Transcription in English
I’m Saga, a self-employed building architect. I have a full-time job at an architecture office. I graduated six months ahead of the target time, and my self-employment began already during my studies. I’ve always been active in finding work. I’ve been employed at several offices, sometimes for longer periods, but I’ve constantly been looking for corporate partners and trying to create contacts with people who may need my services as a photographer or an architect. I created some of my contacts a long time ago, when I was in upper secondary school.
I started a company as a private trader and work through that too, but I’m also a partner in a limited company which I started with a friend a few months ago. It brings me small extra income, and it’s work that we both like. We do photography, architectural photography, drone filming, 3D images and layout drawings. Now we’re working on getting more visibility to our company.
In my private trader company, a typical assignment at present is to produce visualisation images of the planned establishment and drawings for official permit applications. They are quick to produce, it only takes a day. Occasionally, I also do miscellaneous photography gigs. I started my company as an Osuuspankki light entrepreneur, but it was a mistake, and I learned something from it. I’m not doing any light entrepreneurial work anymore. In our work, their five-per-cent cut can suddenly become quite a lot of money.
I’ve only started working, so I’m not yet living off of my work. But the amount of assignments has increased quickly, I’ve recently started getting many more of them. But making a living with them would require marketing and focusing on them more. But they are a good source of extra income. However, for this reason, I’m still holding onto my salaried work. Like I said, I’m also employed at a big architecture office.
I became a light entrepreneur when I was in a hurry to finish a project. It was easy then. But, currently, I’m using an e-invoice service called Isolta. I have all my documents in order. Once a year, I send all my invoices and receipts to my payroll clerk who has access to my tax information. They file my tax returns for me, and I pay them for that. They own a small bookkeeping company. Light entrepreneurship is easy if you don’t want to learn anything about bookkeeping.
When I was studying, every time a project was offered to us, I was the first to raise my hand, I wanted to take all the projects I could get. When my small projects started going alright, it lead to one architect outsourcing to me projects they didn’t have time for. I’ve also got some work from companies where my friends from school have been working. Quite a lot of work comes to me when people I know need architectural services.
For setting my price level, it’s been helpful to network and discuss the topic with other employees and entrepreneurs working in this field. I know many people who do occasional architecture assignments as entrepreneurs while being in an employment relationship. These things were explained well in school. Since I’m employed, I haven’t given that much thought to pension and insurance matters. But if I worked independently more, I’d have to take out insurances.
I’ve thought about transferring to part-time employment at some point, for example, working four days a week at the company and dedicating the rest of my time to my business. But the great challenge will be building myself a steady and sustainable work pace and a good professional network. And how I would be able to get visibility and become competitive. There is fierce competition over all small-scale work, and it seems like bigger projects are distributed in sauna parties. So how do I make my break?
In my salaried work, compared with my colleagues, I’ve got opportunities to work on very challenging and versatile assignments, but it’s not exactly the kind of challenge I’m looking for or the kind of responsibility that I want to get in working life.
Sometimes, in salaried work and at architecture offices, there are serious management problems amounting to a kind of mental violence. In less serious cases, communication just doesn’t work, discussions about salary are unimaginable and there’s no respect towards employees. The basic stuff is in order, though, at least there’s nothing illegal going on anymore. Still, dissatisfaction with how things are handled at many offices has urged me towards the idea of self-employment.
Although I’m quite a diligent worker, I value my free time very highly and want to invest in it. Entrepreneurs don’t always remember to allow themselves that. You have to appreciate yourself and your work. But you also need to view your work critically and develop it. Then, your customers will also appreciate your work.