We were lucky to catch up with Austin Fox recently and have shared our conversation below.

Austin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. So, we’d appreciate if you could open up about your growth story and the nitty, gritty details that went into scaling up.

Starting an architecture firm can be exciting but also challenging as now you are facing the big fish in the market. In order to scale, we understood are target market and looked at ways to gain an advantage in the market. Being only 1.5 years old, how do you compete against firms that are 30 years old?

Several ways
1. Understand strengths/weaknesses of yourself AND the competition. We surround ourselves with skill and expertise that compliments are strengths and picks up the slack in our weaknesses.
2. We also realize these older, well fed firms are not hungry nor driven. Since we are young, we have to be aggressive with our calls and follow up to show that we are more attentive than the well fed older firms.
3. Price. In order to compete with the bigger firms, our services in the beginning were cheaper in order to compete with the clientele. This lead to more projects. More projects=more clients=more opportunities.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hello! My name is Austin Fox and I am 29 year old South Florida local who learned everything there is about business through watching his successful parents run their businesses. Instead of following my parents I decided to go on my own path and founded Austin Fox Architecture.

Our mission is to help investors owners achieve their financial goals through the growth of their real estate investment. We work in dozens of verticals and provide full architectural services from designing to planning.

Our core values are the backbone of our business and what we lean on everyday when operating.

Our core values are:
1. Transparency
2. Disciplined
3. Result Orientated
4. Responsibility
5. Motivational

I started in the architecture industry at 18 years of age. I worked for a firm for free just to get their name on my resume. I then leveraged that name to other jobs where I expanded my knowledge on the industry. It eventually lead me to learning what firms did really well….and what they did really poor in. Taking all of this information in I then used it to my advantage when creating my own firm.

As a result, we have accomplished many achievements in a very short amount of time compared to our competitors.

Aside from architecture and business, my mission is to leave a positive impact on the community and inspire others.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think the number one thing is transparency, it is one of our core values. Our company is not only me, it is a team effort that comes together to solve the problems and provide a service. That “openness” to my team and our consultants makes our clients feel comfortable that they are making the right decision. As a result good work comes from it and good word of mouth.

We never try to hide or deceive our clients. That transparency builds trust in return builds a strong foundation.

Any advice for managing a team?

To be able to do any of these tasks, you must lead the team. My belief of how far we can go translates to the team and affects them. I have a very strong belief that we can make a strong impression and leave a footprint in the industry. As a result, my team buys into it as well.

Motivating my team in return motivates me. It’s a cycle that goes back in forth but it starts with the leader. If the leader doesn’t believe it can be attained, then how do you expect your team members to do so.

Contact Info:

• Website: af-architect.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/austinmfox/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AustinFoxArchitect
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/austinmfox_
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSqrBr1vBB8BeqKrExuIg5A
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/austin-fox-architecture-fort-lauderdale

Image Credits
Property of Austin Fox Architecture