Designers can often hold on to everything too long because
either they feel like they should do it all or they fear
losing control of the project. Some, some of us are control
freaks and we just love to have control on everything.
And maybe we believe that no one else can do it as well as we
can, but that is not always the case.
And if you want to scale, then you're going to have to delegate
because you really are limited on your the amount of energy
that you have. You're now listening to Design
Curious, a place where you creative one are here to learn
about what it really is like to be an interior designer.
And I'm your host and mentor, Rebecca Ward.
If you're worried about how to succeed in a creative career, if
you're ready to learn your next steps to become an interior
designer, and if you want the satisfaction of doing something
you love every day, you are in the right place.
Grab a coffee, a notebook, and let's dig into today's episode.
Hello, and welcome to episode 189 of Design Curious Podcast.
Today on the podcast, we're talking about business systems
and working smarter, not harder. Many designers start their
business because they love design.
Obviously, it's their passion, something that they want to do
forever. But then they quickly realized
that they've created a job that depends entirely on them, right?
Like they can't just be designing all the time.
If you're a designer and the project manager and hopefully
not, but maybe the bookkeeper and you're procuring everything
and then you're also marketing, well, burnout is going to be
inevitable. So we're going to talk about how
you can shift this so you can stop operating like a freelancer
and start operating like a business with systems that can
allow you to scale and work smarter instead of harder.
So that's what we're talking about today.
And I also want to encourage you that if you are interested in
mentorship with me, I have my design mentor.
You can sign up for and work with me one-on-one and really
get into the program of whatever it is you need as you're
starting out. We can work on your areas.
There's also 12 learning modules in there, so you can get up and
going as a successful interior designer.
OK, let's get into the episode. To start with, let's talk about
systems. Even though every project that
you design is going to be unique in style and scope, the process
that you use should be repeatable.
So why do systems matter? Often designers will resist
systems because creativity feels personal and fluid, right?
So we want to be as creative as possible.
Don't put me in a box. I need all this space to work
and I'm just going to start from scratch and get all my ideas
fresh. That's all fine.
You can do those things, but you can still do it within a system
that is repeatable. And it's only going to help you
be more efficient and profitable in the long run.
So systems don't really limit creativity.
They can protect it. And that's the thing that I
didn't understand for a long time and talking with so many
designers through this podcast and outside the podcast, that it
is hard for creative to embrace systems because systems seem to
be so structured and analytical and linear and just the opposite
of creativity, which is, you know, like I said, is very fluid
and organic and fresh and new. And so there there is resistance
there. But when the operational side of
your business runs smoothly, then you can create more space
for that creativity because sometimes if you don't have
those systems, you can end up reinventing the wheel every time
or forgetting things that you need to do.
You might be inconsistent with the client's experience through
the process. So how can they give a referral?
Or maybe they have given you a referral to another person, but
then that experience was terrible or worse or different
than what they experienced. Then they're less likely to give
another referral. So if you don't want that, you
might miss some steps, some very important steps, because your
brain skipped ahead to the next thing and then you forgot you
had to actually tie that last thing up with a bow.
It can easily lead to stress and burnout and unpredictable
revenue if you're just staying within that creative space and
reinventing the wheel every time.
It's really hard to be profitable with your time, but a
repeatable system can create confidence for you and for the
client. It can create efficiency so
you're not reinventing that wheel every time.
You're just using a template that you can pull off of and
then be creative with that. And then of course, the client
experience is going to be so much better when you have a
system. And often times actually our
clients are coming to us because we are the creative one.
And they're the one that likes to work in a linear structured
space. So they can understand when you
have a system that makes them feel comfortable, that makes
them feel confident that you can get the job done.
Not only will you be creative, but you can have this element
that they can understand where they might not be able to
understand the creativity part of it, they can understand the
system part of it. And so they know, well, at least
she has a system that we can get from start to finish through
this process, but I'm going to let her be the creative force
behind it all. So we want that better client
experience. And then it's also scalable.
So once you have a system, you can teach someone else to do it
with you have an intern or have many employees or just even have
more projects at the same time because you can switch gears
because you know where everyone is in their process.
So think of it as like a recipe versus improvising your dinner
every night. So if you're following a recipe,
you know you're going to end up with something that's edible.
But if you improv your dinner every night, you might not have
the right things that you need because you didn't plan ahead
for it, and it might not come together the way you anticipated
it to be. And then no one can eat it.
So following a recipe is not bad.
You can still be creative in the kitchen and have a recipe.
So why should every project run the same way?
Design outcome can change, but the process shouldn't.
So your workflow should be predictable.
It helps you plan your days, helps you plan how many projects
you can take on. The typical project phases, kind
of what I go through, this is kind of what it will include.
So you'll start with an inquiry or discovery call or both, and
then you'll have your consultation with them, which is
paid by the way. Make sure that's paid, then
you're going to submit your proposal or contracts to them so
that they can sign it and agree to your terms of service that
you're going to be servicing them.
And then you can explain your process and make sure that you
have all of the areas covered that you need, like being able
to photograph, being able to purchase all of the items that
you're proposing, etcetera. Then you'll go into concept
development. So that's coming up with the
design is the part that all designers love that they've went
into interior design for. So that that's the money spot,
right? That's where we love to hang out
and to be is coming up with that concept, creating all of that
documentation to put it into a presentation and showing the
client our big beautiful project that we just developed for them
that's going to change their lives.
OK. So then you have that
presentation, then you have to go into implementation.
Now, not every designer does this, but if you do full service
design, you're going to do procurement.
You're going to order all of that furniture or materials or
work with the contractor and project manage through the
construction, through the delivery of the furniture and
installation and then getting that project photographed.
And then you're going to follow up with the client.
And that's I just listed about 10 things that you can do every
single time. And that doesn't matter what the
project scope is. It doesn't matter what the style
is or who the client is. Those 10 things can be done
every single time. So each phase should have maybe
a checklist that you're working off of and saying, OK, I need to
do this, this, this in phase one, I need to do 456IN Phase 2.
So you have this checklist and I use Asana for this.
We have a template. We just plug it in with the
client's name and then say, OK, here's all the tasks that we
need to do for this project. Now, even though the scope is
different, the style is different, the items that we're
sourcing are different, all the tasks are still applicable.
So that template's going to save us so much time from reinvent.
Like, OK, now then what do I do after that?
I need to change it into APDF. Oh, yeah.
And then I have to send it over here.
Yeah, that's all in there. I don't have to think about
that. I already spent the first time
putting that all up, setting it up in my template and I don't
have to think about it again. It's there.
I just assigned a date to get it done by SO and then each phase
should have its own timeline. So you know that when you're in
the design process and you're not going to be in there for a
full year, your client has some expectation of seeing this in a
fairly quick turn around. And you might not want to do it
in a week because that might not give you enough time to be as
creative as possible to get all the information that you need.
I like to give myself 6-8 weeks, maybe 10 to come up with the
design, fine tune it, finalize it, and then be able to start
the presentation documents. So understanding where your
timeline is, like even for the client onboarding phase, you
know, if that takes you like 2 weeks, maybe it takes 3 because
you have to go and measure and then you have to create that
floor plan. So maybe that phase is 3 weeks
and then the next one is 6 to 8 weeks.
And then the implementation, depending on the project could
be 3 months and then to wrap up the project and installs another
month. So you kind of have a general
timeline that you know that each project is going to be.
So that way you can say, OK, well, while I'm in this
preliminary phase, the onboarding phase, I'm not going
to take any other new projects while I'm doing that because I
need to focus my attention on this.
But once that project I'm working on moves into the design
phase, then I can start onboarding the next project.
Or maybe you want to wait until the end.
But you you get to decide that. But you can also have the
ability to make that judgment because you know what your
timelines are. And then you can also even have
templates for your communication with your clients.
So you know that at certain phases, you're going to tell
every client the same thing. You're like, OK, here's what to
expect next. And here's like, that can all be
canned emails that you just pull up, change the client's name and
send it out. Make it easy on yourself, right?
And then you don't have to spend as much time to write these
emails and come up with the ideas and use all that
brainpower that you want to be focused on your creativity.
And it also creates a luxury client experience because
everything feels organized and intentional.
And that's a win for your client.
So then let's talk about delegation and outsourcing.
At some point, your growth is limited by, of course, how many
hours that you personally have in a day or that you're willing
to work. Maybe you only want to work 30
hours in a week, but you want to take on some more projects.
So designers can often hold on to everything too long because
either they feel like they should do it all or they fear
losing control of the project. Some.
Some of us are control freaks and we just love to have control
on everything. And maybe we believe that no one
else can do it as well as we can, but that is not always the
case. And if you want to scale, then
you're going to have to delegate because you really are limited
on your, the amount of energy that you have.
And So what are the tasks that you could outsource?
Well, obvious ones are administrative work.
So your e-mail management, maybe scheduling that can be automated
through different apps. Your bookkeeping, you should be
outsourcing to a bookkeeper and invoicing your time or your
clients for a product that can be outsourced to someone else.
And sometimes it can help too. If you're doing hourly invoices
and someone else is sending out the invoice, they're less likely
to shave off time that you work than you are because everyone
deals with that problem like, oh, there's too many hours this
month. My clients never going to pay
that. I'm going to take these hours
off. Of course, you should never do
that. But if someone else is sending
out that invoice, they don't feel that way, so they're just
going to send it out like it is. And that can help you to be more
profitable. You can also outsource the
design support part of it. So like CAD drawings, maybe you
never learned CAD and you just want someone else to do CAD
drawings for you. You can outsource that.
You can outsource renderings really easily.
Or creating spec sheets that can also be done by someone else
that doesn't need your creativity for that, right?
You're genius. You can outsource outsource
operations like procurement or order tracking or expediting.
That can all be done by a third party.
Or you can hire someone to come into the office and do it for
you. And then there's the marketing.
You can outsource social media podcast if you have one, or
newsletters, A blog, advertising, anything like that.
You can outsource to another company and or person in your
office. But the goal here is to protect
your highest value work, which is your creative direction, the
relationship with the clients that they want to be working
with you, right? So they need your attention and
hopefully you're not totally stressed out and maxed out and
so that you can have a better relationship with them.
Your projects need your vision and also your leadership in your
business. We've talked about how if you
own your business, you are a leader as a designer in all
different aspects. And we talked about automating.
So you're going to want to think about automating where possible
just to create efficiency and save you time, stress, energy.
And it just makes sense, especially in with all the
options that are out there now and AI being able to partner
with a lot of these just makes it so much easier.
So you can automate your client intake forms, your appointment
scheduling, contract signatures, invoices and retainers, proposal
templates, e-mail responses and project checklists.
Those can all be automated with different tools, a lot of them
software. So like Honey Book or Dubsado
can be a lot of the the client onboarding phase studio
designers, what I use as a accounting software for interior
designers and that helps me process and project manage my
projects well, capturing all of the deposits for proposals and
making sure that the freight is all captured and, and everything
like that. So it's an, it's a nice software
for that. Design manager is also good for
that. Mydoma Studio Asana, I talked
about Clickup is another one or monday.com that can do task
management. And then QuickBooks also works
for accounting and also partners with a lot of different other
programs like Programma for project management software.
So there's a lot out there and you don't have to do everything
by hand. You shouldn't be using just
spreadsheets unless you only have one client and you're just
starting out. As you get bigger, you should be
moving on to other software so it saves your time.
The other area you're going to want to create systems around is
your habits around analyzing your business.
And this is something that isn't really thought of often, but
creating a system for looking at your financials.
So you might want to think about this because oftentimes
designers might feel intimidated by their numbers and not
comfortable being in the CEO type position of their business.
But really you are if you own your own business.
So you're going to want to create habits and systems for
checking your revenue monthly, checking on your profit margins,
your operating expenses, each project's profitability, so you
know what kind of projects you want to focus on.
And you also want to check on your cash flow to make sure that
you've got money coming in and out as you need it.
And so, yeah, you should be reviewing your financials every
month. So put that in your task
management software and just make a time for CEO related
tasks that maybe aren't project related.
You're not going to want to just do this during tax season.
You need to do this all year long, understand your numbers
and it helps you to price your services properly, avoid cash
flow issues and then it can help you if you are scaling to hire
or understand when to hire if you can afford it, and then can
help you grow sustainably. There's a few checkpoints as
ACEO that you might want to check on and create systems
around, and that would be like your business performance.
So checking, like I said, your revenue, profitability, upcoming
pipeline. So what kind of projects are
coming in? Do you have a wait list?
And then you can talk about the progress of each project and are
they moving forward? Are there bottlenecks?
Are you the bottleneck? Like can people not move past a
certain point because they're waiting for you to give these
answers, but you're busy doing something else.
So you want to make sure your projects are moving forward in a
timely fashion and have a system around that.
You want to have a system around your marketing to make sure you
understand where your leads are coming from and how much money
you're spending, what is working, what's not, where you
see return for your investment, and then systems around your
operations. So just making sure you're
efficient and that you documented your systems so that
you can hand it off to somebody who's new into your company, an
intern, a new employee, or just someone you're partnering with.
It'll make it run so much smoother.
OK, so bottom line though, I want you to remember is that
systems create freedom. As much as you might think it
doesn't, it does. Designers will often think
systems make their business feel corporate and cold.
And just not what they're envisioning their design
business to be. But the truth is the opposite.
Systems can create flexibility, especially it can give you some
free time to go and help you to be more a creative person,
right. You need to have that off time
and time to do your hobbies and go visit someplace that's going
to inspire you. And so having that flexibility
in your schedule because you've created systems is important and
it gives you predictability in your schedule and your calendar
coming up. It gives you profitability, of
course, and then just freedom as a business owner.
And so instead of being trapped in your business, you can start
leading your business. And that allows you to focus on
the part that made you fall in love with design in the 1st
place, creating those beautiful spaces that change how people
live. So I hope this episode has
inspired you to actually create some systems, not be afraid of
them. Like I said, I was not really
excited about creating systems. I thought that I'm a creative, I
don't really need to have those kinds of things in my business,
The design's going to carry me. But that's not true.
I realized as I was not making money and I was completely
burned out, that something had to change and that was
implementing systems. So you want to build systems
that support you so you can be the most successful designer
that you can and use your talent appropriately and run your
business intelligently. So I know you can check out
links in the show notes that I have for you.
And also don't forget that we can have a link in there for the
replay of that webinar that we had earlier this year for Launch
Your Business Boot Camp. But the webinar was really well
attended and so we made it available to you as a replay.
It's five money moves to start your interior design business,
right? OK, so that's all I have for you
this week. Next week we'll have another
great episode. And until then, stay creative.
Thanks for listening. If you love this episode, please
leave a rating and a review. This helps me reach other
curious creatives like you. If you have a topic request or
would like to contact me, simply head over to my website
Awardesign com or e-mail me at podcast at Awardesign com.