Working For Tips
Carport, tool shed, satellite office, and guest lodging.
Starting a business cold turkey, without any clients, presented itself with plenty of problems. Not all of them new to the business world but certainly new for a first-time entrepreneur and fledgling business such as WAKE. One of those problems, and arguably the only one that matters, is how to generate work and get paid. In attempts to resolve this problem and because everyone deserves well-designed spaces we put into place a controversial office policy:
Design projects which do not require a permit, are estimated below 40hrs of work, and below $15,000 in budget will be done on a tip-based fee structure.
A fair amount of time was spent defending and explaining this policy to my peers, friends, potential clients, and current clients. Stating that architects have removed themselves from the public eye, partitioned off our profession, and spent too long purely in the world of the theoretical praising the now “starchitects” which solely focus on the hyper-rich and Avante-guard. Because of this, it is now the general perception that hiring a designer is only for the “well off” which couldn’t be further from the truth. 85% of all architects and designers operate in small firms, less than eight people according to the AIA, and are just as common as your local pediatrician. However, for smaller projects the typical designer charges close to 20% of the overall budget which is a hard pill to swallow for someone already on the fence, unsure of what they’re buying, and holding the opinion that we work only for the rich.
Now I’m not saying this true of all designers, nor am I suggesting that everyone is “eligible” for this policy, but it is a service we will continue to provide to the public and our clients when asked or approached with a design project. We will continue to do this for the following reasons:
Because everyone deserves good design, especially in a time where we are constantly inundated with bad design.
Because it is time for designers to start to repair the misaligned public perception about what we do and why design matters.
Because it keeps us creative fluid as professionals and exposes us to a higher number of design problems for us to learn from.
Because it is a great learning experience for our juniors and allows them to directly interact with clients earlier on in their careers spurring growth.
Because the experience gained on smaller projects makes our juniors more capable of handling larger projects, ultimately providing better service to our clients.
Because you never know who might know who and doing a good turn daily never hurt anyone.
Because I believe it is a better marketing strategy, and time better spent, than always trying to upsell people, only go after the 1%, or take out ads and that by helping people it will keep WAKE in the forefront of their minds when they’re at a friends dinner party, and someone wants to undertake a development project.
Because I choose to believe people are inherently good, will not stiff you if you do a good job, and appreciate the holiday cards of clients growing families and baked banana bread sent to the office every holiday from those we have helped.