Clients need the fee basis explained, the phases described, and some sense of project scale before they will make contact. Portfolios are handled well in this profession and almost everything else is not.

What the profession does well and badly

Architecture practice sites are typically the best-looking sites in any professional category and among the least informative.

The portfolio is usually excellent. The photography is considered, the projects are well presented, and the visual standard is high.

What is almost universally missing: what anything costs, how the process works, how long it takes, and what kind of project the practice actually takes on. Those are the questions a prospective client has.

The fee question

The largest barrier and the one most practices avoid entirely.

Prospective clients frequently do not know how architects charge, and the possibilities are genuinely different: a percentage of construction cost, an hourly rate, a fixed fee per phase, or a combination.

Explaining the basis, without quoting a figure for their unseen project, resolves most of the uncertainty. Somebody who understands that fees are commonly a proportion of construction cost can estimate their own position and decide whether to make contact.

Also worth stating: whether an initial consultation is charged, what a feasibility study costs, and whether that fee is credited if the project proceeds.

Where you have a minimum project size, saying so is the single most useful filter available. A homeowner with a modest extension enquiring at a practice that works on large projects wastes everybody's time, and the practice looks unapproachable when it declines.

The phases explained

Clients do not know what they are buying, and the profession's own terminology does not help them.

A plain description of the sequence: initial discussion, feasibility, concept design, developed design, permit documentation, tender, and construction administration. What happens in each, what the client receives at the end of it, and roughly how long it takes.

The critical point most clients misunderstand is that the fee covers stages beyond drawings, particularly the permit process and the involvement during construction. A client expecting to buy drawings and finding the engagement continues is a client who feels the scope changed.

Being explicit that a client can stop after a phase is also worth stating, because it reduces the perceived size of the first commitment considerably.

Timelines, honestly

The other thing clients get wrong.

Most people substantially underestimate how long design and permitting take, and discover it after committing. Stating realistic durations for each phase, including the permit review period which is outside your control, prevents the frustration that otherwise attaches to you.

Permit timelines vary by municipality and change, so the workable approach is giving a range and naming the authority rather than a fixed figure.

What kind of work you take

The positioning that most practices leave implicit in the portfolio.

Whether you do residential, commercial, institutional, or heritage. Whether you take renovations and additions or only new builds. Whether there is a project size below which you do not engage.

A prospective client cannot reliably infer this from a portfolio of finished work, and stating it directly loses nothing while saving the enquiries that end awkwardly.

The consultant question

Worth explaining because clients assume it is included.

Structural engineering, geotechnical work, surveys, energy modelling, and other consultants are frequently engaged separately, and their fees are additional to yours.

A client budgeting on your fee alone and discovering three more is a client who feels misled, even where nothing was hidden. Saying at the outset that consultants are typically required and are billed separately prevents it.

Registration and who does the work

The profession is regulated and titles are protected, which matters to clients who do not know the distinctions.

Registration with the provincial association, stated plainly, and the individuals who would work on the project. Clients frequently want to know whether the principal is involved throughout or whether the work passes to somebody else.

Where you work with a designer or a technologist on smaller projects, being clear about who does what is honest and avoids a misunderstanding later.

The portfolio, adjusted

Since this is the part already done well, the improvements are small.

Adding the project's scale, the approximate budget range where the client permits, the year, and the constraints you worked within turns a beautiful image into an assessable reference.

A client trying to judge whether you handle projects like theirs needs those details, and their absence is why portfolios of excellent work still fail to produce enquiries, which is the same clarity gap described in what a financial advisor website needs.

Frequently asked questions

What do architecture sites do badly?

Almost everything except the portfolio. What things cost, how the process works, how long it takes, and what projects the practice takes on are usually absent.

How should fees be explained?

By basis rather than figure: whether you charge a percentage of construction cost, hourly, or fixed per phase, plus whether initial consultations are charged.

Why state a minimum project size?

It is the single most useful filter available. A homeowner enquiring at a practice that works on large projects wastes everybody's time and makes the practice look unapproachable.

What do clients misunderstand about phases?

That the fee covers work beyond drawings, particularly permitting and construction involvement. Saying a client can stop after a phase also reduces the perceived first commitment.

What should be said about consultants?

That structural, geotechnical, survey, and other consultants are typically required and billed separately. A client budgeting on your fee alone feels misled otherwise.

How can the portfolio be improved?

By adding project scale, approximate budget range where permitted, the year, and the constraints worked within, so a client can judge whether you handle projects like theirs.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Beautiful portfolio and enquiries that never arrive?

We add the fee basis, the phases, and the project scale, which is what a prospective client needs before they are willing to ask.

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