For Residential Interior Designers, Some Year-End Moneymakers

Want to get the ball — and your business– rolling in these final weeks of the year?

Want to position yourself for bigger profits in 2010?

Try your hand at some or all of these quick fix strategies:

+ Position yourself as a design professional who helps high end area homeowners enhance the value of their homes in these challenging economic times.

+ Launch a “Buy the Hour” interior consultation program, targeted toward those homeowners. Charge 2-3 times your normal hourly rate for the program – and require a 2-3 hour minimum

+ Use those consultations to “upsell” your way to additional work, by offering to assist with window treatments,  kitchen and bath remodeling, furniture upgrades, etc. 

+ Promote the service through news releases in publications (especially smaller, more targeted ones) that circulate in high end area communities.

+ Contact editors at those publications about the idea of submitting a timely article or column, on a topic like: how to do a million dollar home makeover on a shoestring budget in challenging economic times.

+ Smile and Dial – call and check in with past clients, prospects and everyone else you seek to influence,  inform them of your new interior consultation service, and ask for referrals.

+ Reach out to area builders, developers and realtors, and offer to advise and assist them in these challenging times.

+ Take your 5-6 best clients out to lunch, collectively or individually, and ask their recommendations on how you can expand your business.

+ Alternatively, make holiday house calls on your top residential clients, and arrive with a small customers appreciation gift in hand. Ask about additional business, and referrals.

Fred Berns is the world’s leading sales and marketing trainer for interior design professionals.