2013 - The Writing Is In The Sand

It is with another deep intake of breath that we start of 2013. Hopefully this year we will get to enjoy some quiet time and actually walk the sandy beach ourselves. That would be nice.

The industry treated us well last year albeit there is a lack of medium to large scale projects to keep the computers hot. We leave 2012 behind with some happy memories of the new clients we have met and maintained and of course knowing that we have continued to culture and grow the relationships that we have with our existing clients. Many new build homes and small commercial projects were completed last year and others are about to start on site in January or February, weather permitting.

Most of our clients become true friends and are in regular contact months, if not years, after their projects have came to an end. We recently undertook an exercise where we considered the investment that we are making on marketing and noted that 80% of our work is from existing clients or referrals from existing clients. Isn't it interesting that in today's digital marketing age most of our clients came from other sources.

2013 sees us off to a great start with the return of Ronnie to the office, following a short departure in the last quarter due to health issues. Our restructuring in 2012, including the closure of the main office in Hamilton, in favour of remote working, has ensured that commercial viability and growth plans for 2013 and beyond are achievable and infact at the end of the last quarter these plans started to show positive business results.

Two of our key 2013 goals will be to develop even further our technical and design capacity and knowledge. We are finding that the 'regulations' are becoming even more demanding and products in the market place are also becoming much more sophisticated such that the demand on our time to produce an exemplary project is becoming ever more increasing.

With that in mind we are also looking at our time/cost ratios for each project. You may find it strange that an Architect is talking so openly about these subjects however it is important for our clients to understand that the production of a building - a finished article - is becoming more complex and in order for us to offer the best possible service, cost effectively, then the team need to have a greater handle on the time/cost issue.

So, there are a few small changes and goals being implemented in 2013 which will see us through another year all in anticipation of the banks lending again which may infact see some of our larger developer clients dusting down their old project files and reigniting the Construction Industry in 2013.

Here's hoping!