5 Cent Architecture?
With the economy in tatters and so many people losing their jobs and looking for work it’s refreshing to hear about people taking charge of their destiny and succeeding. NPR ran a story on Morning Edition this morning about John Morefield (find it here). Morefield is a Seattle Architect who has been the topic of other blogs recently. (The picture at the left is from the Kelsey Keith article at Flavorwire.)
After being laid off from two separate jobs in one year as projects for the firms he worked for went away, Morefield took to offering advice with a booth at a local farmer’s market with a sign that read “Architecture 5¢”. The task wasn’t a gimmick, it was an honest way to try an develop a business and clientele in a market that has turned sour… and its working.
Morefield’s website “architecture5cents.com” is taking off and the booth has generated numerous contacts and business as homeowners walk by and drop a nickel in his can for some free advice about their building and architecture concerns.
The target audience is the individual homeowner, but good advice and a good idea can lead to a host of possibilities. It’s even been adopted to a certain fashion by lawyers in both print and … blogs.
While we’re generally prohibited from offering specific advice to people by ethical rules and codes of conduct, legal blogs and information sources offer a host of targeted answers and commentary on topics that are relevant to everyone… especially in the construction industry.
Even more poignant is the ability to help out in a tough economy. Every nickel from Morefield’s virtual website is donated to the Ballard Food Bank.
With so much talk about a stimulus package and infrastructure dollars headed our way, its easy to lose sight of the traditional word-of-mouth methods for marketing and face-to-face discussions that can help build a business. But there is no substitute for human interaction.
