EP #52 | 5 things I'd do differently if I was starting from scratch

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 helps you transform your clients' lives. You can do this. 

Well, hello there, my friend. And welcome back to the designers always this podcast. I am your host, Kate Bendewald. And it has been a minute since I've done a solo episode. And so I'm looking forward to just kind of hanging out with you and sharing some thoughts and things that have been on my mind recently, I've been doing just a lot of reflecting on my own interior design business over the last decade. And it's just interesting what comes up when you've when you've had some time and some perspective. And one of the things that occurred to me recently was that man, we get, we get so caught up in making progress and moving forward that we we forget to just take a minute and look back and see how far we've come and what all we've accomplished. And you know, I did that when we moved, I was holding on to all of these past projects, they're the client binders, and I had a giant stack of client binders. And just looking at the sheer volume of that was a physical reflection of the work that I had been doing over the last number of years. And you know, and so when you when you take the time to reflect, and you sit with some of these thoughts, and things come up. 

And so I just got to thinking about some of the things that I would have done differently. If I had had an older and wiser business owner hanging on my shoulder, what what would I tell my my younger self as a business owner, if you're new to the podcast, just a quick backstory, you know, I had a I an education, a formal education in interior design, I went to a site at accredited school. And so I had all of that going for me, I had the experience, I worked at a commercial architecture firm, doing interior design there, I worked in Austin for a really high end interior designer. And so I had the education and I had the experience. But when I went out to work for myself, what I didn't have was the business background that I needed to be a business owner. And so I have learned everything through a combination of lots of trial and error, working with coaches, and of course, my clients and just just the experience that you get over time. So there was a lot of stumbling in those early, early years that one can expect when you're just working on your own. And you're trying to figure these things out. And so I wanted to share just a couple of these insights that came up for me because I think whether you're just getting started or whether you've been doing this for a little while, what I'm going to share with you today, I think can be impactful. Because, you know, obviously if you're just starting out, I'm hoping what I share today can help sort of loosen the reins a little bit let you feel a little bit more relaxed in your business. And if you've been doing this for a while and maybe you're feeling uncomfortable in your business, maybe things aren't working like you would hope and it's not Really humming, I want you to come back to these reminders as well. So stick with me, it's going to be a shorty I think episode, say that. But nobody has ever accused me of brevity. 

So, without further ado, let's dive into these five insights that I've had recently about what I would do differently. If I was starting from scratch. The first thing that I would tell myself is I would be willing to invest in my business, I have invested in my business in a number of ways over the years. But in the early days, when there wasn't a lot of money around to write, I'm bootstrapping my business, there wasn't a whole lot of extra money around to play with and to invest in my business. So I understand that when you're just starting out, your investments might look different on day one, than they will look on year 10. Right. But even the smallest investment in your business, whether that's paying for the software that you need to get a job done, whether that's hiring a coach, whether that's investing in a mastermind, whether that's paying for a course to learn something to fill in those knowledge gaps. Every time I have invested in my business, that has come back to me tenfold, right? There has been no doubt that the investments that I've personally made have been beneficial, it's helped my business to grow, it's helped me to be more efficient. It's helped me to learn more to get further faster. And I think what happens, especially in the early days are if money's feeling tight, we look at every penny that we spent in our business as money going out the door, we look at it as a cost. And if you start to treat everything in your business like a cost, then you start to have almost this feeling of survival, right. And it's just a kind of a fixed mindset, a tight mindset, that's not expansive, it doesn't Imagine the Possibilities. 

Now, what I'm not, I want to be careful that this doesn't get misconstrued. I'm not saying just go start spending your money willy nilly, no, and not every investment I have seen plenty of I'm going to use air quotes here, coaches and programs. And I dig a little deeper and I look at him. And I just think to myself, I'm not sure that's got the depth or the breadth that I'm looking for. And so any investment, you want to spend some time, you know, making sure it's the right fit for you. And it's what you need at the time. But what I'm what I'm getting at here is investing in my business, investing in your business is going to come back to you as long as you're doing some due diligence, making sure it's the right move at the right time. There you can only get by on on free software for so long, you can only get by on free downloads for so long. And you can only get by on advice from free Facebook groups for so long. There has to come a point when you want to get serious about your business, that you're willing to put some more skin in the game, so to speak, and go ahead and spend some money knowing that that money is going to come back to you in the future in the form of better clients, better projects, more efficiencies, whatever that whatever that looks like for you. It can be a number of things, but investing you're investing in your business is something that you can do from day one. Okay. All right. So number two, is letting go of perfectionism. And I say this with a little bit of pause because this is this is an ongoing practice for myself. The reality is that perfectionism is unattainable. Right? It is the antithesis to progress. In fact, just sitting down to record this episode, I was thinking about my list that I had jotted down and I was thinking about how I wanted to present the information and, and kind of how to get things started. And this is what I do with every episode, right? But when I got to number two, and this perfectionism one, I was reminded that, you know, Kate, you're overthinking this, just put record on and just start talking from your heart. And that's what people want. 

People just want, you know, authenticity, right? And what I'm reminded of is that perfection dulls creativity. And so I would go back and tell my myself I was just starting from scratch that you just gotta get going. You have to get comfortable with failure you the only way that I've learned so many things over the years is through trial and error. And every time I've gone through a project, I learned something new about how a client responds to information or how certain information can easily be misconstrued or what works with certain types of clients and without with other types of clients doesn't always work. There's so many nuances in what we do. too. And so it literally is impossible to run your business with any sort of idea of perfection. And so letting go of that early on can really feel like a relief. If you can, you can work a little lighter, you know, worst case scenario, a lot of times, you can just ask yourself, What is the worst case scenario if I were to do this, right, and oftentimes, the worst case scenario isn't that bad. And so I think that when you're ready to start running a business with a little bit more ease and a little bit more grace, realizing the worst case scenario isn't usually that bad.

I've never had a situation in, you know, at this point, about 10 years of running my own business, this is in addition to my previous experience as a designer, but just in running my own business. I've never had a situation so bad that I couldn't go to a client and say, gosh, you know what, I made a mistake. Here's how I'm gonna fix that, I realized now how, you know, fill in the blank, oh, I could have done that differently. Or I could see how that could be misconstrued. Or I see how it would have been different, better to do it this way, instead of that way, or whatever. You know, clients realize that you're human, and they want to work with humans. And they love and appreciate the authenticity that that that comes with that you are not a robot. For now, as of the time of this recording, AI is not doing our design work. And so keep that in mind that most clients are going to be gracious, right? If if mistakes happen. And those are the kind of people you want to be working with, I could I have done and could do a whole episode on ideal clients and what makes what are some deal breakers. But for now, just keep in mind that you want to be working with people that are gracious, and that understand that we're real human beings and every project even though we have our processes, every project is a little different. There's nuances to everything. So letting go that idea of perfectionism can allow you to just breathe, be more creative, show up and start making progress. That is, that is the biggest thing to keep in mind is that perfectionism is unattainable, and it's the antithesis to progress.

All right, so moving on to number three. I would tell myself I was just getting started are starting from scratch, you need to get comfortable with self promotion. That is a phrase self promotion. I almost wish I had a better word for it. But that's really what I'm talking about here. It's it's something that is oftentimes inherently uncomfortable. It it doesn't feel natural to oftentimes to go out and start talking about what you do. But I think what's important here is that if you're clear about what you do and who you serve, and you talk about that with excitement, and you talk about how you help people solve problems, and you tell people how you helped somebody overcome a challenge in their home, or paint the picture of the transformation that you're able to help your clients have all of a sudden, you're you're not talking about yourself so much as you're talking about the possibilities that are possible when working with you. And so if if you think about that a little bit differently, it can feel a little bit easier. Here to talk about it in those terms and really crafting a story, right? 

People are drawn to story we're built for story people resonate with story they, they, it stops them in their track tracks. So you can promote yourself in a way that feels more authentic, feels more natural, and just shows enthusiasm for the work that you do and the clients that you serve and the projects that you're on. And that is, it's very attractive to people who are either interested in what you do interested in hiring, you are interested in sharing with their friends about what you do, they'll remember those stories better. So getting comfortable with self promotion is something that I would do differently. If I were starting over starting from scratch, but it would look like the form of storytelling, and just sharing my excitement about what it is that I do and how I help people. All right, and number four, I would get clearer, more clear, more clarity on my goals. But I want to be really specific about what kind of goals Yes, revenue goals are important. And I want you to be thinking about your revenue goals and your gross revenue and your your margins and all of that stuff. And that's something that I teach inside of my program, the interior designers business blueprint. But also, I would get really clear on what does success look like? What are my lifestyle goals? What are my creative goals? How do I want to feel waking up every day and going to work? There was a period in my career as a business owner where and I've talked about this at length in other episodes and some other areas. 

But there was a period of time where I felt miserable. Because I had created a monster, I built this business that was making money. I was getting word of mouth referrals. I was busier than ever. But the problem was, I was too busy. And I was I was really seeking, I was chasing the dollar. I was chased. I was saying yes to the money. But I wasn't. I was also saying yes to everything that came with that. And so I had to do a lot of work around that to redefine how did I want to feel. And the problem was in that period of time, I was feeling burned out, I was feeling confused on what to focus on i My team was burning out, I was wanting to grow in a different way, and do different kinds of projects, I had kind of been pigeon holed as one type of designer. And that's not what I wanted to be known for. And so you know, I was I was getting referrals for projects, that wasn't exactly what I wanted to be doing. And so I had a big come to Jesus moment. But that's because I was really unclear on the goals that I wanted. And so when I started to focus on those core desired feelings, which for me was, I want to ease, I want peace in my business, I want clarity, I want to feel strong, I want to feel I want to feel like there's not the next big business disaster lurking around the corner, right. But I was so busy with the work that I had created for myself that it didn't have time to sit down and get clear on how I wanted to feel and what I wanted my life to look like. And so once I was finally able to sit down and get clear on my goals for my lifestyle, then it made it so much easier to back in my revenue goals. So in the interior designers business blueprint, I share with the students, the members how to how to reverse engineer your income, your revenue for the lifestyle that you want. And that whole model, that whole dashboard that I've put together is based on this experience that I had, where I hadn't built in any time for vacations for holidays, for you know, for my team, right for building a team and giving them time off to it was just a machine and so getting clear on my goals, but specifically, not just my revenue goals, but my lifestyle goals and how did I want how did I want to feel? 

And so that is that is a really important part of our business today. And every year when we do an annual master planning workshop that is that is where we start is we start with you know, what do we want next year to look like in terms of how many weeks out of the year do we want to work? How many hours per week on average? Do we want to work and then building in backing in our revenue plan from there. So okay, this is how many weeks this year we have to work this is how many hours on average we're going to work. And so in order to get to this income level, so how are we going to charge for our services how Are we going to how many projects are we going to get in? What's our minimum? And so those revenue goals are only developed after we've gotten clear on those lifestyle goals and those those goals around how do we want to feel so and creative goals to write that's important, like, what kind of projects might you up? What kind of projects? Do you want to be known for? What kind of projects would you be happy to have published in a publication and reflect, you know, the kind of work that you want to be doing? I know, for me, I did one type of project one time, and I got pigeon holed as the person who does this one specific style. And while the project was a great experience, and I learned a lot, and I was proud of the work, it wasn't necessarily a style I wanted to be known for. And so I had to pivot them. Alright, so getting clear on your goals, is number four. And that is a really good segue to number five. So the other thing I would tell myself if I was starting from scratch, is to be more selective about the projects and clients that I took. It's so easy to take on any project that comes your way, especially when you're just getting started. And I understand that everyone most likely is going to have to take on a project from time to time, that is going to give you the experience or the income that you need in that moment. But with every project that goes on, it's important to raise your goals and your expectations for the next ones, because you now have more experienced than you did before that project. 

The energy that we spend on a wrong fit client, or project actually makes it harder to reach your goals. It's carry, it's important to remember that when you say no to a project, what you're not saying, You're not saying no necessarily to the business or the income, what you're saying is yes to holding that space, your creative energy, your mental energy, for the right project and for the right client. And you you're the only one that can be the judge of who that is what project that is what that looks like and what you're willing to say yes to. You're the only one who can change your relationship with. Yes, right? Or no, like what do you say yes and no to nobody else can do that for you, you're the one that has to decide, is as a project that is going to light me up, help me, you know, get get better projects, better clients, fill my bucket creatively. And of course, pay the bills, right, it needs to it needs to be able to do some, some if not all of those things. So I understand. Just to reiterate, when you're just getting started, sometimes we have to take on what projects we can in order to pay the bills or get the experience that we need.

And remember that every single time you do that is an opportunity to step up your game. And because the more experience you have, the more selective you you get to be. And just continue to aim to get pickier and pickier with every single opportunity that comes your way. And when you do that, before you know it, you will look and realize that you've got a roster of clients that you love to serve, that are projects that light you up and fill your bucket creatively and are compensating you well for your expertise and for your creativity and everything that you bring to the table. So let's just recap those one last time before we wrap up. So number one, I'd say invest in your business, let go of perfectionism. Number three, get comfortable with self promotion. 

Number four, get clear on your goals and not just your revenue goals, but your lifestyle goals, your creative goals and how you want to feel showing up for work every day. And don't be afraid to be selective about the projects and clients that you take on knowing that that's energy that you're giving away and you want it to come back to you think of your energy spent as an investment so I hope this helps. Don't forget that the I D BB the interior designers business blueprint information is on the website. There's a waitlist there so you can go plop your name on there if you want to learn more about that. But in the blueprint, I show you how to take your lifestyle goals and put them at the center of your revenue goals and back in your revenue from there. So if you want to learn more about more about that, go to designers oasis.com forward slash blueprint to learn more. Alright, thanks for hanging out with me. I will see you next week on another episode of dissenters Oasis podcast. 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.