Challenging times like corona teach us about the weaknesses of the Architecture industry.

Why so many architects struggle today to continue providing their services and what does this teach us about the business we are in?

Architecture is a service-based industry.

Services can be extremely successful and profitable businesses.

However, if you want to run a resilient business consider these three reasons why your next business should be a product.

When you start your first business, you start with what you know, and that’s a great impulse. Starting with what you know is what you should do. Learn how to turn what you know into a profitable online business by joining my Architecture Masterclass group on Facebook.

Given what we know is how to design houses, we end up providing our skills as a service. Essentially our work revolves around providing the world a unique solution, which doesn’t already exist. These types of businesses can be profitable and they can be highly successful. Hence Architecture is generally recognized as a moneymaking industry. But as many of us know, it is not always the case.

The vulnerability of the situation we all find ourselves in teaches us about how to conduct business.

Knowing what I know today, and having built a product based element into my business I will share with you 3 reasons why you should consider moving into a product-based industry.

And just so we understand each other.

I am not telling you to drop Architecture.

I am telling you to think about the business of Architecture differently just for a second.

Because there are few concrete reasons why you should think about turning your first business, or your next design business, into a product.

1. A PRODUCT IS PERFECT FOR A SIDE HUSTLE.

Let’s face it, starting a new business is hard and expensive. Even if you put yourself out there today, you won’t make money right away which means that if you are not privileged enough to live your life without any earnings for the minimum of the two first years, you probably won’t afford it. Many entrepreneurs start with a side hustle. It might also be because they are still testing the waters, not ready to leave their current job or because they already have a good job, but have great ideas they want to work on, on the side.

America is captivated by the side hustle; the idea that you can take an idea and go somewhere like Shark Tank and find success. Most of those businesses are products.

Architecture is a service industry. We as designers are service providers. Our service is a design and what’s wrong with it is that we exchange time for money.

When you provide a service, you have to constantly oversee the work. You can-not easily scale your game without being involved 24/7. Time-based work is limited. You can only do so much in a day.

Being able to think of scalability allows you to really get out of your well-known comfort zone and move into a realm of exchanging value for money, without having to pay with your time.

It’s a classic example of knowing your expertise and what time you have available, then combining that skill with something you can scale.

2. PRODUCTS ARE EASIER TO SCALE.

You often see this process on Shark Tank where an idea is picked that just needs a little more marketing, production, or distribution to be a hit. Scaling a service where you are intimately involved is difficult without experiencing some kind of drop off in your personal productivity. The further removed you are from service, the less effective it will become. And unfortunately, this proves to be the main reason Architects stay in their offices running it till very old age.

Norman Foster or Zaha Hadid would be never the same without them.

Again, that’s not to say that a service can’t be effective. UBER, Airbnb, and other massive companies are services. But they were turned in to a product that can run on its own. UBER and Airbnb don’t need to monitor every transaction or interaction. That’s how they were able to scale and scale quickly at a massive level.

Another great example of a product right now is Bird. They are incredibly hands-off in their approach. It’s basically, “here are some scooters and we think you’ll use them.” They drop them off, they do some light maintenance and battery repair, and everything else gets handled automatically through their app.

So the better way of defining a product versus service is that you’re looking to create something for which you can eventually be hands-off and it will still work.

3. IT’S EASIER TO MAKE AN EXIT WITH A PRODUCT.

Most successful entrepreneurs like to build multiple things. It’s hard to walk away from a service where you are involved daily. A product you can sell at any time.

This is why most often the first business an entrepreneur (not an architect) creates is a service and the second is almost always a product.

It’s because the entrepreneur learns that the product is easier to exit and has more long-term potential. Again, this is speaking with some generalization but there is a common lifecycle to entrepreneurship. The earlier you can understand how to navigate the lifecycle, the more successful you will be.

Merging your expertise with what’s currently working for you. Challenge yourself to create a business that needs you at first but won’t always need you. Don’t plan on being in one business for 30 years, because tastes will change, technology will change, your ideas will change, and part of entrepreneurship is always being willing to adapt.

So have an exit time in mind before you ever start a business. You don’t have to stick to it. But it will force you to create a product that won’t need you forever, freeing you up to tackle more ventures. Because the first thing you should start scaling is yourself.

So… moving on from this general entrepreneurial mambo jumbo into more archi-concrete facts.

Architecture has a massive drop out rate and it’s mainly because there is very little business intelligence practised.

So, how can you make a product out of Architecture, and again: I am not talking you into material manufacturing or modular homes.

A product can be created when you package your experience or knowledge in a course.

A course is a product. It’s a methodology, which lives with or without you. These kinds of products get sold on autopilot.

There are endless helpful tools out there for us to monetize on.

If you create a product based on your expertise. You will lead a resilient business and avoid the fragility of the unknown economic or health hazards.

This should be the number one reason why you read this.

But in case you haven’t thought of it that way.

What did you come here to learn?

Share with me your interests so I can better plan my contribution to you, and give you the answers you seek! Join me in my Facebook group where I coach people just like you in online course creation for Architects.

I want to see you succeed and develop new streams of income that can fruit for you, with time.