Planning For Holistic Interior Design Business
While we can read, listen, and absorb all of the information that the "smart people," the pundits, the marketers, and gurus would like to offer their advice about the future of your interior design business as we find ourselves in a period of significant transformation - I'm going to offer you something different.
Looking At The PasT
Let's look at where we've come from. In the past, we've seen an industry that has tried more times than anyone can count trying to carve out a slice of the prosperity pie for itself, only to find itself looking like Charlie Brown after attempting to hit the football under Lucy's finger, time and again.
Do this, do that, wait, scratch that, add in this, be everywhere, run in circles, deplete your energies and now try this. Rinse and repeat.
And for all that expended energy to find a shortcut that some "guru" claims will work, you end up dissatisfied with the results and find yourself in a perpetual state of WTF-itis.
For all of those strategies, where are so many now? Feeling like they got hit with a baseball from left field and wished to return to the old days when everything wasn't quite so complicated or torturous.
But to move forward into the future, you're going to have to a) rely on your own boss energy and take any advice with a grain of salt, knowing that if anyone is pitching something to you that you must ask yourself what's in it for them and b) realize that your dream is there to uncover when you become your own best advocate for your business.
Designing the Future
Your solid future, the future where your business is solid as a rock (cue Ashford & Simpson's song), will require you to analyze and clarify why things the gurus have told you didn't work for you.
There are no shortcuts. Jumping on every social media platform known to man will not save your business. There's enough noise and not enough value. It would be best if you left that crap advice behind.
There isn't a damn thing that some gurus can say that will replace your own smarts. You know your business better than anyone (or at least you should; if you don't, you better get your head in the game).
When you leave the strategy of your business' growth to others, you have ignored the most critical ingredient to your success: you.
Here's something that is lacking in the industry - truth and authenticity. People are afraid to say what is really on their minds because they could get canceled by some pissy-pants person. Don't let that be you. Authenticity and integrity are lacking everywhere.
Sure, you can go along to get along - but is that how you want to operate your business?
For instance, if I were selling design - maybe I'd opine on what I think about some crap legal proposals that will affect my clients. But, of course, my opinion may be in the minority, or I might be the first brave person to speak up in the industry.
I can't emphasize this enough - we're in a transition time like 2008/2009; however, the outcome will be wildly different moving forward.
We're not going to repeat what happened after the "great recession" - people worldwide are ready for something different. Aren't you? And what does that mean for your clients?
Where you and your client's lives will dovetail in the future is where you both want to find balance. Letting go of the consumerism that has plagued us all and finding purpose in everything we bring into our lives is something personal for everyone - and a vision we'll share.
Of course, you'll still have clients who want to fill their emotional voids with expensive things without rhyme or reason, but they won't be the bulk of your client list.
Living a life of intention focusing on better health for the mind, body, and soul will be first and foremost.
You will help them design a life supporting their desires for this. Your role as a designer will mean you're going to be someone for them to rely on as you empathize with them and "prescribe" the pieces for their space to find their peace.
At the moment, this is what you should focus on - how big of a pivot this will be for you and how you can build a community, organically and authentically, around you where you all share similar goals for this balanced and intentional life.
Challenges Moving Forward
The challenge moving forward with creating a holistic interior design business that supports people in a new way of being is that people are slow to make changes - looking for a shortcut anywhere.
What we're talking about when it comes to holistic interior design is getting people to see the light. Letting go of bad habits and bad design is an argument that may hang in the air before the major companies get their marketing plan in place - but you can be ahead of the curve.
Look, I've always told you that content is king - and not the content on some social media that has a rapidly expiring shelf life. So you must create the content (blog or video with transcripts for blogs) that can be indexed and shared.
And starting now, when the tide turns, will put you in a position to be the leading expert who saw this before the Houzz, House Beautiful, and whatever else of the world come in selling everyone on it.
Holistic interior design has so many benefits - and you need to slice through the world salad and explain to people, like their five year old's, why it matters.
However, I've said this before, and it still holds - only go into Holistic Interior design if you wholeheartedly believe and understand what it is you want to provide as a service. Holistic interior design requires integrity and wisdom from all parties.
I know, some putzes will go around offering these services anyway - know you'll be able to sniff them out like a pig searching for truffles and maybe even educate clients on said posers.
Planning for the Future
Planning for your holistic interior design business's future requires you to take an honest look at what you've got going on that supports your goals.
Maybe you're worried that no one else will see the importance of it, and you'll give up. Maybe you're afraid that people will point and laugh at your tinfoil hat. Maybe, maybe.
You need to put on your big girl panties and know that you, at this precise moment, have the opportunity to be the pack's leader. Setting the stage for the inspired knowledge, you're to drop into their closed-off, tiny brains. You're the tour guide on the awakening they didn't even know they needed.
You'll need to expect that people like to cling to the past, their baggage, and what they've believed to be true for eons. Change doesn't happen overnight or easily for some. You will be the pied piper bringing in new messages that make p[eople scratch their heads, intrigued and wondering if it will work for them. You set the tone and message now, so you're the expert of the future.
Moving forward with your business - especially if you're changing course to focusing on holistic interior design - you need to be a problem solver. Nothing in holistic interior design has to be airy-fairy bullshit. Do your research, then sell the benefits.
Also, do not wait to market this. You snooze, lose, and look like a Johnny come lately. Be ahead of the pack and develop services that support your client's desires for their future clarity, balance, and bliss.
Last, holistic interior designers, at least for a few of you, will be doing or experiencing a deeper connection with your clients. And that will require greater empathy and greater boundaries. So protect your energy at all costs to continue to do the work for your clients.
Hola!👋I'm Alycia. I help eDesigners land dream clients + get profitable with smart online marketing methods. Want in on the only membership group that will help you get organized, get visible AF, and get majorly PROFITABLE? Hell yes, you do. Follow me.
Hola! I'm Alycia Wicker and I help online interior designers grow their business.
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