and realized, hey, you know, my family lives in Ohio, and I
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have friends all over the country, and there are a lot of homeowners that have
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the same-- are in the same situation that homeowners in New Jersey are.
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Um, they don't know about projects.
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They don't know what things cost.
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And so Brian said, "Hey, I b- you know, I'm in a couple of groups,
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architect groups, and I know probably 40,000 architects that would love this
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spreadsheet. Have you thought about selling it?" Um, and I sort of had to
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wrap my mind around that for a, a while.
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Um, but ultimately it led to, "Hey, you know what?
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I can help a lot of homeowners across the country if I help architects do
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the qualification work that will convert into clients more." Um, so
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it's really kind of sharing what's working for me with other architects,
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and by that way, I can help thousands of homeowners rather than just 120.
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Hmm.
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Yeah, that, that makes total sense.
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So you are, you're helping the other architects, the other service providers,
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giving them the tools to be able to help homeowners in their local areas and
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to be able to kind of help solve this problem on a, you know, nationwide scale.
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Um, Scopify is in beta right now, isn't it, Mike?
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What-- Could we dig a little bit more into what it does and, and who it's for again?
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So, you know, Scopify is in beta, as you said.
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Um, and it really-- it serves a two-sided market, um, homeowners and architects.
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And, you know, what the s- what the spreadsheet doesn't do is
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it's, you know, user input, user experience, it's all about me.
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So it, it's-- I wasn't apt to sell that straight to architects
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because how are they gonna use this?
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It's sort of hermetic.
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Um, but so Scopify tries to make it more user-friendly,
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both, both sides of the market.
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Um, homeowners use it for free, um, which I like to think reduces
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friction that they experience.
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Look, they're gonna be spending a lot of money once they hire an
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architect, once they hire a contractor.
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I don't wanna nickel-and-dime them at the beginning when
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the project is most delicate.
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Um, I used to s- uh, charge for consultations.
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Scopify is really taking over that consultation process.
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Um, and so for homeowners, I want them to benefit of it being
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automated, so no charge to them.
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And through Scopify, homeowners have opportunity then to self-qualify.
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They have opportunity to outline all the improvements they need.
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Um, and Scopify returns what each line item improvement will cost
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to build in the homeowner's postal code anywhere in the United States.
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So we have an algorithm, um, that we created.
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It's loosely based on RSMeans.
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I don't know if you have RSMeans in UK.
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But it's been paired with, um, some research being done at the University
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of New Mexico, um, to get, um, really granular on cost indexes per postal code.
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Um, and there are 30,000 postal codes in America.
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So that took a, a while to build.
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Um, but that's the first question I get from architects.
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"You work in New Jersey.
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Your pricing worked for New Jersey?" And it does.
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Um, but it does work for every postal code in America, um, 'cause we've done the
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calibration based on construction costs.
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Um, and it's really-- So the construction cost that Scopify yields
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for homeowners is really soup to nuts.
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It's the end-of-the-project cost.
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Um, and it's based on what I call the 40/40/20 rule, which is for total
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construction cost, end-of-day project, uh, 40% is materials, which includes
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architectural building materials as well as interior finishes, everything that
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you would need to buy to do your project.
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Um, and 40% labor costs.
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And really, materials across the United States, relatively the same cost.
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It's the labor that swings the cost greatly.
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Um, so 40% Uh, labor and then 20% is average, uh, general conditions, uh,
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for the-- which the contractor charges.
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Um, on the architect side, Scopify delivers basically qualified leads
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into the architect's conference room.
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That's the value prop that we're pitching to, uh, architects.
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And currently, architects, when they do the qualification process themselves,
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they spend an average of $7,500 of unbillable time, um, qualifying
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homeowners themselves in a consultation.
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Um, but whereas, you know, on monthly subscription, architects
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essentially outsource the lead qualification process to Scopify.
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Um, and Scopify qualifies homeowners prior to entering the
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consultation with the architects.
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So it's, it's basically they're doing the architect's homework for them.
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Um, and actually starting, starting last October, in my service area
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of Essex County, I've been using the beta as my only marketing
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and sales funnel for my firm.
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And, uh, quarterly traction, um, is proving positive.
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Last quarter of '25, first quarter of '26, I had an average each quarter of
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about 50 users, um, a third of them landing in a consultation, um, which
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means two-thirds self-vetted out.
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Um, whether they were tire kickers or they weren't ready for the
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cost, um, they did it themselves.
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I didn't have to sit in a conference room, spend an hour or three hours showing them
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that they're not ready for their project.
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So 50 users, a third in consultations, and a third of them, a third of
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consultations converted into new clients.
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Um, and, um, fees were pretty good for that.
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So it's, it's a work-- it's a, it's a working model for me.
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Um, I do have beta testers, about 10 of them right now across the country,
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giving it a try for their business.
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Um, it's a lot of work to get that the ad campaign rolled out, but
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that's what I'm doing this week.
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That's the pace I wanna hit.
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Um, it's basically one new client, uh, per month for my practice, and as a
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small firm, that, that works for me.
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Sounds really good.
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So, um, we've got something really useful and helpful for homeowners
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that they don't have to pay for, so it's a really easy opt-in.
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It's an easy yes for them to register, start using the app to self-qualify
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themselves as to whether they can, um, whether they're comfortable with what
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the build costs are likely to be or not.
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So they can do that themselves, and then it means that as the registered architect
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that is registered on the app, that you can then see, um, and spend time, uh,
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doing consultations with the customers that can afford or are comfortable to
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go ahead with the budget figures that's come through the app, um, rather than
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wasting time on those unqualified leads.
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And as you mentioned, it can be hugely costly to practices that if you are
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dealing with, um, tire kickers or customers that really don't have the
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budget to be able to step forward, uh, to proceed with it at all.
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Um, and that can be difficult to know unless you're doing
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those consultations each time.
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Um, so yeah, huge time saver.
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And as you say that you've got this working, um, you know, consistent
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conversion rate over the last few months, it seems to be working well.
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And absolutely, to g- you know, to go back to that $7,500 per qualification doing--
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going at it the old way, those roughly 10 consultations I had during the last two
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quarters, um, that didn't convert into new clients would've resulted in $75,000
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of lost, you know, unbillable time.
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Um, s- so I like to-- I ex- I'm experiencing firsthand that Scopify
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is preventing that loss to me.
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A lot of homeowners say, "You know, I don't know what I want." Um, I
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find that a lie every single time.
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It's-- I, I always say, you know, 85%, uh, of knowledge is 100% awesome.
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And every client I've ever sat with, they do know pretty much 85% of
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what they want their project to be.
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It's that additional 15% that I, the architect, you know, push, push over
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the cliff or over the apex, right?
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To, to bring something novel to them, um, to, to solve the, the project for them.
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But homeowners do know, and, um, Scopify is not really difficult to fill out.
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Um, it's this really space count: What do you want?
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What do you need to change?
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And, um, homeowners do a good job of getting close to that.
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So if, you know, if a homeowner or an architect, you know, listening
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wants to actually give it a test spin, um, they can go to, URL.
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Um, for homeowners, it's beta.scopifyapp, all one word, .com.
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And for architects, it's os.scopifyapp.com.
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Um, two sides of the market, two URLs.
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And, um, yeah, they can see how it works for them.
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So what would be the, the main thing that you'd like everyone to take
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away from our conversation today?
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You can stop the, the bleeding of money.
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Um, homeowners can, architects can.
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Protecting or, or gatekeeping information costs really is not the way to do that.
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Um, just everything out on the table from day one before
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you're hired as an architect.
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Just talk with the homeowner, make sure they understand what they wanna do, um,
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and make sure they understand the costs.
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And Scopify can assist that, um, much more than you-- architects are willing to
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spend, um, on unbillable conference time.
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Yeah.
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Well, that's it.
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Why, why spend all those hours on it when there is a tool
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that can help do it for you?
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I've got a question for you that I'd like to just add before we finish up.
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Um, what is one resource that you use in your business that
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you couldn't live without?
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So this could be a website, an app, um, a gadget, a book, a podcast.
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And I'm gonna s- I'm gonna actually make this slightly more difficult
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for you, Mike, to say not Scopify.
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Is there something else?
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Uh, 'cause that might be the obvious answer, but is there something
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else that you use that you could share with the l- the audience?
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Homeowners use Scopify before they get to me.
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We meet, we review that outline.
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Um, but ultimately, I need to get to their house or their property
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to get my eyes on the spaces.
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Um, if it's an empty lot, you know, just to walk the, walk the property and
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because, you know, I think in space, so I sort of know what's feasible once I start
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to see actual volumes and square footages.
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So, to get to the at-home consultation portion, I still need to be set up
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because I don't want to drive out to, you know, take an hour drive out to a
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potential job site with just the Scopify outline in hand because they, you know,
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homeowners need, um, sort of assistance on fine-tuning what they're asking for.
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And that's what the middle consultation is about, to review that, have them revise
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it, because we talked about some things.
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Did they consider this?
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You know, go and regenerate your outline.
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But what allows me to do that, um, virtually, the initial consult,
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is, um, Google Earth and, you know, sort of maps and town
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information and zoning information.
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that starts to prompt me in what is, what, what does this look like in 3D?
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So I'm looking at Google Earth every consultation.
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I'm spinning around the house, um, from 30,000 feet up looking at what's going on.
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That really colors it for me and without Google Earth, um,
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I don't know what I would do.
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I'd have to do something very different.
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I'd probably just go straight to, you know, have to go straight
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to on-site and bite the bullet.
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If it, if it was a mistake going out there, it was a mistake
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and try to minimize that.
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But, um, town information, um, actual any existing drawings, realtors
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listings, um, photographs, existing photographs, I have it all, all help.
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So I, I need the 3D visuals
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Absolutely, yeah.
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Um, Google Earth is, is so handy.
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We're really fortunate the day and age that we live in that we have these
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tools available to us and, and I mean, that's a free tool as well, isn't it?
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Which is, which is great for everyone.
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Um, Mike, this has been a really great conversation.
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Thank you so much for your time.
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Um, it's been a, been a pleasure having the chat with you today.
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I've enjoyed it
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yeah, d- do you want to just, um, share your practice website as well?
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If, if anybody wants to learn a bit more about your practice,
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where can they find you?
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Sure.
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Um, it's my name's Sweebe, uh, sweebearchitecture, all one word.
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It's S-W-E-E-B-E.com.
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And yeah, I have a portfolio and I certainly have a link to Scopify.
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Um, 'cause that's, that's, that's the front door to any project I have for
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homeowners is gotta go to Scopify first.
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So, um, yeah
