Interior Design Business Resources

Create a Marketing Plan for Your Interior Design Business

If your business is struggling you probably need to be doing a better job at marketing. And even when you are busy you can’t let up on your marketing efforts. In other words, you always need to be marketing because when you stop clients stop.

If you’ve never created a marketing plan now is the time. You may have been marketing and not realized it (and if you’ve had clients this is probably the case) but if you want to get more ideal clients, now is the time to focus on your marketing efforts.

MarketingCapella KincheloeNovember 13, 2019marketing, ideal clients, finding clientsComment

Planning Tools for Interior Designers

As interior design business owners, we’re always looking for planning tools and programs to help keep us organized and on top of our typically huge to-do list. But oftentimes these same tools can become burdens rather than advantage.

Too many planning tools and programs can become burdensome because you have information spread out in multiple places, usually resulting in multiple steps to access the information, and learning or navigating a new tool or program can be a pain.

CEO MindCapella KincheloeNovember 6, 2019interior design tools, business development Comments

Creating a Unique Value Proposition

When clients can’t differentiate between you and another designer, they will always be making their decision to hire you based on price.

This is why you need to stand out and have a unique value proposition.

Now, unique value proposition is a fancy term for the unique advantage you bring to your clients.

Marketing, CEO Mind, ClientsCapella KincheloeOctober 23, 2019value, unique value proposition, competitionComment

How to Be A Good Boss

Did you know that today is National Bosses Day? So I thought it would be appropriate to share how to be a good boss.

I know some of you may not have employees - but even if you’re just working for yourself, you’re still a boss and can apply these in your own business - for yourself!

Set Standards

It’s important that your employees know what is expected of them. That means that you have standards of conduct as well as standards for performance. It’s also up to you to find ways to motivate - this is usually done best by

FundamentalsCapella KincheloeOctober 16, 2019employee, interior design hiringComment

How to Charge More Next Year

While we still have a few more months left in this year, it is the time for you to start thinking about how you can charge more next year.

Watch Your Apologies

You’ve probably heard that we apologize too much. We often apologize when we shouldn’t or when it’s not necessary or authentic.

Maybe you apologize to the chair when you bump into it. Maybe you apologize to your cat when you move it off your keyboard. Perhaps you apologize in your automated out-of-office replies. Maybe you’re saying “sorry” in most of your outbound emails.

6 Qualities of A Successful Interior Design CEO

Not everyone has the skills necessary to be a business owner. Sometimes people are born a natural entrepreneur and some others can learn the necessary skills. But there are others that it is just not in the cards for them.

Running a business is often a whole different ballgame than the purpose of the business. Meaning that you can be a plumber, but not know how to run a plumbing business. You can be a talented cake baker, but not have the skills to run a successful bakery. You could make the most beautiful pottery, but not know how to sell it.

CEO MindCapella KincheloeSeptember 25, 2019skills, talents, interior design ceo, qualitiesComment

Power Hours

Last week I wrote about the ways you can work smarter and not harder and this week I want to share with you a super-simple system that I use that has changed my business. Because why create a system unless it makes your business run better? This one couldn’t be any easier, I call them Power Hours.

Power Hours are a time-blocking technique, which means that this is my hour a week to do very specific tasks. I found that there were things I kept putting off or never seemed to have the time to do. All those little random things that pop up that don’t fit into your normal business operations, but still need to get done.

Fundamentals, CEO MindCapella KincheloeSeptember 18, 2019business systems, interior design systems, interior design ceo, design processComment

Work Smarter, Not Harder

I whole-heartedly believe in working smarter and not harder. And based on the amount of inquiries I receive about this topic, it seems like you might too. I would rather work 20 focused hours in a week than filling 40 hours with who knows what just because that is the “standard”. When you own your own business this is within the realm of possibilities, you just need to work smarter and not harder.

CEO MindCapella KincheloeSeptember 11, 2019business systems, interior design systems, tracking time Comment

What a Goose and Golden Egg Has to Do With Interior Design Business

I’ve been rereading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey and it’s so good. So many wisdom bombs that has me underlining and affirming to myself. But of course, I’m always thinking of you and how it applies to running an interior design business.

So when I read the part where the author defines “effectiveness” by using Aesop’s fable of the goose and golden egg, I thought of interior designers over their head in business.

CEO MindCapella KincheloeSeptember 4, 2019productivity, profit, stop being busy, interior design ceo Comments

Be Right Back

For August, I’m going to be taking the month off! I’ll be back in September to share some awesome new things with you!

In the meantime, if you’re not on vacation yourself I’ve include some great articles to keep you working on your business:

Capella KincheloeAugust 7, 2019Comment

How to Use a Wait List to Your Benefit

There are several dozen psychological triggers that can help increase your sales and one of my favorites is scarcity. For interior designers we have a limited amount of time and creativity to service clients, without wearing ourselves out or bringing in help. We naturally have a limited bandwidth. This is where you can use scarcity and a wait list to your benefit.

I have to mention, because I know that many people are going to feel a little resistance on this topic, that many designers I know have a scarcity mindset. It’s a bit of a natural state when you own your own business.

How to Keep New Business Coming

Would you like a more steady stream of clients and projects? Would you like to keep new new business coming into your interior design business consistently?

Of course!

Keep New Business Coming

Interior design is naturally cyclical. There are naturally slower times. And it may depend on your ideal client and the location of your business. For example, in the US, you’re likely to be slower right before Thanksgiving if you live in a place with a lot of second/vacation homes. However, this is usually a very busy time for a lot of other designers around the country.

Why Interior Designers Don't Accept Returns

One of the biggest hang-ups for clients when they work with interior designers is that we don’t take returns. So why don’t we take returns?

Interior designers shop at dozens - sometimes hundreds - of different places. Most to-the-trade places don’t take returns. So really, it’s not the interior designer’s policy - it’s the vendor’s policy. My contract says that if I can get a return I will - but most items are not returnable.

Fundamentals, ClientsCapella KincheloeJuly 17, 2019returns Comment

Interior Design Services Aren't For Everyone

Should interior design services be accessible to everyone? Does everyone deserve a beautiful, professionally-designed home?

My answer is no.

Interior Designers & Retail Design Services

I was asked recently, that as more retailers start introducing design services into their furniture offerings how can we as designers, start setting ourselves apart as well as stay relevant.

This question caused an internal scream of the soul.

If designers don’t know the value that they bring, don’t know how the services that we offer, and are confused about this - how can we expect clients who aren’t part of this industry to understand?

Interior Design & The Environment

Do interior designers have a responsibility to create environmentally-friendly designs? Fast-furniture and flat-pack furniture companies have become ever more popular as the home decor market flourishes. More people consider home goods disposable rather than a lifetime investment.

This means that almost 10 MILLION TONS of furniture go into landfills yearly.

FundamentalsCapella KincheloeJune 26, 2019environment, LEED, sustainability Comments

Getting Your Work Photographed

Getting your work photographed is an important part of documenting your work as well as using it to attract new work. So, getting your work photographed needs to start at the beginning of the project, not the end.

Explaining Gaps in Employment

Today, I’m answering a reader question. Lenishka emailed and asked, “How do I explain gaps in employment and being in school for over a decade without sounding like I don't have my stuff together.” She explained that she has started a family and earned a couple degrees in the past 14 years, but is questioning how to explain gaps in employment.

End-of-Project Survey

I’m a huge fan of creating an on-boarding process for new clients. It makes attracting and signing new clients so much easier, efficient, and professional. A large part of my system involves a detailed client questionnaire. This helps me get to know the client before work begins. But, what happens after the work is complete? Do you have a process with an end-of-project survey?