Jon Clayton:

That is definitely an education gap in architecture

Jon Clayton:

around business basics.

Jon Clayton:

You may be an amazing designer, but if you're lacking in business education,

Jon Clayton:

you'll struggle to fulfill your potential.

Jon Clayton:

Today, I'm joined by Ray brown of Archibus to share his thoughts on the

Jon Clayton:

foundational business education that you need to bridge that gap and sets your

Jon Clayton:

architecture practice up for success.

Jon Clayton:

In this episode of architecture business club, the weekly podcast for solo

Jon Clayton:

and small firm architecture practice owners, just like you who want to build

Jon Clayton:

a profitable future proof architecture business that fits around their life.

Jon Clayton:

I'm the host, John Clayton.

Jon Clayton:

And if you want a business in architecture that gives you more

Jon Clayton:

freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment.

Jon Clayton:

Then go to architecture, business club.com forward slash blueprint and downloads

Jon Clayton:

the architecture business blueprint.

Jon Clayton:

It's the step-by-step formula to freedom for architects, architectural

Jon Clayton:

technologists and architecture designers.

Jon Clayton:

And it's absolutely free as a gift from me.

Jon Clayton:

Now let's discuss foundational business education.

Jon Clayton:

Ray Brown is a business coach and entrepreneur.

Jon Clayton:

He built and sold several businesses in Scotland before relocating to

Jon Clayton:

Australia with his family in 2005.

Jon Clayton:

Ray has coached everyone from startups to top executives of major companies.

Jon Clayton:

He also chairs multiple company boards, but today his main focus is coaching

Jon Clayton:

and mentoring architectural practices.

Jon Clayton:

Ray recognized there was a significant gap in the education provided to

Jon Clayton:

architects around running a business.

Jon Clayton:

So he founded Archie biz to help.

Jon Clayton:

Ambitious architects build profitable and sustainable businesses whilst

Jon Clayton:

maintaining good design standards.

Jon Clayton:

You can learn more about the Archibiz Business Foundations Program at archibiz.

Jon Clayton:

global forward slash BFP.

Jon Clayton:

Ray, welcome to Architecture Business

Ray Brown:

Oh, thanks, John.

Ray Brown:

Thanks for having me on your podcast.

Ray Brown:

Yeah,

Ray Brown:

it's always a privilege,

Ray Brown:

yeah, it's

Ray Brown:

really nice

Ray Brown:

to be invited, so thank you.

Jon Clayton:

It's a pleasure to have you here.

Jon Clayton:

I enjoyed our last conversation so much.

Jon Clayton:

It would have been rude for me not to invite you on the show for another one.

Jon Clayton:

Um, Ray, you're, you're originally from, um, Scotland.

Jon Clayton:

Is it Aberdeen originally?

Jon Clayton:

Is that right?

Ray Brown:

It is indeed the frozen north, I think they call it, and, uh, yeah,

Ray Brown:

I, I came to Australia looking for a bit more sun, and, my daughter was here

Ray Brown:

and wanted to start a sailing business.

Ray Brown:

The one, only thing that went wrong in that was Melbourne's

Ray Brown:

not the best place for weather.

Ray Brown:

It's a bit of a well kept secret.

Ray Brown:

Place to live.

Ray Brown:

But um, yeah, January through March

Ray Brown:

is pretty

Ray Brown:

good, but beyond that it

Ray Brown:

can

Ray Brown:

be a little bit up and down.

Ray Brown:

Too hot or too,

Ray Brown:

too

Ray Brown:

cold.

Jon Clayton:

Yeah.

Jon Clayton:

You must enjoy life in Melbourne though.

Jon Clayton:

You wouldn't have stayed there for so many years otherwise.

Ray Brown:

Yeah.

Ray Brown:

Oh no, it's a great place to live.

Ray Brown:

I tend to try and keep that secret

Ray Brown:

going

Ray Brown:

If you.

Ray Brown:

don't mind.

Ray Brown:

Yeah, it's got lots of culture, lots of food,

Ray Brown:

and

Ray Brown:

we're lucky enough to have a place down at the beach, so we can be there

Ray Brown:

in an hour, and it's pretty good.

Jon Clayton:

Oh, fantastic.

Jon Clayton:

Well, I actually was fortunate enough to work in Melbourne for

Jon Clayton:

a few months, many years ago.

Jon Clayton:

It was during a year long backpacking trip and I ended up working for an

Jon Clayton:

architectural practice in Melbourne.

Jon Clayton:

I lived in North Melbourne, not far from the Victoria market and worked

Jon Clayton:

for a practice out in East Kew.

Jon Clayton:

And, uh, I absolutely loved it.

Jon Clayton:

I had a great time there.

Jon Clayton:

I was very tempted to stay, to be honest, it wasn't for the fact that

Jon Clayton:

I was really excited about visiting a few of the countries that I'd planned

Jon Clayton:

to visit afterwards, that I I may have ended up staying there a bit longer.

Jon Clayton:

And then, um, I met who is now my wife, and then that kind of like scuppered

Jon Clayton:

the, the plans to return to Melbourne.

Jon Clayton:

So that kind of went, the plans were on hold for a while, and then they've,

Jon Clayton:

they've been on permanent hold ever since.

Jon Clayton:

So,

Ray Brown:

Yeah, no good.

Ray Brown:

Well, if

Ray Brown:

we continue our relationship, you never know, you might be out here

Ray Brown:

visiting and visiting the deck.

Ray Brown:

Drinking a beer would be nice.

Ray Brown:

I'd love to see you here.

Jon Clayton:

Oh, that sounds awesome.

Jon Clayton:

Yeah.

Jon Clayton:

I'd love to do that.

Jon Clayton:

We could talk about this for hours, I'm sure, but we're, we're actually

Jon Clayton:

here to talk about foundational business education, specifically

Jon Clayton:

for architecture practices.

Jon Clayton:

So I'm really excited to hear about this.

Jon Clayton:

So Ray, I want to ask what, what would you consider foundational

Jon Clayton:

foundational

Jon Clayton:

business education to be?

Ray Brown:

Yeah, but it's a phrase that we've worked really hard to get to.

Ray Brown:

We've been in business for five years and it's only really in

Ray Brown:

the last six months that we've

Ray Brown:

finally

Ray Brown:

honed in on the words.

Ray Brown:

And, and, you know, I would, I would encourage architects to see that that

Ray Brown:

process is not something that you

Ray Brown:

immediately say, this

Ray Brown:

is who you are.

Ray Brown:

This is where you fit in the market.

Ray Brown:

This is what you do.

Ray Brown:

It sometimes takes time.

Ray Brown:

So foundational business education for us is we aim to fill the gap that

Ray Brown:

architects tell us about every single day.

Ray Brown:

We don't get taught about business at university.

Ray Brown:

We are well meaning amateurs when it comes to business.

Ray Brown:

All of those things.

Ray Brown:

And unfortunately

Ray Brown:

that

Ray Brown:

leads into a little bit of what I call woe is me thinking.

Ray Brown:

If you don't have the education, you need to go out and get the education.

Ray Brown:

And the two analogies we use

Ray Brown:

One

Ray Brown:

is driving a car.

Ray Brown:

You wouldn't buy a car, jump in the car, and go out on the

Ray Brown:

road, because a car's dangerous.

Ray Brown:

You know, it's

Ray Brown:

dangerous to

Ray Brown:

your health, to your well being, all of those things.

Ray Brown:

And business is very similar.

Ray Brown:

You can lose a lot of money in business, you can become very

Ray Brown:

stressed, and really, it's a tough existence if you don't get it right.

Ray Brown:

But, the good news

Ray Brown:

is

Ray Brown:

that business is a simple game.

Ray Brown:

We used to use chess as an analogy and then we moved to drafts or

Ray Brown:

checkers, and someone, one of our clients said, look, the way you put

Ray Brown:

it across, it's not that difficult.

Ray Brown:

It's more like snakes and ladders.

Ray Brown:

So snakes and ladders take 10 minutes to explain.

Ray Brown:

Without that 10 minutes, it's just a mystery.

Ray Brown:

Ladders, reptiles,

Ray Brown:

colored

Ray Brown:

squares.

Ray Brown:

But you can teach a five year old snakes and ladders in probably 10 minutes.

Ray Brown:

And business is a bit the same.

Ray Brown:

with the basic rules of the game or the foundational business education, you're

Ray Brown:

really at high risk of coming unstuck.

Jon Clayton:

I love that simple analogy there that you've given us.

Jon Clayton:

I guess that starting a business in architecture, it

Jon Clayton:

can be bad for your health.

Jon Clayton:

If you, uh, potentially, if you don't know what you're doing and, um,

Jon Clayton:

yeah, having some basic instructions to lay those foundations is, it's

Jon Clayton:

got to be something surely that's essential really for, for everybody.

Ray Brown:

Yeah, I think

Ray Brown:

the, the, the, the

Ray Brown:

paradoxical thing

Ray Brown:

is

Ray Brown:

that architects are very tempted to go into their own business.

Ray Brown:

I think the statistics, something like 70 percent of architects end up

Ray Brown:

working for themselves in some form.

Ray Brown:

But the

Ray Brown:

problem is that they tend to drift into architecture.

Ray Brown:

You know, they do some work on the side, and then they get a

Ray Brown:

bigger job and a bigger job.

Ray Brown:

And

Ray Brown:

then

Ray Brown:

suddenly they

Ray Brown:

say,

Ray Brown:

I've got enough to pay my wages.

Ray Brown:

and I can leave

Ray Brown:

my job.

Ray Brown:

paid job.

Ray Brown:

The problem with that is you're not setting up a business.

Ray Brown:

You're creating a job for yourself.

Ray Brown:

It's only over time that people realize,

Ray Brown:

hold

Ray Brown:

on, there's more to this business thing

Ray Brown:

than

Ray Brown:

I thought.

Ray Brown:

And we meet a lot of disillusioned architects.

Ray Brown:

They love architecture.

Ray Brown:

They're passionate about the profession, but they just don't

Ray Brown:

understand the business side.

Ray Brown:

They don't make money.

Ray Brown:

In a lot of cases, they're paid less.

Ray Brown:

Then they would be paid working for somebody else.

Ray Brown:

And they've got that, probably their partner, telling them, you

Ray Brown:

know, why you're doing that when you

Ray Brown:

could

Ray Brown:

be working here and we could live a better lifestyle.

Ray Brown:

So, we see ourselves in the business of, um, reducing that stress

Ray Brown:

and teaching people the basics.

Ray Brown:

It really is not complicated.

Jon Clayton:

I, I think that's so true.

Jon Clayton:

I can.

Jon Clayton:

I could really relate to that from my own personal experience as well,

Jon Clayton:

that, um, I'm very much, I thought I'd, I had a business, but I'd really

Jon Clayton:

just like recreated my old job.

Jon Clayton:

It's taken quite a long time to, to realize that and to have had some business

Jon Clayton:

education at the very beginning would have allowed me to take a shortcut and

Jon Clayton:

to have been far more successful with my own small practice than, than I was.

Jon Clayton:

Because I had to learn a lot of it from mistakes and, you know, making

Jon Clayton:

the mistakes and then, you know, learning from them, but to have had

Jon Clayton:

some foundational business education at the very beginning would have been.

Jon Clayton:

Well, potentially transformational.

Ray Brown:

Yeah, well it is.

Ray Brown:

It's interesting

Ray Brown:

you use

Ray Brown:

that word transformational because we, again, we've been working on

Ray Brown:

how we explain to people what we do.

Ray Brown:

And it really is about process driven transformation.

Ray Brown:

That, that, that's the story.

Ray Brown:

There's a lot of, um, a narrative in architecture

Ray Brown:

covers

Ray Brown:

a whole lot of ground, but typically architecture is very hard.

Ray Brown:

nobody understands this.

Ray Brown:

It's hard to sell a value.

Ray Brown:

All of those things may be true, uh, but architects, they work in

Ray Brown:

a nice office, there's a need for the product, um, they don't have

Ray Brown:

factories, vehicles, uh, distribution, warehouses, you know, it's a pretty

Ray Brown:

simple business that you sell a service, you deliver that service well, and

Ray Brown:

you've effectively got a good business.

Ray Brown:

One of the fallacies we find, um, is that people think if I only had

Ray Brown:

more business, if I only had more projects, I would be fine, which

Ray Brown:

is

Ray Brown:

We need to fill the pipeline or we're going

Ray Brown:

to

Ray Brown:

run out of work.

Ray Brown:

And

Ray Brown:

it's, it's, it really is a

Ray Brown:

fallacy

Ray Brown:

because if you don't

Ray Brown:

have a well run business sitting behind those

Ray Brown:

projects, more work is probably

Ray Brown:

the last thing

Ray Brown:

that you need.

Ray Brown:

So building those solid

Ray Brown:

foundations

Ray Brown:

across really what we call the four P's, the practice, projects, the

Ray Brown:

people.

Ray Brown:

And the perception that that's really

Ray Brown:

the key

Ray Brown:

to running a good

Ray Brown:

business and understanding where are

Ray Brown:

the opportunities in each of those

Ray Brown:

areas to

Ray Brown:

sharpen the business and squeeze out a little bit more, uh, whether

Ray Brown:

that be revenue or profit.

Ray Brown:

It's, it's,

Ray Brown:

there's huge

Ray Brown:

opportunities in there.

Jon Clayton:

Okay.

Jon Clayton:

Well, we're going to dig into that in a little bit more detail in a moment.

Jon Clayton:

Before we do, why, why is this not happening already

Jon Clayton:

in our industry as standard?

Jon Clayton:

Why are we not, why is it not just the standard that we do get educated in this?

Ray Brown:

Well, that's a great

Ray Brown:

question.

Ray Brown:

And there's a lot about architects and architecture.

Ray Brown:

I didn't understand.

Ray Brown:

And then conversation with one of my clients this afternoon,

Ray Brown:

and I was asking him, you told

Ray Brown:

me about

Ray Brown:

a new

Ray Brown:

house

Ray Brown:

he's designing

Ray Brown:

for himself.

Ray Brown:

And he did this, he said,

Ray Brown:

oh,

Ray Brown:

it looks

Ray Brown:

a bit like this, and there's a

Ray Brown:

slab.

Ray Brown:

And I said, why

Ray Brown:

is it going to peak?

Ray Brown:

Because all the architecture

Ray Brown:

I see is flat roofed and things.

Ray Brown:

And he was telling me about something that happened, I think it

Ray Brown:

was in the 1930s, the, the grease.

Ray Brown:

convention or something where there was

Ray Brown:

a real decision among

Ray Brown:

architects to leave the past behind.

Ray Brown:

And I think that kind

Ray Brown:

of thinking,

Ray Brown:

um, and that leadership from the top has been very

Ray Brown:

influential

Ray Brown:

in architecture.

Ray Brown:

And I was on a panel not so many years ago, uh, with someone,

Ray Brown:

I was speaking about business.

Ray Brown:

I had one of my clients there

Ray Brown:

and

Ray Brown:

I'm older architect.

Ray Brown:

let's put it like that.

Ray Brown:

Grabbed the

Ray Brown:

microphone at one point,

Ray Brown:

300 people in the audience, most of them struggling architects.

Ray Brown:

And

Ray Brown:

he said,

Ray Brown:

what you people have got to realize

Ray Brown:

is we're not an industry or

Ray Brown:

a business.

Ray Brown:

we're a profession.

Ray Brown:

Now, I don't know what that means.

Ray Brown:

I really do

Ray Brown:

not know what that means.

Ray Brown:

If you run your own business,

Ray Brown:

whether you like it or not, you're in business.

Ray Brown:

And

Ray Brown:

that smacks to me of

Ray Brown:

a

Ray Brown:

little bit of arrogance.

Ray Brown:

You know, it smacks of a little bit of

Ray Brown:

naivety.

Ray Brown:

And it's pretty, pretty

Ray Brown:

widespread in the industry that, that

Ray Brown:

the leadership and industry, and particularly the,

Ray Brown:

the, um,

Ray Brown:

industry

Ray Brown:

bodies, um,

Ray Brown:

we've had in

Ray Brown:

some cases, there's real exceptions and they're

Ray Brown:

quite happy to embrace what we do.

Ray Brown:

But.

Ray Brown:

Without naming names, there are certain big organizations that, that

Ray Brown:

either they see us as competition

Ray Brown:

or not required, or, um, we don't need to be taught about that

Ray Brown:

stuff.

Ray Brown:

We've been doing it a long time.

Ray Brown:

So that, that, we come

Ray Brown:

up against that

Ray Brown:

a lot.

Ray Brown:

But

Ray Brown:

we, to

Ray Brown:

be honest, we've stopped trying.

Ray Brown:

We deal with the people who, uh, we, we say

Ray Brown:

we're looking for

Ray Brown:

energized searchers, people who are looking For

Ray Brown:

a better

Ray Brown:

way, looking

Ray Brown:

for a

Ray Brown:

better outcome and we can deliver that better outcome.

Ray Brown:

So they're

Ray Brown:

happy, we're happy, and the ignorant mass is just,

Ray Brown:

well, good luck for them.

Jon Clayton:

That's really interesting.

Jon Clayton:

There's a couple of things in that there isn't there, but that thing of

Jon Clayton:

some of those preconceptions that there are within the industry about, I think

Jon Clayton:

we're often sort of led to believe that, you know, your work, like, just.

Jon Clayton:

You show your, your great design work and that should just bring in the customers.

Jon Clayton:

And it's like, there's this whole tortured artists thing of like, you know,

Jon Clayton:

we, the, the, oh, well architectures is different to other businesses.

Jon Clayton:

It's different.

Jon Clayton:

It's not the same.

Jon Clayton:

It's, you know, it's, it's interesting that that point you make that,

Jon Clayton:

you know, business is business.

Jon Clayton:

If you want to be successful in the architecture industry, you

Jon Clayton:

want to have a successful practice.

Jon Clayton:

Actually, it's a service business.

Jon Clayton:

Whether you're serving your clients helping design a building for them,

Jon Clayton:

or whether it's some other type of consultancy, it's, it's a service business

Jon Clayton:

essentially, and, um, a lot of those business principles that should apply

Jon Clayton:

universally, not, it's not like we're sort of, oh, well, it's architecture.

Jon Clayton:

So it needs this totally, totally different way of doing things.

Jon Clayton:

I think there is a kind of few misconceptions there about business

Jon Clayton:

and architecture generally.

Ray Brown:

You used the word a few there.

Ray Brown:

I think it's a much bigger number than just a few.

Ray Brown:

People,

Ray Brown:

people buy things to solve

Ray Brown:

their problems.

Ray Brown:

Okay.

Ray Brown:

that, everything.

Ray Brown:

Not, not just architecture.

Ray Brown:

And typically people buy confidence.

Ray Brown:

That you're

Ray Brown:

going to solve my problem

Ray Brown:

and

Ray Brown:

perceived value that you're not going to overcharge for what you're doing.

Ray Brown:

And that's a, that

Ray Brown:

can be

Ray Brown:

a learning skill, how you

Ray Brown:

communicate that value.

Ray Brown:

So our business started and we were told to start a new business,

Ray Brown:

you need market research.

Ray Brown:

So we got 10 architects around the table and

Ray Brown:

my

Ray Brown:

business partner at the

Ray Brown:

time,

Ray Brown:

she and I sat down

Ray Brown:

and we brainstormed a few questions.

Ray Brown:

What

Ray Brown:

are we going

Ray Brown:

to ask these guys?

Ray Brown:

And the number one

Ray Brown:

question was,

Ray Brown:

what's the value of architecture?

Ray Brown:

We

Ray Brown:

were thrown out of that restaurant

Ray Brown:

at 1030

Ray Brown:

and we hadn't got to

Ray Brown:

question

Ray Brown:

number two,

Ray Brown:

okay, because they were

Ray Brown:

still arguing amongst

Ray Brown:

themselves and

Ray Brown:

big discussion.

Ray Brown:

If you're in

Ray Brown:

a, if you're in an industry

Ray Brown:

finds it that hard to communicate your value, and there

Ray Brown:

is value in architecture,

Ray Brown:

I'm

Ray Brown:

not sure I could argue that.

Ray Brown:

articulate

Ray Brown:

it properly, even after five

Ray Brown:

years of working with architects.

Ray Brown:

A lot of them are

Ray Brown:

different.

Ray Brown:

You need to position yourself properly as

Ray Brown:

an architectural practice.

Ray Brown:

And if you're not, if

Ray Brown:

you're one of the

Ray Brown:

many architects

Ray Brown:

around who puts

Ray Brown:

a picture of a building on the home page of the website and more

Ray Brown:

or less

Ray Brown:

says, if you want one of

Ray Brown:

those, come to us Then you're missing such a huge opportunity

Ray Brown:

to differentiate because

Ray Brown:

whether you like it or not,

Ray Brown:

there's a lot of people in your market who will be able to

Ray Brown:

deliver a very similar building

Ray Brown:

in the same

Ray Brown:

time,

Ray Brown:

same way, same process.

Ray Brown:

So you've got to really got

Ray Brown:

to find ways

Ray Brown:

of being a

Ray Brown:

better business.

Ray Brown:

It's such a

Ray Brown:

big opportunity for people is to

Ray Brown:

run a better business

Ray Brown:

so that you get more work and

Ray Brown:

you differentiate yourself from your competition.

Jon Clayton:

Remember.

Jon Clayton:

Don't forget to download the architecture business, blueprint the

Jon Clayton:

step by step formula to freedom for architects, architecture, technologists,

Jon Clayton:

and architecture designers.

Jon Clayton:

You can grab the blueprint without any charge@architecturebusinessclub.com

Jon Clayton:

forward slash blueprint.

Jon Clayton:

And if you enjoy this episode, then please leave a five star review or

Jon Clayton:

rating wherever you listen to podcasts.

Jon Clayton:

Now, back to the show.

Jon Clayton:

So Ray, let's swing things back around then to, um, something

Jon Clayton:

that we mentioned a moment ago.

Jon Clayton:

I wanted to just dig in actually to your approach.

Jon Clayton:

Like what is , the Archie biz approach to foundational business education?

Jon Clayton:

Could you tell me a little bit more about

Jon Clayton:

that?

Ray Brown:

I could, I could.

Ray Brown:

Um, you, you're like

Ray Brown:

a lot of people,

Ray Brown:

you,

Ray Brown:

you, you're

Ray Brown:

an architect

Ray Brown:

every day of the week and

Ray Brown:

you see that configuration letters.

Ray Brown:

Uh, but when you see

Ray Brown:

it in a different context,

Ray Brown:

you say arch instead of

Ray Brown:

arc.

Ray Brown:

No.

Ray Brown:

Architect.

Ray Brown:

Um,

Ray Brown:

I'll let you off

Ray Brown:

this time.

Jon Clayton:

thanks Ray.

Ray Brown:

foundational business education, it's

Ray Brown:

just, which are the basics?

Ray Brown:

It's understanding

Ray Brown:

you What

Ray Brown:

are

Ray Brown:

the things related?

Ray Brown:

So there are

Ray Brown:

really.

Ray Brown:

three key areas, or four key areas that we speak about.

Ray Brown:

We

Ray Brown:

encourage people to meet once

Ray Brown:

a month to speak about the business, to

Ray Brown:

work

Ray Brown:

on the business, not in the

Ray Brown:

business.

Ray Brown:

It's,

Ray Brown:

it's what we

Ray Brown:

call a board meeting.

Ray Brown:

And architects, we're too small to have a board meeting.

Ray Brown:

But

Ray Brown:

then

Ray Brown:

when do you speak about the business?

Ray Brown:

The business, when do you speak

Ray Brown:

about strategy?

Ray Brown:

Oh,

Ray Brown:

well, we just have an occasional meeting of the directors or whatever.

Ray Brown:

So

Ray Brown:

start with finance.

Ray Brown:

Finance, again, it's a very simple process.

Ray Brown:

It's the business scorecard.

Ray Brown:

Where are you winning?

Ray Brown:

Where are you

Ray Brown:

losing?

Ray Brown:

What's going well?

Ray Brown:

What's not?

Ray Brown:

Um,

Ray Brown:

operations is the

Ray Brown:

second.

Ray Brown:

component.

Ray Brown:

That's how you do what you do.

Ray Brown:

So improving your utilization,

Ray Brown:

improving your budgeting,

Ray Brown:

improving your

Ray Brown:

management of projects.

Ray Brown:

Then we've got sales and

Ray Brown:

marketing.

Ray Brown:

Are you bringing in the right projects at

Ray Brown:

the right time, at the

Ray Brown:

right price?

Ray Brown:

And finally, this project.

Ray Brown:

So every business needs to have a range of

Ray Brown:

ongoing projects that may be new software or a new office

Ray Brown:

or

Ray Brown:

something that's a standalone

Ray Brown:

time limited project

Ray Brown:

that needs to get reported

Ray Brown:

somewhere.

Ray Brown:

So that monthly meeting allows

Ray Brown:

management

Ray Brown:

of the business or the leaders of the business

Ray Brown:

to look

Ray Brown:

at the finance.

Ray Brown:

to the operation, to the sales

Ray Brown:

and marketing,

Ray Brown:

um, and the progress in the various projects that are ongoing.

Ray Brown:

And, and what we

Ray Brown:

bring is we bring the templates to make that

Ray Brown:

overseeing really easy.

Ray Brown:

Okay.

Ray Brown:

There

Ray Brown:

are standard things in, in, in business.

Ray Brown:

The

Ray Brown:

one that I like the most, if I, if I was an architect, I would want to know

Ray Brown:

the six month rolling average of work secured.

Ray Brown:

So picking up work in an architecture

Ray Brown:

practice can be

Ray Brown:

lumpy, But if you take the last six months of work that you've

Ray Brown:

won, you divide

Ray Brown:

it by six

Ray Brown:

and you

Ray Brown:

record that number.

Ray Brown:

If

Ray Brown:

you record that every month, That will show you whether you're picking up enough

Ray Brown:

work to pay the bills in the future and

Ray Brown:

make a profit, or if

Ray Brown:

that's dwindling and you may have

Ray Brown:

to cut resources.

Ray Brown:

So it's all about

Ray Brown:

looking to the future, forecasting

Ray Brown:

and not looking to the past

Ray Brown:

in terms of how the business performs.

Jon Clayton:

I love that.

Jon Clayton:

There's a couple of great takeaways in there.

Jon Clayton:

That's just a really useful.

Jon Clayton:

KPI, Key Performance Indicator that, that any practice could use.

Jon Clayton:

They could use that right away now.

Jon Clayton:

Couldn't they?

Jon Clayton:

That sort of six months of, um, projects secured.

Jon Clayton:

I love what you're doing with the monthly board meeting can we just recap

Jon Clayton:

on those different categories there?

Jon Clayton:

So there was finance.

Ray Brown:

Finance

Ray Brown:

number one.

Ray Brown:

So finance

Ray Brown:

is the scorecard.

Ray Brown:

Are

Ray Brown:

we winning?

Ray Brown:

Are we losing?

Ray Brown:

Operations is

Ray Brown:

number two.

Ray Brown:

So the, the,

Ray Brown:

the,

Ray Brown:

the, there are KPIs

Ray Brown:

around

Ray Brown:

operations too.

Ray Brown:

utilization, throughput, all

Ray Brown:

of those things.

Ray Brown:

Um,

Ray Brown:

the, the amount of return that

Ray Brown:

we, strictly speaking, architects are in a very simple business in terms of business

Ray Brown:

model.

Ray Brown:

We buy ours

Ray Brown:

and we convert that into revenue.

Ray Brown:

There's a

Ray Brown:

lot of design stuff

Ray Brown:

within the middle.

Ray Brown:

Absolutely.

Ray Brown:

That's the

Ray Brown:

product.

Ray Brown:

But the business model is Buying hours, selling

Ray Brown:

hours.

Ray Brown:

So making that

Ray Brown:

conversion is the operations piece and

Ray Brown:

that needs

Ray Brown:

to be as efficient as possible.

Ray Brown:

And thirdly, we've got sales and marketing, which is bringing

Ray Brown:

in the right work at the right time through the business.

Ray Brown:

And the last one is projects, special projects to improve the business.

Jon Clayton:

And again, that's, it's a really simple framework that you've

Jon Clayton:

integrated that into the, the, the program that you have and, but also

Jon Clayton:

there's something there that I think that if maybe there's somebody out there

Jon Clayton:

that's listening to the show, and they're maybe thinking, I maybe don't have

Jon Clayton:

the resources right now, or, you know, the money to invest in a, in a program

Jon Clayton:

like, like raise that there's actually, they could actually create their own

Jon Clayton:

board meeting, or maybe they could have a buddy that they could do that with.

Jon Clayton:

They're not going to obviously get access to ready made frameworks

Jon Clayton:

and that additional support.

Jon Clayton:

But if you're looking at making a marginal improvement in what you're doing

Jon Clayton:

already, that would be such a useful thing that people could start doing.

Ray Brown:

I think so, um, and much as I don't want

Ray Brown:

to disagree with the host,

Ray Brown:

but, you know, this

Ray Brown:

is, this

Ray Brown:

is not, that's an

Ray Brown:

investment.

Ray Brown:

It's not a cost.

Ray Brown:

And if you're short of money,

Ray Brown:

this program costs,

Ray Brown:

uh, 2, 000, 1, 990, whatever it is.

Ray Brown:

What

Ray Brown:

we find is a lot of architectural practice.

Ray Brown:

They'll spend much

Ray Brown:

more than that on, on photographs of a

Ray Brown:

building.

Ray Brown:

You know, they finish a building and it's going to be

Ray Brown:

done by a professional.

Ray Brown:

It's going to be laid out by, uh,

Ray Brown:

Somebody that sets

Ray Brown:

up the

Ray Brown:

stage to be photographed, I have nothing

Ray Brown:

against that,

Ray Brown:

but to put

Ray Brown:

that amount of value on that and not get the basic business education

Ray Brown:

and the way

Ray Brown:

to look at the

Ray Brown:

business education is you're going to get a

Ray Brown:

return on that investment

Ray Brown:

for the next five years, 10

Ray Brown:

years, 15 years, the number of people

Ray Brown:

who

Ray Brown:

have said to me that I wish I'd done your program,

Ray Brown:

um, 25 or

Ray Brown:

30

Ray Brown:

years ago, cause it would have

Ray Brown:

changed my life.

Ray Brown:

okay?

Ray Brown:

I'll be implementing stuff now, but had I known this back then, I would have Life

Ray Brown:

would have been a lot better.

Ray Brown:

So in terms of lifetime value,

Ray Brown:

we give

Ray Brown:

people lifetime access to

Ray Brown:

the product.

Ray Brown:

We're always adding to it.

Ray Brown:

We've got a community, we've got regular

Ray Brown:

forums.

Ray Brown:

It's

Ray Brown:

not, it shouldn't be, it should be

Ray Brown:

seen

Ray Brown:

as an investment and an

Ray Brown:

investment that people say,

Ray Brown:

I've

Ray Brown:

got to come up with a really

Ray Brown:

good reason for not doing

Ray Brown:

this.

Ray Brown:

Okay.

Ray Brown:

Why, why would I not do this?

Ray Brown:

And shortage of money

Ray Brown:

at that level

Ray Brown:

shouldn't

Ray Brown:

be a constraint

Ray Brown:

because that

Ray Brown:

If you can't raise that amount of money to do

Ray Brown:

the program or speak to us about

Ray Brown:

spreading the cost

Ray Brown:

over time,

Ray Brown:

uh, then you've got to look in the mirror and say, am I really

Ray Brown:

in business

Ray Brown:

here?

Jon Clayton:

I, I can't disagree with anything that you've said there.

Jon Clayton:

I guess I was using the example more with like startups in minds.

Jon Clayton:

I've had some conversations recently with some people that are literally just

Jon Clayton:

starting out which is an argument to say it would be the perfect time for them to

Jon Clayton:

do the program, they don't have a pipeline of, of work already kind of lined up.

Jon Clayton:

Maybe before they're, The ready to make the investment, which I appreciate is,

Jon Clayton:

it's not actually a lot of money really in the world of running a business.

Jon Clayton:

It's actually, as you say, you could spend more on a set of photos for a project.

Ray Brown:

I think it's a really

Ray Brown:

good, good conversation to be had.

Ray Brown:

And it's not me banging the drum and saying, buy our program,

Ray Brown:

buy someone else's program or

Ray Brown:

get, get yourself a business coach locally.

Ray Brown:

I'm not,

Ray Brown:

not in

Ray Brown:

the business.

Ray Brown:

We're not the

Ray Brown:

only

Ray Brown:

people doing this kind

Ray Brown:

of

Ray Brown:

work.

Ray Brown:

Uh, but I would

Ray Brown:

come back to that startup

Ray Brown:

week.

Ray Brown:

Sell the program to a lot of

Ray Brown:

startup

Ray Brown:

people

Ray Brown:

and

Ray Brown:

they're the ones who are going

Ray Brown:

to do

Ray Brown:

well,

Ray Brown:

okay, because

Ray Brown:

they're thinking from day one that they're a

Ray Brown:

business owner,

Ray Brown:

not an architect.

Ray Brown:

Exclusively.

Ray Brown:

Okay, the getting some work and winning some money

Ray Brown:

and

Ray Brown:

get get the systems and

Ray Brown:

processes set up at the beginning.

Ray Brown:

Okay,

Ray Brown:

business.

Ray Brown:

Business is

Ray Brown:

not a no cost startup.

Ray Brown:

Architects tend to take it like that, that you've

Ray Brown:

got some work and now

Ray Brown:

I can feed the family and do the stuff.

Ray Brown:

I

Ray Brown:

do think that

Ray Brown:

that

Ray Brown:

that

Ray Brown:

ends up with you having

Ray Brown:

a job.

Ray Brown:

Rather than a business.

Ray Brown:

So the choice is yours.

Ray Brown:

Are you going out on your own

Ray Brown:

to feed the family and do

Ray Brown:

your own work, which is obviously the driving, often the driving force,

Ray Brown:

or do

Ray Brown:

you really want to be in business and that business happens to be architecture?

Jon Clayton:

What I hope is that by people that are in those early stages,

Jon Clayton:

by Accessing things like this podcast and listening to these conversations

Jon Clayton:

that we can help educate them in the value of investing in themselves and

Jon Clayton:

their business and doing it as early as possible, because it can save so much

Jon Clayton:

time, stress and hassle and set you up for success far sooner than otherwise.

Jon Clayton:

Because I mentioned earlier that I made just about every mistake possible.

Jon Clayton:

And it's because of that lack of business education at the very beginning.

Jon Clayton:

But I think that the time when people probably needs that education

Jon Clayton:

most, they have to kind of get to this realization point themselves

Jon Clayton:

that, Oh yeah, I actually, I do need to invest in this thing.

Jon Clayton:

People aren't always.

Jon Clayton:

there when they need to be even though there's a solution there for them

Jon Clayton:

that can help them out, they might not be at the point when they, um,

Jon Clayton:

are quite ready to go ahead with it.

Jon Clayton:

So I hope that, you know, people will listen to this and think, whoa, actually

Jon Clayton:

this is a knowledge gap that I have.

Jon Clayton:

And I'm actually listening to this.

Jon Clayton:

I do need to do something about it and perhaps a bit sooner than

Jon Clayton:

I would have done previously.

Ray Brown:

Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.

Ray Brown:

I think there is

Ray Brown:

a, there is a movement

Ray Brown:

around.

Ray Brown:

Okay.

Ray Brown:

We shouldn't have been able to set up Archibus five years ago

Ray Brown:

and be

Ray Brown:

virtually the only people

Ray Brown:

that we think who are providing a practical, holistic, systems

Ray Brown:

based program

Ray Brown:

specifically for

Ray Brown:

architects.

Ray Brown:

Okay.

Ray Brown:

There's lots

Ray Brown:

of.

Ray Brown:

People out there, there are lots

Ray Brown:

of

Ray Brown:

webinars, there's lots of courses, there's

Ray Brown:

lots of things.

Ray Brown:

Typically what happens is

Ray Brown:

that you attend a course, and then you come back tomorrow into a

Ray Brown:

business that's really working hard.

Ray Brown:

And, you

Ray Brown:

know, when do

Ray Brown:

you find time to

Ray Brown:

put it in?

Ray Brown:

And how do I reconcile the financial

Ray Brown:

advice I'm getting with the marketing advice I'm

Ray Brown:

getting?

Ray Brown:

And what we

Ray Brown:

think we bring to the party is, this is how to set priorities, and this is how to

Ray Brown:

really evolve

Ray Brown:

your business

Ray Brown:

in.

Ray Brown:

the right direction.

Ray Brown:

This one, uh, one hour meeting a month, one and a half hours

Ray Brown:

at the very most.

Ray Brown:

And what

Ray Brown:

we say is if, if

Ray Brown:

you

Ray Brown:

make five decisions every month, that improves your business, that's 60

Ray Brown:

in a year.

Ray Brown:

That

Ray Brown:

will transform your business.

Ray Brown:

That's, that's process

Ray Brown:

driven transformation in action.

Ray Brown:

So there's no magic wand.

Ray Brown:

This is not a unicorn.

Ray Brown:

We

Ray Brown:

have lots of

Ray Brown:

clients who were losing money, making money, making

Ray Brown:

a little, losing a little.

Ray Brown:

And now the target that we set our clients is 15 to 20 percent net profit.

Ray Brown:

After a salary

Ray Brown:

is paid

Ray Brown:

to the, at a market rate paid to the people working in it, including

Ray Brown:

the owners.

Ray Brown:

So if you're not getting 15 to 20 percent

Ray Brown:

return on your investment

Ray Brown:

and creating employment and the work you're doing

Ray Brown:

in the market, you really need to, as

Ray Brown:

I

Ray Brown:

say, look in

Ray Brown:

the mirror and say, am

Ray Brown:

I running a real business or is

Ray Brown:

this something that needs work?

Jon Clayton:

There's a misconception there with, with, with having a business or

Jon Clayton:

running a business or being in business.

Jon Clayton:

We often say that we run a business, whereas actually you've created a job.

Jon Clayton:

You might be in business, but you don't necessarily have a business.

Jon Clayton:

And that's an interesting distinction there, um, which I just wanted

Jon Clayton:

to point Pick up on, cause it has come up on, on other occasions

Jon Clayton:

as well in the conversations.

Jon Clayton:

That's been really interesting, Ray.

Jon Clayton:

Thanks for talking us through that.

Jon Clayton:

I guess I want to try and round things up now.

Jon Clayton:

What, what'd be the main thing that you'd like everyone to take

Jon Clayton:

away from this conversation?

Ray Brown:

Well, I

Ray Brown:

suppose beyond getting

Ray Brown:

some foundational business education, if you want one

Ray Brown:

specific thing,

Ray Brown:

it would be around financial

Ray Brown:

literacy.

Ray Brown:

And that, that's something

Ray Brown:

that, that architects will say, I don't want to be

Ray Brown:

an accountant.

Ray Brown:

And that's not, I'm an architect.

Ray Brown:

And, um,

Ray Brown:

I was

Ray Brown:

38 and had

Ray Brown:

three businesses and

Ray Brown:

I really didn't know the difference

Ray Brown:

between a profit and loss in a balance sheet.

Ray Brown:

We

Ray Brown:

cover that in the program.

Ray Brown:

And when I used to be running courses for, for

Ray Brown:

fairly senior managers, I would say,

Ray Brown:

do you want me to go through the basics of

Ray Brown:

finance?

Ray Brown:

And most people said yes, because you don't get taught that And your accountant

Ray Brown:

with the best will in the world.

Ray Brown:

Accountants are not.

Ray Brown:

Very good teachers.

Ray Brown:

You don't see that as part of the role.

Ray Brown:

They're about

Ray Brown:

accuracy

Ray Brown:

and all that stuff.

Ray Brown:

So

Ray Brown:

getting some financial literacy

Ray Brown:

at a basic level, so you know regularly how

Ray Brown:

your business is performing, both

Ray Brown:

forecasting and historically.

Ray Brown:

So you want early warning, you

Ray Brown:

want what we call lead indicators, not

Ray Brown:

lag indicators, not

Ray Brown:

something that tells you where you've been in the past.

Ray Brown:

Something that

Ray Brown:

says, I've got a pretty good feel for where we'll be in six months

Ray Brown:

time or a year.

Ray Brown:

so that would be

Ray Brown:

my key.

Ray Brown:

And

Ray Brown:

that would be the same

Ray Brown:

advice to any business owner.

Ray Brown:

If you don't have basic

Ray Brown:

financial literacy, um, then you really are missing a big piece of the

Ray Brown:

jigsaw.

Jon Clayton:

Brilliant.

Jon Clayton:

Sage advice.

Jon Clayton:

Ray, was there anything else that you, you wanted to add that we, we haven't covered?

Ray Brown:

Oh,

Ray Brown:

that's

Ray Brown:

a great

Ray Brown:

question and we've covered a lot and

Ray Brown:

I'm

Ray Brown:

a

Ray Brown:

very passionate, hope it's come across that I am passionate about helping

Ray Brown:

architects

Ray Brown:

and I'm just so glad that, um, there seems to

Ray Brown:

be a groundswell of recognition that this is required, you

Ray Brown:

know, particularly from some of the younger leaders

Ray Brown:

in, uh, in architecture, and

Ray Brown:

I would just encourage

Ray Brown:

everybody to reach out

Ray Brown:

and not necessarily

Ray Brown:

buy

Ray Brown:

something tomorrow, but find out what they're not buying.

Ray Brown:

okay, find out what

Ray Brown:

they're missing.

Ray Brown:

and

Ray Brown:

not

Ray Brown:

perpetuate this architecture

Ray Brown:

is different, you know, nobody understands this life's hard.

Ray Brown:

Nobody

Ray Brown:

wants to hear that story.

Ray Brown:

I want to speak

Ray Brown:

to, There are plenty of successful, profitable

Ray Brown:

architectural businesses out there

Ray Brown:

and we deal with a lot of them.

Ray Brown:

So I, I,

Ray Brown:

I have no

Ray Brown:

time for the doom and gloom

Ray Brown:

stories.

Jon Clayton:

Oh, absolutely not.

Jon Clayton:

There's too much negativity out there already.

Jon Clayton:

We don't need any more of that, do we?

Jon Clayton:

I like to kind of concentrate on the positive side of things.

Jon Clayton:

And there are a lot of positive things that we can talk about.

Jon Clayton:

So, um, yeah, thanks.

Jon Clayton:

So thank you so much, Ray.

Jon Clayton:

There's one other question that I wanted to ask and it's

Jon Clayton:

nothing to do with architecture.

Jon Clayton:

Just a regular question.

Jon Clayton:

I like to ask all of the guests.

Jon Clayton:

I, I love to travel and discover new places.

Jon Clayton:

And I just wondered if you could tell me about One of your favorite

Jon Clayton:

places and what you love about it.

Jon Clayton:

Oh,

Ray Brown:

Well, I think if people look up,

Ray Brown:

uh, a place called Mount Martha on, which I now

Ray Brown:

write a Melbourne,

Ray Brown:

um, we're fortunate enough to go down

Ray Brown:

there most weekends.

Ray Brown:

It's got the most beautiful beach, and

Ray Brown:

the

Ray Brown:

beach is,

Ray Brown:

um, a row

Ray Brown:

of very

Ray Brown:

colourful beach boxes.

Ray Brown:

The, the beach is pristine.

Ray Brown:

Uh, when we bought our place down there, it was pristine.

Ray Brown:

pretty

Ray Brown:

unknown.

Ray Brown:

It's getting a little bit more

Ray Brown:

popular

Ray Brown:

now,

Ray Brown:

but

Ray Brown:

I've traveled

Ray Brown:

many places and

Ray Brown:

been on many beaches,

Ray Brown:

but

Ray Brown:

none

Ray Brown:

of them match up

Ray Brown:

to

Ray Brown:

Mount Martha on the Mornington Peninsula.

Ray Brown:

And the extra bit

Ray Brown:

on that is that

Ray Brown:

within 25 minutes of my

Ray Brown:

house,

Ray Brown:

there are 65 vineyards.

Ray Brown:

So there's

Ray Brown:

plenty, plenty of wine tasting and lunches

Ray Brown:

to be had around the peninsula.

Ray Brown:

So great place.

Ray Brown:

Great place to be.

Jon Clayton:

that sounds fantastic.

Jon Clayton:

Ray, thanks again.

Jon Clayton:

Thanks so much for coming on the show and sharing your expertise with us.

Jon Clayton:

I really appreciate it.

Jon Clayton:

Could you let everybody know where is the best place to connect with you

Jon Clayton:

online if they want to get in touch?

Ray Brown:

Yep, happy

Ray Brown:

to,

Ray Brown:

you can find me on

Ray Brown:

LinkedIn, um, Ray Brown, uh, with Archibiz,

Ray Brown:

or my email address is ray at

Ray Brown:

archibiz, uh,

Ray Brown:

dot global.

Ray Brown:

So I

Ray Brown:

would encourage you to go and check out the business foundations program

Ray Brown:

or reach out to me

Ray Brown:

directly.

Ray Brown:

I'm

Ray Brown:

quite happy to

Ray Brown:

have a chat, always up

Ray Brown:

for a zoom call, speak about architectural

Ray Brown:

business and how we

Ray Brown:

can

Ray Brown:

help.

Jon Clayton:

Brilliant.

Jon Clayton:

And can you please remind everyone, um, the, the web address for the

Jon Clayton:

business foundations program?

Jon Clayton:

Can you remind everyone of that, please?

Ray Brown:

Archibiz dot global

Ray Brown:

forward slash

Ray Brown:

BFP.

Jon Clayton:

That's brilliant.

Jon Clayton:

Thanks so much, Ray.

Ray Brown:

Pleasure.

Ray Brown:

Thanks for inviting

Ray Brown:

me.

Jon Clayton:

Thanks so much for listening to this episode

Jon Clayton:

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.