Dear Dakota,

I presented the final design to my client along with the invoices for their rooms and they balked that there was no discount. I don't offer discounts or market anything about discounts. What do I do, and how do I prevent this from ever happening again?

Join The DTS Files for my advice and insights.

The client experience is so much more than cards and gifts. (LuAnn Nigara and I talked about this here when I was first on her podcast). Your client experience starts the second someone lands on your website. They are experiencing your company and what it's like to work with you, whether you are there with them or not. 

So how do you make sure they start off on the right foot?

Make sure your website isn't turning people off or sending people away.

Dear Dakota,

Outside of direct services, what is the best form of additional income for interior designers? What avenue is the most profitable and worth pursuing for a company with three employees? Furniture sales? Passive income downloads? Courses? Affiliate income?

Join The DTS Files to see the advice I gave this designer.

An oldie but goodie! Although it may have come from necessity, Zoom meetings are sticking around for good.

For us, being a remote team who works with clients completely virtually, Zoom has been a great tool for our kick-off meetings, tech calls, and team meetings.

For our designers, we see them incorporating virtual meetings into their process to create efficiency and streamline the decision making process. It’s also a huge part of the process for our designers that provide a virtual or e-design service. 

There’s just something so much more personal about meeting face to face, rather than just a phone call. 

So, if you want to look better during Zoom meetings, they have a filter for that. 

One of the most common questions I receive and one of the biggest mistakes I see people make in their client process is confusing an Investment Guide and a Welcome Guide. 

These are two completely different things with very different purposes. In today’s post, I’m sharing when to use each of these important documents and some common mistakes to avoid with each.

Dear Dakota,

In order, what steps do I need to take to be able to move forward and grow and build a team to help me realize my income goal and dream interior design business?

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The first impression says a lot about your company and whether a prospective client will inquire about working together.

This week’s tech tip is all about elevating your client experience from the first time a potential client sees your stunning portfolio on Instagram.

Say “byeeee” to sending traffic (and dollars) to LinkTree and “hello” to sending traffic to YOUR website.

Owning a business can feel a bit like an experiment at times. Packaging things up, testing them, refining them, and testing them again. It’s only by going through this process that you can actually know what works and doesn’t for you and your clients. 

With Dakota Design Company being my second business (my first was a wedding and event planning company that I ran from 2007 to 2014 in Arizona and Illinois), I’ve certainly experienced my share of failures, but I’ve always learned from them (even if I needed to grieve and beat myself up for a bit first). 

There are always lessons to be learned in failure. Something that I think resonates with my clients is that I am a done-for-you service provider, just like they are.

Join The DTS Files for my advice and insights.