Top 10 Blog Posts of 2023 for Interior Designers

Dec 22

There is nothing we enjoy more than sharing our insights and helping designers improve their business operations and client experience. Today, I’m sharing the top ten blog posts for interior designers from this year.

In 2023, my team and I wrote 89 blog posts for interior designers (this one makes it 90), doubling our total from last year! There is nothing we enjoy more than sharing our insights and helping designers improve their business operations and client experience. Today, I’m sharing the top ten blog posts for interior designers from this year, plus the blog posts I enjoyed writing the most.

Thank YOU for being here and for reading my blog, The Weekly Install, and my Instagram posts.

So, without further ado, here are the TOP 10 BLOG POSTS FOR INTERIOR DESIGNERS from 2023.

#10. A Glimpse into Interior Design Licensing Legislation | Does Your State Require a License to Practice Interior Design?

An overview of the current state of interior design legislation. Note: requirements vary by state. Read the post here.

#9. Dear Dakota: How To Make Interior Design Discovery Calls More Productive?

My top 3 tips you can implement right now to make your interior design discovery calls more productive. Read the post here.

#8. Marketing Tactics That Don’t Work for Interior Designers

We shared our most often seen ineffective marketing tactics so you can STOP doing them and allocate that time toward something that actually generates revenue (or joy!) for your business. Read the post here.

#7. How to Make Your Interior Design Process More Efficient + Profitable

In this post, I share a few ways interior designers can make their design process more efficient, enabling them to work smarter, improve their client experience, AND, for those who bill flat fee, increase their profitability. Read the post here.

#6. How to Decline Bad Fit Interior Design Projects

Get a few tips for turning down potential clients you know aren’t a good fit and learn how to prevent bad-fit clients from making it past step one in your inquiry process. Read the post here.

#5. A Breakdown of the Most Widely Respected Interior Design Certifications

We break down the most well-established and widely respected certifications for interior designers so you can decide whether pursuing any would be helpful to your professional development. Read the post here.

#4. Holding a Proposal Meeting to Present Your Scope of Work, Interior Design Contract, and Design Fee

We polled our audience of interior designers and compiled everything we learned about proposal meetings. When and how to host them, whether they increase conversions, and if it makes sense for your business to add this step. Read the post here.

We’re excited to continue to bring even more business operations and client management tips and educational resources to interior designers in 2024.

#3. The Complete Guide to Onboarding New Clients Into Your Interior Design Business

Everything you need to know about when and how to welcome new clients into your business - most people get it wrong (if they do it at all.) Read the post here.

#2. Dear Dakota | How to Define Your Interior Design Process

The typical process we map out for our designer clients from inquiry to offboarding. Read the post here.

#1. Why It Could Be Risky For Interior Designers to Source Retail

A few explanations to keep in your back pocket in case you ever get pushback from your clients or prospects about why you don't source retail. Read the post here.

My Favorite Posts to Write in 2023

This was SO hard to narrow down because we wrote so many good posts this year, but here are the posts I really enjoyed writing and think designers should print, highlight, and apply immediately to their businesses.

I loved writing our Halloween-themed post about Nightmare Client Experience Situations and had many designers message me to say they loved reading the stories we included.

I also really loved writing the post sharing what to do if someone can’t afford your design services - because you should never (or as my middle daughter used to say, “never-sever”) take it personally (or as a sign to reduce your prices) just because someone can’t afford your services.

And then you know my word of the year is generally “NO,” so I LOVED sharing tips for how to say BYEEEEE to tough interior design clients.

I especially loved having a blog post ready to send to each and every designer who ever said, “I’m not good at marketing; I just don’t like talking about myself.”

My response? PERFECT! Read this.

And then this one….why did this not get more traction?? We know a big challenge for interior designers (heck, really anyone who is self-employed and in control of their workload and their schedule) is time management, and in this post, I explain the EXACT things to do to reclaim your time so you can work more efficiently and feel less chaotic.

We’re excited to continue to bring even more business operations and client management tips and educational resources to interior designers in 2024. If you have a topic you’d like to see, be sure to join The Weekly Install and submit a question or topic for our Dear Dakota blog series!

Cheers to you and your business; my team and I look forward to supporting you in 2024!