EntreArchitect Podcast with Mark R. LePage

My name is Mark R. LePage and I am a recovering procrastinator. After 40+ years, I don t have much hope of ever finding a cure, but recently I have found some ways to hang on to the wagon and stay focused on getting things done. With so many things on my plate, I often find [...]

Last December I was invited to speak at AIAS Forum 2013; the American Institute of Architecture Students national convention. This year the event was held in Chicago Yes, Chicago in December, and yes, we were snowed-in for days. While we waited for the airports to open, I had the opportunity to speak in length with [...]

Everything I do in business, I approach as an experiment. It’s been 9 months since moving Fivecat Studio out of our 2,000 square foot studio in Pleasantville, New York to a new 200 square foot studio in our Chappaqua home. It’s been very successful and I love what we’re doing, but this week on the [...]

It is the individual small firm architects, taking charge of their own success and working with other individual architects; collaborating and sharing their knowledge that will really take this profession to new levels… and this really excites me. Today on the podcast, in the spirit of sharing what is exciting me most, I want to [...]

To successfully complete a project, an architect is responsible for making thousands of critical decisions. To complete the development of a standard residential additions and alterations project, it takes several months of focus and dedication. Many of us work long hours, long into the night, through weekends and holidays. The innovative ideas and concepts we [...]

A little past 6AM, tunes from the local radio station wake me from a very deep slumber. Typically, I will set the alarm to 6:14, so I hear music rather than the daily bad news report. I am very serious about my full media blackout . I certainly don t spend enough time sleeping and for the [...]

This week on the podcast, I invited small firm architects Lee Calisti, Jeremiah Russell, Steve May and Neal Pann to discuss the virtual studio business model. Neal was in the wilds of Canada on vacation and could not make it to the call, but Lee, Jeremiah, Steve and I had a very interesting conversation about [...]

In the 15 years that Annmarie and I have been practicing at our small residential architecture firm, we have seen much of our hardware come and go. We launched the firm with a single Dell workstation, a monster CRT monitor and an inexpensive all-in-one scanner, printer, fax machine. Today we re running Apple computers and the [...]

Late yesterday afternoon, I received an email from my friend Bob Borson of Life of an Architect. His message was a challenge to all architect bloggers on the internet. Bob challenged us to coordinate a series of blog posts, (and this podcast episode) all to be published on the same day and answering the same [...]

This week on the Entrepreneur Architect Podcast, I talk about my week and share my insights on the Business Plan Competition and the AIA National Convention. It was a fantastic week. Please review the podcast on iTunes. References from this Episode Architecture Business Plan Competition AIA Convention WoodenBoat Show in Mystic Connecticut Hotel Burnham Eleven:59 [...]

This week on the Entrepreneur Architect Podcast I chatted with my friend Enoch Sears, the founder of BusinessOfArchitecture.com. Each week, Enoch hosts the Business of Architecture Show, a video podcast, which may be viewed on his website, on his YouTube channel or you may listen to the audio on iTunes. Enoch’s show is specifically focused [...]

When Annmarie and I launched Fivecat Studio back in 1999, we took the work we could get and charged what we thought our clients wanted to pay. As we matured as architects and grew as a business, we learned that we needed to make more money in order to build a better business. Are you [...]

Residential architecture is very different than any other building type. The scale is different. The materials are different. The details are different… and our clients well, they are very different. The life of a residential architect is very challenging. The psychology involved in a successful residential architecture project is something that can only be learned [...]

This week on the Entrepreneur Architect Podcast, I am turning things over to you, the Entrepreneur Architect Community. Every day I receive emails from members of the community. Many are letters of support and encouragement and truthfully, those are the emails that inspire me to continue and to grow Entrepreneur Architect into all that it [...]

We need to talk. This may be uncomfortable, but we need to talk about money. Are you making enough to finish each month with a profit? Are you making enough to live comfortably? Are you making enough to simply pay the bills? So many architects I know are not making ends meet. We architects are [...]