Jon Clayton:

Would you consider yourself to be a freelancer?

Jon Clayton:

Or maybe you prefer to be called a solo preneur or perhaps a sole practitioner.

Jon Clayton:

Whatever you choose to call yourself running a business of one

Jon Clayton:

can at times be hard and lonely.

Jon Clayton:

So, how can you avoid the common pitfalls and fries as a freelancer?

Jon Clayton:

I'm joined by Angie lions for a conversation about freelancing

Jon Clayton:

over the next two episodes of architecture business club.

Jon Clayton:

The weekly podcast for small firm founders who want to build their

Jon Clayton:

dream business in architecture and enjoy more freedom, flexibility,

Jon Clayton:

and fulfillment in what they do.

Jon Clayton:

I'm John Clayton, your host.

Jon Clayton:

I know that building an architecture business can feel hard.

Jon Clayton:

Especially for a sole practitioner.

Jon Clayton:

The good news is that you don't have to do it alone.

Jon Clayton:

In 2024, we launched our membership community to a small group of

Jon Clayton:

founding members, including architects, architectural

Jon Clayton:

technologists, and interior designers.

Jon Clayton:

We meet online each week and occasionally in person to support

Jon Clayton:

each other in building our businesses.

Jon Clayton:

And to have some fun along the way.

Jon Clayton:

In 2025, we are opening the doors to a limited number of new members.

Jon Clayton:

If you'd like to join this supportive group of like-minded

Jon Clayton:

professionals, now's your chance.

Jon Clayton:

Just go to architecture, business club.com forward slash waitlist.

Jon Clayton:

Or click the link in the show notes and enter your details so we

Jon Clayton:

can let you know when and how you can join this incredible group.

Jon Clayton:

And if you have any questions, just email Jon that's, J O

Jon Clayton:

n@architecturebusinessclub.com.

Jon Clayton:

Now let's start our conversation on freelancing.

Jon Clayton:

Ange Lyons is a brand and marketing graphic designer based in London.

Jon Clayton:

With over 20 years of experience in the design industry, she has

Jon Clayton:

successfully run her business, Lyons Creative, for the past 12 years.

Jon Clayton:

Ange specializes in creating marketing designs, brands, magazines,

Jon Clayton:

and websites, working across both print and digital media.

Jon Clayton:

Ang is passionate about engaging with people and offering her

Jon Clayton:

assistance wherever possible.

Jon Clayton:

Her love for colors and fonts is evident in her work, and she delights

Jon Clayton:

in sharing this enthusiasm with others.

Jon Clayton:

To connect with Ang, head over to LinkedIn, send her a connection

Jon Clayton:

request and a DM to let her know that you've listened to the show.

Jon Clayton:

Ang, Ang, welcome to Architecture Business Club.

Ange Lyons:

Hi.

Ange Lyons:

Hi, John.

Ange Lyons:

Nice to be here.

Ange Lyons:

Thank you for having me on.

Ange Lyons:

I feel really honoured.

Ange Lyons:

Thank you so much.

Jon Clayton:

Oh, you're so welcome.

Jon Clayton:

Yeah.

Jon Clayton:

It's great to have you here.

Jon Clayton:

So, Ang, I know that in your free time, you, you're a big, Cycling fan.

Jon Clayton:

Can you tell me about that?

Jon Clayton:

And there's a group that you're in as well, isn't there?

Jon Clayton:

A cycling club?

Ange Lyons:

Yeah, there is.

Ange Lyons:

Um, so during lockdown, um, the group, um, was created by three women, um,

Ange Lyons:

three black women, and they called it Black Women on Wheels, Be Well.

Ange Lyons:

And they just literally met up in a park and, um, they started the group.

Ange Lyons:

And I heard about them about a year on, about a year and a bit

Ange Lyons:

into lockdown, um, after lockdown.

Ange Lyons:

And, um, I cycle with them every other Saturday where we can, and weather

Ange Lyons:

permitting, because we are in the UK.

Ange Lyons:

Um, and I've made the most amazing friendships there.

Ange Lyons:

And it's just been great.

Ange Lyons:

I love cycling.

Ange Lyons:

Plus we get to exercise, um, make good friends and have a laugh.

Ange Lyons:

Um, we're not a serious, serious cycling club.

Ange Lyons:

We do have a kit, actually.

Ange Lyons:

I designed the kits for them.

Ange Lyons:

Um, but we're not like, you know, we're not going to.

Ange Lyons:

be all crazy and, and just go hundreds and hundreds of miles.

Ange Lyons:

Um, we, sometimes we can do it.

Ange Lyons:

Some people break off and they can do that, but we just more so go

Ange Lyons:

for the, the community, um, the cycling and the chat, basically.

Ange Lyons:

It's just, um, yeah, it's one of those, um, clubs that are, it's serious,

Ange Lyons:

but not taking ourselves too serious.

Ange Lyons:

And I, and I love being with them then.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah, but they're called Be Well for short, and they're called, uh, Yeah,

Ange Lyons:

B WOW as in B W O W, so Black Women

Jon Clayton:

Oh, Bewell.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah,

Jon Clayton:

I love it.

Jon Clayton:

Love it.

Jon Clayton:

It's a great name as well.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah, so I also handle their social media account for them, so I do

Ange Lyons:

a bit of pro bono work in my time, so.

Ange Lyons:

I've just designed their website and I've designed their kit, so I'm

Ange Lyons:

really part of the community there.

Ange Lyons:

So yeah, I

Jon Clayton:

gonna say it's um, sounds like they're very, very lucky

Jon Clayton:

to have you as part of the group.

Ange Lyons:

I think so.

Ange Lyons:

And also that part of the group is, um, that's another thing.

Ange Lyons:

Everyone is so different and so diverse, um, that everyone, if they can, volunteers

Ange Lyons:

their time somewhere down the line.

Ange Lyons:

So, yeah, we're, yeah, part of a community

Jon Clayton:

that sounds lovely.

Jon Clayton:

How many members do you have at the moment?

Ange Lyons:

Oh gosh, do you know what?

Ange Lyons:

I actually don't know.

Ange Lyons:

There's quite, there's a big WhatsApp group.

Ange Lyons:

We're on WhatsApp.

Ange Lyons:

We'll be chatting on WhatsApp.

Ange Lyons:

I haven't counted the numbers recently, to be honest with you,

Ange Lyons:

but it's quite a, quite a decent amount of, um, um, people there.

Jon Clayton:

Oh, that's cool.

Jon Clayton:

Yeah.

Jon Clayton:

I, I haven't been cycling for ages actually.

Jon Clayton:

Um, so yeah, but I need to, I think I need to upgrade my bike.

Jon Clayton:

I used to have one of those, um, Brompton folding

Ange Lyons:

Oh, yeah.

Jon Clayton:

but then since I sort of wasn't commuting anymore it seemed like

Jon Clayton:

a bit of a, a bit of a luxury item.

Jon Clayton:

So I ended up letting somebody else have that when it ended up selling it.

Jon Clayton:

or I do, I do miss it.

Jon Clayton:

Cause it was a lovely bike.

Ange Lyons:

They're so convenient, especially like in London, jumping on the

Ange Lyons:

train with them, just like flipping them over and flipping them down to get on the

Ange Lyons:

train or bus or wherever you need to go.

Jon Clayton:

Yeah, if I was still commuting like that, I

Jon Clayton:

would absolutely still have it.

Jon Clayton:

It was like the best bike that I ever owned.

Jon Clayton:

It was such a cool bike.

Jon Clayton:

But, um, yeah.

Jon Clayton:

Nevermind

Ange Lyons:

yeah, no worries.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah,

Jon Clayton:

freelancing people might use some other terminology.

Jon Clayton:

Maybe they might call themselves a solopreneur or a business of one, perhaps.

Ange Lyons:

of one, solopreneur, yeah.

Jon Clayton:

we're gonna gonna have a chat about that.

Jon Clayton:

I think for any architects or people that have been working in architecture that

Jon Clayton:

might be transitioning into freelancing, maybe they might have been working for

Jon Clayton:

another business or another architecture practice, I mean, finding clients at the

Jon Clayton:

beginning can, can be quite a challenge.

Jon Clayton:

I was wondering if you had some recommendations for how

Jon Clayton:

freelancers can market themselves.

Jon Clayton:

Do you have any, any thoughts on that?

Ange Lyons:

It's interesting because, um, when you make that decision

Ange Lyons:

to go into freelancing, the first thing I'd say is try and get, if

Ange Lyons:

you can, get at least one behind you before you leave the full time job.

Ange Lyons:

Um, and also build on your own connections, people that you know.

Ange Lyons:

So marketing yourself, I'd say, Oh, you know what I'm LinkedIn.

Ange Lyons:

Marketing yourself and LinkedIn is one of those platforms where it's free.

Ange Lyons:

It's free.

Ange Lyons:

You know, you don't pay, there is, there is a premium service, but you can sell

Ange Lyons:

yourself on LinkedIn, um, not easily because it does, it will involve work.

Ange Lyons:

But if you start posting content on LinkedIn or you start commenting on

Ange Lyons:

people's comments and just must get your, get, start getting your face visible,

Ange Lyons:

start, you know, getting recognized.

Ange Lyons:

I'd say that it's the number one place to start just to start

Ange Lyons:

and then marketing yourself by.

Ange Lyons:

Building your website or getting your website built for you and then another

Ange Lyons:

form of marketing is networking.

Ange Lyons:

You can't be people people talk to people people love people and When you start

Ange Lyons:

networking either online or in person, you'll start seeing your connections grow

Ange Lyons:

and then people start recognizing you.

Ange Lyons:

So it's about, I suppose marketing is about getting your face out there, but

Ange Lyons:

as a freelancer, solopreneur, whatever you want to call yourself, I call

Ange Lyons:

myself a freelancer with a business.

Ange Lyons:

Start, start marketing yourself in the most simplest way that's not too stressful

Ange Lyons:

for yourself, and I would say LinkedIn.

Ange Lyons:

I don't know if you saw this, John, but there's um, the statistic came out

Ange Lyons:

recently from LinkedIn that there are, they now have five billion users and

Ange Lyons:

only five percent of the users post.

Jon Clayton:

What?

Ange Lyons:

Yep.

Jon Clayton:

That's insane.

Ange Lyons:

can you imagine if you're on LinkedIn, and you're not even posting,

Ange Lyons:

um, There are five billion people there.

Ange Lyons:

There's one billion, sorry, one billion people there.

Jon Clayton:

What, so 1 billion people

Ange Lyons:

Yeah,

Jon Clayton:

and only 5 percent of them are posting?

Ange Lyons:

yeah.

Jon Clayton:

Right.

Jon Clayton:

That sounds like a huge opportunity because like you could easily become

Jon Clayton:

one of the five, you could be part of that 5 percent just by starting

Jon Clayton:

to post and to start to stand out

Ange Lyons:

yeah, yeah.

Ange Lyons:

And even if you're not posting, I'd go and comment on people.

Ange Lyons:

So if there's someone that you might wanna work with, or you might think, oh,

Ange Lyons:

that person knows that person, or they've got an audience that I might wanna go

Ange Lyons:

and have a look at or be engaged with.

Ange Lyons:

connect, start connecting with people, start following people, comment on

Ange Lyons:

their posts if they post, and then, I know people say it, but they go into

Ange Lyons:

DMs, and I know sometimes people direct messaging, and I know people sometimes

Ange Lyons:

find that quite icky and not very, you know, nice, but we are in the business

Ange Lyons:

of getting work, and Marketing ourselves.

Ange Lyons:

So even if it's just like saying, Oh, I saw your post.

Ange Lyons:

That was really cool.

Ange Lyons:

They're like, Oh, thanks.

Ange Lyons:

It's not like, don't go in direct and say, I've got this service.

Ange Lyons:

Rawr!

Ange Lyons:

Don't do that.

Ange Lyons:

They will hate you or they'll block you.

Ange Lyons:

Ha ha ha

Jon Clayton:

Yeah.

Jon Clayton:

By my thing,

Ange Lyons:

Yeah.

Jon Clayton:

I get some terrible like first messages from people where

Jon Clayton:

it's just straight into the pitch.

Jon Clayton:

Like literally as soon as you've accepted the connection and it's like, right.

Jon Clayton:

Yeah.

Jon Clayton:

You know, here's my service that you should buy from me.

Jon Clayton:

And it's like, like, yes, you wouldn't do that.

Jon Clayton:

If, well, you shouldn't do that.

Jon Clayton:

If you were, um, a networking event in person, you imagine how that would feel.

Jon Clayton:

If like you walked in there and somebody just came over and started immediately

Jon Clayton:

trying to sell you what they, you know, sell you their product or service.

Jon Clayton:

I think there is some similarities there with the approach.

Jon Clayton:

I think between Online platforms like LinkedIn and in person networking

Jon Clayton:

isn't there that actually, you know it's about a lot of it does hinge on

Jon Clayton:

relationship building and you know getting to know people and not just

Jon Clayton:

You know frosting a business card into the hand and like buy my thing.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah, it's good to do a business card, but do that at the end of

Ange Lyons:

the conversation, maybe, say, or if they offer one up and, you know One thing I do,

Ange Lyons:

actually, I've got, um, laptop stickers.

Jon Clayton:

Ah Laptop

Ange Lyons:

yeah, but say, um, love on it and it's got my, um,

Ange Lyons:

um, email address, um, and my, um, website address and my name.

Ange Lyons:

Because it's something different than a business card, isn't it?

Jon Clayton:

Oh, that's quite cool.

Jon Clayton:

So there's some really good ideas there because they're Those are ideas

Jon Clayton:

that in order to for somebody that's new to freelancing to be able to start

Jon Clayton:

Marketing themselves and getting the name out there in a way that isn't isn't

Jon Clayton:

necessarily like hugely time consuming or costly you can get a LinkedIn set up

Jon Clayton:

a LinkedIn account for free and There are lots of networking events that people

Jon Clayton:

can go and attend and there's lots of those that are free too, isn't there?

Ange Lyons:

Yeah, there are.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah, there are.

Ange Lyons:

And also, um, don't forget, go local.

Ange Lyons:

If there's something local to you, have a look what's, a lot of councils

Ange Lyons:

nowadays have a local meetup or they might have a local business hive or

Ange Lyons:

hub somewhere, just go and, if, say, get your name out there, even if it's

Ange Lyons:

like a, a local group, just go and check out what your actual area has.

Ange Lyons:

Um, locally.

Ange Lyons:

Especially if you're, we are by ourselves, we do work by ourselves, and if you feel

Ange Lyons:

like you're craving for company or, um, networking for meeting people, I'm not

Ange Lyons:

saying going to like BNI type meetings or anything like that, and, and again, not

Ange Lyons:

spending money, these events that are put on by the council are normally free, so.

Jon Clayton:

That's um, that's such a good point that and I think that's

Jon Clayton:

worth reiterating that You Going to those events, there's multiple benefits

Jon Clayton:

because it isn't just about, Oh, well, I'm, I'm just going there because

Jon Clayton:

it's a chance for me to try and win business and to sell my services or

Jon Clayton:

whatever it's, it is an opportunity that particularly if you're working on

Jon Clayton:

your own, then you perhaps work from home that it can feel quite isolating.

Jon Clayton:

You can feel a little bit lonely and, um.

Jon Clayton:

I think you might not realize that to begin with, but once you're

Jon Clayton:

doing it for a little while.

Jon Clayton:

So having the opportunity to go to like local in person events and meetings, it's,

Jon Clayton:

it's serving so many different purposes and the fact that you can go along, I

Jon Clayton:

think another objection that maybe some of the architects listing might have

Jon Clayton:

is, Oh, well, what's the point in me going to, you know, if I only work with

Jon Clayton:

this certain type of client, what's the point in me going to like a local thing?

Jon Clayton:

And it's like, yeah, but it's not.

Jon Clayton:

It's not just about that.

Jon Clayton:

It's not, it's all of like, every person that you meet, it's like,

Jon Clayton:

They know hundreds of people as well.

Jon Clayton:

So it's like, you get in the opportunity to meet other people that they might

Jon Clayton:

not directly ever be a customer, but they might be a business buddy.

Jon Clayton:

You might make a new friendship.

Jon Clayton:

It might be a business partnership or somebody that

Jon Clayton:

like, refers business to you over

Ange Lyons:

I was just about to say that it could be even a recommendation.

Ange Lyons:

I, this is no word of lie, I went to a networking event in my area, um,

Ange Lyons:

about two years ago, and I'm still part of the community, um, they hive,

Ange Lyons:

um, in Walthamstow, and they're great.

Ange Lyons:

And, um, somebody there recommended me to, um, Um, a scientist who

Ange Lyons:

wanted her branding done and she turned out to be a client.

Ange Lyons:

This is someone I met two years ago that's just remembered me.

Ange Lyons:

So do you know what I mean?

Ange Lyons:

It's just like, it's not you're going there for work.

Ange Lyons:

I went there because it was a local event.

Ange Lyons:

I wanted to meet some people.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah.

Ange Lyons:

Great.

Ange Lyons:

I got work off it, but two years later, you know, so I'm not saying

Ange Lyons:

again, it's just like what you said.

Ange Lyons:

It's not just about getting the work.

Ange Lyons:

People know people and they'll just, They'll recommend you if they,

Ange Lyons:

but don't go with the hard sell.

Jon Clayton:

Yeah, absolutely.

Jon Clayton:

And if that doesn't entice you to go to your local networking event,

Jon Clayton:

there's usually some free pastries

Ange Lyons:

Oh

Jon Clayton:

something

Ange Lyons:

yeah.

Jon Clayton:

some free goodies if you're lucky.

Jon Clayton:

So, um, and I'd be interested to know, we've talked there about a few ideas and

Jon Clayton:

maybe looking at how we can use LinkedIn and networking being another thing that

Jon Clayton:

we can use to help market ourselves.

Jon Clayton:

What creative approaches have you seen used by freelancers?

Jon Clayton:

So maybe have you seen some things, ways to market their business that

Jon Clayton:

not everybody's doing, something a little bit different that beyond

Jon Clayton:

kind of social media and networking?

Jon Clayton:

Remember, don't forget to join the wait list for our membership community,

Jon Clayton:

where you can meet other business owners who want the same thing as you.

Jon Clayton:

If a thriving business that gives you more freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment.

Jon Clayton:

just go to architecture, business club.com forward slash waitlist, or

Jon Clayton:

click the link in the show notes.

Jon Clayton:

And enter your details.

Jon Clayton:

So you don't miss out on this amazing opportunity to improve

Jon Clayton:

your business and your life.

Jon Clayton:

And if you're enjoying the show, then please leave a five-star review or

Jon Clayton:

rating wherever you listen to podcasts.

Jon Clayton:

Now, back to the show.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah, only what I've seen on when people have actually posted on social

Ange Lyons:

media that they've when they've actually on boarded a new client or they're off

Ange Lyons:

boarded a new client, something creative around that, but they're telling us

Ange Lyons:

about it is that they might send them something like a notebook or a cookie

Ange Lyons:

or, um, or homemade brownies that are, you know, or something that's local to

Ange Lyons:

that person that they might have like in conversation said, Oh, do you like this?

Ange Lyons:

And they might've heard that they liked it and they'll send them a gift.

Ange Lyons:

And I'm not saying.

Ange Lyons:

That you should spend all your money on client gifts.

Ange Lyons:

But just those nice little touches that the client will then share maybe

Ange Lyons:

on their shows, social media, their LinkedIn or Instagram and say, Oh

Ange Lyons:

look, um, this person sent me this.

Ange Lyons:

And that's another form of creative marketing, you know?

Ange Lyons:

Yeah.

Jon Clayton:

that.

Jon Clayton:

If you think about, let's say, an average client project, and this is going to

Jon Clayton:

vary from business to business, but, I mean, you might be working on a project

Jon Clayton:

for that client, and maybe the value of that project could even be several

Jon Clayton:

thousand pounds, potentially, if it's an architecture client, and to do

Jon Clayton:

something for them like that, To send them a thoughtful gift at some point

Jon Clayton:

in that process of working with them.

Jon Clayton:

And actually as a, if you think of it as a percentage of what the value of

Jon Clayton:

that client project is, it could be a relatively small percentage, but actually

Jon Clayton:

really kind of impactful thing for the customer to get something, especially

Jon Clayton:

if it's something, um, like a physical thing, like they're actually physically

Jon Clayton:

getting a gift that they can hold in their hands, you know, whether that's I don't

Jon Clayton:

know, like a nice box of brownies from the bakers that they mentioned that they

Jon Clayton:

really like, or a gift I don't know, like a, I suppose it could even be like, um, a

Jon Clayton:

voucher for somewhere if they'd mentioned that they had a favourite restaurant or

Ange Lyons:

Yeah, it could be something like that.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah, exactly.

Ange Lyons:

Actually, on my off boarding form, I do say to people, I do ask my

Ange Lyons:

client, Do you want something sweet, savoury or paper based?

Ange Lyons:

So, when it's the paper based one, I get them a personalised notebook.

Jon Clayton:

Oh, I love that.

Ange Lyons:

And again, when you say the value of what you've spent, what

Ange Lyons:

they've spent with you, and then they'll, you know, Remember you and

Ange Lyons:

then they'll, again, post it on, they might not even post it, but even getting

Ange Lyons:

that bit of testimonial from them, that's a bit of marketing for you.

Ange Lyons:

You can put that on your profile, on your LinkedIn, make a post out of it.

Ange Lyons:

So creative marketing.

Ange Lyons:

I've also been at events when, um, I've seen people, um, give, um, chocolate bars.

Ange Lyons:

There was an illustrator and he had the chocolate loony, is it chocolate Tony?

Ange Lyons:

The Tony's chocolate.

Ange Lyons:

That one, you know, the loony chocolate bar.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah, Looney, that's the one.

Ange Lyons:

You know what I mean.

Ange Lyons:

But he actually printed out his own labels and stuck them around a chocolate

Ange Lyons:

bar and put them in the goodie bags.

Ange Lyons:

I'm just like, that's genius.

Ange Lyons:

We get a chocolate bar, plus that's like creative marketing for you.

Ange Lyons:

That's marketing for you.

Jon Clayton:

I love that.

Jon Clayton:

That's so cool.

Jon Clayton:

Um, something else that I saw which I really liked was, uh, an architect that

Jon Clayton:

they'd printed a book for their client.

Jon Clayton:

Well, when they go out to see prospective clients and they go to that initial

Jon Clayton:

meeting with them, rather than sort of just leaving them with, you know,

Jon Clayton:

A little bit of paperwork to read through and um, or a business card.

Jon Clayton:

They'd printed a really nice book and it was like a, a mini book and it was

Jon Clayton:

including some sort of case studies and client stories, but it felt like

Jon Clayton:

it was, I mean, I don't know who said it, but I've, somebody said it.

Jon Clayton:

Books are like the world's best business card because if you leave somebody with a

Jon Clayton:

book, they're very, very unlikely to just throw it away or put it in the recycling.

Ange Lyons:

it, um, yeah, was it Daniel Priestly

Jon Clayton:

it may well have

Ange Lyons:

Yeah.

Jon Clayton:

Yeah.

Jon Clayton:

It may well have but yeah, they, it's so true though, because like people

Jon Clayton:

don't, we don't throw books away.

Jon Clayton:

So to have something like that to give to, prospective client or somebody

Jon Clayton:

that was interested in working with you is quite a nice thing.

Jon Clayton:

I know that's sort of more at the front end, isn't it?

Jon Clayton:

Rather than gifting them afterwards,

Ange Lyons:

Yeah.

Ange Lyons:

No, but it's still, it's still something in a creative way.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah, exactly.

Jon Clayton:

Cool, and I suppose things like, um, Well,

Jon Clayton:

we're on a podcast now, aren't

Ange Lyons:

Oh, sorry.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah.

Ange Lyons:

How could I not?

Ange Lyons:

How could I forget?

Ange Lyons:

I'm meant to be marketing myself here.

Ange Lyons:

I'm on a podcast.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah.

Ange Lyons:

You're right.

Ange Lyons:

Um, podcasting is a great way if you can get onto, um, guesting on

Ange Lyons:

a podcast or creating your own.

Ange Lyons:

Um, I'd say guesting is obviously a lot easier.

Ange Lyons:

And then with those, what I love about podcasting is that I I get to talk to,

Ange Lyons:

obviously, the podcast hosts and explore ideas with them and talk to them about

Ange Lyons:

subject, different subject matters.

Ange Lyons:

But then the best thing out of it is that you can create your own Spotify playlist.

Ange Lyons:

And a lot of people that have been on podcasts, they forget this, like

Ange Lyons:

you've been on podcasts, why don't you actually put them on a playlist in

Ange Lyons:

Spotify and say, Same for mine, Angela Lyon's podcast appearances, and then

Ange Lyons:

I've got a list of podcast appearances.

Ange Lyons:

So if I put that on my website, or if someone sees it on LinkedIn, my

Ange Lyons:

LinkedIn profile, they'll say, Oh, I might go and have a listen to

Ange Lyons:

her, see what she's talking about.

Ange Lyons:

That is a bit of creative marketing right there.

Ange Lyons:

And it's free.

Ange Lyons:

Oh,

Jon Clayton:

That's, that is a fantastic idea and that is

Jon Clayton:

something that I haven't done.

Jon Clayton:

So I need to go and do that.

Jon Clayton:

I need to go and put together a a Spotify playlist of podcast appearances.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah, and you share that link with people and say, especially

Ange Lyons:

if you're pitching to be on a podcast, um, that's another, that's a whole

Ange Lyons:

different ballgame, I suppose, is, um, wanting to pitch to be on a podcast.

Ange Lyons:

That's, I'd say always, always research the podcast first that you want to be on.

Ange Lyons:

Don't just say, I want to be on your podcast.

Ange Lyons:

But, if you say, if you put that as a link in your pitch deck to be on

Ange Lyons:

a podcast, they can see where you've been and how you sound like and how you

Ange Lyons:

come across, and Again, it's marketing.

Ange Lyons:

How many billions of people are on Spotify?

Jon Clayton:

yeah, no, that's a really good idea.

Jon Clayton:

And I would say if anybody is thinking about, oh, that sounds interesting,

Jon Clayton:

maybe being a guest on a podcast.

Jon Clayton:

I recently did, um, uh, an episode with Colin Gray, and we talked all about how to

Jon Clayton:

be a great podcast guest, and we touched upon pitching for podcasts as well.

Jon Clayton:

So if anyone's listening, thinking that sounds quite interesting, and

Jon Clayton:

you haven't listened to that episode, please go and give that a listen.

Jon Clayton:

And the other thing I would say is, I am always on the lookout

Jon Clayton:

for great guests for this show.

Jon Clayton:

So if anybody is listening to this thinks that, Oh, I'm a little bit

Jon Clayton:

curious about being a guest on a podcast.

Jon Clayton:

If you've done it before, then feel free to reach out to me.

Jon Clayton:

Connect with me on LinkedIn or drop me an email and share your Spotify playlist

Jon Clayton:

if you've you've taken Andrew's advice there And I will happily give that a

Jon Clayton:

listen and we can talk about being a guest on the show and if you haven't

Jon Clayton:

done a podcast interview before then go and listen to that episode with Colin

Jon Clayton:

and then Feel free to make your pitch and, uh, get in touch, uh, especially if

Jon Clayton:

you're working in and around the world of architecture, that would be really

Jon Clayton:

cool because I'd love to hear some more stories from people in the industry.

Jon Clayton:

It's a lot of shy people, I think, that I've spoken to a few folks

Jon Clayton:

that are curious about the idea of, taking part in something like a

Jon Clayton:

podcast, but they're a bit like, oh, Not too sure maybe feeling a bit shy

Ange Lyons:

I think people also think, why would anyone want to listen to me?

Ange Lyons:

What have I got to say?

Ange Lyons:

My gosh, people always want to hear stories.

Ange Lyons:

That's one thing I'd always say, people always want to hear about the person, hear

Ange Lyons:

a story, get some advice, get some tips.

Ange Lyons:

I listen to loads of podcasts.

Ange Lyons:

I get so many tips from them because we're, as you said, we're in our

Ange Lyons:

rooms, in our offices, working from home, working at a co work.

Ange Lyons:

We're mostly pretty much by ourselves.

Ange Lyons:

Stick the, stick the stereo on, just put a podcast on, get some tips and listen in.

Jon Clayton:

yeah, that's so true I mean, I think everybody's got a story to share

Jon Clayton:

There's a story in all of us, you know, definitely like to hear more of that.

Jon Clayton:

So Ange, One of the thing that can be quite tricky for freelancers is

Jon Clayton:

is speaking setting a chargeout rate.

Jon Clayton:

So sort of deciding what to charge.

Jon Clayton:

And I think that's especially could be tricky in architecture

Jon Clayton:

because the the projects can vary quite a bit in complexity.

Jon Clayton:

And I imagine there's some similarities there in other creative businesses

Jon Clayton:

and, in your business, for example, that there might be some variation

Jon Clayton:

in the scope and size of projects that you might be working on.

Jon Clayton:

Have you got any thoughts on how we could approach that about how we can

Jon Clayton:

approach Deciding upon a charge out rate.

Ange Lyons:

Um, it's interesting cause a lot of them, especially in

Ange Lyons:

graphic design and freelancers, they.

Ange Lyons:

I've tried to stop doing this now.

Ange Lyons:

It's charged by the hour.

Ange Lyons:

And I just think that that's not the best way to do it because we've had years of

Ange Lyons:

experience and you're not, you're not filling in that, that, uh, that in that

Ange Lyons:

one hour time or your hour charge rate.

Ange Lyons:

I think around, um, charging projects always work out.

Ange Lyons:

Even though I say don't charge by the hour, work out how

Ange Lyons:

long it is going to take you.

Ange Lyons:

And then what I do is.

Ange Lyons:

adds more on top because then we're gonna have the variables of they're

Ange Lyons:

taking forever to get back to you or they're not getting back to you.

Ange Lyons:

Or we've got, we've had to build in another meeting into this.

Ange Lyons:

I know some freelancers that build in meeting time and then

Ange Lyons:

they'll charge that by the hour.

Ange Lyons:

Um, I try not to do that because I like to be upfront and open with my clients

Ange Lyons:

to say, this is going to cost X amount.

Ange Lyons:

Um, so there are, do you know what?

Ange Lyons:

There are calculators out there that work out project rates.

Ange Lyons:

I can't think of one right now, but I have used them in the past, where

Ange Lyons:

you put in how many hours you think it's going to take, and then how

Ange Lyons:

much you want to charge for, and then building anything else on top of that.

Ange Lyons:

Um, like for example, are you going to have to, well for me for example,

Ange Lyons:

am I going to have to delve into buying stock photography for them?

Ange Lyons:

So I'm going to build in that price.

Ange Lyons:

Am I going to, um, Do I have to talk to printers?

Ange Lyons:

I'm going to build in meeting time.

Ange Lyons:

So it's, it's, there's no set, it's quite hard.

Ange Lyons:

Price, pricing is so tricky.

Ange Lyons:

It's such a tricky thing.

Ange Lyons:

Um, I don't know if that, that helps,

Jon Clayton:

Yeah, definitely.

Jon Clayton:

Yeah,

Ange Lyons:

such a tricky thing, but I'd, I'd definitely say, one

Ange Lyons:

of the things I would say is that I'd research price calculators.

Ange Lyons:

Have a look at price calculators, and then they always tell you to add

Ange Lyons:

a percentage on top because there's going to be so many variables that will

Ange Lyons:

just like tip you over and the client is going to take more of your time.

Ange Lyons:

Hmm,

Jon Clayton:

by the hour versus charging by the project.

Jon Clayton:

I'm sure that's something that a lot of small business owners wrestle with.

Jon Clayton:

And it's like, The charging by the hour thing, it, I guess, it depends a little

Jon Clayton:

bit on your appetite to risk as well.

Jon Clayton:

And particularly if you're sort of a new freelancer, when they're charging

Jon Clayton:

by the hour, it's like, well, I know if I charge by the hour, like I'm going

Jon Clayton:

to get paid this amount for that, for that time that I spend on the project.

Jon Clayton:

And then when it moves to the project based pricing, that like the key to

Jon Clayton:

that is that, There has to be, the number has to be big enough to actually

Jon Clayton:

cover and that that's where it kind of gets a little bit tricky where it's

Jon Clayton:

like, that's project based pricing.

Jon Clayton:

I would agree is the preferable way to go if the number that you know that you're

Jon Clayton:

charging is high enough to actually allow for that margin of error and scope creep.

Jon Clayton:

That's the classic one.

Jon Clayton:

isn't it?

Ange Lyons:

Scope creep.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah, exactly.

Ange Lyons:

Scope creep.

Ange Lyons:

I don't know.

Ange Lyons:

It's a term that people, when I mentioned it to somebody, they

Ange Lyons:

were like, what does that mean?

Ange Lyons:

I think sometimes people don't know what scope creep, actually,

Ange Lyons:

do you want to explain, Josh?

Jon Clayton:

Well, yeah, I mean, scope creeps like when, you know, you, you, in

Jon Clayton:

all good faith, you will put together a proposal for a client and you'll agree

Jon Clayton:

the, the scope of work that you're going to do for them and you have in mind

Jon Clayton:

whether, and this in particular is when it's like project based pricing and it's

Jon Clayton:

a fixed price that you'd say, okay, this is going to be 5, 000, we're going to

Jon Clayton:

do this work and in your mind, maybe you thought, well, roughly this is going to

Jon Clayton:

take, you know, X number of hours, but then somewhere along the way there's

Jon Clayton:

like some extra bits and pieces that seem to creep in and it might be kind

Jon Clayton:

of quite almost quite sort of insidious that it's sort of like you might not

Jon Clayton:

realize it's happening and it's like oh can we just can you just do this bit as

Jon Clayton:

well or could we have an extra revision or could we could we have that and if

Jon Clayton:

the If the contract and agreement with the client in the first instance isn't

Jon Clayton:

like absolutely watertight crystal clear with exactly what is included in terms

Jon Clayton:

of deliverables, like very easily there can be this scope creep that, you know,

Jon Clayton:

this creeps in where all of a sudden the scope of the project is like slowly sort

Jon Clayton:

of expanded and then by the end of it, you look at it and you're like, wow, like,

Jon Clayton:

I was meant to spend a hundred hours on this and I spent like 140 hours on it.

Jon Clayton:

Or, you know, there was these extra things that because it wasn't bolted

Jon Clayton:

down at the beginning and because, well, maybe I felt a bit awkward asking the

Jon Clayton:

client for like, Oh, well, actually that little extra thing you've asked

Jon Clayton:

for here is going to be chargeable.

Jon Clayton:

Maybe that conversation because I think that's the thing is that sometimes

Jon Clayton:

that conversation around pricing that sometimes we can feel a bit icky about

Jon Clayton:

talking about money and pricing and if that doesn't happen up front and it

Jon Clayton:

isn't sort of crystal clear about like, this is what's included in the package.

Jon Clayton:

And anything beyond that is chargeable.

Jon Clayton:

And this is what we charge.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah.

Ange Lyons:

Yeah.

Jon Clayton:

area.

Jon Clayton:

A classic one is with, within architecture, I found is

Jon Clayton:

when does a, a revision.

Jon Clayton:

So we'd like, say somebody wanted to make a small change to a design

Jon Clayton:

that's been done on a building.

Jon Clayton:

Like we've been designing somebody's home extension and the client would

Jon Clayton:

like to have some changes made, can we change the bifold doors, the

Jon Clayton:

sliding doors, or can we change that.

Jon Clayton:

Make that roof, like, bigger, that sort of thing.

Jon Clayton:

So first, it's like, has it been identified how many rounds

Jon Clayton:

of revisions are included?

Jon Clayton:

Can they just keep coming back forever and ever saying, no,

Jon Clayton:

move it two inches to the left?

Jon Clayton:

Oh no, move it two inches to the right, you know?

Jon Clayton:

So that's one area where there can be a lot of scope creep that

Jon Clayton:

creeps in with little revisions.

Jon Clayton:

And the other thing is, when does a project go from, uh, when does

Jon Clayton:

a revision become a redesign?

Jon Clayton:

And has that been communicated with the client?

Jon Clayton:

So what happens if, like, we spend lots of time designing this?

Jon Clayton:

Projects or in the case of graphic design.

Jon Clayton:

It might be a brand branding or a logo and then they're like no With we need

Jon Clayton:

to change everything like, and their X might be their expectation might be

Jon Clayton:

that Oh, well, the agreement says we get you know, three revisions included.

Jon Clayton:

Well, we've only had one revision So, can you just like change the whole

Jon Clayton:

thing now as part of the next revision?

Jon Clayton:

It's like oh, hang on a minute This is actually a full redesign, like now you

Jon Clayton:

told us you wanted a, in the case of architecture, well you said you wanted

Jon Clayton:

a single storey rear extension and now you're saying you want a loft conversion.

Jon Clayton:

Well that's totally different, so that's A redesign, that's total redesign.

Jon Clayton:

Oh, but that's a revision.

Jon Clayton:

Like, where does it say in the contract that, you know, you said we could

Jon Clayton:

have as many changes as we want.

Jon Clayton:

And so, and that's where it can get a bit sticky, I

Ange Lyons:

Hmm,

Jon Clayton:

Have you had that sort of experience, Angie, in graphic design

Jon Clayton:

and branding?

Jon Clayton:

And that's all we have time for today in the next episode, Angie and I continue

Jon Clayton:

our conversation about freelancing and talk more about contracts getting paid.

Jon Clayton:

How sole practitioners can avoid isolation, productivity, and more.

Jon Clayton:

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of architecture business club.

Jon Clayton:

If you liked this episode, think other people might enjoy it.

Jon Clayton:

Or just want to show your support for the show.

Jon Clayton:

Then please leave a glowing five-star review or rating wherever you listen

Jon Clayton:

to podcasts, it would mean so much to me and makes it easier for new

Jon Clayton:

listeners to discover the show.

Jon Clayton:

And if you haven't already done, so don't forget to hit the subscribe button.

Jon Clayton:

So you never miss another episode.

Jon Clayton:

If you want to connect with me, you can do that on most social media

Jon Clayton:

platforms, just search for at Mr.

Jon Clayton:

John Clayton.

Jon Clayton:

The best place to connect with me online, though is on LinkedIn.

Jon Clayton:

You can find a link to my profile in the show notes.

Jon Clayton:

Remember.

Jon Clayton:

Running your architecture business.

Jon Clayton:

Doesn't have to be hard and you don't need to do it alone.

Jon Clayton:

This is architecture business club.