Going Solo – Getting a Foot in the Door

1. How did you know when you were ready to go solo?
I agree with Andrew. Have some work coming in before you quit your current job. I started moonlighting on the side by accident. The church I was attending wanted to expand. They hired an architect, whom I met. The city required a landscape plan for the expansion and after the project was completed, he asked if I could help on another project and it just continued from there. When I left my former employer with 8 years experience as an LA and several more working under LAs and engineers.

2. What were some strategies you employed to drum up work/get your foot in the door when you were just starting out on your own? (assuming you didn’t steal clients on your way out or win some high-profile competition…)
I intentionally did not take any clients from my former employer. My entire career has been working with civil engineers and architects, so I picked up the phone and started cold-calling engineers. Admittedly, the first few months were tough, but by the end of the second year my salary had doubled. Maybe it was just luck (and a LOT of hard work), but the economy was good and business has continued to improve over the past 15 years. That being said, I never stop marketing. Even though I have a number of solid companies sending me work, I continually seek new clients or reach out to old clients.

3. How did you leverage your network to help you get that first project or two?
My experience seems similar to Andrew’s and while I do some high end residential, I primarily focus on commercial landscape design. Yes, it’s boring, but it pays very well. My residential work comes from architects not engineers. Start calling your local architects and ask to meet with them. Ask if they have any potential projects. Have your portfolio together and be ready to present it. ALWAYS charge for your services… good advice from a former FASLA employer. Eventually, you will land your first project. After that each project will be a little easier.

On a side note: I have a friend that only designs high-end residential. She hooked up with some developers at first to build her portfolio. The initial residences were fairly cookie cutter. It’s taken a few years, but now she designs landscapes for some of the richest people in the State. I’ve never tried the developer route, but several LAs have told me it’s very profitable.

Good luck!

Different states have different requirements. My state, Massachusetts, does not have any surprisingly. However, a General Liability policy is something that you’ll need when working for other businesses because their insurance require the subs to be insured – usually $1m with a $2m aggregate. I pay around $800 per year for that. Errors and omissions insurance is something that you may want to protect yourself (may be required in other states. I believe that runs about $3,500 per year. It may be more if you are just starting out – I’m not sure.

You have to go after work that you are not only capable of doing, but that you are likely to get. The first thing that you need to accomplish is filling your schedule with work or it will go nowhere.

The ONLY reason people hire us or other people who do similar work is to remove doubt from the outcome of the project. Part of that is the design itself is good, but reality is that there are a ton of good “designers” out there and there are a lot of other “doubts” than just the design. There is cost – cost of design, cost of construction, cost of maintenance, cost of materials, …. There is scheduling – how long to develop the design, how long for permitting, how long to get the materials, how long to construct, what other things need to be done by others to allow for parts of your project to get done? Efficiency is another – how well you work with others both in design and logistically on the site. Those are some. There could be more on any project. These are all things valued differently by anyone hiring someone who does what we do. That is a good thing because there is more chances of having a good fit somewhere.

It is a dead end if you go after work that others appear to be better suited to remove more doubt than you appear to be able to do. No one is going to hire you (generic you) or me to “give us a chance”. One of the best ways to fill your schedule is to go after work where you are competing against people that your resume and portfolio of built work puts you at or near the top of the list. Another is to look where there may be opportunities to present a more efficient option where you see developers being bogged down by having to use firms that insist on more deliverables or services than necessary – a lot of projects don’t need design details for everything.

You can’t fill a need that you don’t know about, so you need to be able to observe how things are actually working in your market as much as possible. You need to know not only what is being built, but who is initiating the work and the order of whom is brought on board and when. Where in that pipeline can you connect? The higher up the pipeline that you connect, the less opportunity there is for someone else to get in. Does the developer look for the LA (or other site or landscape designer) or is it the architect, or the engineer, or the builder? Can you cut the line and get the engineer to recommend you before it goes out to bid to three or four GC’s?

Don’t overvalue design ability. I believe too many of us think that we get work by being more creative than the next person. Reality is that there are a ton of good designers out there and some of them don’t have RLA next to their names. If you rely only on being a good designer, you are missing where the jobs are won or lost. If you can prepare your work so that it makes the engineer’s life easier (s)he will recommend you every time over someone with similar skills. Minimize you deliverables to get through design development and permitting quicker than the LA who wants to make big projects out of not so big projects – timing is everything for developers.

We have to play the game as the game is being played, but we can adapt our own capabilities AND LIMITATIONS to be competitive. NEVER try to compete with your weakest abilities. Know them. Be honest with yourself and use YOUR best capabilities to land work. You may find that your competition relies only on his/her strong points and is never challenged by a different angle. Developers don’t care what text books tell them they need – only professors and people brainwashed by them do.

April 8, 2019
Hello Zelkov………….

I understand where you’re coming from. IMO, it really is very important to get maybe 8 to 10 years (or more) of professional practice in an LA firm (not one that’s too small); one that has several experienced and talented LAs.

In my case, I had been designing for a Dallas, Texas LA firm (25 LAs) and in Feb. 1991, almost everyone was laid off due to a very sluggish economy…just not enough projects out there. At age 41, I decided to go it alone. I got a ton of experience from the time I graduated from Texas A&M in 1977 thru 1990…so, that made going out on my own that much easier. Still, it took me 2 yrs. of marketing and taking on every little design project I could get. Finally, landed a major Multi-Family Developer client…one of the TOP in the Nation. In the Dallas LA firm I was with, approx. 70% of their projects were multi=family, so, I had developed a pretty strong Portfolio (especially with multi-family projects).

In the Dallas LA firm, the pay was just not what it should have been…the Owners refused to pay any LA over $30k plus double-time for over-time…but, I DID gain a TON of great knowledge and experience from some very experienced and talented LAs.

As I moved forward with my LA firm, I decided NOT to expand beyond myself. I worked very long hours for over 14 years…then, began slowing down (around age 55…and finally retiring recently at the age of 69. BUT, the great thing about working for myself was the INCOME was MUCH better than working for an LA firm. As, multi-family project Fees ran from $20k to $50k…and I designed from 6 to 9 per year for almost 15 years. I had 6 other multi-family accounts…designing various number of projects for each. For my main client, Fairfield Residential, LLC., I designed a total of 105 multi-family projects in 8 different States.

I have designed several Single Family projects as well over the years. I believe the upscale Single Family market will ALWAYS be around…even when the economy is down.

I agree, BEFORE you leave an LA firm to go out on your own…..you really need more experience AND a strong Portfolio (you’ll need that Portfolio to do marketing). Finding 1 or 2 clients on the side who will give you “repeat” business would really be helpful in going it alone. But, remember, no matter how much start up money you have, talent or experience…..it STILL takes about 2 years to get a “start up” company up and running…so, be aware of that.

Also, once you get out on your own…..consider eventually “expanding” your firm by adding additional LAs. I have several LA friends who have LA firms with 8 to 25 LAs on Staff…and they are doing exceptionally well, financially. Be sure to keep your “overhead” LOW. I worked out of my Home Design Studio, so, paying the IRS was really my only over-head…I never learned autoCAD, I’ve only drawn preliminary and final plans “by hand”…approx. 600 projects. Also, be SURE to “invest” every month, if you can, you’ll be glad you did. Being on your own, means you have to pay the IRS Quarterly payments…I used a 1 man CPA firm to help me.

I don’t really have a website per se, I have a FLICKR website where I have posted many of my Portfolio samples. If you GOOGLE my name “J. Robert Wainner”, you’ll see my FLICKR website pop up.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU!

J. Robert (Bob) Wainner