3 essential areas you can’t ignore when running an interior design business:
- Marketing and sales
- Business processes
- The power of experts
Great Marketing and Sales are Vital for Interior Design Business Success
Great marketing and sales are vital for interior design business success. Although marketing and sales are different activities, they have something in common. Those running an interior design business struggle with them equally.
Firstly, what’s the difference between marketing and sales?
- Marketing is the process by which you make people aware of your studio. And encourage them to learn about your services. In jargon, generating leads and then prospects (we’ll come back to this)
- Sales is the process by which you convert prospects into customers
So, to distinguish between leads and prospects
A lead is someone who has shown interest in your services or company. Shown by an action they’ve taken, downloaded a brochure or filled in a contact me form
A prospect is a lead that’s likely to buy. And their actions are more definite, booked a Zoom call, asked for a quote
Even though different, marketing and sales are the processes by which you find clients. By encouraging complete strangers to become leads, turn leads into prospects, and prospects into customers.
To sum up, marketing and sales processes deliver clients and projects to your studio. And are your life’s blood when running an interior design business. Because without great marketing and sales, complete strangers will remain just that. Complete strangers. And your company will never be successful.
Crap Business Processes Mean You’ll Throw Money Down the Drain
When running an interior design business, if you don’t have fantastic processes, you won’t make a profit. And there’s one that’s central to all interior design practices. The design process. So, make sure you have it nailed.
Stereotypically, interior designers aren’t process-orientated. Instead, creative thinkers that work best without constraints. And often, people-pleasers. But don’t let those stereotypes become excuses.
Because every time you re-work a tiny detail of design, it costs money. Each time you put in extra effort for a client, it costs money. If you don’t charge for rework, extra time, it costs you money. And it doesn’t take much rework, extra time, to erode your profit to zero.
That’s why you need a design process that’s more than a project plan. One that goes beyond the chronological order of the activities you need to complete concept design, procurement, and implementation.
Instead, build in warning signals for when clients start to dither or get awkward. Make sure you have standard responses to client queries and concerns ready to go.
More importantly, gain from experience. Adapt your design process constantly from what you learnt from past projects (or others).
Harness the Power of Experts, Because You Aren’t Good at Everything
Harness the power of experts to run a successful interior design business. Because you can’t be good at everything. Or put another way, outsource. Something all small business owners find difficult. Because often ‘it’s all in your head’ and you’re not sure you can trust someone with your baby.
To tackle the last hurdle first, they’re plenty of aspects of running an interior design business that won’t make you stand out to clients. Bookkeeping is a fab example. It just needs to be done well enough that you can pay your bills on time. And have everything ready to submit to the tax man.
But getting rid of activities which are ‘non-differentiating’ is one reason to outsource. But not the only one
Because those you outsource to are experts. As such, better than you at that particular activity
Remember the argument, ‘Interior designers save clients time and money’? The same logic applies to bookkeepers and you!
Take another example, interior designers often aren’t great with words. Yet good copy is often the reason leads become prospects. Due to well-written, persuasive brochures. And why prospects become clients. When a client quote is treated as a sales tool. Not just a dry document to deliver project costs and deliverables.
There you have it, outsourcing helps with running an interior design business. Not just because outsourcing saves you time and money. But it can help land you new projects too!
3 Essential Areas You Can’t Ignore to Make Your Interior Design Business a Success
To summarise, without clients you won’t be running an interior design business for long. Once you find clients, make sure you make money out of them. Finally, don’t try and do it all on your own. There are experts you can turn to. Particularly for those activities that don’t set your studio apart. Which means:
Have great marketing and sales because they’re vital for interior design business success
Avoid crap business processes so you make a profit
Outsource necessary, but non-differentiating, business activities as soon as you can afford to
Do You Need Guidance Running an Interior Design Business?
Do you need guidance running an interior design business? Then take the next easy step, download the interior design business coach brochure.
And discover how a coach that only works with interior designers can help you think differently about your interior design business.