EP #50 | 3 Reasons Interior Designers Stay Stuck and Broke

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 clients' lives. You can do this. 

Well, hello there and welcome back, doing a solo episode today, which I'm excited to do. Again, I absolutely love doing guest episodes and getting to learn from others. There's just been some stuff on my mind recently that I wanted to share with you guys. And so a couple of solo episodes coming up again, which can be sometimes nice for change. So I'm thrilled to be here hanging out with you today. Today, we are talking about three ways designers continue to find themselves stuck and broke. And so what I'm talking about is this is really for those designers who you've been at this a while, right? You've been in business for at least a year, maybe a couple of years. But you continue to find yourself in this place where you you can't quite reach that next level, right? You feel like you're constantly working, you're constantly hustling you're, you're busy, right? But the work doesn't feel like it's paying off, it still feels like maybe your expenses are rising at the same rates, your income is happening. And so there's just something going on that's keeping you kind of stuck at this one, this one level. And so you know, having worked with designers, for years, now hundreds of designers, I've started to notice a couple of habits that I see continuing to happen over and over again. But also this is these are all things that I too have experienced myself in those early days in early years of being my own boss, right. If you are new here, just a little backstory is that I showed up to my business with no business background, I had a degree in interior design, I had experience. But I didn't know the first thing around about running a business. And so I had to learn a lot of things the hard way. A lot of it came through experience. A lot of it came through education. Some of it came with working with coaches, but it's it's taken some time. But I finally was able to kind of get into this groove where things started to click and work and make sense. 

Does that mean that everything was easy? Of course not. That wouldn't be real life. But I did feel the sense that it was all worth it right that I had something to show for it. And there was, you know, revenue that I was really proud of. But as I mentioned, it didn't come without learning a lot of things the hard way. And so I wanted to share with you three of the most common ways that I see designers continuing to stay in this perpetual place of just feeling stuck and broke from it from a revenue perspective, right. So we're gonna we're gonna dive into it. I want to be clear that when you listen to today's episode, if you start to see yourself in some of these things, I want to remind you that I'm not saying these things because I I don't want you to walk away feeling bad or inadequate. What I want you to walk away from this is number one feeling like you're not alone, right? I'm saying these because other designers have have expressed these two, and I myself have have experienced So number one, you're not alone. But also when we start to become aware of some of the habits that we fall into, and the the mindset traps that we fall into, that are keeping us back that are holding us back from that next level, that's when you can really start to address it and, and be tuned in. So if you're unaware of it, you there's nothing you can really do about it cuz you don't even know what problem it is you're trying to solve. So I don't want you to walk away today feeling uninspired or inadequate, I want you to walk away with hopefully some clarity, you may see yourself doing one or all of these. But my goal at the end of the day is for you to draw awareness to it and start to think about some ways that you can move the needle a little bit more we'll talk about I'll talk about some specific ways as we go through these three, three ways. 

Specifically, that can sort of help you move the needle a little bit. Alright. So the first way that I see designers continuing to stay stuck and broke is they're constantly leaving money on the table. Now leaving money on the table is kind of a broad term, the way that you leave money on the table could show up a number of different ways. For example, not leveraging change orders or add services. So let's say that you are working with a client, and they kind of sneak something into we call it scope creep, right? When that scope creep happens. Sometimes it feels like, oh, that's just a little thing, I could help my client with that. Even though that wasn't a part of the original scope of work, it's very easy when you charge hourly to handle those small asks with ease. But hourly isn't always the best way to charge. Sometimes flat fee is the best way for the project or for the way you work. Sometimes hybrid, which I'm a big fan of is the best way to charge. And so with hybrid, you're charging a flat fee for design, and then move into hourly for implementation, I can link to some past episodes where I talk more about that. But let's say you're you're working on a project that's flat fee, and you've got a client that comes to you and maybe unknowingly, you just sort of asked for one little thing that feels like a simple thing to add on or just to squeeze in, right. Or maybe it's kind of unclear where you know whether that falls. First of all, it needs to be really clear in your scope of work, what's included and what's not. That's that's for another story. But if there's something even if it's a small thing, it's really important to have a conversation with your client about that and to use change orders or add services. So and a change order is something that you're already working on, right if if something that you're already working on shifts or changes in it requires additional work because of a change that the client requested. That's a change order. But an add service is when you're asking for something that wasn't in the original scope, and you need to add it in. So usually, that's just a quick small proposal that says this is what you're asking for. And this would be the additional fee for that, because it's outside of the original scope of work. And so that is a, that is one way that designers often leave money on the table is because they think, Oh, it's just a small thing.

The problem with that often is that a small thing may seem small. But if anything goes wrong, or if any, you know, whatever additional conversations or meetings may come out of that it may seem small, but even the smallest things can quickly snowball. And it's very, very difficult to unwind that and to backtrack and say wait a second, I've been doing all this work for free, I didn't charge you from the beginning, it's almost impossible to rein that back in. So if you're unclear how long something will take, if it's a small, sort of like if you need to investigate or what it takes to kind of do this as well. Maybe you charge your client a small fee, just to do some investigative work to see what it would take. And then if it becomes a bigger thing, then there's a different proposal. So the goal is to always be on the lookout for scope creep. And taking a minute to pause and say, What is this actually going to cost me in terms of time? And what do I need to do to address this. And typically, that might be a change order or an add service that you would send to your client and work out from there. The other way that I see designers leaving money on the table is not doing value based proposals, meaning your client comes to you and they're only asking you for a certain thing, let's say they want design only and that's what they that's what they've asked you for a value based proposal even though your client is only asking for design only value based proposals actually getting give them a proposal that gives them more options than that. So a typical value based proposal might be you know, just like good, better, best really. And so the way I've structured mine is the good level is concept design better is everything through design, development, and best is everything through implementation. So even though the client is only asking for design only by giving them this option with a higher level of service, through implementation, full service ordering, purchasing, and all of that, by seeing what's included in that and what is possible, they may get that proposal and think to themselves, gosh, you know what this may be the time for us to go ahead and just commit to this, because we're going to get the best, you know, best possible rate with our designer, first of all, but are we really up for doing all of this work. And so, a value based proposal gives your client options beyond what they just asked for. So I believe that every proposal, however you structure, it should include some kind of an upsell to the experience working with you. And that is often a very simple and easy way for you to add value for your clients through their experience while also earning more money. Another way that designers typically leave money on the table is has to do with not tracking your time. So well, either not tracking your time or not charging for it. So you've you've got to be tracking your time, I hear a lot of pushback from designers saying, Well, I do flat fees, I don't need to track my time, or, you know, I don't need to track my time because I'm doing flat fee. But the truth is, it doesn't matter how you charge for your services. The difference between a an interior design business owner and an interior design enthusiast is one that tracks their time, you need to know which time you're taking to do these projects, and making sure that you're charging your clients for that time, especially in implementation, let's say you're doing you're in the hourly phase of your work, or even if you charge hourly for your whole project. A lot of times I hear designers, maybe you worked 30 hours that month. But when you send the bell you feel a little gun shy so you'll you'll dial it in a little bit more and scrub off some hours. And that's just another way that you're you're leaving money on the table

Okay, so let's move into the second way that interior designers stay stuck and broke. And that is by not having a follow up plan. So a follow up plan is part of your sales process. Like I have a whole masterclass on selling and this is just one part of it. But a follow up plan is the way that you stay connected and with your prospective clients. And a prospective client could be a cold, prospective client, somebody who's just entered your world, it could be an existing client, or it could be a past client. And so follow up can entail let's say that you have a prospective client and and you talk with them but they're not quite ready to pull the trigger on their project yet maybe they were just doing a little information gathering. You need to have a plan to follow up with them at a at an appropriate time. Let's say that a client goes through a consultation with you and you give them a proposal and they come back to you and they say you know they decline your proposal for one reason or Another, you need to have a follow up plan to understand what's their reasoning? And why? Because it could be that you have an opportunity to change their mind or to clarify something. But if you just say, Okay, thanks, bye. You're not really giving yourself the best opportunity to, to, to get that project. And so it's really important for you to understand is that by following up with a client that says, No, it's not being pushed, you're just trying to gather more information, maybe there was something that was unclear about what it is they get, what can they expect, at the end of the day, what what's on the other side of working with you follow up can also be following up with people in your network, who you might meet, whether that's, maybe there's a realtor that you really jive with, and you want to, you know, create connection there or collaboration there, maybe there's a contractor. So it doesn't necessarily have to be with a client, it can also be with strategic partnerships with others in your world. So following up is all about staying top of mind, with your clients. Follow up can also look like checking in on past clients, it's really important to listen to your clients words, think about how many times you've talked to a client they've mentioned, oh, yeah, and one day, we're gonna get to our primary bedroom and bathroom, follow up with somebody here, how are you doing? How are things going, engage with them on their social media, you know, like, like and comment on their photos, I do that anyway. 

Because naturally, because I tend to follow my clients and we become friendly through the process of working with each other. For me, it's very natural, it's not something that is necessarily just strategic, although I recognize that there is a benefit to for doing that. But it can, I can't tell you how many times I've had a client, a past client call me and say, you know, either I commented on something, or they saw something I posted, and it made them think of me and were reminded that they were ready to tackle a new project. So follow up can be with exhibit, excuse me with past clients as well. And then there may be times to when you have a client who says yes to a project. But they're they're not exactly what's the word I'm looking for. Eager isn't quite the word. But they're, they've got other things that they're waiting on the trying to. I've had, I've had this with new construction a lot. So let me just use that as an example. Let's say that they're working with an architect or they're working with a builder or a permitting office of some kind, and there's something else that's holding them back from working with you follow up instead of just saying, Okay, well let me know when you're ready. For me, that's a very passive way to approach your follow up plan, a more strategic way to go about that would be to find a way to get started now to kind of get things solidified. And on the books, I believe that designers are brought in way too late on projects 99% of the time. So I think you can often help your client understand the value of bringing you on earlier rather than later. And not necessarily needing to wait for all of those things to fall into place before they bring you on. Of course you need to decide on a case by case basis. What makes the most sense. But the point is, your your marketing day, whatever day you set aside for marketing, because you're batching your your week, right? That's a little side rant, and I will leave a link to an episode where I talk about batching your time. But whenever you're sitting down and you're spending that time thinking about marketing, it's so much easier to start with the people you're already in connection with. You're already talking to the people you already know they're already in your sphere and take care of the follow up. Who can you call? Who Can you email? Who can you touch base with who can you check in with, and there's this natural momentum and energy that you'll start to feel when you just sit down and you just start calling and emailing people and reaching out. And before you know it, you are going to have opportunities that are going to be doors that lead to projects and the world is your oyster at that point. And so if you just give yourself some put some energy behind that follow up, I think you'll see a lot of momentum start to happen in your business. 

But I think for a lot of folks, this can just feel really salesy. It can feel pushy, but the reality is you have something that your your people want and that they need. And sometimes people just get busy and they just forget you just you can't take it personally. You just need to follow up do it with grace, say I'm here to help I want to I want to show up for you in the best way that makes the most sense for you right now. At Where are you on this? Can we get started you know, find find a way that feels good for you. But don't not follow up. Okay, because there's so much missed opportunity when you take a passive approach to to your selling process. Oh, Okay, and the third, and I'm not gonna say final way, because what I'm talking about today are three ways that designers say stay stuck and broke. But let's be honest, there's probably other ways to, but these are some of the most common ways. So the third way that I see designers staying stuck and broke, is you're perpetually under charging for your services. So if you felt your body just kind of shrink a little bit, get a little smaller, because you feel a little tinge. Like, you're like, oh, boy, she sees me. It's okay, I got you. Because this is one of the most common pain points that I hear designers Express is they're under estimating their time for projects, or they're not tracking their time, or they're not invoicing, their time, all that for all the hours that they spend on a project. So there's a lot of ways that we can under charge for our services. So let's talk about a couple of those. First is the cost of doing business has simply gone up in the last couple of years, ask yourself, have you changed your design fees or raised your design fees, to not only reflect your increased experience, but also just the cost of doing business? Okay, so if you are not charging enough for your projects, because your design fees are too low, I want you to reconsider what would be an appropriate design fee for you to charge at this point in your career at this point in running your business. And at this point in history, where we're just the cost of goods have had increased everything from software to physical products, the cost has gone up. So ideally, you're raising your rates just about every year. Okay, and a good time to do that. I mean, really, if you haven't done it in a while, any time of the year is great. A lot of designers typically will do this once a year, at the beginning of the year. And I believe I have an episode about raising your rates. If not, it's a blog post. But anyway, we've got lots of I've got lots of past blog posts and podcast episodes related to what I'm talking about today. So we'll make sure to include those in the show notes for you. So yeah, so are your design fees ready to increase? Another one that I mentioned was, maybe your estimating your fees for proposal based on how much time a project would take? But then you look at that number and you think for a second? Gosh, I don't I think they're gonna scoff at this number. This number feels too high. Right? So you do the back of napkin math, however you do it, right. I mean, I have my own biases on on how I think you should be calculating your design fees. 

But however, you come up with your design fees, if you do that back of the napkin math, and you think to yourself, hmm, I think I'm gonna lose the job. If I send the proposal out at this rate, I want you to get real honest. And ask yourself, you know, am I, is this a limiting belief that I have that I'm going to lose out on this job? Because I'm, I'm sending a proposal that's based in reality. Okay, now, am I saying that there's never a place in time to strategically change your pricing just a bit, in order to get a job. I'm not saying that. I do think that very, very, very rarely. But sometimes, there might be a strategic case for wanting to do that, but not at the sake of losing your shirt on a project, right? That's not what I'm saying here. So it has to be strategic. But my point is, I talk to a lot of designers, if they put together a proposal and they do the calculations, and they get there, you know, they have their rate there. And they just feel uncomfortable sending that out. Well, the reality is, that's, that's a mismatch between your ideal client and your design fees. If your costs are what they are, and a client is unwilling to pay that then that's a conversation you need to have with yourself about aligning yourself with the right kind of clients that are going to value every minute that you spend on their project and are willing to pay for it. Okay, another thing that I hear too is oh, well there I'm not gonna name there's a certain there's, there's certain careers that we associate with, you know, and being people being underpaid, but let's just say oh, there are such in such Korea, they can't afford my services. It is not your job, to understand or to know or to even think you know, what somebody can or cannot afford? That is not your business. It is only your clients decision, making ability to know what they can afford. Okay. So, look, I've been there before I've thought to myself, Man, this person is on this this field. I don't know if they're gonna be able to afford this. And I had to remind myself, it's not my business, it it my costs are what they are. 

My fees are what they are period. And so I want you to by yourself, it's not your job to know what they can afford or not, it's just your job to give them a proposal that's based in reality, that's going to give them the services that they need, that's going to help them achieve their goals. So and then the last thing, and I actually hit on this in the in the first one, but I'm gonna mention it again, because it's, it's so common. And that comes back to time tracking, you're under charging for your services, if you're getting and you're doing your hourly reports you're doing running your hourly reports at that another month and saying, Oh, we spent this many hours on this project, times this much dollars, this is what they owe. And thinking to yourself, Eek, I don't want to, I don't that feels too high, I don't want to send that. And so you scrub off some time or you scrub off some dollars, whatever the case may be. So that you can send out a an invoice that feels a little bit more palatable, and want you to get comfortable with just charging for your time. If a client comes back to you and says, Well, what happened here, this is a lot more than I was expecting at that point, then you can have a conversation. But as long as you're tracking your time, and and you can account for what you're working on, you can show this is what we did for for all of these hours, then you should be able to send that proposal out with confidence. Because you know that everything that you have done, and you need to be able to answer this honestly, for yourself, you need to be able to say is every single hour that I spent on this project working for this client, was it? Was it required to get them the results that they were looking for, right? Did you go down a rabbit hole and waste a bunch of time doing something that wasn't necessary for your client, if so, then you might want to reconsider. But nine times out of 10. If as long as you're staying focused and you're staying on track, then it's really important that you don't undervalue yourself, you don't undercut that invoice and you just send it out, send whatever it is, and nine times out of 10. 

If you're working with your ideal clients, they are going to just pay it and be done and move on. If they come back, and there is an issue, then you address it at that point. And I think it's important if you're if you're not just tracking your time, but you're also indicating what it was you were doing during that hour, that three hours at 30 minutes, then you can tell the client, I hear you. You see next to the time everything was done during this month, I want you to look at that if there's anything on there that you think is unrealistic or unacceptable or wasn't helping you reach your goals of through this project, you let me know and I'll take it off. But to just a downright cut hours off before you ever send it out is not giving yourself a chance. So again, perpetually under charging for your services can look a number of ways, whether it's in the very beginning, taking money off of your proposals, whether it's reducing your fees, because you have preconceived ideas about what somebody can afford, or not tracking your time or invoicing for all of your time. Those are all of the different ways that we can be under charging for our services. So to wrap up, I want you to think about which of these three habits you might want to focus on. If any of these resonated with you, I want you to think about which one of these resonated the most for you. And I want you to start to ask yourself some questions because what's important now is, you know, maybe maybe I touched a nerve here and you're feeling a bit seen. Remember, the point is to become clear and aware of some habits that we fall into. 

So that you can start to change and you can start to to move the ship in a different direction. So if it was leaving money on the table, if that was one that really stuck with you, I want you to ask yourself questions like, Are my proposals, creating opportunities to expand my offering with clients who are already working with me? I'm gonna be honest with clients when they ask for something that's outside of the scope of work. And am I creating, you know, add services for them when those in those moments when when these questions come up? Am I charging for my consultation? I'm in I'm in the camp of you need to be charging for your consultations. So if you're not, that is another area where you might be leaving money on the table. If the second one resonated for you, how can I develop a follow up strategy? I want you to ask yourself, How can I create a follow up strategy that's built into my process? So follow up. You know, for me, it's it's on my marketing day where I'm sitting down and I'm putting together proposals I'm doing social media, I'm reaching out to people have a list of people that you know you need to follow up with, whether that's clients or whether that are folks that are strategic partners. Perhaps that's a contractor realtor, those are some that I mentioned earlier, but having follow up baked into your routine In is a really easy way to kind of get yourself unstuck and get yourself a lot of momentum to move forward. And then the third one is, you know, ask yourself, what do I need to change so that I can stop under charging for my services? Okay. So if any of these resonate with you, I want you to ask yourself those questions. 

But also, I want to encourage you to check out the interior designers business blueprint. So this is my program. It's a one year coaching program. And inside it, you'll learn specific strategies. To address each of these that we've talked about today. I'll teach you how to create better proposals, I'll help you develop a follow up plan. And I provide you with the tools like the CEO dashboard, which is a one of a kind tool that helps you to get clear on how much revenue you need to earn to run your business and support yourself for the lifestyle that you want a long side looking at things like your capacity for projects, and understanding your conversion rates. So that is all in the CEO dashboard, which is part of the interior designers business blueprint. So if you want to learn more about that, head over to designers oasis.com forward slash blueprint. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. And I want you to remember, all of this is just about creating awareness, because awareness is the first place for change. And just pick one of these things. If they all three resonated with you pick the one that feels the most challenging and go for that one first. And I promise you will start to see momentum so that you can stop feeling stuck and broke in your interior design business. All right. I love you, friends. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I'll see you next week. 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 know I appreciate you so very much. Thank you, my friend. Have a wonderful rest of your day and I'll see you next time