EP #55 | Is this Popular Advice Crushing Your Interior Design Business?

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. 

Hello, and welcome to the designers Oasis podcast. I am your host, Kate Bendewald. And I am so thrilled to be hanging out with you again today. Today we are talking about some popular advice that may be crushing your interior design business, I want to set the record straight for where I stand on these specific things. Because it's, let's be honest, I often see a lot of toxic advice that I don't agree with about how to run your interior design business. And so there are three specifically that we're going to focus on today. And I'm just going to put a stake in the ground on where I stand on these on these things. And ultimately, it'll be up to you to decide what makes the most sense for you and your business. But we're just gonna go there. Okay. The first bit of advice that I do not agree with is this idea that you need to have one ideal client avatar, instead, I think it's important that you are open to the idea of having variations of your ideal client avatar, one for each type of service that you provide. Let me give you an example. Your consultations aside, we're just going to take that off the table because typically that is that is an initial step to a full service project. So we're just going to talk about this idea of a variation of your ideal client for each service that you provide. So for example, if you provide full service interior design, but you also offer designer for a day, ideally, you're gonna have an ideal client avatar, and then you're gonna have a variation or version of that, that is very close, very similar, but a little bit different for your designer for a client. I'm gonna use myself as an example here, and I'm going to talk to you about my own ideal client persona. They these are clients who are style conscious, they are respectful to the environment, and what they buy, and what they put in their home is a reflection of that. They respect and value my expertise as an interior designer, they are flexible, they are relaxed, and they're great communicators. 

However, my full service client, they are going to be an individual that is very busy. They want a done for you experience. They heavily value the end of week summary emails, and they're willing to pay a premium for that turnkey experience. Right. So then my designer for a day client persona, they're all of the things that I mentioned at first about being flexible and being great communicators, but they are willing to execute on their own and they're willing to follow my advice to a tee. So what I kind of like to refer to it as my designer for a day client is my premium client. This is the one that is is really my target. But I also like to work for her little sister, who maybe doesn't have the budget for a full service experience. But I love working for her, she's got great style, she wants to do fun things. And it's going to really turn out beautifully. But she's the one that is going to, you know, heavily rely on my advice, but she's willing to execute on her own and both for me are fun to work on and fun people to work with. But if I'm only talking to my full service client all of the time, then writing that copy, for my designer for a day collateral, maybe that's on my website, or my services and investment guide, or in a social media post, that kind of thing, it's gonna fall on deaf ears, because I'm using language that my full service client would appreciate and understand. But that's not really the same kind of language that's going to resonate for my designer for a client. So there's some overlap there. But there are some unique characteristics of each one. And so having a variation of my ideal client makes a lot of sense. So what I want you to do is I want you to, yes, you need to have an ideal client persona, Avatar, whatever you choose to call it, that is really heavily dialed in, you're getting into their minds and hearts, you're really understanding their internal and external pain points. And you're getting that super clear, and be willing to make a variation of that for your other services that you might provide. So again, having one ideal client doesn't always work if you are offering more than one service type. All right, so the next bit of advice that I really wish we could move away from is this idea that flat fee is the best way to charge for your projects, or hourly is the best way to charge for your projects, or hybrid, which is personally my favorite is the best way to charge for your projects. If you hear somebody saying that there is one best way to do anything, but really in this case, I'm talking about how to charge, please run for the hills. This assumes that all things are equal all of the time, and it doesn't leave room for nuance in our businesses. 

The reality is there are pros and cons to the different ways of billing. And I want you to consider that you should have you can have space in your business to charge a number of different ways and use those billing methods. For us. It's typically on the project type basis. Okay, so for example, and our studio, we the way we charge depends on the project type. So for new construction spec packages, we always charge flat feet. And the reason for that is typically those are design only. And we're not heavily involved in implementation, we're passing off a spec, a spec package to the builder and the client architects that sort of thing for interior finish out project. So this is where we're doing light construction, light renovations, a whole lot of cosmetic updates, lighting finishes, that sort of thing. For those projects, we charge hybrid methods. So if you're new to the podcast, or new to hybrid billing, a hybrid billing method is for you to charge a flat fee for design, and you charge hourly for implementation. I do have a podcast episode where I go into these in more detail, that's Episode Seven, we'll be sure to link to it in the show notes. And so you can always go back and refer to that episode as well. And then there's hourly for us personally, we don't, we rarely charge hourly anymore. But we did early on for a number of reasons. But hourly can be helpful if you're just starting out. And you don't have a lot of historical data, or if the scope is unclear. But you know what flat fee can be a beautiful way to charge simply for your clients for projects where the scopes really clearly defined. But it only works if you have really good historical data on projects. So if you're just starting out, it can be very difficult to know how long things are going to take. And so all you can do is you know at best is estimate based on knowing your own personal skill set hourly can be a really great way to also charge if if you want to charge but you maybe don't know the scope. Maybe you want to do some discovery with your client to try to figure out what's going to make the most sense for them. So that might be a time that you use it. But hourly can be tricky, because if you send a proposal with an estimate, but then you go over those hours, it can be very difficult to build for those hours that go over your estimate, if you haven't discussed it with your client. And I know you know that can sneak up on you and all of a sudden it's time to bill for the end of the month and you look back and you're like, oh my gosh, we've worked so many more hours you know, because you weren't keeping tabs on it. 

All right. So, again, pros and cons to hourly. We personally love hybrid billing methods, we charge hybrid student, we charge a flat fee for design. And then once we get through that, design development plus one round of revisions, then we move into to to hourly. And all of this is really detailed in our scope of work as well, excuse me, our proposal as well as our contract. By the way, designers voices.com forward slash shot, you can find our proposal and contract templates, three in one proposal and contract templates so that no matter how you're charging, it's very easy to plug and play your billing method into your proposal and your corresponding contract. So that's a really great tool to help help you out in that in that process. Here's the important thing that I want you to keep in mind. You have to have standards, right, you have to know how you will charge for the different types of services, you have to start collecting data, ie time tracking, and I also have a great episode on that, which I'll link to in the snoot show notes. And, you know, I think it's important to have your proposal template in your contract template ready to go to build that out whenever you're bringing on a new project. So yes, you have to have standards. But I want you to be considerate of the pros and cons of the different building types. And I think that charging differently for different project types is what has brought us the most success and it's what I teach inside my program, the interior designers business blueprint, and that's what a lot of the students in my program have adopted as well. So keeping yourself open to different billing methods can be really helpful and your business.

Designer, you've worked so hard on your business, making sure that your website is flawless. Your Instagram is swoon worthy, and your brand is on point. The problem is, you're still facing a balance sheet that is less than inspiring. If you want a thriving interior design business that affords you a great salary without the burnout. Listen up. Just breaking even isn't an option. Not only does it lead to overwhelm stress and sleepless nights, but it's a major drain on your creativity. If you're tired of just breaking even if you're tired of missing out on opportunities, because the money just isn't in the bank. And if you're ready to unlock the secrets of profitable interior designers, head over to designers oasis.com forward slash habits to get my latest guide the seven habits of highly profitable interior designers. Inside you'll uncover what you really need to focus on to take you from barely making it to boundless possibilities. Abundance is yours for the taking, download my guide that will help set you on the right track to upgrade your interior design business, head over to designers oasis.com forward slash habits and download yours today.

The third and final bit of advice that I want you to avoid is this idea that things will feel easy. When you've achieved success. In business, there is no other side, there is no destination, the whole thing is a cyclical journey. And there will be days when you will feel in the flow. And when there's ease. And I want you to notice those moments. And I want you to rest in them, I want you to eat them up. And I want you to just ride that way for a little bit. But know that challenges are in evitable, you can never escape them. All successful businesses face challenges. And oftentimes, this is the best part. Oftentimes, the biggest growth moments, those big aha moments are a result of working through a big challenge. So if you're not experiencing challenges in your business, there's a chance that you're playing it too safe, it's easy to get wrapped up in challenges, and to take them personally letting them blow up your day or blow up your week. I know for me, it's very hard to not take things personally, or to feel a personal sense of responsibility whenever stuff happens. But the difference is how you respond to these challenges when they arise. So for example, I'm gonna, I'm gonna use the example of having to let go a staff member. So I have had to let go of staff many times over my career as a business owner. And I used to tell myself, well, this wouldn't be happening or I wouldn't put myself in this position if I would just hire right the first time. But eventually I had to tell myself, this person may have been a good fit at that time, but they can't get me to where I'm going next. So it's really hard to know exactly what someone is capable of without letting them try, I can only lead and guide and train someone to a point. And eventually, they need to be able to take ownership of their role. And if they can't do that, then it is time to replace them. But for a long time, I would take that responsibility of having to let someone go take it very personally, a great sense of responsibility towards that person and inevitably, hold on to somebody longer than they needed to be in that position. 

And so, the difference today is that have changed the dialogue, right. So coming back to your own business, even though your business, you will get to a place where it hums, where there are many aspects of your business that feel effortless, there are still going to be so much that you're not in control of control is an illusion. And when those hardships come up, you have to shift your perspective about how you are going to respond to that discomfort. Or you're going to let it eat you up and spit you out, or you're going to look at it objectively. And with curiosity. And with a mindset with a growth mindset. You cannot control what comes your way that you can control how you respond to it. So I want you to always keep that big picture into focus, your work is meaningful, it provides value to those you serve. And it's an exciting privilege to be able to do the kind of work that we do. You get to define success. Pay, you can base your success on whatever metrics you want, whether it's money, time, accomplishments, recognition, or balance. But one thing is for sure, no matter how you define success, hardships will always be a part of the equation. Right? I used to think I will have made it when everything flows, and everything is neat and tidy. But that assumes that I'm in control of everything. And control is an illusion. So no, that ease is achievable. But it'll never be easy all the time, there will always be hardships. And the difference is how you respond to them. So if anybody's trying to tell you that, do it my way. And it's gonna be easy. They're not being honest, I will be honest with you. And I'll tell you, running a business is hard no matter what industry it is, right, especially when it's your name on the door, your name writing the checks. So it will it will, you'll always have challenges that come your way. And starting today, you can decide, you know what the next time I'm faced with a really tough challenge. I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I'm not going to take it personally, I will take responsibility where responsibility is due. But I'm going to look at it with curiosity, I'm going to look at it as this is really tough growth moment. But this is a building block of my success. And this just means that I'm learning something new. Okay. 

All right. So I am so grateful to have you here hanging out with me today. Thank you so much. We've got a lot more episodes, we are going to take a little break for the summer in in August to spend some time with my kiddos. I hope you're also doing something fun this summer and enjoying yourself and building in time for for relaxation, and play and creativity and finding ways to rejuvenate because that's what helps give you that momentum to keep going. So just you might notice we'll have a little bit of a break. We'll be back in September, we've got some really, really exciting things coming up in September. Though we're not done working, we're just taking a little, a little pause on the podcast is for a few weeks, and then we'll be back. But we still have a lot going on. So make sure you're checking out designer spaces.com. We've got some really exciting new resources available for you. We have the seven habits of highly profitable interior designers, which you can check out and download right now. So much to check out while we're on break. So stick around. We'll be back. Thank you so much for showing up with me today. I'll 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 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