Your Interior Design Business
Metier Rendezvous Founder, Siobhan Casey offers some fabulous tips for Interior Designers to help keep on top of business objectives and goals for the year ahead…
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Reach out for Help…..Yes, Interior Designers have been known to be friendly.
No need to get yourself stuck in a hot-mess of confusion or to second guess your designs to within an inch of their life. Join Interior Design groups on Facebook or LinkedIn or if you are super savvy…become part of the Metier Rendezvous Community for an instant feeling of support. For Metier members, there is the internal Slack team messaging network. The Slack network allows you to not only chat one-on-one with peers (as well as sharing files) but also in groups. This means that plenty of experienced business advice and support is never far away!
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Collaborate with other Interior Designers on projects.
Community over competition is key! Your fellow Interior Designers need not be seen as competition. Brexit and other global influences outside of our control can and are very likely to throw wobbles into the economy. Reach out to purposefully collaborate with other Designers and this will strengthen your business relationships. This then leaves you more open to meeting new clients, gaining more exposure and therefore more opportunities for progression!
You will undoubtedly have key strengths, so will your fellow designer. Work together for a successful outcome and a happy client.
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Get your Business & Design Project Communications organised!
So many of our Metier Members spoke of being busy and chaotic in 2017. In our fast-paced industry, being organised and efficient will only help you save those precious minutes. There’s nothing worse than not being able to find that email/document with that specific carpet wool colour….!
Take 10 – 20 mins to review your email folder structure vs your computer filing system. Do they both marry up? Do you find it easy to find that drawing you issued to the client on the latest joinery update? Are you happy with it? Do you feel it could do with some improvement?
We strongly recommend creating a simple structure that mirrors both your email inbox folders and your digital computer folders.
If you would like a ready-made for Interior Designers template of a Business Folder Structure, then all you have to do is :
- like our Face book page and leave comment on which of these 5 Tips you have found most helpful.
- sign-up to our Monthly Newsletter and we will email you the perfect Business Folder Structure template for you to implement in your own interior design business
….easy peasy!
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Address your Social Media for your Interior Design Business!
Plenty of Interior Designers have half-hearted attempts at Twitter / Instagram / Facebook or LinkedIn profiles. You think you should…. so you start up a profile. However, you honestly just don’t have the time and really can’t think of anything inspirational after you’ve tackled 3 projects, fed the kids, walked the dog and tossed yet another load of laundry in the dryer. Sound familiar?
Where to start?
Grab yourself a cup of tea, have a sit down and think really hard about whether you need to keep all these social media platforms going? Which of those do you actually enjoy? Do any of these net you leads and new projects? Which do you find painful?
If you come to the conclusion that other priorities need to take a step forward – great! Deactivate the platforms you really struggle to get motivated on.
Therefore, if getting on top of your Social Media is your priority, then you need to address this so that your profile actually looks relevant and current. Don’t panic – I can hear you thinking “but where will I find the time?” Pick yourself one easy design topic you feel passionate about (art, iconic lighting, special wall finishes, whatever…), the aim is for you to have a safe regular topic that excites you so that you will want to address it in some way.
All you need to do is just post one item about this topic per week to get yourself back into the rhythm. When you feel like you are into a rhythm and motivation and time allows, take things up a notch. Use a social media assistant like Buffer to help you plug in the posts across all platforms – DONE!
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Review your Business Goals for the next 3 Months….just for the next 3 months!
Don’t worry about the next 5-10 years right now. What would you like to achieve by the end of March 2018? Write it down on a post-it note and pin it up where you can see it every morning! Visualising things helps clarify, concentrate and maintain focus on your specific goal.
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At Metier Rendezvous, we recognise the ever-growing pressure on Interior Designers in the current economic climate. We provide pro-active peer support for our members sharing business ideas, tips and collaborations on projects as well as industry related workshops and regular brunch events where we share our experiences face to face.
If you are interested in becoming part of our friendly community of Interior Designers and wish to gain access to our enormous Supplier Database, please do get in touch to apply for membership!