Transcription in English
I am Ella, and I do architectural design as a private trader. I graduated as an architect last spring and started doing business in August. I took the summer off in between. I already had a company because I needed it to invoice an earlier project. I know a few more experienced architects who design single-family houses, and they sometimes hire me to work on building permit drawings and working drawings and other stuff like that. Depending on how long each assignment is, we draft a contract or I charge by the hour. Some assignments only take me a few hours, others can take up to a couple of months. These assignments now give me full-time work.
First, I applied for work the normal way, but, during the Covid-19 pandemic, people at architecture offices told me that they aren’t hiring because they’re uncertain about the future. Then, I found out by accident that an architect who designs single-family houses needs a helping hand because they have too much work to do it properly. I was told that they have work for me if I have a company with a business ID. Sometimes, I think about applying for salaried work, but this has been quite nice. I can decide for myself at what time I work. For example, I have made an agreement to use Fridays for drawing for competitions and other personal stuff. And I can run errands during work days, as long as I don’t leave in the middle of a meeting or anything.
During my studies, I experienced working at architecture offices, and I learned that I’m not that interested in large projects but smaller ones. In big projects, so much time is spent on organisation and running the big palette. Things are redone many times because there are always problems with communication. The smaller the team, the easier it is to work. As an architect, I’m interested in designing and affecting the final result. In big offices, the practical work is going through and responding to orders. Of course, you can influence the end result there too.
Now, I heard that I could’ve applied for a grant for new entrepreneurs, but I didn’t, and neither did I apply for unemployment benefits. Right now, I’m getting my income from entrepreneurship. I invoice online through a service and do my own bookkeeping on Excel. But now that I have more invoices to send out, I may have to hire a bookkeeping company. I have found instructions for bookkeeping online, and I have people around me whom I can ask for advice.
Since I design single-family houses, my friends, acquaintances, relatives and so on tend to contact me if they have a problem that’s related to my field. I ask for a compensation for consulting, except for little pieces of advice. After all, it’s not a big deal for me to read through planning regulations.
As much as I’d like to avoid it, I think I’ll have to join social media. I mean, if I need to start marketing my services at some point, but, for now, I haven’t needed to. Now the idea of marketing isn’t as scary as it was in the beginning. I already have some references.
I checked our union’s recommendation for monthly earnings and, from that sum, I started subtracting expenses for running this business. The recommendations are aimed at people working at architecture offices, meaning that, with my own company, I have to charge a bit more to earn anything.
Since I have a company, all the equipment in the office is mine. Buying the equipment, a computer and a drawing table and whatnot, has cost me thousands. Excel is really helpful in calculating how to split the expenses over the whole year. And by asking my colleagues, I have been able to determine the appropriate price range for someone with my experience et cetera.
I have thought about taking out another health insurance. I get so little from the TyEL insurance. I have included holiday pay in my pricing by checking how long people’s average vacation time is. I almost forgot it, but then my friend asked, “You remembered to charge for your vacation time, right?”
For a layperson, taxation is quite a daring jump into the deep end. It’s a first-degree morass, and that’s why I’ve thought about getting a bookkeeper. VAT has its own kinks, but it’s pretty simple for me because I only sell one kind of product.
I don’t think that starting a family would change my work situation. My attitude towards working is that I don’t go there to just give the very least I can but actually try to do something. So, I try my best at work, whether or not I have a family.
There’s something cool about being self-employed, although I do assignments for other people. And if somebody sticks you with a job you’re not interested in, you can just say, “No thanks.” Starting a company as a private trader isn’t that expensive, but the licences are quite a money sink. But anyway, if you’re interested in entrepreneurship, go ahead, it’s pretty nice.
I had a principal ready when I started, though. My advice is that it’s a good idea to warm up on entrepreneurship already during your studies. If you start with nothing after graduation, you need to pull quite a many sleeves to get some work.