Are you Paying too much?

Context

Time to put the crystal ball away this week and think a little bit more practically. 

One challenge a lot of people encounter when venturing into entrepreneurship within the architecture industry is the high cost of software required to deliver a project. 

The initial overhead cost can be a serious burden when you haven’t got a consistent revenue, and you’re focusing your efforts trying to get clients. 

The inconsistent income coupled with the fact that the more common software packages are moving to monthly subscription business models, and you have a recipe for a serious revenue problem.  

And that's not to mention the professional fees and insurances required. If I go into those, I'm likely to have a stroke. 

While there isn't much you can do about those costs, there is something you can do about software.

I understand the argument that people choose software like the Adobe suite because that is what they have always used.

I know people choose a software stack based on the companies they have worked for in the past.

But what people don't realise is the exorbitant cost the software has to their previous firms.

As a solo entrepreneur, you are going to want to keep a tight handle on this part of your budget.

The first place to start is your workhorse, the software where you will spend most of your time and earn most of your money.  

Production Tool

In my case this is Autodesk Revit, but you may choose Graphisoft ArchiCAD.  

This article focuses on trimming costs, but this is one area I wouldn’t cut corners on.

If you consider how many billable hours, you’ll spend in this software compared to others, you’ll realise BIM software’s efficiency more than justifies its cost.

I estimate 95%+ of your billable hours will be spent in this tool.  

When it comes to Autodesk, they have yearly bills for the software.  

I recommend saving up before you branch off, so you have a year to start to generate income. 

Rendering

Keeping on the topic of efficiency. Software like Revit or ArchiCAD are enhanced with the addition of rendering software. 

The recent innovations in real time rendering have been a godsend for the industry.

The ability to rapidly create renders and walk clients through a live model is an immeasurable benefit, and a few popular platforms have emerged to facilitate this.

Like the original renderer Enscape3D and Lumion.  

While great pieces of software, when you’re starting out the cost can be a bit prohibitive.  

To remove this cost completely, look no further than TwinMotion.  

TwinMotion is the better piece of software to begin with, and it is completely free (all the time you earn less than $1m, check out epics terms and conditions for more details). 

That's the workhorse and the Visualisation tools covered.

Presentation

Now let's talk about presentation software since it is hard to win work without good presentation. 

While there is no problem at all with producing presentation material straight out of Revit.  

If you are looking to add that bit more polish to your bids or presentation material without the enormous financial burden of the Adobe suite, look at Affinity Serif.

Their software is eating away at Adobe's market share amongst graphic designers.

With the quality of the software as an alternative to Adobe and combined with the very compelling single payment license, you have your presentation software.  

With the Affinity Suite you can get software that replaces Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign for less than $200AUD for a lifetime license.  

I purchased the Affinity Suite at the beginning of the pandemic when lockdowns kicked in, and I have been pleasantly surprised with how good the software is.

And as a bonus, Affinity can open and edit all of Adobe's file types natively, so you can still access all your old work. 

You have your workhorse and your presentation tools, but these are no good if you can't communicate with clients and that is where email comes into play.

Editors Note: Since publishing this article, Affinity has been purchased by Canva and now offer the full Affinity Suite combined into one singe app called Affinity completely for free, with the option to upgrade to a Cava subscription.

Email and Office Tools

The easy option is to sign up for Microsoft Office 365 which does come with the familiar office suite and email app Outlook, and an affordable price tag and plenty of cloud storage.

However, if you are looking to remove this cost completely, and you aren't too fussed about cloud storage, then consider using the free Google Docs to replace office and Mozilla Thunderbird to replace Outlook.  

Both are more than capable at competing with Microsoft.

Communication

Since we’re already discussing Microsoft, it’s worth mentioning that video calling has become an essential tool for architects, especially after the pandemic.  

Microsoft does offer Teams for a reasonable price, but you can remove this cost with the free offers from Zoom.  

Zoom is more than capable for a solo entrepreneur, but if or when you choose to scale up the added functionality of Teams is worth the price.

This technology stack is more than enough for a budding architectural entrepreneur to get started.

Note Taking

There is one more piece of software I would add which is a note-taking tool to keep all my projects and business notes well-organised and my tool of choice is Notion.  

Notion is powerful and completely free for single use.

Notion can serve as both a project information management system and a company CRM."

All you’ll need to do is find good quality templates from the large developer community to set yourself up, and a quick look on YouTube will find plenty of high-quality content creators teaching the software if you want to learn more.  

That's enough to get started.  

Conclusion

I haven't mentioned accounting software, as that can be jurisdiction dependent.  

For accounting, I use Xero, but you may want to ask your accountant what they recommend.

By making smart software choices, you can keep costs low while still maintaining professional quality.

Whether you're a fan of TwinMotion, Affinity, or Notion, finding the right tools will set you up for success without breaking the bank.

Have I missed any crucial software?

Do you use or recommend any other software?