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Designers can often hold on to 
everything too long because 

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either they feel like they 
should do it all or they fear 

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losing control of the project. 
Some, some of us are control 

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freaks and we just love to have 
control on everything. 

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And maybe we believe that no one
else can do it as well as we 

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can, but that is not always the 
case. 

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And if you want to scale, then 
you're going to have to delegate

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because you really are limited 
on your the amount of energy 

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that you have. 
You're now listening to Design 

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Curious, a place where you 
creative one are here to learn 

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about what it really is like to 
be an interior designer. 

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And I'm your host and mentor, 
Rebecca Ward. 

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If you're worried about how to 
succeed in a creative career, if

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you're ready to learn your next 
steps to become an interior 

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designer, and if you want the 
satisfaction of doing something 

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you love every day, you are in 
the right place. 

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Grab a coffee, a notebook, and 
let's dig into today's episode. 

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Hello, and welcome to episode 
189 of Design Curious Podcast. 

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Today on the podcast, we're 
talking about business systems 

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and working smarter, not harder.
Many designers start their 

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business because they love 
design. 

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Obviously, it's their passion, 
something that they want to do 

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forever. 
But then they quickly realized 

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that they've created a job that 
depends entirely on them, right?

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Like they can't just be 
designing all the time. 

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If you're a designer and the 
project manager and hopefully 

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not, but maybe the bookkeeper 
and you're procuring everything 

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and then you're also marketing, 
well, burnout is going to be 

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inevitable. 
So we're going to talk about how

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you can shift this so you can 
stop operating like a freelancer

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and start operating like a 
business with systems that can 

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allow you to scale and work 
smarter instead of harder. 

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So that's what we're talking 
about today. 

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And I also want to encourage you
that if you are interested in 

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mentorship with me, I have my 
design mentor. 

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You can sign up for and work 
with me one-on-one and really 

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get into the program of whatever
it is you need as you're 

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starting out. 
We can work on your areas. 

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There's also 12 learning modules
in there, so you can get up and 

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going as a successful interior 
designer. 

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OK, let's get into the episode. 
To start with, let's talk about 

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systems. 
Even though every project that 

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you design is going to be unique
in style and scope, the process 

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that you use should be 
repeatable. 

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So why do systems matter? 
Often designers will resist 

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systems because creativity feels
personal and fluid, right? 

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So we want to be as creative as 
possible. 

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Don't put me in a box. 
I need all this space to work 

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and I'm just going to start from
scratch and get all my ideas 

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fresh. 
That's all fine. 

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You can do those things, but you
can still do it within a system 

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that is repeatable. 
And it's only going to help you 

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be more efficient and profitable
in the long run. 

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So systems don't really limit 
creativity. 

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They can protect it. 
And that's the thing that I 

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didn't understand for a long 
time and talking with so many 

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designers through this podcast 
and outside the podcast, that it

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is hard for creative to embrace 
systems because systems seem to 

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be so structured and analytical 
and linear and just the opposite

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of creativity, which is, you 
know, like I said, is very fluid

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and organic and fresh and new. 
And so there there is resistance

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there. 
But when the operational side of

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your business runs smoothly, 
then you can create more space 

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for that creativity because 
sometimes if you don't have 

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those systems, you can end up 
reinventing the wheel every time

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or forgetting things that you 
need to do. 

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You might be inconsistent with 
the client's experience through 

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the process. 
So how can they give a referral?

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Or maybe they have given you a 
referral to another person, but 

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then that experience was 
terrible or worse or different 

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than what they experienced. 
Then they're less likely to give

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another referral. 
So if you don't want that, you 

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might miss some steps, some very
important steps, because your 

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brain skipped ahead to the next 
thing and then you forgot you 

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had to actually tie that last 
thing up with a bow. 

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It can easily lead to stress and
burnout and unpredictable 

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revenue if you're just staying 
within that creative space and 

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reinventing the wheel every 
time. 

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It's really hard to be 
profitable with your time, but a

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repeatable system can create 
confidence for you and for the 

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client. 
It can create efficiency so 

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you're not reinventing that 
wheel every time. 

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You're just using a template 
that you can pull off of and 

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then be creative with that. 
And then of course, the client 

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experience is going to be so 
much better when you have a 

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system. 
And often times actually our 

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clients are coming to us because
we are the creative one. 

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And they're the one that likes 
to work in a linear structured 

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space. 
So they can understand when you 

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have a system that makes them 
feel comfortable, that makes 

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them feel confident that you can
get the job done. 

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Not only will you be creative, 
but you can have this element 

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that they can understand where 
they might not be able to 

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understand the creativity part 
of it, they can understand the 

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system part of it. 
And so they know, well, at least

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she has a system that we can get
from start to finish through 

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this process, but I'm going to 
let her be the creative force 

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behind it all. 
So we want that better client 

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experience. 
And then it's also scalable. 

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So once you have a system, you 
can teach someone else to do it 

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with you have an intern or have 
many employees or just even have

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more projects at the same time 
because you can switch gears 

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because you know where everyone 
is in their process. 

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So think of it as like a recipe 
versus improvising your dinner 

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every night. 
So if you're following a recipe,

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you know you're going to end up 
with something that's edible. 

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But if you improv your dinner 
every night, you might not have 

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the right things that you need 
because you didn't plan ahead 

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for it, and it might not come 
together the way you anticipated

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it to be. 
And then no one can eat it. 

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So following a recipe is not 
bad. 

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You can still be creative in the
kitchen and have a recipe. 

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So why should every project run 
the same way? 

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Design outcome can change, but 
the process shouldn't. 

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So your workflow should be 
predictable. 

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It helps you plan your days, 
helps you plan how many projects

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you can take on. 
The typical project phases, kind

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of what I go through, this is 
kind of what it will include. 

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So you'll start with an inquiry 
or discovery call or both, and 

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then you'll have your 
consultation with them, which is

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paid by the way. 
Make sure that's paid, then 

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you're going to submit your 
proposal or contracts to them so

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that they can sign it and agree 
to your terms of service that 

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you're going to be servicing 
them. 

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And then you can explain your 
process and make sure that you 

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have all of the areas covered 
that you need, like being able 

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to photograph, being able to 
purchase all of the items that 

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you're proposing, etcetera. 
Then you'll go into concept 

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development. 
So that's coming up with the 

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design is the part that all 
designers love that they've went

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into interior design for. 
So that that's the money spot, 

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right? 
That's where we love to hang out

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and to be is coming up with that
concept, creating all of that 

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documentation to put it into a 
presentation and showing the 

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client our big beautiful project
that we just developed for them 

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that's going to change their 
lives. 

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OK. 
So then you have that 

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presentation, then you have to 
go into implementation. 

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Now, not every designer does 
this, but if you do full service

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design, you're going to do 
procurement. 

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You're going to order all of 
that furniture or materials or 

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work with the contractor and 
project manage through the 

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construction, through the 
delivery of the furniture and 

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installation and then getting 
that project photographed. 

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And then you're going to follow 
up with the client. 

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And that's I just listed about 
10 things that you can do every 

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single time. 
And that doesn't matter what the

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project scope is. 
It doesn't matter what the style

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is or who the client is. 
Those 10 things can be done 

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every single time. 
So each phase should have maybe 

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a checklist that you're working 
off of and saying, OK, I need to

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do this, this, this in phase 
one, I need to do 456IN Phase 2.

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So you have this checklist and I
use Asana for this. 

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We have a template. 
We just plug it in with the 

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client's name and then say, OK, 
here's all the tasks that we 

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need to do for this project. 
Now, even though the scope is 

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different, the style is 
different, the items that we're 

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sourcing are different, all the 
tasks are still applicable. 

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So that template's going to save
us so much time from reinvent. 

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Like, OK, now then what do I do 
after that? 

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I need to change it into APDF. 
Oh, yeah. 

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And then I have to send it over 
here. 

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Yeah, that's all in there. 
I don't have to think about 

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that. 
I already spent the first time 

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putting that all up, setting it 
up in my template and I don't 

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have to think about it again. 
It's there. 

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I just assigned a date to get it
done by SO and then each phase 

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should have its own timeline. 
So you know that when you're in 

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the design process and you're 
not going to be in there for a 

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full year, your client has some 
expectation of seeing this in a 

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fairly quick turn around. 
And you might not want to do it 

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in a week because that might not
give you enough time to be as 

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creative as possible to get all 
the information that you need. 

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I like to give myself 6-8 weeks,
maybe 10 to come up with the 

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design, fine tune it, finalize 
it, and then be able to start 

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the presentation documents. 
So understanding where your 

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timeline is, like even for the 
client onboarding phase, you 

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know, if that takes you like 2 
weeks, maybe it takes 3 because 

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you have to go and measure and 
then you have to create that 

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floor plan. 
So maybe that phase is 3 weeks 

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and then the next one is 6 to 8 
weeks. 

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And then the implementation, 
depending on the project could 

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be 3 months and then to wrap up 
the project and installs another

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month. 
So you kind of have a general 

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timeline that you know that each
project is going to be. 

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So that way you can say, OK, 
well, while I'm in this 

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preliminary phase, the 
onboarding phase, I'm not going 

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to take any other new projects 
while I'm doing that because I 

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need to focus my attention on 
this. 

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But once that project I'm 
working on moves into the design

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phase, then I can start 
onboarding the next project. 

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Or maybe you want to wait until 
the end. 

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But you you get to decide that. 
But you can also have the 

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ability to make that judgment 
because you know what your 

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00:11:34,040 --> 00:11:38,480
timelines are. 
And then you can also even have 

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templates for your communication
with your clients. 

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So you know that at certain 
phases, you're going to tell 

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every client the same thing. 
You're like, OK, here's what to 

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expect next. 
And here's like, that can all be

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canned emails that you just pull
up, change the client's name and

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send it out. 
Make it easy on yourself, right?

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And then you don't have to spend
as much time to write these 

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emails and come up with the 
ideas and use all that 

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brainpower that you want to be 
focused on your creativity. 

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And it also creates a luxury 
client experience because 

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everything feels organized and 
intentional. 

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And that's a win for your 
client. 

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So then let's talk about 
delegation and outsourcing. 

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At some point, your growth is 
limited by, of course, how many 

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hours that you personally have 
in a day or that you're willing 

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00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:26,840
to work. 
Maybe you only want to work 30 

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hours in a week, but you want to
take on some more projects. 

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So designers can often hold on 
to everything too long because 

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either they feel like they 
should do it all or they fear 

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losing control of the project. 
Some. 

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00:12:42,120 --> 00:12:46,720
Some of us are control freaks 
and we just love to have control

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on everything. 
And maybe we believe that no one

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else can do it as well as we 
can, but that is not always the 

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case. 
And if you want to scale, then 

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you're going to have to delegate
because you really are limited 

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00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:04,920
on your, the amount of energy 
that you have. 

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00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:08,360
And So what are the tasks that 
you could outsource? 

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Well, obvious ones are 
administrative work. 

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So your e-mail management, maybe
scheduling that can be automated

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through different apps. 
Your bookkeeping, you should be 

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outsourcing to a bookkeeper and 
invoicing your time or your 

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clients for a product that can 
be outsourced to someone else. 

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And sometimes it can help too. 
If you're doing hourly invoices 

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and someone else is sending out 
the invoice, they're less likely

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to shave off time that you work 
than you are because everyone 

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deals with that problem like, 
oh, there's too many hours this 

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month. 
My clients never going to pay 

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that. 
I'm going to take these hours 

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off. 
Of course, you should never do 

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that. 
But if someone else is sending 

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out that invoice, they don't 
feel that way, so they're just 

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going to send it out like it is.
And that can help you to be more

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profitable. 
You can also outsource the 

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design support part of it. 
So like CAD drawings, maybe you 

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never learned CAD and you just 
want someone else to do CAD 

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drawings for you. 
You can outsource that. 

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You can outsource renderings 
really easily. 

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Or creating spec sheets that can
also be done by someone else 

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that doesn't need your 
creativity for that, right? 

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You're genius. 
You can outsource outsource 

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operations like procurement or 
order tracking or expediting. 

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That can all be done by a third 
party. 

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Or you can hire someone to come 
into the office and do it for 

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you. 
And then there's the marketing. 

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You can outsource social media 
podcast if you have one, or 

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newsletters, A blog, 
advertising, anything like that.

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You can outsource to another 
company and or person in your 

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office. 
But the goal here is to protect 

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your highest value work, which 
is your creative direction, the 

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relationship with the clients 
that they want to be working 

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with you, right? 
So they need your attention and 

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hopefully you're not totally 
stressed out and maxed out and 

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so that you can have a better 
relationship with them. 

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Your projects need your vision 
and also your leadership in your

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business. 
We've talked about how if you 

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own your business, you are a 
leader as a designer in all 

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different aspects. 
And we talked about automating. 

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So you're going to want to think
about automating where possible 

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just to create efficiency and 
save you time, stress, energy. 

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And it just makes sense, 
especially in with all the 

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options that are out there now 
and AI being able to partner 

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with a lot of these just makes 
it so much easier. 

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So you can automate your client 
intake forms, your appointment 

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scheduling, contract signatures,
invoices and retainers, proposal

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templates, e-mail responses and 
project checklists. 

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Those can all be automated with 
different tools, a lot of them 

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software. 
So like Honey Book or Dubsado 

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can be a lot of the the client 
onboarding phase studio 

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designers, what I use as a 
accounting software for interior

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designers and that helps me 
process and project manage my 

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projects well, capturing all of 
the deposits for proposals and 

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making sure that the freight is 
all captured and, and everything

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like that. 
So it's an, it's a nice software

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for that. 
Design manager is also good for 

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that. 
Mydoma Studio Asana, I talked 

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about Clickup is another one or 
monday.com that can do task 

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management. 
And then QuickBooks also works 

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for accounting and also partners
with a lot of different other 

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programs like Programma for 
project management software. 

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So there's a lot out there and 
you don't have to do everything 

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by hand. 
You shouldn't be using just 

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spreadsheets unless you only 
have one client and you're just 

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starting out. 
As you get bigger, you should be

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00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:12,760
moving on to other software so 
it saves your time. 

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00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:17,359
The other area you're going to 
want to create systems around is

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your habits around analyzing 
your business. 

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And this is something that isn't
really thought of often, but 

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creating a system for looking at
your financials. 

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00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:33,680
So you might want to think about
this because oftentimes 

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00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:37,360
designers might feel intimidated
by their numbers and not 

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comfortable being in the CEO 
type position of their business.

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But really you are if you own 
your own business. 

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00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:46,800
So you're going to want to 
create habits and systems for 

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00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:51,680
checking your revenue monthly, 
checking on your profit margins,

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00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:56,320
your operating expenses, each 
project's profitability, so you 

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know what kind of projects you 
want to focus on. 

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00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:02,280
And you also want to check on 
your cash flow to make sure that

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you've got money coming in and 
out as you need it. 

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00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:09,480
And so, yeah, you should be 
reviewing your financials every 

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00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:12,760
month. 
So put that in your task 

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00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:16,720
management software and just 
make a time for CEO related 

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tasks that maybe aren't project 
related. 

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You're not going to want to just
do this during tax season. 

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00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:26,120
You need to do this all year 
long, understand your numbers 

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00:18:26,120 --> 00:18:30,160
and it helps you to price your 
services properly, avoid cash 

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00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:35,400
flow issues and then it can help
you if you are scaling to hire 

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00:18:35,840 --> 00:18:39,440
or understand when to hire if 
you can afford it, and then can 

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00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:43,520
help you grow sustainably. 
There's a few checkpoints as 

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00:18:43,520 --> 00:18:47,160
ACEO that you might want to 
check on and create systems 

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00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:50,800
around, and that would be like 
your business performance. 

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00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:55,040
So checking, like I said, your 
revenue, profitability, upcoming

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00:18:55,040 --> 00:18:57,040
pipeline. 
So what kind of projects are 

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00:18:57,040 --> 00:18:58,880
coming in? 
Do you have a wait list? 

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00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:04,280
And then you can talk about the 
progress of each project and are

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00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:06,320
they moving forward? 
Are there bottlenecks? 

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00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:09,760
Are you the bottleneck? 
Like can people not move past a 

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00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:12,240
certain point because they're 
waiting for you to give these 

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00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:15,160
answers, but you're busy doing 
something else. 

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00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:17,920
So you want to make sure your 
projects are moving forward in a

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00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:21,880
timely fashion and have a system
around that. 

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00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:25,000
You want to have a system around
your marketing to make sure you 

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00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:29,600
understand where your leads are 
coming from and how much money 

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00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:33,240
you're spending, what is 
working, what's not, where you 

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00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:37,160
see return for your investment, 
and then systems around your 

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00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:39,720
operations. 
So just making sure you're 

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00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:44,000
efficient and that you 
documented your systems so that 

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00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:48,360
you can hand it off to somebody 
who's new into your company, an 

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00:19:48,360 --> 00:19:52,480
intern, a new employee, or just 
someone you're partnering with. 

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00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:54,240
It'll make it run so much 
smoother. 

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00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:57,640
OK, so bottom line though, I 
want you to remember is that 

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00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:03,120
systems create freedom. 
As much as you might think it 

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00:20:03,120 --> 00:20:06,440
doesn't, it does. 
Designers will often think 

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00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:09,960
systems make their business feel
corporate and cold. 

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00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:14,360
And just not what they're 
envisioning their design 

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00:20:14,360 --> 00:20:16,480
business to be. 
But the truth is the opposite. 

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00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:20,840
Systems can create flexibility, 
especially it can give you some 

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00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:25,240
free time to go and help you to 
be more a creative person, 

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00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:27,000
right. 
You need to have that off time 

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00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:31,800
and time to do your hobbies and 
go visit someplace that's going 

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00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:35,680
to inspire you. 
And so having that flexibility 

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00:20:35,680 --> 00:20:39,480
in your schedule because you've 
created systems is important and

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00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:44,000
it gives you predictability in 
your schedule and your calendar 

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00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:46,040
coming up. 
It gives you profitability, of 

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00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:49,240
course, and then just freedom as
a business owner. 

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00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:52,360
And so instead of being trapped 
in your business, you can start 

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00:20:52,360 --> 00:20:55,240
leading your business. 
And that allows you to focus on 

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00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:57,360
the part that made you fall in 
love with design in the 1st 

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00:20:57,360 --> 00:21:00,760
place, creating those beautiful 
spaces that change how people 

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00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:10,120
live. 
So I hope this episode has 

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00:21:10,120 --> 00:21:14,720
inspired you to actually create 
some systems, not be afraid of 

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00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:18,440
them. 
Like I said, I was not really 

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00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:22,120
excited about creating systems. 
I thought that I'm a creative, I

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00:21:22,120 --> 00:21:25,840
don't really need to have those 
kinds of things in my business, 

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00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:29,040
The design's going to carry me. 
But that's not true. 

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00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:32,560
I realized as I was not making 
money and I was completely 

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00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:35,400
burned out, that something had 
to change and that was 

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00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:40,000
implementing systems. 
So you want to build systems 

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00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:43,520
that support you so you can be 
the most successful designer 

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00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:48,040
that you can and use your talent
appropriately and run your 

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00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:51,840
business intelligently. 
So I know you can check out 

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00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:54,280
links in the show notes that I 
have for you. 

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00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:59,320
And also don't forget that we 
can have a link in there for the

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00:21:59,320 --> 00:22:04,320
replay of that webinar that we 
had earlier this year for Launch

369
00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:07,240
Your Business Boot Camp. 
But the webinar was really well 

370
00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:10,480
attended and so we made it 
available to you as a replay. 

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It's five money moves to start 
your interior design business, 

372
00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:17,360
right? 
OK, so that's all I have for you

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00:22:17,360 --> 00:22:19,040
this week. 
Next week we'll have another 

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00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:21,760
great episode. 
And until then, stay creative. 

375
00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:26,320
Thanks for listening. 
If you love this episode, please

376
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:29,080
leave a rating and a review. 
This helps me reach other 

377
00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:32,840
curious creatives like you. 
If you have a topic request or 

378
00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:36,120
would like to contact me, simply
head over to my website 

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00:22:36,360 --> 00:22:42,480
Awardesign com or e-mail me at 
podcast at Awardesign com.