to ask if I should go it alone?

[LateStart]

Long story short. I had a crap start in life. Had to leave family at 18 due to abuse, have no other relatives, had very little financial or emotional support. Ended up taking in my sister for years, supporting her financially, too.

Doing better now and having a fresh start after 12 years since leaving home. Saved up, worked, took out large students loans as no other way of making up the shortfall, and will be qualified as an architect by the end of the year.

Especially for a newly qualified person the pay is pretty low for a professional field. However, the people I’ve seen make a decent amount of money are owners of medium to large companies.

I’m thinking about going it alone. Alas, I don’t have a network of friends and family to be my first clients and will have to bootstrap. My goal is to finally earn more so I can feel like the student loans have been worth it. Is it possible?

Do you have any experience or knowledge of how to run a business? If not I would recommend working for a medium size practice and gaining experience in as many areas as possible.

DH works in a related field and is now senior partner but he worked from the bottom up. He’s now in a position of deleting most of the work and playing a fair bit of golf.

My friend’s DH has the same qualification and runs his own business with one other partner. They’ve never employed help and he makes very good money but still works all hours.

However I’ve not heard of anyone doing quite what you suggest. Unless you are extremely good and cheap ( so not making much) why would anyone choose you?

Best of luck in your career.

• delegating work. Not deleting it. That wouldn’t be a good business choice.

Good advice from Matilda.

I live in a small market town and mostly I would say we use local architects and engineers recommended on the local social media page. Small owned companies. If you start your own you need to get a good engineer to work with but I agree get some experience first if you can because clients want to know what you've done.

And congratulations, well done for getting yourself in a great position despite a shit start and a lot of responsibility.

Good luck!

I know a few architects who earn quite well - they started off on the low side, but have managed to change jobs/get promoted often enough that they're doing pretty well for themselves now.

I'm not an architect but I am self-employed, and I'd definitely recommend a decent amount of time in an employed job first - for the experience and the support. I did about 8 years before I went self-employed, which meant I left with some connections and plenty of experience.

Congratulations, by the way. I came from a similar background, and making it through is something to be really proud of.

@MatildaTheCat Your typo made me laugh, so thank you for that!

Thank you @jeaux90 and @TakeYourFinalPosition, as you probably know it’s a tough journey and I’m also glad and proud I’m still standing.

I am very good (first class degree, student prizes, top university, work in a big player practice). I have 4 years experience now, thinking to add 2 more post qualification before I look for a first project.

I am also reading business books all hours under the sun, teaching myself marketing, accounting etc. and attending seminars with others who have started their own practice. My house could possibly be my first own project. It needs extending so is something I need to tackle anyway and it could kickstart my work.

In the long run, I’d want to grow the company slowly but surely, so I can delegate (not delete ) the work. I’m pretty business-savvy, I used to work in business admin while I was supporting my sister and was always observing and learning on the job.

I think at the end of the day, I just need to take a leap of faith.

I think at the end of the day, I just need to take a leap of faith.

I might be a total stranger but I think you're going to fly. Go for it. I think it sounds like you've got what it takes to make it work.