#34: 5 Signs it’s Time to Hire

Welcome to the Designers Oasis podcast. I'm your host, Kate Bendewald, interior designer, mama, and CEO of a thriving interior design business, built on authentic word-of-mouth referrals. It wasn't that long ago that I stepped away from my corporate architecture job to build my own dream, one that would allow me more time with the people that I love, the ability to serve my clients at the highest level and to make a great living. It wasn't always easy, and I've made my share of mistakes along the way. Fast forward to today, and I've learned a thing or two. This podcast is for you - the inspired, creative, ambitious, and let's admit it,  occasionally overwhelmed interior designer who shares this dream of transforming lives by transforming homes. Join me and my guests each week as we walk through practical ways to build an interior design business you love, and help you transform your client's lives. You can do this. 

Well, hello there and welcome back to the designers Voices Podcast. I'm your host, Kate Bendewald. And I am so excited to be hanging out with you today. If you are new to the podcast, I wanted to give you just a quick little reintroduction. So my name is Kate, I am an interior designer. And a number of years ago, I started and launched designers Oasis, with this specific goal of helping interior designers to launch scale and grow their interior design business, whether you are just getting started, or you're looking to level up your business, I have tools and resources for you. 

So if you're new here, I highly suggest going back to Episode one where I talk about the three core truths about running your interior design business, I will stand on the Hill on those three core truths. So listen to that episode one. But the one thing I want you to know is that I don't believe in a one size fits all approach to how you run your business. And you will hear notes of this today as we talk through this topic of hiring. But you know what I will tell you I run a membership for an a program for interior designers to mentoring coaching program. And the designers in our program span this wide spectrum of everything from brand new baby designers who are just launching their own interior design business, they are likely solopreneurs. They're wearing all the hats, putting together, you know all of the nuts and bolts and really just getting started to the folks who have been doing this for a while. Some of them continue to stay small and continue to choose to be solopreneurs. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. That's that's their sweet spot. And that's what brings them joy. There are other designers who have big ambitions to grow and have them have employees have staff have teams have offices, they're doing projects all over the country. And you know what, we all have sort of different ambitions, different goals, different struggles, right at different seasons and wherever you might be. 

So that's, that's what we're all about. And we cover topics ranging across the spectrum. So we're so glad you're here. And I just want you to know that wherever you might fit in that spectrum, there is something here for you. So let's get into it. 

Today we are talking about hiring specifically, how to know when it's time to hire. The reality is that many designers who experienced the struggles that we're going to talk about today end up throwing money at at the wrong things or they end up wasting a lot of time on the wrong activities. When really the answer is hiring and hiring is going to be the thing that is going to help you to get on stock. So what do I mean by this throwing money at the wrong things or wasting time on the wrong activities? Maybe this is you know you get Big Eyes anytime you see new software because you think the software is going to be the ticket to help you make things easier, faster, better, maybe you spend time trying to revamp your services or your product management systems. Now, I'm not saying that those aren't useful activities, many times, they are many times, that might be the thing that you need to do in that moment. But sometimes, human resources are the only thing that are going to help you get on stuck, you're sort of at this tipping point. 

And so today, I'm hoping that we can shed some light on how to tell if that's where you might be, like, I get it as a solopreneur, it can be hard to let things go, you feel like no one else can do it the way that you can, or you think you can't afford to hire. But is that because you're playing small? Is there a money story that you might need to check? Is it that you're not willing to step in to the shoes of the leader that you're meant to be? So those are all possibilities that might be keeping you from taking that next step. But if you find yourself in some of these, experiencing some of these five signs, we're gonna talk about the five signs that it might be time to hire, I think if you can say yes to three of these, then this is a really good sign that it's time to hire some help. 

So let's get into it. The first one is real simple. You don't enjoy your work anymore. I I have had designers say to me after making some shifts in their business, including hiring, that one in particular that comes to mind, she came to me, she said, Kate, I have fallen in love with my business again. And I knew what she meant, because I knew that there was a point where she felt like, she didn't want to do it anymore. She just didn't care. She was losing her creative energy, she was losing her motivation. And she just felt so bogged down. So if you if you feel like you aren't enjoying your work anymore, maybe you get a new client inquiry, and you just feel this dread. Maybe you ended up turning away projects that otherwise you would like to take on. Maybe opening your email is met with dread because you're like, oh my god, what fires are going to be in my inbox today. The other thing that this might, the other way this might show up is you're you constantly have competing priorities. So let's say for example, you've got one project where you have to get a drawing set complete, or you have to get your spec package done, because you're preparing for a client presentation. 

Meanwhile, you've got something else that is equally as important, but you can't do both at the same time. And so one of them has to get neglected. And that those competing priorities just gives you this this dreadful feeling. So if you feel like you are showing up to work and you don't enjoy your work anymore, that is a good sign that you could use some help and your business. Okay, number two, and I just want to mention at the end of this episode, we're going to talk a little bit about what are next steps, right if if you find yourself here, and you think hiring would be the next step kind of where to go. This could be an entire masterclass series on hiring. And that is definitely something we talk about inside the program. We offer a number of resources inside the program. But for today, let's focus on seeing if this is where you are. And then we'll get into a couple of solutions here at the end. Alright, number two, your daily routine is overflowing with admin tasks. I'm gonna guess that you did not get into this career in this industry as an interior designer because you love putting together invoices, chasing invoices, maybe opening new trade accounts, filling out paperwork, creating SOPs, revamping your project management systems. I mean, maybe from time to time, some of those things might feel like you can check a box or whatever. But I'm gonna guess that you got into this work for many other reasons, because you want to flex your creative muscles because you'd like to help others. Because you like to see solutions get actually implemented. Perhaps it's that you love space planning or playing with color or pattern or texture. But you know, all of the admin work is getting in your way and zapping your creativity, your creativity and your creative energy. 

So if your daily routine is overflowing with admin tasks, you definitely want to consider that a sign that you need some help in your business. All right, number three, a client demands prevent you from working on your big picture goals. So if you are having to cons if you're constantly running around town, maybe you're picking up samples or framing or your Turning items, if you are getting bogged down in the details like, and we all know that with, with design, as designers, there's a lot of responsibility to create documentation to support your designs, such as creating spec sheets, or annotating drawings. And doing those to a high level of excellence is really important not only to convey your ideas, but also from a liability standpoint, making sure that all that's clear. So it's a real, real, real important part of the job. But getting bogged down in those details that's preventing you from working on your big picture goals. That is a challenge. You're constantly emailing or calling vendors for quotes or to order samples. Those are the kinds of activities that you honestly shouldn't be doing, somebody else can be doing those things for you. But especially if doing these kinds of tasks are keeping you from working on your big picture goals. 

So think about for a second what your big picture goals are, maybe it's that you want to really work on getting higher end clients. Or maybe it's that you want to reach a new market, maybe there's an adjacent town or adjacent neighborhood or somewhere that you want to tap into that market. So thinking about your business development strategy, and thinking through that, and then executing on that that would be an example of a big picture goal. Maybe you're trying to get published in a magazine, which means you need to find a photographer, which means you need to plan and schedule and budget for getting photography done. And then getting those pictures and then reaching out to the right people putting together your pitch, those sorts of activities would be those needle moving activities, right that are directly related to your big picture goals. But if you can't get to that, because you're annotating drawings, or you're having to call and email vendors for samples and quotes, or you're running around town, the errands you know, can be endless and a huge time suck. So they're keeping you from preventing they're keeping you from working on your big picture goals. That's a really, really telling sign that it's time to get some help somebody that can help take care of some of those activities on your behalf.

Alright, moving on. Number four, the quality of your client work is suffering. The quality of your client work is suffering. Alright, one thing that you should know about me and what I talk about always, and is at the core and center of everything that I do with my clients and that I teach designers is that Client Experience is everything. It's absolutely everything and if that is suffering, and so maybe some examples, maybe your weekly email updates are getting skipped or they're light on details or they're incomplete. Maybe you aren't meeting client deadlines that you promised. Maybe you show up for client presentations and your presentations aren't fully developed. The this these are signs that your the quality of your client experience is suffering and the ripple effect That is significant, right? If your clients aren't having a good experience with you, how likely do you think they are to refer you and to share your name with others. So it's really critical that your client experience above all maintains a high level of excellence. So if you feel like your, your client experience is slipping, and is suffering, definitely a sign that you could use some help. All right. And so the fifth sign, and this is our fifth and final sign that your business could use some help is that you might have some existing staff or a team member, or team members who are overwhelmed. 

So, Team burnout happens when they don't have clear direction. Maybe they have too many responsibilities, or they're having to do work that really isn't in their wheelhouse that they shouldn't be expected to do, because that's not their area of expertise. So imagine that you're in this hole that you're feeling the pinch, you're feeling the squeeze of time. And you know, your staff is feeling that and maybe you've got a pipeline of client work and a pipeline of project work. And imagine that that burned out employee comes to you and says, I'm putting in my two weeks notice. Where does that leave you how, how do you get from already punched to this is just gonna squeeze you even more. So if your existing staff and team are feeling overwhelmed and burning out, you are super vulnerable at this point of making that feeling of overwhelm for everybody even worse. So trying to get ahead of that, and trying to find somebody that can help relieve some of that pressure from you. And your existing team or team members is going to be really, really important too. And if and if you're feeling that right now, that's where you are right now. If you haven't, I think it's super important to be honest and direct and open and talk with your existing team members or team member. And let them know that you see the challenge, you know, that there is that help is needed, and that you're actively working on finding that person and that if they know somebody, you know, get them involved and just let them know that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that they're not going to have to experience this overwhelm and burnout for too much longer to try to buy yourself a little time where you can find the right person. So let's let's talk for a minute about solutions. 

Alright, so we talked about the five, let's just recap. So number one is you don't enjoy your work. Number two years, your daily routine is overflowing with admin tasks. Number three client demands are preventing you from working on your big picture goals. Number four, the quality of your client work suffers and is suffering. And number five, your existing staff or team are overwhelmed. Okay, so real quick, let's just wrap up with thinking about a couple of solutions. If you see yourself in these challenges today, you know, it may be in fact time to hire. So what's next, who you hire is the next piece of the puzzle. And it will look different for everyone depending on your circumstances and where you are. I want you to look at the tasks that you hate to do that get overlooked are always on the backburner. So let's look there's there's this little exercise I want you to do. 

Okay, let's get into action, the best way to help get unstuck is to get into action. So what you're going to do is you're going to take out a piece of paper, and you're going to draw a line down the middle. And this is going to create two columns. And on the right is your rewarding column. And on the left is your load column. So right for rewarding and left for load. So on the right, I want you to make a list of all the activities you love to do, you would never want to outsource those activities, because they are rewarding to you. So maybe this is things like coming up. Coming up with you're putting together a mood board putting together those initial concepts. Maybe it's ID aiding and taking your clients words and pain points in in the things that they've asked you for. It's starting to put them together and visual terms. Maybe it's putting together a project goals in summary, maybe it's thinking about what solutions you want to start to present to the client. Maybe it's playing with color pattern texture materials, putting, you know touching and feeling all the samples, right the all the fun stuff. Those are the rewarding activities and things that you would never want to give up. Also on that list, I want you to include any activities that you must do so examples like attending consultations, right that's that's an important thing where your face is you No really important to being at that consultation. Okay, now on the left is your load column. And if you haven't figured this out by now on this column, you're gonna write out all of the activities that you loathe to do, that are currently part of your daily routine. And you'd love it if you could find someone who could take these activities off your plate. Doing this exercise can help you determine who might be the right next person. Are those activities on the load column, mostly admin work, maybe a project manager or an admin assistant would be the right person to help you out? Or are there a lot of activities that someone with some design experience would need to have, for example, annotating drawings, adding dimensions, item tags, elevations section cuts, detailing reflected ceiling plans, right, somebody with design experience is going to need to be in the seat to do that kind of work. 

You know, I will just say from from past experience, and, you know, managing my own teams over the years, that the interior, whenever I've had interior designers, I've had admin assistants, I've had product managers, I've had Expeditors. And what I have found is that the interior designers, those folks that come to me because they are aspiring to be an interior designer, even though they have to do things like putting together spec sheets, and annotating drawings, that they get really bogged down if they're also responsible for ordering and expediting and tracking items. And sometimes that's just a part of the job, especially for an entry level interior designer, but they want to balance that with having some opportunities to be creative themselves, and to bring their own ideas to the table. So really look closely at what kind of activities are in your load column. And if you need to separate those out even more, maybe it is, to more part time people that have different areas of expertise. Or maybe it is a generalist, somebody that can go back and forth between doing some of that creative work while also being attuned to the details that are obviously required. So the next thing you want to do is ask yourself, how important is this person if they are local, right? So let's say a lot of those activities on your load list are admin work, putting together spec sheets, ordering samples,managing your inbox, managing your calendar and your schedule, fielding client calls and emails, and filtering those down to you. That doesn't necessarily need to be a person that is local, this could be a virtual assistant that helps you put these things together. If on the other hand, some of these activities are the kind of activities that mean, you would need to have a boots on the ground person, right? 

Then that's a really important consideration when thinking about your next hire. So when you have a boots on the ground person, there are activities that they can help you do that someone that is remote, couldn't. So for example, running errands, so many errands, picking up samples, doing returns, taking art to be framed, joining you at consultations and helping to take notes so that you can stay focused and, and keep eyes with your client, assisting you with site measurements, right? So if you're doing a site survey, and you're doing your site measurements, if that's a requirement for the project, doing those alone, is practically impossible. So having somebody that can help you do that, or better yet, someone that you can train that can do a run an entire site survey for you. And you don't need to be there for that. Like that's, that's the next level, right? And that's the dream. Somebody that can put together client binders, somebody that can put together, you know, organize the sample trays that can help you organize your sample library. Those are all the kinds of activities that having a boots on the ground person I feel like I'm saying boots like I'm real southern today boots, boots. It's just because I'm saying it's so much it's your boots on the ground person can help you do those things. And so you're going to need to decide in that Lowe's list of activities. Maybe take that list and prioritize what are the ones that would be like the first things first activities you'd get rid of. And this exercise will help you to determine who is going to be the right next person and from there, you can write a job description, you can decide how many hours a week you're gonna pay them you can decide whether they need to be remote or local or whether you want to hire somebody on a contract basis or hire an employee. All of those are kind of the next steps but first and foremost is identifying. 

Number one. Yes, in fact, Hiring is the right next step for me. And then who is that person that I need to hire? Alright, so we're gonna wrap up here. And I just want to close, talking a little bit about my mindset. Continuing to try and wear all the hats is going to keep you stuck, not hiring can hold you back from getting to the next level, human resources can be the ticket to help you get to the next level. And employees can actually help you earn money through marking up their hours through helping increase your capacity for projects, through helping you reach milestones more quickly, and helping you to provide a greater level of service for your clients, the kind of service that are going to allow your clients to be eager to share your name with the folks in their sphere of influence. So you can't be good at all the things all the time, you can't do all the things forever, without burning out. And if you stay in this place of what we described earlier, your service is going to decline. And it's going to cost you future clients and projects. So I want you to think real clearly about what is at stake if you continue to spin your wheels without hiring. So if you need to do a little bit of mindset work, if you need to do a little bit of money work if you need to think about your money story if you need to, which can also mean like looking at your books and seeing where you know where you stand financially and making sure that yes, you have to be able to afford someone. But chances are if you're feeling this stuck, if you're feeling this much overwhelm, it probably means that there's a good amount of work there for you. And the only way you're going to continue to grow that pipeline is to get help that you need so that you can serve your clients at the highest level so that you can sleep well at night. And so that you can fall in love with your interior design business again. Alright, to get out that piece of paper and make your load and reward list. I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to send us a message. 

Let us know how this episode resonated for you. And hopefully, this can help you figure out if it's time to hire and who. Alright, see you next time. Bye for now. Thank you so much for letting me spend part of this day with you. If you're loving this podcast, please share it with a friend who you think might also love it. Or perhaps you can take just 30 seconds to open your podcast app and leave us a five star rating. And if you have just an extra minute, go ahead and leave a review. This helps me so much and it helps other designers like you to find the podcast. It also adds fuel to my motivation to keep making great episodes just for you. However you choose to help, please No, I appreciate you so very much. Thank you, my friend. Have a wonderful rest of your day and I'll see you next time