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ACTIONABLE BUSINESS STRATEGIES
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MEMBERS-ONLY ARTICLES PUBLISHED WEEKLY
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PRIVATE LIBRARY OF EXPERT INSIGHTS & ADVICE FOR INTERIOR DESIGNERS
| ACTIONABLE BUSINESS STRATEGIES I MEMBERS-ONLY ARTICLES PUBLISHED WEEKLY | PRIVATE LIBRARY OF EXPERT INSIGHTS & ADVICE FOR INTERIOR DESIGNERS
How To Get Interior Design Clients When You’re Just Starting (Designers Share What Worked and What Didn’t)
Starting an interior design business can be overwhelming, with so many factors to consider and so much to do. Sure, you have the passion, you’ve learned your craft, and you’ve done your research, but how do you bring in new interior design clients when you don’t yet have a portfolio and are just getting started?
We asked interior designers who subscribe to The Weekly Install® to share what worked (and what didn’t) when it came to booking those first few clients. We compiled their insights, added a few of our own, and have some helpful tips for interior designers who are just launching or looking to grow their businesses.
Special thank you to all the interior designers who responded to the survey and gave us permission to share their insights.
The Best Place For New Interior Designers to Get Clients
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Takeaways From My 2024 Solo Quarterly Business Retreat
After my restorative and impactful solo business getaway in January, I decided to make it a tradition to get away for a few days every quarter to focus on the business and reset. I just wrapped my second “getaway,” and once again, it was amazing.
A little backstory before we dive into my takeaways:
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Affiliate Income For Interior Designers: Is It Worth It?
Revenue is the lifeblood of any business, and many business owners are perpetually focused on how to create more of it. So, as an interior design business owner, if there is another means of bringing additional revenue into your company rather than just design services and products, you want to know about it, right?
Affiliate marketing involves promoting and selling another company's products or services for a commission. You, the designer (or anyone really), would promote certain merchants’ products to your audience, and if someone in your audience purchases a product you have promoted, you would receive a percentage of that sale. This is a way for an interior design business owner to generate income simply by recommending products to their audience.
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How To Get More Interior Design Clients in 2025
Running an interior design business can often feel like feast or famine. You’re either crazy busy or panicked because you have no upcoming projects in your pipeline.
So, if you feel like your workload or revenue is inconsistent, it’s likely because you stopped marketing when you were busy.The key is to engage in ongoing marketing efforts to continually fill your pipeline so you don’t experience extended periods of the famine part of this cycle. This is true in the lean times and the busy ones!
YES, I know. Sometimes, it feels like you cannot possibly add one.more.thing to your day. But guess what might be around the corner if you dismiss marketing altogether? Yup, that famine thing. To build a continual stream of new leads, it’s critical to market your business regularly.
Keep reading for my top five marketing strategies for interior designers to generate more new business in the upcoming year. Here goes.
How Interior Designers Can Reverse Engineer Their Financial Goals
If you’re like every other interior design business owner out there, you have likely established an income goal for the year. Maybe it’s BIG. Maybe it’s a stretch. Or maybe it’s safe, achievable, something you know you’ll be able to hit because prior year data indicates you will.
Whatever that number is doesn't really matter. What matters is whether you have the right projects and activities mapped out to achieve those numbers.
If you’re an interior designer trying to break down your financial goals into actionable steps, I’m going to show you how you can reverse engineer those goal numbers to come up with a solid marketing plan for your year.
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Top 10 Blog Posts of 2023 for Interior Designers
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.
ACCESS A PRIVATE LIBRARY OF EXPERT ADVICE for INTERIOR DESIGNERS
My strategies have shaped the way thousands of interior designers and luxury service providers do business.
Inside The DTS Files, you’re getting the original insights straight from the source—tested, refined, and backed by my experience working with 100+ design firms.
And because this is a members-only space, I can go deeper than ever before—sharing the real strategies that help designers build profitable, sustainable businesses with confidence.
HEAR FROM SOME OF OUR MEMBERS:
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PRICING PLAYBOOK for INTERIOR DESIGNERS
The Complete Guide to Pricing Your Design Services
Grab my pricing playbook, The Complete Guide to Pricing your Interior Design Services, to learn:
the six most common pricing models for designers
who each one is best for, and
how to know if your pricing model is broken
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SHOP TEMPLATES
Plug-and-play templates, questionnaires, processes, and guides for interior designers who want to stop reinventing the wheel with every new project.
The Design Library helps you streamline client communication, set clear expectations, and protect your time—so you can spend less time in your inbox and more time designing. Inside, you’ll find:
✔ Professionally written client emails and marketing guides for every step of the process.
✔ SOPs to standardize service delivery and create a seamless, high-end experience.
✔ Contract templates with sample scopes to protect you, your team, and your clients.
What took me years to refine can be in your inbox in minutes.
*for interior designers only, not interior design business coaches, consultants, mentors, strategists.
SHOP WORKSHOPS & TRAININGS
Learn from my team (comprised of industry experts and educators) and me all the things they don’t teach in design school. And we know because two of the women on my team went to interior design school!
After consulting with and doing hands-on implementation for over 100 interior design business owners, I’ve seen what works (and doesn’t) across every business model imaginable. We are familiar with various software types, team structures of 1 to 20, and the challenges that are coming, whether you’re on your way to your first $100,000 or already making multiple millions.
On-demand trainings for your busy schedule.
*for interior designers only, not interior design business coaches, consultants, mentors, or strategists.
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Proven strategies and tools to streamline and elevate your interior design business.
COMPLIMENTARY QUIZ FOR INTERIOR DESIGNERS
Feeling stretched thin in your design business?
You’re busy—but is your business actually working for you? If you’re constantly putting out fires and second-guessing what to focus on next, this 2-minute quiz will show you exactly where to start.