Interior Design Business

What do you wish you knew about marketing for designers? By the end of this episode, you might just have your answer.  There’s a lot of information out there about SEO, social media, and all things marketing, but it’s hard to sift through and none of it is focused on designers.  Our industry is a little different from others. There are things that need to be done in a certain way and in a certain...

“If only I had another day in the week, then I could get it all done.” “If I just had two more hours in the day, I could finish everything.” How many times have you said something like that? For me it’s a lot, that’s for sure, but those aren’t real options, so let’s chat about what you can do instead to take back your time.  In this episode of Interior Design Business, we’re talking about how to f...

What does it take for a designer to be a good leader? Let’s find out.  Valerie Priester and I are back for Part 2 of this episode all about leadership. In Part 1 we talked about learning from your mistakes, building confidence, and getting clear on your vision, and in this episode, we’re covering the self-care side of leadership: how to stand up for yourself, set boundaries, and outsource.  Steppi...

When you started your design business, leadership might not have been the first skill on your mind, but the truth is you are a leader from day one.  Whether you’re leading yourself or a whole team, the way you lead is important. In this episode, I’m joined by coach Valerie Priester to talk about what it takes for a designer to be a good leader.  We’re talking about things like having a growth mind...

I’m back with coach Marsha Sewdass for Part 2 of this episode all about healthy boundaries. It’s all very well to tell you to set more boundaries, but how do you implement them?  Sometimes you have to start small, so the small thing we’re starting with is a simple two-letter word: no.  In Part 1 we talked about how to identify areas in your life that need boundaries and carve out enough self-refle...

Do you find yourself constantly rushing out to job sites, responding to emails late at night, and taking calls on the weekends? In this episode, I’m joined by coach Marsha Sewdass and we’re talking all about boundaries.  If you feel like work is encroaching on every hour of your day and you don’t have the time for your personal life that you wish you had, you probably don’t have enough boundaries...

Just because a business looks like it’s doing well, doesn’t mean it actually is.  You might have a lot of money going through your accounts, but how much is left over at the end? If it’s not as much as you’d like, what’s going on there? Let’s get to the bottom of it.  It can be hard to pinpoint why you’re not making any profit when it feels like you’re working hard, getting clients, and finishing...

What is a luxury mindset?  This is an important concept for interior designers and service providers, so I wanted to dedicate a whole episode to it.  There’s a misconception that once you start getting luxury clients, you’ll become a luxury designer, but it just doesn’t work that way. Your luxury mindset needs to come first and the clients will follow.  In this episode of the Interior Design Busin...

Have big price tags ever caused trouble for you in your design business? I have a lot of stories about designers getting in trouble with big price tags, but probably not in the way you’re thinking right now.  I’m sharing some of these stories with you in this episode to demonstrate how your money mindset can clash with your client’s money mindset and get messy. You don’t want to let your own money...

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  These are words to live by when it comes to your systems and processes. Here at IDBA, we have a really effective process for bringing in clients and jobs. It builds trust with your clients and sets you up to get paid for more and more work. The problem is, sometimes we get in our own way. We feel the need to get creative and stray from the processes that we know...

How do you take a lead, turn it into a prospect, and then turn it into a good design job? In this episode of the Interior Design Business podcast, I’m sharing my process for turning leads into prospects and prospects into paying clients.  This is one of those things that you need to have a process for in your business. Without a clear and repeatable process, a lot of leads are going to fall throug...

When you jump into a job too fast, things tend to go wrong.  I get it; it’s exciting when a new job looks like it’s going to be a good one, but you need to know everything about it before you say yes and especially before you price it.  In this episode, let’s talk about how to slow things down and avoid saying yes to a job too quickly. The advantages of a slower design process are that you get pai...

How do you make remodeling jobs profitable? Maybe you love working on remodels, but you always find yourself losing money on them. That’s a lot more common than you might think. Is there a solution? This episode of the Interior Design Business podcast has the answers for you.  Remodels are a big business these days. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars exchanging hands every day in the remod...

How often are you pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone? I know it’s hard to do, and you can’t do it all the time, but the truth is if you never leave your comfort zone, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities. In this episode of the Interior Design Business podcast, I’m going to try to make it a little easier for you by sharing some practical reasons and ways to get out of your comfo...

Have you ever had a job go sideways because a client wanted to get involved with the purchasing process? There are ways to allow clients to make their own purchases if that’s what they really want to do, but it’s really important to know how to protect yourself in those situations because they can get messy if you’re not careful.  In this episode of the Interior Design Business podcast, I’m sharin...

How do you handle clients who are difficult to work with? A lot of business owners dread facing challenging clients because they don’t know how to handle them professionally while still sticking to their boundaries. It’s not fun dealing with challenging clients, but it does happen, so let’s talk about it.  In this episode, I’m covering things like when to walk away from a situation, how to end a j...

Do you love remodeling jobs as much as I do? I love the imagination and creativity that goes into taking something run down and turning it into something amazing.  A lot of designers enjoy remodeling jobs but they don’t know how to make them profitable. That stems from not knowing how to handle and position yourself with the contractor, so in this episode, I’m covering the mistakes designers make...

Do you have boundaries in place (in writing) to protect you in your business? The actions of your clients can reveal that you’re missing boundaries in some very important places, so I want to make sure that doesn’t happen. In this episode of Interior Design Business, I’m sharing what kinds of boundaries you need to have in place, how to communicate your boundaries effectively and professionally, a...

Throwing out design fee numbers to potential clients without thinking about it can get you in all kinds of trouble, so why does it happen? In this episode of Interior Design Business, I’m teaching you how to take a $1,500 throw-out fee that’s going to get you in trouble and turn it into a $4,500 fee with a $30,000 budget (or more!). It’s not hard to do, you just need to know how to say it and how...

Have you thought about hiring a virtual assistant for your design business?  One of the best things you can do for your business is focus on your brilliance. Your brilliance is your creativity and it’s where you make the most money. How do you spend more time there and less time on paperwork and putting out fires? You hire a VA to help you.  If you’ve been thinking about hiring a VA but you’re not...

Are you scared to make your first hire? The fastest way to build your business is by hiring good people to help you, but hiring has its pitfalls too as I’m sure you know.  I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to be scared. I know it’s a big step, but when you’re well-prepared and you know exactly what you’re looking for, you’re not going to regret hiring people to help your business thrive.  I...

What if I told you there were some simple changes that you could make to instantly grow your business?  In this episode, we’re talking about some of the common mistakes that could be holding your design business back. If your business isn’t growing as fast as you’d like or your growth has plateaued, these are some things that you can take a look at to get back on track. I’m sharing specific things...

Are you trying to do everything in your business by yourself? The fastest way to build your business is to focus your time on high-paying tasks, but often you get caught up in everything else it takes to run a design business. The sooner you can hire someone to do those things, the better.  I want to talk about the thing that stops a lot of business owners from hiring sooner: delegating. If you th...

Do you want to know the secret to reaching your goals? It might not be what you think.  When you’re starting out in the design business world, it’s all hustle. You pick up every job that falls at your feet and you don’t have a marketing or business plan to follow. It’s all about getting your business off the ground.  Now that you have better clients, you’re making more money, and you have bigger e...

Have you been curious about getting into commercial design? In this episode, I’m sitting down with Megan Thompson from Spark Interiors to talk all about her journey to becoming a commercial designer.  She’s sharing what her path to success has looked like and some of the things that helped the most along the way. From graduating during a recession to hustling as a new designer to hiring her own te...