Lessons from my First Rodeo

Block LII was born out of a bit of circumstance. For years I had been talking about wanting to start my own design business, but I never acted. I had the illusion of time and a full-time job that allowed me to be creative. It filled my cup until the Covid-19 pandemic had other plans.

I was laid off in the summer of 2020 with only a weeks’ notice (granted nothing of this sort was really THAT shocking at the time). However, as luck would have it, my first solo design project sought me out only a few weeks later. I jumped at the opportunity. I was officially doing the thing I always said I was going to do.

A colleague who had started taking his own contracting work brought me in on a large office renovation project for a solar panel company in South Jersey. It was a young but fast-growing company run by what I’ve always lovingly referred to as “solar bros”. The plan was to renovate and relocate them into the recently shut down gym across the parking lot – another casualty of the pandemic. They wanted to attract young talent with a cool, sometimes intentionally chaotic, atmosphere featuring executive suites, a barber shop and open space to ride their electric scooters around the office (re: solar bros).

Over the next few months, I started to understand what it would take to manage and design my own projects. These are the top 3 lessons I took away from my first project:

1. DEFINE THE SCOPE – My first proposal left too much to be interpreted. As with most projects, the scope changed and grew over time. The best way to manage those additions is to have a firm starting point to go back and reference as requests are made. I was fortunate to have a client who didn’t make this process difficult, but it could have easily gone south. I learned to be clear on what I was providing, what the deliverables were, define anything quantitative (meetings, site visits, reimbursables, etc.) and identify my exclusions.
   
2. CONFIDENCE IS EVERYTHING – It is a strange thing to represent a business when that business is yourself. This project was my first time selling ideas and costs directly to a client without the comfort of a team of people behind me. If they hated my ideas or protested on costs, I alone had to defend them. I learned to have a reason ready behind every selection – or if I didn’t (sometimes in design things just feel “right”), be able to project so much confidence and enthusiasm it couldn’t help but be contagious. I would remind myself they hired me for my expertise. It had value. It was on me to honor that value with the right disposition, even when it didn’t come naturally. On the flipside, when ideas were downright rejected, confidence allowed me to take the feedback in stride and keep moving.
   
3. KNOW WHEN TO ASK FOR HELP – This lesson might be the most important. On this project I was tasked with creating a complete lighting plan for the entire 2-story 15,000+ sf space. Now, do I know more about lighting than most? Absolutely. But am I an electrical engineer? Absolutely not. I’d designed lighting plans for smaller spaces, but this was a whole other animal. I reluctantly took on the task but it took hours of research, wasted stress and a hundred annoying questions to my Billows rep. I’m a strong believer that lighting can make or break a space which is why I now use a lighting consultant. I get a better product while freeing up my own time for the items that really need my attention. Every small business owner needs to know when to call for back-up.
   

A couple months later, the solar bros would call me up to help with their operations office. I had my first repeat client. The business I always talked about was finally here.