How To Write A Business Plan For Your Architecture Firm | 033

Have you ever written a business plan for

your architecture business?

And if so, when was the last time that you updated it?

Or even looked at it.

If your business plan is gathering dust in a drawer, hidden on a hard drive

or still floating around in your head.

Don't panic.

I've got you covered in this episode of architecture business club, the

weekly podcast for solo and small firm architecture practice owners,

just like you who want to build a profitable future proof architecture

business that fits around their life.

I'm the host John Clayton.

And if you want the business in architecture that gives you more

freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment.

Then go to architecture, business club.com forward slash blueprint.

And download the architecture business blueprint.

It's the step-by-step formula to freedom for architects, architectural

technologists and architecture designers.

And it's absolutely free as a gift from me.

Now, let's talk about writing your business plan.

Hey everyone.

So welcome to this episode of architecture business club.

I work with a panful of small architecture firm owners on a one-to-one basis.

And one of my one-to-one clients recently asked me to support

them in writing a business plan.

And, you know, what.

It made me realize that having made the decision to focus a hundred

percent of my time and energy on supporting small architectural firms.

And so practitioners.

To achieve their own goals in business in life that I actually needed to write

and start using a new business plan to.

So I thought it would be really valuable to talk about

how to write a business plan.

I remember the first time that I wrote a business plan.

Many years ago before I started my side hustle.

It took me months to write the business plan.

It was a really lengthy documents.

There was an awful lot of information.

A lot of work went into it.

But as a consequence, I never really felt like I got it finished.

To be honest, it just ended up gathering dust in a drawer.

It wasn't an active document that I was utilizing and using

throughout the life of my business.

And as a consequence, I think my business probably suffered for that.

That's one of the things that I would definitely do differently now.

It's important that we have a business plan, but what is a business plan?

Essentially, it's a documented strategy that highlights the goals for your

business and how you plan to achieve them.

There are a few common myths about business plans.

That business plans have to be long.

That business plans are really hard to write.

Also the business plans are something that old fashioned

businesses day and that maybe.

You don't need one.

Now you're in the 21st century.

Another myth is that business plans are only for securing investment or funding.

And that once you've written your business plan, you can just tick that

off your list and forget about it.

Well, all of those things are wrong.

It's just not true.

So, do you really need a business plan?

We'll look, SIM plants was yes.

If you have an active business or you're planning to launch a business.

You really do need a business plan.

The next question you're probably wondering is how do I go about writing?

A business plan.

So here's a few pointers, which I think will help you get started.

So.

Simple is batter.

In my experience having done this.

The hard way and then a much easier way.

Keeping it simple is going to be a much better or the wise you're

going to get really overwhelmed.

And if you are already an active business owner, you already have your own practice.

You're going to be really busy already.

So if you try to write like this hundred page business plan, You just

never going to get your finished.

And, you're going to be setting yourself up to fail from the very beginning.

So we don't want to do that.

Master architect.

I am pay sad.

You must simplify.

You must make the complex simple.

Then you must make it work.

So you must do this with your business plan.

Don't overcomplicate it, make it as simple as possible.

Don't start with a blank page though.

It's going to be much easier for you to start with a template.

So you can head over to Google and search for a business plan template.

You can find all sorts of free templates out there.

Chances are though you're going to get a lot of results and you

might start to feel overwhelmed.

The alternative.

What I would recommend is that you take a look up the one page

business plan by Jim Horan.

There's an edition for the creative entrepreneur.

This is not a sponsored episode.

I just happened to really enjoy the book.

I think it's a great product.

And I also feel that by investing.

Even a small amount of money in buying a book like this books.

Less than 30 pounds.

It's like 25 English pounds, maybe like $30.

If you're in the us.

Even by investing a small amount of money and buying a book, it means that

you are more likely to write your plan because you've got some skin in the game.

So what should your business plan include?

Clued.

Well Jim's book breaks it down.

In a simple process.

So that you actually have a realistic chance of getting it done.

It's easy to write, update and understand on the process,

creates alignment, accountability, and results in your business.

So one page business plan is broken into five sections.

And each of those sections has a simple question for you to answer.

So those five sections are vision mission.

Objectives strategies and action plans.

And those questions.

R four vision.

What are you building?

Mission.

Why does this business exist?

Objectives.

What business results will you measure?

Strategies, how will you build this business?

And action plans.

What is the work to be done?

Remember.

Don't forget to download the architecture business, blueprint the

step by step formula to freedom for architects, architecture, technologists,

and architecture designers.

You can grab the blueprint without any charge@architecturebusinessclub.com

forward slash blueprint.

And if you enjoy this episode, then please leave a five star review or

rating wherever you listen to podcasts.

Now, back to the show.

So, let me walk you through.

A quick example.

So for your vision statement, what are you building?

So an example would be say within the next free years, grow ABC

architecture studio into a 500,000.

Revenue per year London-based architecture practice providing high end home designs,

planning, consultancy, project management to affluent homeowners who value good

design and sustainable business practices.

So your mission, why does this business exist?

Might be something like we designed beautiful homes to nurture

your family and the planets.

Your objective.

So these are the.

Business results that you're going to measure.

So they need to be things that are measurable.

So this could be something like increasing annual revenue.

So we want to achieve an annual revenue of 500,000 pounds by

the end of the third year.

Could have an objective around the acquisition of clients.

So we want to secure at least 20 new high end residential projects per year.

Or perhaps around brand recognition, you want to be calm.

Uh, top recognized brand for sustainable and high-end home design

in London within the next three years.

So the strategies.

So this is how you going to build the business to achieve those objectives.

some examples might be around.

Marketing and outreach.

How are you going to differentiate your services and maybe client

experience some referrals.

There's going to be all sorts of other objectives here.

Just picking out a few examples for you and same goes for objectives as well.

You know, you could have half a dozen or more, maybe even up to sort of

nine or 10 objectives and strategy.

So just want to give you a few examples.

So.

On a strategy for marketing and outreach might be to develop a comprehensive

marketing plan, including online advertising, social media presence,

attending networking events, and fostering partnerships with local luxury

home builders and real estate agents.

So to differentiate your service, if that is going to be one of your strategies.

You could look how you could emphasize your USP so that your unique selling

proposition, but highlighting your expertise in sustainable design.

And your comprehensive service offering.

Including your planning consultants in project management services.

And then perhaps your strategy around the client experience and referrals to, to

implement a client experience program.

To ensure high satisfaction in courage referrals from your existing client base.

So let's talk about action plan.

So what is the specific work that needs to be done?

So again, just going to give you.

One or two different examples.

So regarding the marketing side of things, it could be to launch

targeted social media campaign.

Showcasing your designs and your sustainable practices.

It could be to create partnerships with at least five luxury home builders and estate

agencies within the first six months.

Perhaps to attend and present it free major home design and

sustainability events each year to increase your brand visibility.

And then you would have a series of action plans for those other.

Strategies too.

So, so we talked about maybe some of those other strategies might be around

how you differentiate your service and how you stand out in the marketplace.

And also about.

The client experience and how you're going to obtain referrals

from existing and past clients.

So you'd, you'd outline some different action plans for those.

And the action plans would align with the objectives and the strategies

that you've saw in your plan.

What would be my recommendations if you don't have a business

plan or your plan is out of date.

The first thing I would recommend is go and buy Jim's book.

you can get it from Amazon or the retailers.

It's not going to cost you a huge amount of money.

You can read it from back to front in less than a couple of hours.

The next thing I would do is shovel some time over the next few weeks to write

a first draft of your business plan.

I would then recommend finding at least a couple of people to

share your business plan with.

You can give you some impartial feedback.

I then tweak and finalize your plan.

Based on their feedback.

And then once you've got that.

Plan drafted out and you're happy with it.

Moving forward.

I would open up your calendar, open up your diary.

And sheds.

You'll a recurring monthly.

Business review meeting with yourself.

Put it on your calendar.

It doesn't have to be a long meeting, could just be 30 minutes each month.

But shed Julie on there to review your business plan.

Check-in to see how you're getting along.

In achieving those goals that you've set out for yourself.

And for some bonus points.

If you really want to hold yourself accountable and make this work better.

I would recommend finding a business buddy.

You could join you at those monthly meetings to help

keep both of you accountable.

So hope you find that useful.

I do strongly recommend.

If you don't have a business plan or the business plan is out of date.

Seriously.

Go and take action on it and get your business plan written.

Get something sorted out.

And.

If you need somebody to be a sounding board and you want some extra support in

doing it, feel free to reach out to me.

You can drop me a DM on LinkedIn, or you can email me Jon J O

n@architecturebusinessclub.com.

Next time I'll be chatting with Nicole Osborne about LinkedIn

post ideas to win clients.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of architecture business club.

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The best place to connect with me online, though is on LinkedIn.

You can find a link to my profile in the show notes.

Remember.

Running your architecture business.

Doesn't have to be hard and you don't need to do it alone.

This is architecture business club.