Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Philip Schmidt, Owner of Figure Ground Architecture LLC, located in Chicago, IL, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
I’m an architect and Passive House consultant (Passive House is a design & construction metric commonly used to get a construction project to net zero energy use). I design buildings and provide energy efficiency studies and recommendations for motivated clients. My customers tend to be folks who care about climate change and want to make a real, tangible difference. Sometimes, my client is another architect looking to make their building design net zero, and they bring me in as a specialist.
Tell us about yourself
I’ve been an architect for 16 years in the residential and commercial markets. In 2012, I discovered the Passive House movement and began attending monthly meetings with the Chicago Passive House Alliance - of which I’m now a board member. I designed my first Passive House project in Humboldt Park in 2017, and I found there was a serious learning curve to high-performance design. From there, I was motivated to continue my education and become certified as a Passive House Consultant myself. I’m motivated to do this work, frankly, because it must be done. The consequences of climate change are becoming more immediate and dire, which continually motivates me to change the status quo in my industry.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
I would say sticking with it through the first year, which was a bit slow at certain times. Through a slower patch, I continued networking and meeting up with friends in my industry (especially challenging during covid). Eventually, a few really interesting projects came my way.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
Slow initial growth. The key was using that time to reinvest in marketing my business, make bigger plans, and streamline my processes. I also found (kind of counterintuitively) that letting industry friends know that I didn’t have a ton of projects at the moment and that I’m actively looking really helped with referrals. Suppressing that instinct to look super successful and just being straight with my architect friends. It made me feel more connected to my industry community, being vulnerable in that way, and it may have actually helped rustle up some work for me.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Be patient, figure out why you want to have your own business, and try to arrange it, so most of your work time is spent on the type of work you most enjoy doing and are most suited to. Having your own business does not mean you have to do everything yourself; figuring out when and where to bring in outside expertise is key.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.figuregroundarch.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/figure_ground_architecture/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-schmidt-85898755/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
Turn your craft into recurring revenue with Subkit. Start your subscription offering in minutes and supercharge it with growth levers. Get early access here.