Interior Designers Facing "Fork In The Road"

Today's blog post is about survival of the fittest. 

This economy does not leave room for you to succeed in interior design unless you are a warrior.  If you are doing things the same way you were even 90 days ago it is time to do some careful thinking. 

If you want to keep your business operating, and interior design is a business, you have to control these things:

1. Your attitude.  If you are depressed or feel defeated because the phone isn't ringing, and if you can't control your negative feelings, you might as well give the key to your office to your landlord.  This is time for ninja tactics.  If your attitude is negative, bad things tend to happen.  
2. Your motivation to manage your time.  Being "busy" doesn't mean you are making money.  If you don't carefully manage your time, you will end up working hard but not produce monetary results. 
3. Your expenses.  Now is the time to cut dramatically.  If you're having a Starbucks every day or eating out - it's time to cut back.  I'm not saying you have to give it up completely, but try to minimized non-essential expenditures.  Each day you don't buy your favorite latte, just put that money aside and save it for a bigger treat when you bring in your next big client.
4. Your cash cushion.  Nothing causes more stress than not having money to cover expenses and payroll.  I am speaking from experience.  Six to nine months of expenses is a necessity.
5. Your business skills.  If you aren't constantly improving your skills especially with technology and today's marketing techniques, you will be facing a difficult decision very soon.  Your budget should include at least 3% for continuing education every year.
6. Your relationship and selling skills.  This is the key to your business success.  If you find yourself unwilling to pick up the phone and call your clients for referrals, then you need to decide if you need to hire someone to market for you, or seriously consider whether you should be running your own business.  This may sound harsh, but you are the rainmaker if you work alone or own a small firm.  If you don't have great consultative and selling skills, it is time to get some training.
7. Your marketing.  If you don't have time allocated to marketing every day, you are destined to ride a roller coaster that may careen out of control.  You can't rely on one method to get business.
8. Your business plan (or success strategy).  If you are working without a business plan, you should at least have a napkin strategy.  If you don't know how to write a business plan, then at least go to the SBA for advice, check out a book from the library or get an inexpensive software program to help you through this.  It doesn't have to be fancy, but if you don't know where you are going, how do you know when you've arrived?
9. Minimize your weaknesses and play to your strengths.  If you aren't good at some of major skills that determine success, don't try to improve your weaknesses, just recognize them and outsource or delegate them to others.  You will get much further if you do this and your stress level will go down dramatically.  You may think you don't have the money to outsource or delegate, but you can't afford not to focus on your strengths.
10. Set up systems in your business.  If you do a task more than once, you need a documented system.  This may seem boring, but the sooner you do this, the sooner you will be able to hand off the work that doesn't play to your strengths.

So - what is the fork in the road?  You must be a great business person first and an interior designer second, or look for someone that is good at business and work for them. 

Successful designers today are working with the ultra-affluent, marketing consistently and incorporating contingency plans into their business. 

If you don't feel confident about your ability to approach wealthy clients and convince them to hire you, please, please, please get coaching. 

More than anything, we want to see you succeed.  If the phone isn't ringing, you need to do something about it now.

Your only other option is to look for work outside of the industry and that may not be appealing to you.

Our economy will not be strong for the forseeable future, so you have to have the skills and the determination to do what it takes to survive and thrive.  Are you ready?