Why New Interior Designers Fail, And What To Do About It
Can I just get real here for a moment with you? You and I both know why new interior designers fail - they give up too easily. Sure, it looks like being an interior designer is all about lollipops and unicorns. Picking out fabulous furniture and pretty fabrics that we can't stop rubbing. You know I'm not the only one who does that.
Wait, is this you?
Oh, Buttercup! I knew this seemed very familiar. Look, I'm not here to tell you that you don't have what it takes, but you might be going at this entire thing the wrong way.
Between you and me, we know that our "job description" is pretty badass. We get to shop for pretty stuff with someone else's money. Yeah, there are those other tasks that aren't the most fun, but in general, we are doing something that we love to do (and dare we say we'd do it for free, but we don't because we're determined to be dirty rich).
But we start our businesses, then something pops up and we say fuck it, this is too hard.
Then we end up saying, "I give up".
Why give up?
What's the point of giving up? I mean, you didn't come this far just to throw it all away, did you?
Is your website a ghost town?
No one buying your services?
Feel like no one hears what you are saying?
Put Your Big Girl Panties On
Being an interior designer running your own business isn't for the faint of heart. And you've got heart, girl.
Every day you need to wake up, be thankful for another day and what you intend to do with it to make it matter.
The key to being a successful interior designer comes down to having a plan that you are truly behind and doing it every day.
Get A Plan
You need to write every damn day. Write to your BFF, your client. Write about their problems, and how you can solve them. Inspire them to decorate like a pro. Share the behind the scenes stuff of what you do for your clients so they want to be on the receiving end of a fabulous design solution.
Build your email list. Create new freebie email opt-ins to give away to your clients. If the one you have now isn't working, dump it and create another one. Add more sign up forms on your website.
Work on your design packages. Do they make sense? Do you have an introductory service? Is your middle package the next step in working with you? Your packages need to be a natural progression of working with you. If they like the first mini-project they did with you can bet they are gonna love the next level of service working with you.
Talk about your business. And by that I mean talk about how you help clients all the time by doing what you do best that helps your clients feel better. Your clients feel that you saved them money and time. You gave them back their confidence to invite friends over. You took the worry out of their minds.
Crush Together. Don't be the ice queen of design. Talk online where your clients are and share in their delight about interior design. They love design just as much as you do. So share your crushes - your furniture, lighting, colors, accessory crushes. All those things you drool about are the same things they love so why not build a relationship on what you both love?
And do it every day.
Can you say that you're doing these things every day in your business? Are you making the time to sell yourself online? You need to.
Create a marketing plan that gets you in front of your dream client's eyeballs. Figure out what to share on Facebook that will make your dream clients drool.
Because yesterday you said tomorrow.
The time is now. Without a plan, you're just flailing around and not making any type of progress that you can measure.
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