If you earn too little income, you give away too
much time.

Bill for your time. All your time. Every
time.

Why do many design professionals fail to achieve
their financial goals? They give away their expertise.
They donate too much time, too often.

They don’t bill for lengthy phone calls from clients.
Or for installing the window treatments. Or
for meeting with contractors. Or for shopping.  Or
for “overseeing” the furniture delivery.

Fail to charge for your time, and you fail to attach a
value to yourself. You invite others to take advantage of
you. You make it more difficult for other design
professionals to charge for their services.

The most financially successful design professionals I meet
at my speaking engagements around the country bill for:
+ all their telephone consultation time
+ all their planning time
+ all their drafting and “sketching” time
+ all their measurement and installation time
+ all their project management time
+ all their travel time
+ every hour of every personal appointment

Got a problem with that? Call a lawyer, or visit
a doctor. You’ll find that all their expertise comes at
a price.

Yours should, too.
 

Know what you  are? Lemme tell you what you are.

You’re a salesperson.

That’s probably not a word you care to use.

You’d rather tell people you’re a designer. Or an architect. Or a kitchen and bath specialist.

Sure, you that, too. But you’re primarily a salesperson.  A PERSONAL salesperson.

You have to sell yourself before you can sell your design services.

Kelley Robertson, a noted sales trainer and coach, wrote an excellent article on characteristics of successful salespeople. Check out his article archives here.

So, you’re a designer and you want to hook up with builders.

Good idea.

Problem is, so does every other designer within a 500 mile radius. What to do?

Well, you can do what those others do. You can hang out at local HBA meetings, and pass out business cards.

Or, you can get a list of local builders, and start smilin’, dialin’ and leavin’ — lots of messages.

Then again, you can do something which makes a lot more sense: invite builders over for breakfast.

I’ve helped several designers create “Builders for Breakfast” events at holiday times like these.

Invite a select group  to a “builders networking event” at your showroom, or a nice local restaurant.  Let ‘em munch and meet. Give  a 15 minute presentation. Offer your design services. And then, send ‘em on their way

Promote it the right way, and you’ll be surprised how many builders show up, and how much business you can get out of it.

Interested? Some Builders for Breakfast ideas to get you started:

+ 1/  Focus on inviting 12-15 builders in your target area.

+ 2/ An excellent way to collect names: contact the local builders organization about your interest in interviewing leading builders in the ______________  area for an article you’re thinking of  writing. Ask for contact information.
 (Note: you may want to do an article. I know some designers who have)

+ 3/ Decide on a topic you can present in 15-20 minutes to the attendees. The topic should be geared to helping them be more successful, and sell more homes.

 Examples: < how to work with a designer
   < design tips they can pass on to new homeowners
   < how they can market themselves more       effectively to buyers
   < ways they can add pizzazz to their model homes

4/ Mail creative invitations (make the envelope “lumpy,” if possible) to the builders, inviting them to a builders networking event where they’ll also learn ______. Give a brief description of your topic.

5/ Have the event catered. Or, select an upscale local restaurant which can host the breakfast.

6/ Develop a knock-their-socks-off personal commercial that you can share at the breakfast. The commercial should  position you as  a unique 1-of-a-kind design professional and it should include your “only.”

7/ Prepare a simple handout that attendees can take away from your presentation. A bulleted “tip list” always make a hit. Make sure you include all of your contact info – and a personal marketing piece, like a bio sheet or list of products and services.

8/ Announce your interest in partnering with a few local builders, possibly by offering your services as a design  resource for buyers.

9/  Hold a door prize drawing, as a way to gather business cards

10/  Send a handwritten thank you note within a few days to all the attendees.
 

Been thinking a lot about fees, lately.

Been thinking about two designers near Scottsdale, AZ. Same experience level. Same types of clients.

The only difference: one charges an hourly fee of $100. The other: $200.

Been thinking about some veteran New York City designers. They get a substantially lower fee than a less experienced designer iI know in Bend, OR. 

Been thinking about a designer in Atlanta. She’s won awards. She’s been published. And she hasn’t raised her fees in years. That’s how afraid she is she’ll lose all her clients.

What’s all THAT about?

The fee you get may have less to do with your design skills than it does with your self esteem. If you feel good about yourself, you charge a substantial fee.

If you don’t, you don’t.

There’s  more to it than that, I know. It doesn’t matter how good you are, if you’re the only one who knows. So you have to promote yourself as the unique, one-of-a kind design professional that you are.

There’s no such thing as “what the local market will bear.” I mean, is that published at City Hall or something?

There’s no magic formula for what professionals with various levels of experience can charge.

You  can set and get any fee — any fee– as long as you can differentiate yourself from competitors who charge less.

Your mind may be your biggest obstacle to making more money. 

Until you give yourself permission to charge what you’re really worth, you won’t.

And that’s a shame.

Can we talk?

Can we share ideas a few times a week on how to earn really increase your income as a design professional?

Can we talk about simple sales and marketing ideas that will help you earn the kind of income you want and deserve?

I’m so convinced we can that I’m introducing – today — the online “journal” that will make it all possible.

Welcome to InteriorDesignBusiness.net.

Welcome to the only blog devoted exclusively to helping interior designers, architects, window fashion professionals, kitchen and bath professionals, decorators, showrooms, manufacturers and other design professionals …

…do kickbutt marketing and sales.

About that “blog” word.  Scary, isn’t it? Sounds like techno-speak.

Sounds like the kind of stuff  geeks and propeller heads and 11 year old kids understand, but we, as design professionals, never will.

Not to worry.

A blog, or “web log,” is nothing more than an online journal that includes thoughts and ideas, in chronological order, on a specific topic.

In this case, the topic is you: your career, your business, your success.

InteriorDesignBusiness.net will include every idea I can come up with for you to be more profitable.  It will include industry news and trends that will help you succeed. It will include any comments or ideas you care to share. It will include articles and opinions and articles from others.

Speaking, training and coaching keep me on the road a lot, but I intend to add a new posting every few days.

So come one, come all. Come often. 

There’s plenty to talk about.