“People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories, and magic.”

— Seth Godin (American author and a former dot-com business executive.)

Every project an architect works on is not simply a service, but rather a meaningful relationship. The best way to let your potential clients know about this is through sharing it effectively. Most people refer to this step as “Marketing.” However, it takes years of practice to perfect this skill, as your potential client easily neglects it.  

When architects are investing rigorous time and effort in tailoring their client preferences, it is equally important that it reaches the right audience. Digital Marketing is one such effective tool that will set the stage to convey the full potential of an architect’s work. There are countless tutorials and guides on best practices in digital marketing, but we will be focusing on the challenges that are actually transforming architectural marketing.

5 Challenges and its Solution

Challenge 1: Elevating your website – Low Website Traffic

Now that every architect and architectural practice has understood the importance of a website, it’s essential to know how it works. It is also crucial to utilise the website’s tools to their fullest extent. One of the most common issues every architectural practice faces is low website traffic. Although a practice may be doing well with visitors, converting them into clients can be challenging. There might be multiple reasons for a website to be abortive. However, with a few tweaks and effective tools, it is possible to give a complete makeover.

Solution: – Invest in SEO and website optimization

Challenge 2: Supercharge Your Email Interaction

Nurturing a client-architect relationship takes multiple stages to succeed, especially if it’s an online interaction. Sharing updates through emails for architects is becoming more sophisticated, focusing on personalized content, visual storytelling, and integration with broader marketing strategies. One of the best ways to keep your clients engaged and enhance your digital marketing is to use personalized email content.

• Interactive Email Design
• Automated Drip Campaigns

Solution: Email Marketing

Challenge 3: Engage Your Audience Through Social Media

As digital marketing grows, client-architect interaction has taken on new dimensions. Architects leverage social media to showcase their projects, reach potential clients, and build their brands. These platforms have become especially popular because of their focus on imagery, which aligns well with the visual nature of architecture. 

Solution: Sharing Effective Stories on Social Media  

Identifying your target audience is important when sharing progress with these platforms. The top 3 most-used platforms by architects are:

• Instagram – Its visual focus makes it ideal for sharing high-quality images of architectural work, design concepts, and creative processes.
• Facebook – architects use Facebook to share projects, engage with a wider audience, and participate in architecture-related groups and discussions.
• LinkedIn – It’s a platform for connecting with industry professionals, and potential clients and staying updated on architectural trends and news.

Challenge 4: The First Best Impressions / The Proof of Trust

One of the widely faced challenges among freelance architects is making the first best impression. As important as networking events are, it is equally important to make a good first impression on a potential client. We classify this as an ‘elevator pitch’ or ‘business proposal’. 

Architectural proposals are a strategic compilation of your practice’s history, philosophy, mission, and vision statements. The perfect balance of including this information and not making it too monotonous is a skill every architect learns through experience. 

Solution: 

• Tailor your pitch to show how your expertise can address their specific needs.
• Instead of listing services, explain your approach’s benefits to the client, such as maximizing space, enhancing sustainability, or delivering projects on time and within budget.
• Focus on highlighting your USP (Unique Selling Point) sets you apart from other architects. This could be a particular design philosophy, specialized experience, innovative use of technology, or a strong portfolio in a specific niche.

Challenge 5: Effective Publicizing for Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing‌ consists of two functional aspects – strategies and tools. Earlier we discussed some effective strategies, we will now discuss the tools to implement them. The idea of running a creative business means keeping with the current trends in spreading your USP. A good way to do that is ‘effective publicizing’. But what exactly is effective publicizing? 

They are nothing but paid ADs or in marketing it is known as pay-per-click advertising. It is the digital version of brochures and pamphlets. Present-day architectural business owners have started using multiple social media platforms apart from Google and Facebook.

Solution: 

• The most recent platform of advertising that architects have adopted is LinkedIn Ads.
• To make advertising more natural, Youtube Ads is one of the best tools these days, as it has become one of the most visited platforms for potential clients.

Instagram Ads: As a visually driven platform, Instagram is ideal for architects to showcase their work. Instagram’s advertising is integrated with Facebook Ads, allowing for seamless targeting. Instagram Ads often drive strong engagement, making it easier to connect with prospective clients.

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Digital marketing streamlines the process of networking and maintaining a healthy relationship with clients in this digital age. As it is, the most cost-effective method compared to the traditional way of printing brochures or billboards. Understanding and leveraging digital marketing will have a distinct advantage in an increasingly competitive market. 

These effective platforms offer detailed analytics, allowing architects to understand what content resonates with their audience, which campaigns are effective, and where adjustments are needed. This data-driven approach leads to more informed decisions and better results.

The post How Architects Can Conquer Common Digital Marketing Roadblocks appeared first on Archipreneur.

Architectural Illustration can be a collective term that includes multiple ways of interpreting ideas and concepts in design practice. Some professionals prefer using traditional hand-drawing methods and others prefer high-end software. Either way, the core idea is to accurately and aesthetically convey the details of your project.

In this article, you’ll discover the essential steps, skills, and resources needed to become a successful architectural illustrator. Whether you’re identifying potential career scope or exploring your unique style, this blog clarifies how to prosper as a successful architectural illustrator.

Your Guide to a Clear Pathway

Architects hone their imagination skills as they progress along their educational and professional paths. They train themselves to think, visualize, and approach an idea in a critical way that will define a notion. 

The effective process of communicating ideas through expressive illustration can be ambiguous if you’re unsure of your starting point. Here are 5 straightforward steps that can help you in defining your goals and setting milestones as an architectural illustrator. 

1. Skill Development

“Hand drawing is a clearer, faster and more original means of design communication than digital images these days.” 

                                                                                                                   – Jim Keen, Architect, Illustrator & Writer

The traditional way of expressing your designs and ideas in architecture starts with a rough sketch. And that is the foundation of architectural illustration. Acquainting yourself with the basics of drawing and illustration techniques such as perspective, color theory and composition will improve the accuracy and depth of your future digital works.

Incorporating daily sketching into your routine is the best way to practice your illustration skills. Observing and documenting every single detail around you can enhance your drawing style. Getting out and sketching spaces and buildings from real life improves your drawing accuracy. These early-stage habits give you the freedom to learn and analyze the works of experts. 

2. Building a Portfolio

Having worked on multiple styles will give you a better understanding of your interests. This way, the next step is building a diverse portfolio. It is not always required to start with a professional website. Rather, you can start by sharing your progress on any social media platform. It can be an Instagram account with snippets of your sketches or just a physical sketchbook. 

Compile all of your hand-drawn sketches and publish them as a printed zine in your local library to make them more accessible. Building a portfolio gives you confidence in sharing your work with the world and, eventually, your potential clients. To better strengthen your work, seek feedback from your mentors, peers and online communities to identify areas of improvement.

Remember, a portfolio is never a finished work. It keeps evolving as you create new illustrations. So, keep up with the latest trends and update your portfolio regularly.

3. Gaining Experience

The initial phase of gaining experience involves proper planning and execution, as it might take time to develop a client base. One of the best ways to showcase your works is by collaborating with small practices and helping them communicate their ideas through your sketches and illustrations. 

Having a reliable network can help you build your business without adding too much pressure. Keeping a strong online presence is another way to accomplish this. Social media, such as Instagram and YouTube, can help you build a community that resonates with your work. As you grow your audience and client base, you can also diversify by hosting workshops teaching your skills to interested students or professionals. It can reinforce your knowledge and expose you to new perspectives. Build your brand by sharing your processes and techniques by creating video tutorials or through blogging.

4. Defining Your Style & Its Significance

Be it architectural practice or illustration, creating your style will make you stand out from the crowd. However, there is no streamlined pathway to defining your style. The more you practice the skill daily, the more you will discover your unique approach to it. Analyzing and experimenting with various techniques will let you know your best tool. Inspiration can spark out of nowhere, and you must be observant enough to capture it. Document your ideas in a sketchbook and bring them to life without abandoning them. 

It is an agreeable fact that the design process resonates more with the beholder rather than the results. It is well captured in every work of architectural illustration. Architects use them at every stage of the design process, from concept to execution.

5. Networking and Professional Development

The profession of architectural illustration lets you work both individually and for an organisation. While the early stage can be challenging, once you build a community and set an audience for yourself, it is a rewarding career. The more you get your work published, the better it reaches the right audience. Networking is one of the strongest communication tools that speaks for yourself and your skills. It organically leads to multiple opportunities, including finding potential clients, if not valuable acquaintances. 

The key to staying inspired and motivated is to be connected with networks who have similar interests. There are multitudinous architectural illustrator groups available around the world. To list a few:

• American Society of Architectural Illustrators (ASAI)
• Society of Architectural Illustrators

To Wrap Things Up

Architecture is an ever-evolving field, and the opportunities are endless. Given the high demand for architectural illustrators in recent years, new styles are being introduced. Becoming a successful architectural illustrator involves a well-rounded approach. Push your limits and start at any phase of your career. If you’re interested in exploring a beginner-friendly style, check out Sketch Like an Architect: Step-by-Step from Lines to Perspective.

Keep learning, keep experimenting, and most importantly, keep illustrating. 

The post 5 Easy Steps to Kickstart Your Career in Architectural Illustration appeared first on Archipreneur.

In this article you will learn why it is important to implement effective marketing tools for your architecture firm website. Always with an aesthetic approach in mind of course…

The Typical Architecture Firm Website

What image do you have in mind when you think about the typical architecture website?

The common architecture websites we usually see are typically portfolio websites which are project- and image-focused. They are often certainly beautiful (if they are designed well) and have a minimal approach. Usually they are structured in a gallery style and do not have a lot of text descriptions.

Now this is definitely a bit of a stereotypical description. But it is very common that architecture firm websites use some kind of image grid or project overview directly on their homepage.

And do not get us wrong here. We love architecture firm websites in terms of the design and how they look. But the problem with these kinds of websites is that they are not very effective in terms of the user flow and lead generation.

To put is simply, architecture firm websites simply do not convert. Which means they are not leading the user to a clear next step.

The Typical Marketing Website

On the other extreme there are the websites from the world of digital marketing. And when we think of these websites you will probably picture the following characteristics.

In this industry you see a lot of very sales focused websites. They use bold and wordy marketing language, trying to sell products to the visitors. But let’s look at the positive side. What these websites usually do very well is that they guide the user to the next steps because they are well-structured and conversion optimized.

They might not be as aesthetic as architecture websites but what these “marketing websites” do really good is to craft a targeted website experience.

Craft a Targeted Website Experience

In today’s digital age you need to differentiate yourself from the competition. And your architecture firm website is your number one marketing tool. It is your 24/7 business card and usually the first touch point with your firm for prospective clients.

So that is why you should guide your visitors to discover your website the way you want them to. Because this enables you to design a very targeted website experience that works best for the specific client you want to attract.

Effective website design for architecture firms

When done correctly you can help visitors who land on your website to:

• Easily identify what your practice is about, what you do and
• How you can provide your visitors with solutions to their problems; and
• How they can engage with your business by figuring out where to take the next step,

…because if your visitors don’t know what the next step is, they’ll probably leave without taking any actions. And next action steps could be to visit a project case study, your service offering page, download a guide, watch an informational video, sign up to a newsletter series or submit their contact details.

This is why effective web design is all about making your website easy to use and navigate. It allows you to steer your visitors’ focus to things you want them to pay extra attention to.

Combining Aesthetics and Marketing

But as Archipreneur is created by architects for architects we know how our profession thinks and we also value the aesthetic approach we have towards websites. And we also understand how much we want to showcase our beautiful projects.

So the Archipreneur concept towards modern architecture firm websites really is to combine “Aesthetics” and “Marketing” and take the best from the both worlds:

We want to take the:

• Aesthetics and minimalism from architecture firm websites and
• Combine this with the tools, techniques and structure of marketing websites

So our outcome should be beautifully designed websites. Which also incorporate all effective marketing tools to improve the user experience and also to reach our goals, like:

Objectives of your architecture firm website

• Getting new clients
• Communicating our work (Also read: Content Marketing for Architects)
• Building a brand
• Creating a lead funnel
• Growing our practice
• Automising processes

Your website should really work hard for your firm and bring in new leads and connect with your prospective clients so that you can focus on the fun part: designing and planning buildings.

To help you with this we have created a new course on the building blocks of effective website design for architects…

The Building Blocks of an Effective Architecture Firm Website

The “Building Blocks of an Effective Website” course focuses on the crucial aspects and elements of modern, lead generating websites. You will learn how to structure your website that it guides your visitors to discover your website the way you want them to. And you will also learn all the elements that you should integrate in order to build an effective architecture firm website.

We’re going to be covering:

• Why the typical architecture portfolio website is losing business
• The fundamentals of an effective website
• How to combine aesthetics with marketing
• The 12 crucial elements every homepage should have
• The most important pages of your studio website
• How to create a lead generating structure
• In each lesson we go through a wireframe template and
• Real life case studies of well-structured and designed architecture websites.
• and a lot more…

The course is available inside the Archipreneur Academy.

Join here and start your digital marketing strategy today

The post Architecture Firm Website: Finding the Right Balance Between Aesthetics and Marketing appeared first on Archipreneur.

by Ross Clark

Success in architectural practice can be elusive. Regardless of practice size or years of experience, many practice owners, directors and leaders believe that if they devote most of their energy to creating great architecture, business and financial success will follow. Fifteen years on, they still find themselves struggling in survival mode, never quite winning the top clients or projects that the ‘favoured’ practices seem to attract with ease.

So, what is a successful architecture practice doing differently? More importantly, what are you doing, or not doing, that’s holding you back? What’s creating barriers between you and real practice success? The chances are that a quick review of your practice will reveal some, if not many, of these cardinal sins of architecture practice:

#1 – You’re playing-to-play, not playing-to-win

Becoming an architect takes a lot of hard work. Getting to the point of founding your own successful architecture practice is an enormous achievement. You’re in the game!

However, like any creative, just being able to do what your competitors can do will only get you so far. Sure, if you do your best, you’ll probably manage to meet your costs, and you may win some happy clients along the way. But if you aim to be the best, to lead rather than follow, and to do everything possible to win, rather than just survive, you’ll go a long way to creating not just brilliant architecture, but continuous financial success as well.

Fix: Engage a suitably experienced business advisor or coach to help you create a clear business strategy. Ensure your plan is firmly based on a winning mindset, by focusing on hard work and not just talent, building resilience and perseverance, taking many small steps, and by being action-oriented rather than reflecting on what might have been.

#2 – You don’t know your ‘why’

Playing-to-win means you need a plan to win: A strategy to take your practice where few other practices go. This plan needs to have a specific objective. Otherwise, it’s pointless.

In any business, having clarity of purpose is essential to success. This purpose can’t just be to create great designs or even to build unique residences. Like Google (“To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”), Tesla (“To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy”) or TED (“Spread ideas”), who are all winners in their respective fields, you need to articulate a purpose that can continually drive you and your team to exceed your clients’ expectations. This purpose is your ‘why’.

Fix: Take some time out with your team and (if possible) a specialist consultant, to refine and clarify your ‘why’.

#3 – You’re not proactive about lead generation

Offering amazing outcomes won’t matter much if you don’t have any clients! The same can be said if you don’t tell them what your offer is and how it is relevant and unique.

Architects are in the sales business just as any other business owner. Yet many architects adopt the philosophy: Do good work, and the clients will walk in the door. However, the most profitable practices devote time, energy and money to nurturing leads, figuring out where the best prospects come from, and really getting to know and understand those people and organisations they target as potential clients.

Fix: Develop and implement a lead generation and nurturing program, using suitable software to automate as much of it as possible. The most popular packages include Monday.com. HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce Pardot and LinkedIn.

#4 – You sell what you do, not the problem you solve

Probably the most common mistake architects make in sales and marketing – whether on their website, promotional material or in submissions – is to focus on what they do.

Well, guess what? Every other successful architecture practice out there can design. And document. And administer contracts. And apply for building approvals. What sets you apart, and what will have clients wanting to work with you, and even paying higher fees, is the ability to connect with them. Explain how you’re perfectly placed to solve their particular set of problems. Most potential clients only want to know that you’re on their page and that you can empathise with their unique circumstances.

Fix: Reconfigure your marketing to focus on the problems your practice solves. And use storytelling techniques to engage compellingly with prospective clients and shift the focus from product to people, just like Nike, Airbnb and Lego.

#5 – You think it’s all about design

One of the most common motivations for creative professionals starting their own practice is to regain design autonomy. Many architects wish to recapture the design freedom they had at university.

Yes, design is important. It can be critical to your brand and reputation. But you and your team will be lucky to spend 10% of your time in the creative phase of design. The rest of your time will be spent planning its execution and doing non-designerly things like making your business actually run. Devoting unrealistic amounts of time to design might make you feel great, but it won’t lead to success.

Fix: Track the time you and your team spend on all tasks and, based on the evidence you collect, ensure you maintain a sensible balance of income-producing time and non-income producing time.

#6 – You don’t see architectural practice as a team sport

Many architectural practices are sole practitioners. Many are known by the name of their founder. But no architect ever delivered a great building without input from others.

Whether you’re a sole practitioner or the principal of a large multi-office practice, you’re reliant on a range of players working together to deliver your product successfully. Some of these players may sit inside your practice, while others may be collaborators, consultants or outsourced contributors. Regardless of who they are, their ability to align and function as a high-performing team will be a crucial determinant of your practice’s success.

Given the rarity of high-performing teams, creating one can be a compelling point of difference. A high-performing team can overcome all sorts of challenges and consistently generate real innovation, creativity and sustainable business growth. A team’s effectiveness will often boil down to one simple thing: Trust. Without it, there can be no permission to fail, no encouragement to challenge the status quo, and no motivation to do better.

Fix: Getting the practice’s leadership to move away from an egocentric, do-as-I-say approach can be challenging. Generally, this can only happen when leader(s) fully commit to a genuine, team-based philosophy. It is virtually impossible for an ego-based leader to drive change – in these instances, an independent business adviser or coach will need to be engaged.

#7 – You never say ‘no’

As well as building trust within a team, you also need to build trust and belief in yourself. Have you ever said ‘yes’ to a project you really didn’t want? Have you persisted with a client who is not on the same page as you? Have you agreed to a low fee – or no fee at all – just to get the job?

Most architects have done all these things, especially in the early years of their practice.  But despite rationalisations – “maybe this project will lead to something more exciting” or “I’m sure the client will change” or “let’s think of this low-fee job as an investment” – learning to trust your intuition and say ‘no’ is an essential milestone on your pathway to success.

Fix: Develop a clear strategic business plan. Clarify and define your overarching purpose. Build a team culture based on trust, where everyone operates with the same set of core values. A clear understanding of where you are going and how you plan to get there makes all the decision-making far more straightforward and empowers you to say ‘no’ to anything that is not aligned with your direction.

#8 – You consider yourself an expert rather than a facilitator

As a professional, part of your allure and value lies in your expertise – knowledge and awareness that the client doesn’t have. There was once a time when clients submitted to the view of the expert. But those days are virtually gone.

Business in the 21st century requires an equitable dialogue between customer and professional. A discussion that is based less on how much the professional knows and more on how effectively they can discover the unique aspects of the client’s needs and circumstances, will enable a genuinely creative outcome.

Fix: Prioritise continuous learning for everyone in your practice. Develop a clear strategy to embed proactive innovation and research into all aspects of your practice’s culture and operations.

#9 – You don’t plan for success

You wouldn’t recommend to a client that they build without a suitable plan. So, it’s confounding that so many architects feel comfortable trying to grow their business without a plan. It is ideal to create several different plans, extending from the big picture, strategic aspects of the business (strategic plan, business plan, growth strategy) down to the finer operational details (financial, resources, facilities, marketing).

To move from ‘survival’ to ‘sustainability’, it is best to focus on the financial plan and resources plan. Or, in simple terms, the finance budget and time budget. It is essential to set realistic targets based on your knowledge of past performance at both practice and project levels to deliver ongoing success.

Fix: How do you feel about the client who wants to override your specialist advice and design their own building? How often do you carry out your own structural or mechanical service designs? Business and strategic planning is a specialist skill, so hire a suitably experienced specialist to help you.

You don’t track or measure your performance

Without a plan, it’s almost impossible to measure performance effectively. This is because you have nothing to measure it against.

I suspect most practices would say they do measure performance. But while basic comparative statistics like the number of new projects, staff, or bank balance are informative, none of these bears any causal relationship to profitability. You could have twice as many projects, or staff, or a higher bank balance, but your business could still be less profitable.

Profit is not the only meaningful measure. Other values include client satisfaction, media coverage of your projects, and staff turnover. The better you perform across all aspects of your business, the closer you will get to success.

Fix: Establish critical measures relevant to your practice, set appropriate targets, and make sure you have systems in place to capture the performance data you need. Relevant measures might cover financial data (profitability, revenue, cash), staff (time, cost, length of tenure, satisfaction), customers (sources, conversion rates, satisfaction), media and awards coverage, and projects (type, size, value, services offered). Regularly compare actual performance with targets and be sure to take appropriate management action when targets aren’t met.

Breaking down these barriers to success

Practices that have overcome most of all of these barriers are far more likely to achieve success at levels well beyond basic business sustainability. But it is critical for highly a successful architecture practice to implement the required management actions deliberately and explicitly.

Behavioural and operational guidance is needed for everyone in the practice, to contribute to achieving great outcomes. Ensure that your practice’s leadership compiles, shares, and actively reinforces these guidelines with everyone in the business.

So, survival, sustainability or success? Which of these goals is the ceiling for your practice?

How far you can go will depend on how hard, and how smart, you’re prepared to work. A successful architecture practice will tell you that success is definitely achievable, and absolutely rewarding.

Ross Clark is the founder of Melbourne-based business coaching and advisory service, WhyWhatHow. He started his career as an architect and has more than thirty years’ experience in mentoring and coaching architects and creative professionals so they can start, innovate, and grow highly successful architecture practices.

The post Survival>Sustainability>Success: How to Take Your Practice to the Next Level appeared first on Archipreneur.

Bringing in new work while handling the daily ins and outs of running a company requires a combination of talent, skill, team effort, a great business plan and smart organization. Particularly in the moments that call for scaling up, it becomes apparent that architecture is an industry in which technical knowledge, management, and business understanding are as important as good design.

The Hinge Research Institute recently released their new their 2018 High Growth Study which took an in-depth look at AEC firms in order to determine why some grow faster than others. More than 1,000 companies participated in the study and architecture, engineering and construction services firms made up more than 21 percent of the sample.

The study showed that the habits and priorities that drive higher than average growth numbers can be broken down into three categories. High growth firms are:

• Focused on understanding the marketplace and are nearly four times more likely to perform regular research on their target markets.
• More likely to specialize and recognize skills that set them apart from the competition.
• Quicker to adopt digital marketing tactics and content marketing. They also attend more conferences and events.

#1 – Develop Policies and Procedures

In today’s competitive market, effective strategic management is paramount for sustaining a business. Committing to a new strategy can be daunting and seem at risk of somehow cutting off possibilities and options. To avoid this, firms are advised to develop a structure that will increase the odds of success. To start, create a list of shared, general goals which are then broken down to specific, measurable objectives with precise targets. These decision-making processes should relate to organizational structure, staff recruitment, sales message, pricing, management, leadership and marketing approach. By setting office standards, you make the onboarding process for new hires faster and more efficient. This will save time, cost and avoid the frustration of training simple processes and answering repeated questions.

#2– Research Markets for Growth Opportunities

In an interview with Architect Magazine, new HOK CEO Bill Hellmuth explained the firm’s recent foray into sport and hospitality: “We re-established our sport practice a little over a year ago when we merged with 360 Architecture, which had some original HOK-ers in it. So, we’re back in the sport practice. Where growth opportunities occur is not just in sport but the intersection of sport and master planning and what happens when you add a sport venue to an urban district… We also recently merged with a [global] hospitality firm [BBG-BBGM] and we’re now looking at the intersection between hospitality and healthcare.”

Don’t be afraid to enter a new sector. Architectural thinking and project experience can be valuable across various building markets and you may surprise yourself by offering more than you think.

#3 – Work on Your Brand and Market Positioning

In order to differentiate themselves from the competition, business owners need to understand what they do and where they want to go. What will naturally emerge from this understanding is an idea of marketing as a natural extension of their company’s work ethics, company culture and service quality. Sheela Maini Søgaard, CEO and Partner AT Bjarke Ingels Group, confirms this stance in her piece for Design Intelligence: “As long as we continue to create stories from the way we genuinely approach design, our marketing will be organically derived rather than contrived. Once you have originality and integrity in your communication it is simply a question of finding the right tools and outlets.”

#4 – Strike a Balance between Exploitation and Exploration

In a popular TED Talk business strategist Knut Haanaes identifies the main reasons why companies fail. According to Haanaes successful companies create a balance between exploration and exploitation, competently doing more of the same as well as doing what’s new. Focusing only on exploitation–providing the same proven services or product–may not be risky in the short-term, but it is a risky strategy in the long-term. Investing in research and development is crucial, as it will allow you to stay on top of business, technology and marketing trends.

#5 – Hire Smart

Once in position to take on larger projects, hiring new people can make a huge impact on the stability of the firm. If the firm plans to work on several larger projects simultaneously, it needs reliable employees who understand the company culture and project managers that can help come up with realistic goals and set achievable deadlines. It could be useful to create a list of essential competencies for new hires and a set of responsibilities for each position within the firm. The way you select new hires will have an impact on whether your firm’s culture thrives or crumbles. In fact, CB Insights found that among the top three reasons why startups fail is not having the right team.

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It’s important to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for scaling up. Read up on the experiences of successful archipreneurs, talk to experts in scaling up, friends and colleagues who have done it before, and come up with a solution custom-tailored for your business.

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