Where does the most potential for profit lie in design jobs? Purchasing.  If you’re not sure how to get your purchasing profits up, you’re in luck. Let me introduce you to our guest for this episode of the Interior Design Business Podcast, Heather McManus. Heather is the creator and CEO of The Designers Collaborative and she knows pretty much everything there is to know about profitable purchasing in the design world.  In this episode, you’ll learn how to find vendors you want to work...

Have you been wondering how to start a design business? Maybe you’ve even started already but you’re not sure what to do next.  I’m bringing back one of the most popular episodes of the Interior Design Business Podcast all about starting a design business. If you’ve been scouring the internet for information about starting your own design business, you’ve made it to the right place.  In this episode, I’m taking you through a list of everything you need to get set up to start your...

What do you do when you have a client you feel you can’t say no to? This usually happens when it’s a client who put you on the map or helped your career in some way. You feel like you owe them, but they just keep calling with more and more design questions that you’re not getting paid to answer. Are you obligated to help this client? Coach Marsha Sewdass is answering all your questions in this episode of the Interior Design Business podcast.  We’re talking about what it means to hold your...

“I hate my business.” “This isn’t what I signed up for.” “I’m overwhelmed.” Does this sound like your inner dialogue right now? Have you reached a place where you’re feeling resentful toward your business? Let’s talk about what happened, how you got here, and what it means for the future of your business. I want you to know that it’s normal to reach this point, so don’t feel bad about it. This feeling is telling you something about how to move forward in your business, and in this...

I want to talk about my favorite thing to do: remodeling jobs.  They might be fun, but they can easily turn into money leaks if you’re not careful, because let’s be honest, they take a lot of time to do and you still need to get paid for all that time.  It took me a long time to figure out how to make remodeling jobs profitable, but now that I’ve got it figured out, I want to share the process with you. This episode of the Interior Design Business podcast will walk you through how to have...

It’s all well and good to know how to turn a lead into a profitable client, but how do you get a lead in the first place? We talk about that first part a lot around here, but I want to take it back a step and talk about how to find clients. This is something that a lot of people are missing from their business plans because they don’t think they have the time or money for marketing. Don’t let that be you. I’m going to teach you how to get started with your marketing no matter how busy you...

Let’s talk about your relationship with money.  One of the biggest challenges you will face as a designer is your money story. If you’ve been around here for a while, you’ve probably heard me talk about this before, and that’s because I can’t overemphasize how important it is that you work on your money mindset.  Most of us start with a scarcity mindset through no fault of our own. It could have come from experiences with money in your childhood or messages you’ve received about money...

Have you ever had a design job that you felt you somehow lost control of? You could have an ideal client, a huge budget, and the perfect setup, but if you lose control of the job and the client takes over, it’s going to turn into a nightmare, trust me. To make sure this doesn’t happen to you, we’re going to talk about how designers lose control of jobs and what you can do to avoid it. In this episode of the Interior Design Business podcast, we’re taking a look at an example of a designer...

Is your business leaking money? There are a few common mistakes I see designers making that are causing them to lose money without even realizing they’re doing it. If you can learn how to avoid these mistakes, you’ll also learn how to avoid losing money. In this episode of the Interior Design Business podcast, I’m sharing five potential money leaks in your design business.  Tune in to find out if you’re making any of these mistakes and what to do about it. The good news is that all of the...

What is getting in the way of being paid what you’re worth?  In Part 1 we discovered that the main reason designers don’t get paid what they’re worth is that they aren’t comfortable talking about money. We talked about how to fix this pricing challenge, but there’s more to be said, so I’m back with Part 2.  In this episode, we’re taking a look at the support you need from yourself and from the people surrounding you in order to feel comfortable charging more. Once you get comfortable...

Designers often ask me, “What questions should I ask in a discovery call to see if this could turn into a real paying client?” What if an effective discovery call isn’t so much about the questions you ask as it is about the system you use? Let’s talk about your discovery call system: the process that you use to take your clients from their first interaction with you to your first paid appointment.  In this episode of the Interior Design Business podcast, I’m teaching you the five step...

What is getting in the way of being paid what you’re worth?  I want to address the most common pricing challenges that you’ll face as a design business owner. Maybe you’ve struggled with this before or maybe you’re looking out for your future self. Either way, this is important information for you to know.  This episode will teach you how to reframe your money mindset, get comfortable talking about money, and ask for what you’re worth. Many of us have been conditioned to be so...

Do you feel like you never have enough time for all the things you want to do? Usually, when I ask fellow design business owners what they want their businesses to look like, they can give me a pretty clear answer, but when I ask them why they aren’t working towards it, they say something like “Oh I don’t have time for that.” If that sounds like you then I have another question for you: why not? If your time isn’t being spent creating the business and life you really want then what’s it...

What is a luxury mindset?  This is an important concept for interior designers and service providers to understand, so I wanted to revisit this favorite episode.  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 Business podcast, I’m taking you through the elements of a luxury mindset and how...

Are you still charging hourly rates? If so, listen up because this is for you! In this episode, we’re going over the differences between working on an hourly basis vs. working on a fee basis as a designer and why I switched to working on a fee basis in my own business. Not only is selling your services as a package deal beneficial to your clients, but it’s also beneficial to your business. By presenting your work as a fee-based service, your billing process, project management, and client...

Are you taking advantage of the tipping point of your sales conversations?  If you’re not sure how to answer that, keep reading.  The tipping point is the point in a sales conversation with a prospective client when you ask to be hired. The thought of asking to be hired might immediately send you spiraling. That’s not uncommon, but we’re going to fix it.  My goal in this episode is to teach you how to get comfortable with the idea of selling, how to change the stories you’re telling...

Have you ever done a design job that you didn’t get paid for until months after the design was finished? This episode is going to make sure you avoid ever being in that position again. There are four rules of pricing that profitable design businesses follow and believe me, I learned them the hard way, so now I’m sharing them so you don’t have to.  When you follow these pricing rules, your design jobs will run more smoothly, your clients will be easier to handle, and your business is going...

Most designers struggle to get paid what they’re worth. Have you experienced this? You might have felt the need to lower your prices to get a client, felt bad about charging a high price for something, or given away your time for free to try to lower your costs. Why do you feel the need to do things like this? The answer lies in your money mindset.  The first step to getting paid what you’re worth is working on your money mindset. You need to know what stories you’re telling yourself...

When is the right time to hire help? Maybe you’re intimidated by the idea of making your first hire, maybe you’ve had a bad experience, or maybe you feel like it would be easier for you to just keep doing everything yourself. I’ve experienced all of these, so I get it, but if you’re serious about growing your business, you’re going to need some help.  In this episode of the Interior Design Business podcast, I want to help you change the way you think about hiring for your design team. I’m...

Why would it be bad for your design business to grow too fast? Growth is good, right? Well, yes and no. Your business needs to be set up to handle growth. If you experience rapid growth that you’re not prepared for, your business will not be able to support it and you’ll end up losing money and making rushed decisions. That’s not what we want.  Valerie Priester is here to walk you through the number of problems that can arise when you get ahead of yourself and grow too fast.  Valerie is...

What do you do when your inner voice becomes your inner critic? It happens to us all. Unfortunately, we’re much harder on ourselves than we are on anyone else. I bet you’d never talk to your loved ones the way you often talk to yourself.  How do you get past that voice when it’s telling you that you’re not good enough or you don’t have what it takes? The truth is, you’ll continue to get in your own way unless you actively choose to do the mindset work.  In this episode of the Interior...

How much time do you spend putting out fires? You’re going to need to get some of that time back if you want to scale your business. If you’re involved in every day-to-day task behind the scenes and you’re responsible for putting out every fire, your business cannot grow sustainably. It has to be able to function without you. So… how do you make that happen? This episode of the Interior Design Business podcast is about how to scale your design business. We’re talking about developing...

Do you consider yourself a perfectionist? I think a lot of us designers do. Wanting your work to be perfect isn’t a bad thing, it shows how much you care, but it can get you into trouble. The thing is, nothing’s ever really perfect. If you’re always waiting for the perfect time, perfect product, perfect skill set, or perfect anything, you could be waiting forever. The real magic happens when you find the courage to take imperfect action.  In this episode of the Interior Design Business...

When old clients come back to work with you again, how do you tell them that your fees have changed since the first time you worked together? If you’ve been here before, you’ll know that I teach designers how to get paid what they’re worth. One of the first things we always work on in that process is design fees. Getting your design fees nailed down isn’t too hard, but communicating those fees and sticking to them is harder, especially when you’re dealing with returning clients who were...

Do you know how many clients your business could handle without becoming overloaded? In this episode, I’m going to pitch a scenario to you and ask you some questions about how you’d handle it. The point of this exercise is to get you thinking about how prepared you and your business are to handle growth. If you feel like you have to work more and more in order to take on new clients, your business growth probably isn't very sustainable.  I’m teaching you how to structure your business to be...