Is your “lack of time” preventing you from creating your future life and practice?
In this new blog series, I’m sharing some of my own experiences of building a successful consulting business, which saw me transition from freelance-journalist-for-hire (2005-2016) to sought-after-expert with a waitlist of architect clients (2020-the present day).
I’m sharing these memories, reflections and insights to help architects recognise where their own experiences or beliefs may be stopping them from striving towards new goals or reaching new levels in their own practice and career.
I’d love to hear your feedback if any of these resonate with you: you can leave a comment below this article, join the conversation on social media, or email me directly at hello@soundslikedesign.com.au
Hi, I’m Rachael, an archi-marketing expert, whose own list of marketing tasks is never done...
Finding time to marketing yourself is hard - even for an archi-marketer like me!
You’ve heard the one about the mechanic with the car on blocks in the front yard, that they’ll get around to fixing up one day, haven’t you?
And the plumber with the leaky tap?
What about the architect who lives in a perpetually half-renovated house?
Well, I’m the archi-marketer with a website that needs updating, and a list of business development and marketing tasks as long as both arms.
What does this struggle look like for me?
I’ve got notes, reminders, prompts and half-formed ideas about my own business development and marketing in about 10 scattered locations - including physical notebooks and a hard copy planner, in several apps (Apple Notes that syncs across my phone, iPad and computer, and Evernote where I’ve collected ideas for my upcoming book), in draft emails that I send to myself when I get a stroke of inspiration while I’m out walking, in calendar invites that I’ve scheduled but constantly pushed out to next week, in Instagram scheduling tools (I flick between Planoly and Plann) and on the occasional sticky note floating around on my messy desk.
You get the picture. It’s a lot.
And it’s all over the place. There is a solid system lurking beneath this chaos (I invented the Six Channel System to help architects get clarity around where to prioritise their time, money and energy, and I use it myself, so I know it works!), but even I struggle to rein in the million-and-one-ideas that occur to me all the time, especially those bolts of inspiration that come to me when I’m driving or having a shower, i.e., not sitting at my desk.
My attention is usually pulled in so many directions all day long - on client work, responding to emails, nudging projects along on their timelines, and looking after kids and family responsibilities - that my own marketing tasks invariably take a back seat.
As a result, I often find myself feeling overwhelmed by all of my tasks and competing priorities (did you see the ArchiTeam CPD Workshop where I presented recently - it was called Marketing Everything Everywhere All At Once, and that reminds me, I still haven’t added those links to my website!).
Here’s a list of current projects that I’m struggling to devote sufficient attention to:
write a book about business development and marketing for time-poor architects (and then record an audio version);
write a report about the findings of the Market Research Survey and share the stats on social media and in email newsletters
add the new Scorecard product to the website and promote it via Instagram and LinkedIn;
update the Architecture Marketing 360 course page on my website and fix the deadlinks (based on feedback in a free Zoom call, where an architect told me they couldn’t find the details, and it turns out the “Buy now” button pointed to the retired product - whoops!);
follow-up with all of the architects who’ve enquired about my services in the past, and let them know that the new Scorecard is ready to purchase;
promote the Quiz on Instagram so that anyone who wants a free 30-minute Zoom call with me can get in touch…
and on it goes!
How might your “lack of time” affect your architecture practice?
When you’re barely managing to stay on top of the controlled chaos of running a business, marketing can fall to the bottom of your to-do list.
Image by Robert Bye via Unsplash.
Architects often tell me that they don’t have time to devote to business development and marketing in their practices.
And I can understand why - there are so many important and urgent demands on their time and attention, and a lot of those demands are more pressing than putting out a social media post or sending a bi-monthly newsletter…
Unless…
Unless you see these marketing tasks as being part of your critical path for attracting and winning your next clients and projects, the ones you really want to work with and on (not the randoms who approach you, and whose project you’d rather turn down, because it’s not really aligned with your own business goals, but your current cashflow situation doesn’t give you that power of discernment, yet!).
This process of reframing business development and marketing from “an optional extra I don’t have time for right now” to “an essential activity that supports the ongoing sustainability, enjoyability and profitability of my practice” makes it easier to allocate regular time in your busy schedule to take consistent and strategic action.
Insights from architects:
Architects would like to spend more time designing and less time marketing themselves.
- Anonymous architect, SLD Market Research Survey, 2024
I think it’s a time issue. There are so many other great things we get to do, so marketing is always at the bottom of a very long list.
- Shaye Mclean, SLD Market Research Survey, 2024
What are my key takeaways for architects struggling with “not enough time” for marketing?
Make time to start with your life, practice and business goals, then reverse engineer your marketing to-do list to help you achieve them.
Photography: Laila Zouaki via Unsplash.
Get clear on your strategy first - what are your life, practice and business goals and how can your business development and marketing activities help you to achieve them? It helps to get super clear on your goals and to track data and metrics, so you can see where your time, energy and investment has a positive ROI, and do more of those tasks and activities in future.
Find a way to delegate tasks - either to members of your team or by outsourcing. Compare the cost of your billable time with the cost of using a copywriter or marketing assistant for a few hours a week/month…
I have a Virtual Assistant who is based in Adelaide (she’s been working with me for more than two years and some of my clients use her too, because she knows my Six Channel System) and she updates my website, prepares my email newsletters, monitors my monthly reports, and helps with plenty of other tasks.
Knowing that I can assign tasks to her with a deadline helps to calm my own sense of overwhelm, because I can “close the tab” knowing that the task will get done, and I don’t have to do it myself.Block regular time in your calendar for marketing tasks - maybe start with just one hour a week and build up as you gain more confidence and momentum around what’s working and producing your desired results. If you don’t actively prioritise looking after the health of your business (which in turn nurtures your own health and wellbeing), it will typically fall to the bottom of your very long to-do list.
I find that the discipline of sending weekly newsletters is great motivation to actually sit down and make sense of all my swirling ideas, because every week I’m forced to pick just one - the best one right now - and take deliberate action.Find a friend or accountability partner to go on this journey with - learning new things can be difficult and lonely, and it’s easy to think you’re the only person struggling with these challenges. But chances are, you’re not alone! It helps to seek and find reassurance and encouragement from others who are in the same boat. We have a super-supportive and growing community of architects who are learning new skills and implementing them in their practices in my CPD Course - Architecture Marketing 360 - and we hold monthly Zoom Q&A calls where there are no silly questions, because we’re all learning, all the time, even me!
If you think you’d get further, faster, by surrounding yourself with the right company, you may want to enrol here and join us.Commit to progress over perfection when it comes to marketing - business development is a game of trial-and-error - you have to try a lot of tactics, messaging and activities before you find a method that feels comfortable for you to commit to, and which also produces your desired outcomes.
And sometimes, you land on that secret formula, and then the marketing landscape shifts - because the algorithm changes, or your potential clients stop responding in the same way - and you’re back in the experimentation trenches.
Marketing isn’t like an architecture project - it’s not set in stone, and it doesn’t have a projected lifespan of decades or centuries - so you can reframe your approach and have fun while you’re learning.
And by keeping an eye on your data and analytics you can see which incremental improvements are leading you closer to your destination (which is always just beyond your reach, and that’s why your marketing to-do list will never be finished!).
We’ll be adding to this series and sending updates via our email newsletter. We’d love you to share it with your friends and colleagues, and anyone can click here to subscribe so you’ll be notified when the next instalment is published.
Find out more about our specialist business development and marketing services for architects:
Sounds Like Design developed the Six Channel System of business development and marketing for architects, to help practice owners, principals, directors, those responsible for bringing in new business - and anyone who looks after marketing and communications within a practice - to create or enhance their new client and project pipeline.
Our system and approach is all about helping you to win more of the work you love, and we offer four main services in Mini, Small, Medium and Large sizes, as follows:
Mini - purchase an Architecture Marketing Scorecard here and Rachael will privately review your online presence - including your website, social media profiles and email newsletter if you have one - to see how it’s performing as a new client pipeline. You’ll receive a video recording and a PDF scorecard to with tips and suggestions to make improvements and enhance your ability to attract and win more of the clients and projects you love working on.
Small - book an Acupuncture Session here - this is a one off (or regular) 1-hour Zoom meeting with marketing mentor Rachael Bernstone, where you can discuss any architecture related business development and marketing topic of your choice, including Referrals, Email marketing, Social Media, Publishing, Awards, Websites and more.
Medium - enrol in Architecture Marketing 360: a CPD course for architects here - our online, self-guided CPD course sets out the basics of business development and modern marketing for architects (everything you didn’t learn in your degrees!) and takes as little as three weeks to complete. Then, start your implementation and you’ll see results in just three months. It will help you build a client pipeline, and you could even start a waitlist.
Large - Enquire about Review + Reset - our one-on-one consulting package with Rachael here. In this three-month, intensive, fixed price package we’ll co-create your Business Development and Marketing Blueprint, so you can confidently build your client pipeline and delegate tasks to your team members or external marketing providers.