Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, it's Gordon from Youknows
We're going to do something weird today but we're going to start with an email from Todd
And it says, Gordon, where are you when you do that video
with the big kind of brass light hanging? Which is this bad boy here. And we've got our big
chair poster etc. I will tell you that at the end of the
video. But what I'm going to talk about today is we're going to do something weird, which is I'm using WriteSonic
So this is an AI tool that I use a lot. So it's like
ChatGPT but it does images, it does articles, all those kind of things
I think it's a really, really good product. I subscribe to it
So what we're going to do is we're going to ask its ChatSonic function
what is the biggest stress for architects? Top 5 stresses for architects working in the UK
So let's put it into the prompt. What are the top 5 stresses
for architects or no, running an architectural practice. For running an architectural
business in the UK. We need to say UK otherwise it will probably think we're in America or something
I don't know why it does that. But there. Boom. It's doing something
It's reading some articles. Top 5 stresses. This will be interesting. I can see dearth of skilled labour. What does that mean
Managing risks. Architects must be proactive in anticipating managing risks. Not sure I agree with that one. Do we agree with that one? Managing risks
Yeah, but it's not like the top 5 stress. I think there's more
Finding clients. I think that's probably better, isn't it? Finding clients. Securing clients requires a good network of connections and despite the increasing
number of housing projects, new architecture firms may find it challenging to find work that aligns with your expertise
I would agree with that because I talk to a lot of architectural
practice and architects and I would say 80% of them do not have a niche or understand the power of a
niche. They are generalists. I think if we talk to an economist, they would say
what do they call it? They call it a good which is highly substitutable
It's a can of Coke. If you buy a can of Coke at one shop and it's 20
cheaper at another shop, you go to the 20% cheaper one because it's
the same product. It's the same commoditization. That's what I was looking for. If you're an architect and you don't have a niche
then you're a commodity. Therefore, most clients will just be looking for the cheapest version of that commodity
If you want to stop being a commodity, you need a niche
Coming up with changes. Staying up to date with the latest developments in architecture including building materials
technology, demands continuous education. I think that's just inherent to being an architect
and it's a double-edged sword. It's really interesting but then also a bit taxing. I would say
keeping up with changes is a real opportunity because you've got the big
shift in SAP assessments just happened. You've got the big shift in Part B, Part L, all of these kind of things
It's a really great opportunity to wrestle back command or control and be the expert
in these fields away from your clients and other consultants because the more complex a building
project is or a delivery or a planning, the more opportunity you have to shine because they can't go somewhere
else. You can be that expert and potentially develop that niche. I don't know about that. Dearth of skilled labor
Shortage of technical skilled personnel exacerbates by factors like Brexit and adoption of building information possesses blah blah blah blah
Again, if you... I think staff is one of the biggest stresses. Not having the right staff
What I've read a lot about is owners of businesses and managers, they employ people who
essentially are mirrors of themselves. They have the same skill sets because people
are just looking for themselves to replicate. I don't know that kind of stuff
Essentially, what the good business books... I've read a lot of business books on this matter
If you're hiring staff, you should be hiring staff and they should be better at it than you. You should be like the worst person in the
practice. I kind of discovered this many years ago that I was doing stuff like design and whatnot
There's a lot of architects out there thinking that no one does it like me. But you give a task or
an area to a staff member or several staff members it's amazing how fast they soon do it better
than you did. Then you adopt that mentor role and that's where owners of businesses should be
Dearth of skilled labor, I'm not sure about either. I would say
if you've got a niche and you're a good practice and you let
people do the cool stuff, I think you will attract the right people. Client retention and new business development
Surely that's like finding clients. But again, that comes back to retaining and securing clients
If you've got proposal software and you've got your niche and you know what you're good at, then I'm not sure about that either
If you've got any ideas about this, do drop something in the comments to see
if any of this actually makes sense, etc. Maybe that was helpful, maybe that wasn't. Who knows