Neil Joins Houlet Studio
October 2019 was a big month for me and my family! I left my job of 4 years (Sales and Marketing for an electronics company) to join up with my wife, Lorna Johnston, to start an architectural practice in Glasgow.
Lorna has worked in the construction industry as an Architect for 12 years and during that time has gained a wealth of experience. She has designed and been responsible for multi-million pound residential schemes, innovative sustainable pilot projects, bespoke one of a kind houses in rural locations and complex housing renovations and extensions. It is this experience that has led us to create Houlet Studio to allow her to harness this knowledge and focus on her passion for helping people create their dream homes.
As for me, the architecture world is all a bit new to me from a professional stand point. Sure, I have supported Lorna throughout her university studies and all the way through her subsequent career and yes my dad, Norrie Johnston, has been a builder all his days along with my cousin, Crawford Ferguson. But as for my career, for the last 10 years or so, I have been focused on marketing for other industries.
Within these roles I have delivered successful marketing strategies using an integrated mix of marketing communications and sales activities. My previous job had a strong business development element to it and I convincingly exceeded my own personal target with more than £1 million in sales and hit over £4 million in overall company sales for the last financial year which was a first for the company.
I am personable and at ease with people be it through face to face meetings, speaking over the telephone, networking and conversing on various social media channels. I guess I am a bit of a statistical anorak too. I love online tools for reporting and analysing just about every business function!
In terms of architecture though, I am effectively a layman when it comes to technical and procedural knowledge relying on Lorna's expertise, however, we feel this may well give us an advantage as I will be asking questions of Lorna that the customer may well be thinking.
I am able to step into the customers shoes much more easily, I can emphasise with the uncertainty felt throughout the various stages of a project and therefore this means we can understand and proactively deal with common concerns. This layer of customer service may get neglected at other practices due to them being set in their ways.
In terms of taking the plunge into starting a business on our own. The birth of our daughter Luna in 2018 definitely changed both our perspectives on life and was the catalyst to starting the business as we look to strike a good balance between home life and work. All in all, we feel our skill sets lend themselves to one another with Lorna being creative and me looking at the business development aspects. There are good ingredients there for us to work with.
Time Management is vital.
The first lesson I have learned in my new role is the absolute importance of time management. We have our 1 year old daughter, Luna, who myself and Lorna look after most working days (grannies and grandpas are helping too which has been greatly appreciated) so it is really important we plan our working week. There has been a temptation to do work late at night but that has a knock on affect the next day so that is not optimal. We have devised a weekly calendar in order for us to look after our time better...
(Need to tell the marketing guy the branding needs updated on this calendar).
I find that if there is no plan in place you get yourself in a state of paralysis - you think about all the things that need done and get overwhelmed by it all. Small chunks at a time is how I am getting my best work done.
We forgot to put any downtime in our first weekly calendar. We allowed some sleep and that was it. This is clearly not sustainable so we have revised and came up with a more rounded schedule, even fitting in some trips to Art Galleries and Soft Play!
Online Marketing and Architects
My time this opening month has been split between a myriad of different task such as: Marketplace research, setting up with an accountant, starting our social media and other online accounts, website research and building, filming a 20 minute introduction video, learning how to use Adobe Premiere to edit said introduction video, attending networking events and client meetings and getting quotes for marketing collateral such as business cards and signage. Such is the nature of a start up business!
With regards to my research, I may be wrong but on initial findings, I have noticed that many of our competitors do not have all singing, all dancing websites and that they do not post online every day. Marketing let alone online Marketing has not always been synonymous with Architecture and it sort of shows. It seems to me that the industry is still very much reliant on word of mouth. Indeed, most tasks I have done this month has steadily reinforced my gut feeling that face to face customer interaction is going to be pivotal to our success.
Yes, we are absolutely going to try and demystify the process for customers online with helpful video and written content, however, it is not until you step inside a person's home that you get a real feel for the possibilities, the time and cost pressures the customer is under and the building constraints itself.
The more I think about it, I am thinking the purpose of our online efforts will be to build a compelling and helpful story for our customers, that allows them to feel at home (excuse the pun) with us as a team before they ask us to visit them for an initial (free) consultation.
Extensions and Conversions
The first month has seen us secure two single storey extensions (Clarkston and Eaglesham) and a garage conversion (Newton Mearns) which is great news. We have recently completed a tenement flat renovation and are also coming to the end of a project (just a porch to be added). A beautiful Eaglesham double storey extension shown below. This work is keeping Lorna busy but as we head towards November, we obviously need to keep work coming for now and into the new year so it's a great time to speak to us. You can contact me on: neil@houletsudio.co.uk
We have lost work too. Two jobs have been lost in the month - The first being an internal alteration to a flat and this was due to us being £150 too expensive (good to know for future) and the builder recommending another architect so we were up against it from the get go. The other loss was for an extension in South Lanarkshire. After the initial meeting the client decided the reality of their idea wasn't going to be feasible and they are going to try and make do with what they have for now and maybe come back to us in the future.
I see the value in learning from the jobs we do not get as much as the ones we win and with every month that goes by we will get stronger and wiser as a result.
Questions for you
What is the best start up advice you would give us?
What is your experience of dealing with an architect?
Is there anything else you would like to share with us following this article?
Thanks for taking the time to read this update and I will do my best to keep writing about our experience in business every other month. Please do follow our journey and share your thoughts as we go.