Freelance???

[Anonymous]

Why are architectural companies very reluctant or less interested in freelancing the jobs? I can understand there are limitations, but now we are living in a world where we can over come many of it with latest technologies. If they do so they get access to a wide pool of talent. I am someone who would love to work from home. I have a very good portfolio to show to many companies but they seem to be very less interested to give jobs. Emails are often ignored. May be I am knocking at wrong doors!!!

Do you thinks its time to change...

[Anonymous]

A lot of people like dealing with local business.
They can meet face to face. They feel that they have more control over the job they want done.
No time / language / accent / difficulties when dealing with local business.


Cian.

[Anonymous]

I agree with what you said Cian. Meeting face to face and control is very important. I have seen few companies who look for end result. I worked with few people in Australia. Once I met their requirement they were pretty confident in sending job again to me. They never realized a person sitting in India can do that much for their business. I helped them reduce their production cost flat 66%. They don't need to worry about inventory management, license management, payroll etc. Still they are getting their work done with the quality they need. Its always worth trying.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you there. We in the west can not compete with companies in India / China in terms of cost.
Some people will take that step in order to keep costs down but most will not.
I guess if you keep on promoting yourself you will slowly but surely get a few western clients who if happy with your work will keep coming back time and time again.
It's a case of getting your foot in the door.

I'm trying to promote my business over seas and it's not easy. Specially when I'm in the Euro zone

But I'm doing just fine with my Irish clients.

Cian.

[Rick Thompson]

I have had good experiences and bad with "out sourcing" work. When housing picks up (which is all I do) I will certainly be looking again for someone experienced in housing. I once used a guy in Hungary for over a year and that worked great. The issues I have had is thinking someone highly skilled in AC is necessarily going to be able to work in housing. It seems the most basic, but everything actually has it's challenges. I couldn't do commercial anymore if I tried, and it is by far the most common usage for AC users. I would imagine out sourcing commercial would be harder, but if you are real experienced in a particular building type, you would have something to offer. Not being specialized would be risky to most firms, I would think. I also think the new AC13 Teamwork will facilitate this, and it will happen more and more, how could it not in this day and time.

I don't care where they live as long as they know the building type and requirements. I get emails all the time from people all over the place, but mainly India (a place I love), but they all are on Autocad:)

[Anonymous]

@Cian

Good to hear that you are happy in your home land. Thats what every company want. Now technology just helps us to extend business to any part of the world. As long as service industry is concern it is possible to a great extend. I was lucky enough to get jobs from Belgium for 2 years (until economic crisis). Now they are not outsourcing anymore. They are all doing in house due to lack of jobs.

@Rick

I am one exception who use Archicad in India. I know Autocad too. But for architecture I uses Archicad. I personally know a lot of people who does well in Archicad here. If you have any plans to outsource to India in future please let me know.

[Anonymous]

Much of the work design and Architecture requires intimate contact to make quick or difficult decisions. This can either be in the form of in person meetings or remote contact between people who know and trust each other very well.

There are tasks that can be jobbed out successfully but doing so can be difficult to fit into the workflow. Design is a deadline driven business and timeliness is typically more important than saving money. It is also important that the cost of coordinating and checking the work doesn't overcome the advantages. There are certainly ways to make it work but I don't think the typical outsourcing models apply to the design business. It requires identifying the bits that can be handed off successfully and then developing a track record leading to trusted relationships.