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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Dear Dakota,

I am struggling with my fee structure proposals whereby I make good profit but also retain clients, make them happy, and get repeat business.

For instance, I’m bidding on a ground-up assisted living residence. Rooms will be replicated (cookie-cutter) and public spaces aren’t vast. I don’t yet know the budget and this is my client’s first time with a project like this. 

Help!

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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.

Many designers we talk to say the interior design process can feel very “up in the air” or “loose,” and that’s why they never know when they can actually start new projects - so they just say yes and start them all right away. 

Not a good plan!

While interior designers clearly know the design part of the process, the timing of onboarding a new client and actually starting the work can be confusing. Those decisions often get made on the fly, with a client in front of you and no clear framework to reference.

Today, we’re sharing a few high-level tips for figuring out when you can begin new interior design projects and how to think about scheduling them so you’re not burning the candle at both ends.

If you want help applying this to your real services, pricing, team, and workload, we help designers do that inside our signature group program, The Designed to Scale® Method. But first, let’s walk through the foundational pieces every designer needs to understand.

Taking on new projects always feels right (if it’s a good-fit client, of course!). But overscheduling yourself or juggling too many projects at once is one of the fastest ways to create burnout, mistakes, and constant overwhelm in this business.

Been there? Yeah. It’s miserable.

This is why your workload (and the work allocated to your team) has to be manageable day in and day out.

In order to build a true word-of-mouth referral business and collect sincere testimonials, you need to create an elevated, low-stress experience for your clients. And that starts with scheduling projects in a way that allows you to properly allocate your time, attention, and resources.

Expectations are everything in this industry. Clients are investing in something that doesn’t exist yet, and often waiting months to see the final result. When timelines feel unclear, anxiety creeps in. When you put structure around the experience, clients feel informed, confident, and taken care of.

So let’s talk about how to better manage your capacity and project timing — without running yourself into the ground.

01 | Know how long each phase of your interior design process takes.

This means you have to know how long it takes between each key milestone phase - the first new client meeting to design presentation to revisions to orders to management to installation. 

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Dear Dakota,

I’d love to know more about setting up a design library for my boss. As a former librarian of books, I know my way around a library. However, I am not familiar with design libraries and best practices for them. I would love practical information on doing this.

Join The DTS Files for my advice and insights.

Are you thinking about opening a retail furniture showroom to expand your interior design business?

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Heather Draper of The Heather Co. to talk about her experience adding a retail showroom to her interior design business.

In case you missed our conversation, you can grab the replay here.

We covered a lot, but here’s an overview:

Dear Dakota,

Can you tell me whether the processes are the same for commercial and hospitality projects as for residential ones? What do I need to do if I want to expand into these project types?

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It’s all about creating a design process that’s efficient, sensible, and enjoyable - and the most climactic moment of all is when your client sees their design presentation for the first time. You want to provide the highest quality design presentation possible so your client can clearly see and understand the vision you have for their space, and you also want to minimize the number of hours you or your team sit at a computer creating it! So, the choice of software for interior design presentations is key in streamlining this part of each project and ensuring a whole-hearted “WE LOVE IT! APPROVED!” from your clients. With so many software programs available to interior designers, it’s important to choose the right one based on the types of presentation drawings you typically produce and your comfort level with each platform.

In this blog post, we’ll highlight the best software for interior design presentations and share the project type each is most ideal for.

Join The DTS Files for my advice and insights.