We Got Fired. Then We Got Focused.
For thirty years, no client had ever fired us. Not once. That changed at the end of 2025, and honestly? It was the best thing that could have happened.
How We Got Here
2025 started strong and full of promise. But by summer, Trump’s tariff threats, DOGE layoffs (many of my neighbors and colleagues in Arlington, VA, were directly affected), and worries about rapidly advancing AI created a perfect storm. Proposals stalled, and by fall, our best year was grinding to a halt.
Another web designer referred a client to us in the professional services sector. We knew a bit about their overall business, but it wasn’t our area of expertise. The client had red flags…mentioning that two previous designers had quit on them. After talking honestly and the client repeatedly saying they needed and wanted help, I prognosticated that their main issues were too much unfocused content and an unclear service structure. They also wanted to merge two websites into one, with succinct offerings and were considering changing their business name to cover both service types.
One of my favorite quotes is “You can't read the label from inside the bottle,” meaning you can’t see your own situation clearly when you’re too close to it. I thought that if the client worked with an experienced content writer who understood their industry, we could solve the content challenges that had stymied the previous designers.
After all, brand messaging and content are the foundation of every business website, which is why it’s a key part of our services and why we don’t ask clients to write their own copy. Fortunately, I knew just the writer who had spent ten years in the client’s industry. I agreed to take the job only if the client worked with our content writer. We needed the work, we were excited for the challenge, and so was our writer.
About six weeks in, the project started to unravel. The client kept changing their mind and rewriting content we had already agreed on, going well beyond normal feedback rounds. By the time we reached the design phase, almost three months in, we were sticklers to our contract, overcommunicating for each interaction and leaving nothing to chance. The client perceived this as rigidity and took offense. Internally, we discussed ending the project, but thankfully, the client beat us to it.
We felt relieved. More importantly, the experience made it clear that we needed to make a change…something we had sensed and had discussed for a while.
“You can’t read the label from inside the bottle”
The Pattern We'd Been Ignoring
Looking back, we acknowledged we were avoiding taking the next step. We’d been relying on referrals that weren’t the best fit because we needed the work, and working on projects that meant learning new business offerings from scratch.
Even though we have a solid, repeatable process for web design, our focus on 'professional services' was simply too broad. Getting fired was the push we needed. It made us stop, think, and finally do what we’d talked about for a long time: pick a niche and focus our expertise.
The Research We Did Before Committing
We’d been thinking about focusing only on AEC, architecture, engineering, and construction, for over a year. But before making it official, I wanted to be sure. So, during the fall of 2025, I did stakeholder calls: I spoke with an architect, several engineers, a marketing lead at a construction company, and a real estate developer. I wanted to find out what was really happening in the industry, where firms felt underserved, and if Design Powers could truly help.
One of the biggest challenges in the AEC industry is finding qualified employees due to a major labor shortage. The opportunity for us is to convey that a well-designed website and post-launch marketing can do more than tell a firm's story; it will attract the next generation of AEC talent by showcasing technology and innovation while integrating cloud-based workflows, collaboration portals, and project platforms.
Several of the smaller firms I talked with don’t have a CRM. They have a database, but it’s mostly just job and vendor records. They aren’t doing inbound marketing—no quality content to attract people, build trust, or nurture client relationships. The opportunity here is to partner with firms to build this foundational lead generation and to nurture the contact database in cost-effective, evergreen ways.
The marketing executive I spoke with steered me toward the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS), a group focused on marketing and business development in the AEC industry. I dug into their research, and the more I studied the industry, the more certain I became that this was the right path for us.
Finally, I thought about the clients we've enjoyed working with in this industry over the years. One of the things we truly appreciate is the need for graphic design and maintaining a digital presence. While we love creating websites, and it’s our bread and butter, we also love to create communications that exist in the real world.
AEC firms often need exhibits, presentations, print collateral, and marketing assets. We also get to design logos for safety vests, hard hats, and construction equipment. How cool is that? All three of us are formally trained designers and genuinely enjoy creating all the visual nuances and consistency that convey a quality firm.
In short, this wasn’t a rushed change. It was a careful decision, based on a year of research, some successful client projects, and over 30 years of listening to my spouse explain industry pain points. He is a career civil engineer who has worked in the road, aviation, and mass transit sectors, so I’ve definitely come to understand some of the challenges.
Why AEC, and Why Now
AEC firms face ongoing marketing challenges: long sales cycles that rely on reputation and referrals, buyers who are highly technical, and a strong dislike for anything that feels performative or overly technical. We’ve worked with these firms before and noticed that our industry, web design is facing similar trends.
There’s a shift from generic messaging to clear, proven value. Websites need to go beyond simple portfolios and include 'proof pages' with case studies that show real problem-solving and results. There’s also a growing need for strong visual content—like 3D walkthroughs, drone photos, and time-lapse videos—to tell project stories, not just display finished work. Building trust is key, so team pages, testimonials, and awards should be front and center.
As we gain more experience and focus our marketing on AEC, we can join the right conversations in industry forums, association publications, and events where AEC firms look for partners. This makes us easier to find, easier to recommend, and more valuable to the firms we want to work with.
“Expertise is recognized, not advertised. You need your potential clients to bestow it upon you, and then they will reach out, having already decided they want to work with you before they speak with you.”
Niching Is Necessary. But It's No Longer Enough.
You’ve likely heard the phrase, “You get riches in the niches,” but it took us a while to really feel experienced enough to embrace this direction. Ironically, a recent podcast I stumbled upon finetuned what niching actually means.
On the Rev Thinking podcast, marketing strategist Alex James made a strong point: niching down used to be more unusual, but now it’s standard. Agencies in the US and Canada have grown by 53% in the last five years, and 90% have narrowed their focus. But specializing isn’t enough anymore; saying “we do X for Y” doesn’t set you apart.
What’s needed now is perspective: think about who you serve, why change is needed, and what you believe is a better way forward.
He explains it as moving from “we do X for Y” to “we do X for Y because Z.” That Z is your perspective—it’s not just a tagline, but a belief that shapes every business decision, from client talks to project scope, and even the work you turn down.
The Business Case for Specialization
But there’s also a practical side that goes beyond just how we position ourselves. The way firms research and choose vendors is changing quickly. AI systems now shape first impressions, pulling information from many third-party sources like media, bios, review sites, and industry publications—most of which weren’t meant for AI to analyze. A generalist with a scattered online presence is hard for AI to describe well. A specialist who is clearly active in one sector is easier for AI to find and recommend.
Here’s a simple test: ask AI a question your website should answer. If it can’t give a clear response, your content isn’t just missing the mark for people—it’s also failing in the research process that happens before most outreach.
The SMPS Foundation’s 2026 Emerging Trends in A/E/C Marketing and Business Development report supports this: procurement teams are using AI tools for scoring, proposal analysis, and vendor management, and automation is now standard in the early filtering stage. For vendors like us, having a clear, consistent story in the right places isn’t just smart marketing; it’s a must to stay competitive.
“People are not auditing AI as software. They are auditioning it as a life-organisation layer. They want it to handle the cognitive overhead that modernity has deposited on every individual who lacks the wealth to outsource it to other humans.”
AI Is a Tool. It Isn’t a Partner.
This difference matters and shapes everything we do. We want to be clear about this, because it guides all our work. This year, writer and strategist Carlo Iacono discussed Anthropic’s study of 81,000 AI users across 159 countries. These users didn’t just want smarter software; they wanted their lives back: more time, focus, and energy for what they do best. As Iacono said, people are "not auditing AI as software. They are auditioning it as a life-organisation layer."
That idea rings true for us. We use AI to research, draft, and solve problems faster. But AI can’t replace the judgment that comes from really knowing a client’s business and goals. It also can’t replace accountability, nuance and hand-holding. And we do do A LOT of hand-holding, especially with clients who aren’t well-versed in tech. And no, it isn’t just the more vintage folks; there are a lot of younger people who don't get all the tech stuff and really value having guidance from an expert human team.
So much of what we do isn’t even design-related. We give our clients the confidence to make the next right move, and we back it up with expertise and the tech stack needed to execute. And if there are any gaps in that execution, we are here to fill them or fix them.
This brings us back to the lesson we learned from that key client experience.
About That Client
At the heart of it, the problem was trust. My mistake was thinking that, since the client had already had two failed designer interactions, there would be an openness to the experts' advice. But the truth is, the client didn’t trust our content writer or us. They were unwilling to let us do our job. What I mistakenly saw as a content issue was much deeper, and we couldn’t fix it.
But that experience revealed something bigger: trust and accountability matter, and it’s getting harder to find. One real concern about AI is this: if it creates something wrong and someone acts on it, who is responsible? The answer isn’t clear, and that uncertainty makes people uneasy.
When we take on a project, we’re responsible for the quality of the work, the process, and the results. As a small team, you always know who you’re working with. It makes us a great fit for smaller AEC firms that want a partner who feels like part of their own in-house team.
The main lesson is this: we value working with clients who trust our expertise and process, knowing we take full responsibility and solve problems when they arise.
“Clients are no longer sourcing technical services. They are selecting strategic partners who can mitigate risk, contribute foresight, and navigate complexity alongside them.”
Why Niching Isn't Limiting. It's the Future.
Design Powers has been in business since 1996. We began as a graphic design firm and later transitioned into web design and branding. It took years to determine the best platforms, the right clients, and the work that suited us most. For the origin story, you can read about it in this blog post that I wrote several years ago.
Now, we’re refining again, approaching this new chapter with genuine interest and excitement. We recognize that we have a lot to learn, but what we do know is substantial, and we’re committed to staying honest and working hard to find the best solutions for our clients.
If you're an AEC firm that's ready to work with an expert team, let's talk.
Sources: Alex James, Rev Thinking Podcast, hosted by Tim Thompson. Carlo Iacono, "What Do You Want From AI?", Substack, 2025. SMPS Foundation and FMI Consulting, "Emerging Trends in A/E/C Marketing and Business Development," 2026.
