Make More Money In Your Interior Design Business
I’ve been working exclusively with interior designers for about six months now, and in doing so three things have become totally apparent to me.
For one, only about 20% of your business is spent designing.
The other 80% is spent doing all the things necessary to run your business.
Second, taking a leadership role with your clients from the very beginning is essential to managing your business effectively.
And lastly,
there is an enormous opportunity for you to make significantly more money in your business, without doing too much additional work.
Yep, I said enormous.
The more I work with designers, the more I learn of the various parts of their businesses in which they short-change themselves, all while they are anxious about wondering where their next client - and paychecks - are going to come from.
There is so much money being left on the table, yet designers seem to be missing it all entirely. Instead of making the investment to see the money available to them and learn how to pick it up, they expend an insane amount of time and energy in worry, fear, and anxiety leading them to add more to their plates WHILE undercharging.
It’s crazy pants.
So instead of just sitting on this information, I decided to call it out.
I want to share with you five places where you are likely short-changing yourself in your design business.
Five Ways You’re Likely Short-Changing Yourself In Your Design Business
Not marking up furnishings
I’ll be the first to tell you that I do not coach designers on how to leverage their discounts for profit, how to manage all of this in their accounting software, or how to incorporate this into their process.
Because the truth is, I don't have a clue.
I don't work in Ivy/Studio Designer, I don't review my client's books, and I don't design so it's not like I can reference "what I do" and how I got good at it.
I will, however, strongly encourage any designer who isn’t currently doing this to seek out someone who does teach this and freaking make the investment to learn how to incorporate marking up items.
Designers across the world are making a s i g n i f i c a n t profit (that they deserve) off of furnishings by leveraging their trade discounts and marking up items.
SIGNIFICANT.
Like, that’s where a bulk of their revenue comes from.
Now, I’ve found a few reasons why designers aren’t currently doing this.
They are not willing to put in the time (and financial) investment in learning how to execute this effectively.
They feel guilty making money off of furnishings, and therefore do not have confidence communicating this to their clients or executing it.
If you’re in group 1.
If you aren’t willing to put in the time to learn it, let me help change your perspective.
How long will it take to learn this and execute it well?
Six months?
Six months of headaches, mistakes, trial and error, some wins, and a lot of learnings.
But six months from now you can either choose to be in the same place, or you can choose to have a skill that will make you money for the rest of your career.
So stop with the excuses, let yourself be bad at something, and learn how to leverage your discount and manage your books in doing so.
If you’re in Group 2.
Two thoughts for you.
One, trade partners provide you with a discount as an incentive for you to recommend their items.
Meaning, the discount was intentionally created for you to profit from these items.
Why feel guilty about that?
And two, how many hours do you spend working on your client projects, vs. how much do you bill for?
I’ve learned that a lot of designers use their furniture profits as a way of off-setting the unbilled hours they spend on the menial tasks of client projects.
They use this as their “pay” for the true time it takes talking to vendors, returning items, tracking down items, you name it.
Get clear on all the things you aren’t currently charging for, and either decide to charge for it or decide that you’re going to not feel so salty about that because you’re making money through purchasing.
2. Marking DOWN the price of high-end & custom furnishings
Raise your hand if you’ve ever “discounted” a high-end furnishing from an invoice because YOU feel it’s too much to spend on one item.
Yes, I am asking if you have ever marked DOWN the $1,000 custom pillow, the $7,000 custom window treatment, or the $15,000 custom sofa because it just felt astronomical for anyone to pay that dollar amount for an item.
If your hand isn’t raised, congratulations on not bringing your own money anxiety into your business!
Your clients are hiring you to design their space, with items that are in their best interest.
If the pillow that is in their best interest and in their budget is $1,000, don’t you dare charge them $600 because it “just SEEms like soOooo much MoneY!!!!!!!!”
Interior design is a luxury service, and your clients are affluent.
—> They don’t spend their time gawking at price tags.
—> They spend their time hiring someone like you to find them the most beautiful items that are in their “budget”/scope of work, expecting you to charge them in full for those items.
If you’re bringing your own money issues into your business, it’s time to notice that and do something about it.
Stop saving rich people money, especially at your expense.
The item price is the item price.
The way YOU think about money is what’s cheating you from making money off of it.
3. No consistent process for billing, off boarding, double checking invoices
This one actually kills me the most (number five is a close second, but this is number one.)
Because designers are losing money all the time due to their own disorganization.
Whether you don’t have a process you follow for billing clients on a schedule, or you’re not double checking everything is accounted for when a project wraps up, you are literally throwing money away.
I recently had a client who, upon finally “closing out” a project that’s been done for several months, notice that she never invoiced her client for a $800 delivery.
Several. Months. Later. She noticed this and asked for my advice.
My advice? Eat that $800, feel the pain of what you would do today with an extra $800 in your pocket, and then use that pain to never let it happen again.
Identify what processes you need to have in place to ensure you’re making the money that’s due to you.
4. Not upselling in the client's best interest
There are opportunities to upsell your services every single day.
You’re not just recommending them because…
You feel weird asking for more money
You don’t know HOW to ask for more money
Listen, if you feel weird asking for more money, I want you to get really clean about it (as opposed to dirty, which is how you feel now about asking for money.)
Is this upsell in your client’s best interest?
If yes, then great! You have nothing to feel weird about. Let’s move onto number 2.
If not, then definitely don’t sell them it.
2. You don’t know how to ask for it.
Here’s what I want you to do…
Get really clear WHY it's in their best interest.
Ask yourself…
If this was me, HOW would I want someone to position this?
WHEN would I want them to mention it?
WHAT information would be helpful to know as I made this decision?
Begin incorporating it into your process
5. Undercharging their own design fees
Last but most definitely not least, designers are constantly, across the board, underbidding design projects.
Be it a scarcity complex, imposter syndrome, or just lame-o beliefs about what’s a “lot of money” to them, there is a significant gap between the dollars a designer desires to ask for that would make them feel valued and fairly paid, and the dollars they actually ask for.
This benefits nobody.
Instead of proposing design fees that you think your client would accept and can afford, why don’t you propose design fees that…
you believe are totally fair
that reflect your talent and expertise, and
that allow you to shine when showing up for that project?
Because the only difference between an interior designer who feels valued and a designer who feels cheated is what they believe they deserve, and therefore, what they ask for.
Don’t cheat yourself.
Make the money you deserve.
Ready to put the people pleasing aside and create a business that makes you proud?
That is exactly what my clients and I are doing in my signature coaching program, Business School for Designers.
In Business School my clients are attracting more desirable business, getting time back, and asking for the dollars that they are meant for, all in the name of creating a sustainable business.
If you’ve been letting your clients run the show for too long, it’s time to take the reins.
Learn more about Business School today.