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Young architect with a small architecture firm.

ngmm87

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Hi, my name is Nelson. I'm an architect in the low 30s. I have a small architecture and interior design firm the Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. I started this company 5 years ago in Santo Domingo, along with my wife, then girlfriend. She is an architect too. We started the firm in a tiny studio at her parent's house. Then, after one year, we leased a small 9 sqm office and incorporated a third partner and our first employee. In those first 3 years, we focused on renovating old hotel spaces, like restaurants, rooms, bars and spas. But in the year 2014 we got the opportunity to design the interior spaces of our first hotel, located in Montego Bay, Jamaica. I traveled constantly to Jamaica, for 3 years until the project was finished, and my wife and the other partner at the firm, handled the other minor projects in Punta Cana. At the end of the year 2015, we got a contract to design the interior spaces of a new hotel in Punta Cana. Our first new hotel. It was a landmark for us. We felt the pressure that came along with a project of this magnitude, but at the same time, we knew that we had an opportunity that few people have. Right now, and 3 years later, we are finishing the construction of the project and we are very glad with the results, and the client is very pleased with the design we developed for his hotel.

Right now, I'm interested in growing the company's clientele and also, automatizing the majority of the design and execution process. I know that in this field is not possible to automatize every process, because designing and supervising is something that computers still cannot do, but if I can improve my response time, quality and practicality of the majority of the process, I think the clients will come by word of mouth.

Also, I would like to use my company as a VC generator for my other ideas. We would like to launch a furniture line, design and build houses for the poor, improve peoples lives with apps and services that our country currently is lacking of.
 
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Get Right

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Welcome fellow Architect!

One of the core components of CENTS is Time. Figure out that component and you are well on your way. I found it difficult to escape so I pivoted to a slightly different field.
 

ngmm87

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Welcome fellow Architect!

One of the core components of CENTS is Time. Figure out that component and you are well on your way. I found it difficult to escape so I pivoted to a slightly different field.

Hi Get Right! Thanks for the quick response. May I ask at which field did you change?
 
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ZCP

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The firm can help fuel other fastlane ventures. @Get Right has already escaped.
I am working on it with my engineering firm.

Processes, procedures, automation is the name of the game. Try to make it where it is process, NOT person, dependent. Try to set it up to run without you. Then you will be able to pull money out AND have a sellable asset that is not dependent on you.

Then pitch US architects near the end of their career. They might buy your firm outright.
 

ngmm87

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The firm can help fuel other fastlane ventures. @Get Right has already escaped.
I am working on it with my engineering firm.

Processes, procedures, automation is the name of the game. Try to make it where it is process, NOT person, dependent. Try to set it up to run without you. Then you will be able to pull money out AND have a sellable asset that is not dependent on you.

Then pitch US architects near the end of their career. They might buy your firm outright.

Thanks for the advice! I'm in the process of just doing that. Automating the process I can right now, but at the same time, thinking about new ideas that relate with the architecture field, that I can convert to an escalable business.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Great to have ya my friend! Sounds like you are growing, congrats.
 
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George Appiah

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Great introduction! Welcome to the community.

Automating the process I can right now,

A mentor of mines likes to say... "automation is anything I don't touch and don't have to worry about."

Worth keeping in mind as you seek to automate and systematize your operations.

but at the same time, thinking about new ideas that relate with the architecture field, that I can convert to an escalable business.

Very smart of you to be looking for opportunities in related industries you know very well, instead of jumping into a completely foreign industry like food supplements and what not.

Good luck and Godspeed in your Fastlane business pursuits.
 

ngmm87

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Great to have ya my friend! Sounds like you are growing, congrats.

Thanks MJ! Your book has changed my perspective of life. Even though I have my company, I was behaving like an employee, not as an entrepreneur. But, since I heard your book (audible's version is the best) I am focused on getting my economic and time freedom before I get to my 40s. Again, thanks a lot. I'm also loving this forum! I think is one of a kind!
 

ngmm87

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Great introduction! Welcome to the community.



A mentor of mines likes to say... "automation is anything I don't touch and don't have to worry about."

Worth keeping in mind as you seek to automate and systematize your operations.



Very smart of you to be looking for opportunities in related industries you know very well, instead of jumping into a completely foreign industry like food supplements and what not.

Good luck and Godspeed in your Fastlane business pursuits.

Thanks a lot George! I will keep everyone posted about my progress, because I know there are lots of architects struggling in the profession, because it is to time demanding and for an architect to reach a reasonable economic return, it has to get some white hairs and spend a few decades working full time.
 
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Get Right

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Hi Get Right! Thanks for the quick response. May I ask at which field did you change?

Check out the threads in my signature below. Feel free to ask any questions and good luck!
 

ngmm87

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Welcome aboard, thanks for sharing the story.

Working with your wife... that's tricky business. You're a courageous man for sure.

I'm not going to tell you is easy business, we have learned, through trial and error, how to separate personal insight from profesional insight. Some times we get carried away, but then we end un laughing at certain situations that happened at work, that are obliviously silly when you get out of it.
 
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AllenCrawley

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Welcome fellow Architect!

One of the core components of CENTS is Time. Figure out that component and you are well on your way. I found it difficult to escape so I pivoted to a slightly different field.
@Get Right - I was about to tag you in this thread but you beat to it!

@ngmm87 Welcome to the forum. So glad to have you here!
 

ngmm87

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@Get Right - I was about to tag you in this thread but you beat to it!

@ngmm87 Welcome to the forum. So glad to have you here!

Thanks @AllenCrawley ! And thanks for the REPs! I've been reading @Get Right posts and they are pure gold! This is my first FORUM experience in many years and I from what I've seen, I think this community is one of the best!
 

Andy Black

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I'm not going to tell you is easy business, we have learned, through trial and error, how to separate personal insight from profesional insight. Some times we get carried away, but then we end un laughing at certain situations that happened at work, that are obliviously silly when you get out of it.
If you can do this, then you can do anything. Well done.
 
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ilrein

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Greetings @ngmm87!

Welcome to one of the finest cultures ever cultivated online. You'll be hard pressed to find 20 year-olds with art degrees becrying about the evils of Capitalism here. Just a group of some of the hardest working, self-motivated people, each molding destiny by the palm of their own hands.

Now, I must ask you -- as an experienced architect -- do you utilize any software that helps you handle contract administration? In the West here, Prime Consultant(s) handle the design, and then pass the implementation to General Contractor(s). As the GC works, they almost always require Change Orders, Request for Additional Information, etc...

Both parties log this process with outdated, ugly, and expensive software.
Is this a familiar pain point for you? Asking for a friend ;)
 

ngmm87

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Greetings @ngmm87!

Welcome to one of the finest cultures ever cultivated online. You'll be hard pressed to find 20 year-olds with art degrees becrying about the evils of Capitalism here. Just a group of some of the hardest working, self-motivated people, each molding destiny by the palm of their own hands.

Now, I must ask you -- as an experienced architect -- do you utilize any software that helps you handle contract administration? In the West here, Prime Consultant(s) handle the design, and then pass the implementation to General Contractor(s). As the GC works, they almost always require Change Orders, Request for Additional Information, etc...

Both parties log this process with outdated, ugly, and expensive software.
Is this a familiar pain point for you? Asking for a friend ;)

Hi @ilrein ! Around here in the Caribbean, in my knowledge, we do not use those kinds of software. In Latin america we build really fast and the interior design is done almost as the construction is undergoing, because the clients think that the job is only applying nice things into the space that don't requiere previous planning alongside the main architect and the main architectural project. I've seen the kind of software that you mention, but in our case it is to time costly, although it prevents further errors along the construction process.
 

ngmm87

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So, this is gonna be an update of my progress. At the end of last year, I proposed myself to find a new business idea son that I could diversify my business and tackle the slow seasons I can experience in my field of work. That business idea came to me as a punch in the face. All I could think about was how am I going to execute this. At the same time I was finishing reading Unscripted , and once again, @MJ DeMarco did not let me down. All the knowledge I needed was passed to me through this book.

The idea is to help with a big traffic problem in my city. As an architect, I worry that the city that I live in is getting to chaotic, full of cars, buses, jeeps, etc; causing transit problems, reducing peoples health and quality of life, wasting resources and causing a lot of pollution. Also, is worth mentioning, that every public space available in the city is invaded by cars.

So, I came up with an idea that will benefit drivers, pedestrians, land owners, parking owners and the city. Did the CENTS test and it passed with flashing colors. After that, I created a small PPT about the ideas I had in my mind, like a small business proposal, so that I could have my thoughts clear and organized, showed it to a few close people, and got the input. The result is that I think it has a great potential and also I'm passionate about it (not that it makes a difference in terms of creating a company and a productocracy) and because of that, I took some capital from my current company, and hired a small coding team through the Upwork community. We have been working for 3 months creating the looks, the functionality, the UVP and how everything is going to work in the APP, and the community I want to create around it. In about 4 months my team and I will have the APP ready to launch.

Right now I'm reading the book "The Ultimate Sales Machine" by Chet Holmes. Although, it differs a lot about what we discuss here in this forum (creating a productocracy is the most important thing), this book has a lot of tips on how you can organize yourself and your team to tackle specific tasks. Also, the book provides a lot of insight on how the majority of the companies are selling right now, but I think that without a productocracy behind your product/service to support all of the selling efforts, no matter how well you can sell something, if the product/service is broken, then the idea execution will fail.

What I'm trying to say is that, I've taken action on creating the ideas that I dream of. And let me tell you something... There is no more liberating feeling that taking action and star executing. Before that, I was going in circles in my mind, trying to figure out the best way to approach it, when in reality, action and a little forward thinking is all that it takes (reading a few books helps too) credits to @MJ DeMarco

Thank you very much to @MJ DeMarco and this community for helping me in creating the action I needed to get this done (and my future projects also). I feel invigorated with positive energy and I feel I can DO IT!

PS: Also thanks to @Get Right and @Carol Jones for inspiring me! I read a lot of your threads and they are nothing but pure gold.
 
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