Vision
13 years from now, in the year 2033, Alan will be 55 years old. Strongwork Architecture will be 24 years old in the eyes of the state, with an active operational life of 20 years. Alan will have been married for 28 years, and his daughter Eva will be 22 and son Jesse will be 19.
Strongwork will be a high-performance team of 3-5 individuals of diverse gender, backgrounds, and ethnic heritage. We will have continued to actively promote a strong work/life balance and family first flexible framework. Our staff are honest, curious listeners who are delighted by design.
We will have a strong regional reputation for holistic, impactful, and beautiful public and residential architecture, and this reputation will be proven by a legacy of built projects. Our clients are prime engineers, municipalities, and regional utilities, and homeowners who value our commitment to high quality design and effective resource stewardship.
We live in a culture of design. We explore our built and artistic environment through our own individual artistic pursuits and our in-house design collaborations. We showcase our architectural designs in our built projects and our personal art in community exhibits.
The business will have averaged $1 million in revenue for the last 5 years or so and realized 20% profit on average. Alan will bring home a comfortable salary befitting a CEO/owner of a small architecture firm, and all employees will be equitably compensated above regional average based on AIA salary data per their position.
We will donate 10% to local and national charities at a minimum.
In 2033, Alan will be considering stepping back from the day to day of the business, pursuing a career shift or change, spending a majority of time in artistic and activist pursuits, and/or all of the above.
Now, today, it is December 2020. We are a two-person firm pivoting to a vision and strategy for growth over the next 13 years and beyond. Our little office has one light fixture, no insulation, and drafty windows. There’s a pandemic on so we are sharing the workday. We are juggling work, home school, and toddler care, all the while trying to live our mission, “Better Every Day” and not go crazy in the meantime.
Over the past several months, Alan has been drinking from the business coaching fire hose. He has completed Enoch Sears’ Business of Architecture SMART Practice program which focuses on Vision/Mission/Values and business process with a focus of liberating small business owners from day to day chaos and empowering them to work ON their businesses instead of IN their business.
Alan has completed a Novus Global life coaching program and learned tools for transforming how life is occurring and how to re-imagine those occurrences.
Alan is currently working with The Formation Lab to craft and execute a Business Development Strategy tailored to Strongwork’s Architecture experience in and focus on the water/waste water industry.
Lastly, Alan is 3 months into participation in the Port of Portland Mentor/Protégé program, a 3-year intensive, soup to nuts business development program. Right now, the focus is on development of a 3-year strategic plan to set Vision, Goals, Objectives, Strategy, and Tactics for realization at “graduation” in 2023.
3 years from now, at the end of the year 2023, Strongwork Architecture will have:
- Have emerged as a thought leader in holistic, impactful architectural designs for public infrastructure projects.
- Achieved ambitious revenue and profit goals.
- A strong team and manifest office culture founded in our Core Values:
o Family First
o Life is Growth
o Everything is Connected
o Delight in Design, and
o Live in Leadership
In addition, Alan will have made the transition from self-employed to business owner.
We have a long way to go but the vision is clear. We can see the mountaintop. We just have to put one foot in front of the other and keep walking.