PRIVATE CONSULTING for interior designERS
Turn your interior design business into a well-oiled machine.
Three months of private consulting to help you refine how your business operates. From the services you offer, how you price and deliver them, and how you delegate behind the scenes.
Not sure if Private Consulting is the right fit? Book a Fit Call with Katie.
Your behind-the-scenes operations should feel as | as your design work.
The same thought and structure you bring to your finished projects should show up in the way you price, sell, communicate, and run projects. That means:
Clear pricing you can defend
You know how to price your services and products, why that pricing makes sense for your business, and how to communicate your fees without second-guessing yourself every time you send a proposal.
Well defined services that make sense for your business
You know what you offer, what’s included, what your boundaries are, and which projects are the best fit for your business (and which to decline).
A repeatable client process
Your clients and team know what happens next, what’s expected of them, and how the process will flow from inquiry through offboarding.
More authority in the client relationship
You make recommendations more confidently, manage revisions and scope more efficiently, and spend less time reacting to client requests and more time proactively guiding them.
A business that doesn’t depend on you for every decision
Your processes become easier to repeat, delegate, and refine, so your team (or software) can handle more without everything coming back to you.
If you spend more time putting out fires than you do designing, it’s time for a change.
You know you need to right the ship, but it’s hard to see what to do next when you’re so busy INSIDE the business.
Your week is spent managing clients, answering questions, handling admin, and keeping everything moving. So much for that creative work
You have a team, but you don’t feel like you’re fully leveraging them because everything lives in your head and all the decisions still come back to you.
You keep changing your pricing, services, or process to satisfy client needs or objections
Clients are pushing back more, crossing boundaries, or requiring way more communication than ever before and you’re not sure what’s happening.
You’re working and thinking about work all the time, but the business doesn’t feel calm, predictable, or under control.
That’s what we work on for
three months inside Private Consulting.
Private Consulting Details
Private Consulting is a three-month engagement with Katie and Gloria to evaluate how your business is operating, identify what needs to change, and help you make those changes.
Personalized Business Audit & Implementation Path
We start by reviewing your business across the core pillars of our proven framework, including your capacity, services, pricing, sales process, client process, and positioning.
Your implementation path will help you focus your time on the areas that need the most improvement.
Private Kickoff with Katie
We’ll start the three-month consulting period with a private Kickoff Call.
We’ll walk through your priorities, the areas of your business that need attention, and where I recommend you focus first so you have a clear plan for the months ahead.
Ongoing Private Consulting for Three Months
As you make changes inside your business and need expert support, you’ll have three months of direct access to Katie and Gloria.
Four Private Business Reviews
During your three-month consulting engagement, you’ll submit up to four areas of your business for a private deep-dive review. These may include:
Your service offerings
Your pricing and scopes
Your client process
Your design presentation materials
Private Positioning Session with Katie & Gloria
We’ll look at how your services, pricing, process, technical skills, education, portfolio, and overall positioning align with the level of work you’re doing and whether your marketing is attracting those clients.
Katie will bring the business and operations perspective, and Gloria will bring her experience as a practicing interior designer and tenured design professor.
Our consulting is guided by
THE DESIGNED TO SCALE® METHOD.
The DTS Method is the proprietary and proven framework that Katie personally developed and refined based on years of private consulting and implementation inside over 100 design firms.
It connects the major operational decisions inside an interior design business so your services, pricing, sales process, client experience, boundaries, capacity, and delivery model work together to create a sustainable, structured, profitable business.
Private Consulting clients receive full access to The Designed to Scale® Method framework and our implementation resources.
This includes our Business Blueprint SOPs + Financial Toolkit, Pricing & Proposals Workshop and Proposal Template, onboarding and offboarding questionnaires, Hiring Blueprint, over-the-shoulder trainings, pricing and capacity calculators, and other tools we use throughout the consulting engagement.
Having these resources in place helps us move quickly because we don’t have to build everything from scratch when we identify something that needs to change.
PAY IN FULL
One-Time Payment of
$7500
3 PAYMENTS
3 Monthly Payments of
$2500
Private Consulting availability is limited so we can give each client the time and attention included in the engagement.
Want to make sure it’s the right fit? Book a Fit Call with Katie here.
Private Consulting gives you two different PERSPECtiVES on YOUR business
Meet Katie
I've been helping interior designers build more profitable, sustainable, client-focused businesses since 2017. I've worked privately with more than 100 design firms and taught hundreds more through The Designed to Scale® Method and Dakota Design Company resources.
My consulting focuses on the business side of the firm: services, pricing, capacity, sales, operations, and client process.
Meet Gloria—Your Industry Insider
Gloria is a certified interior designer, tenured interior design professor, and industry expert with a rare combination of professional practice and academic experience.
She holds a Master's Degree in Interior Design from SCAD and a Ph.D. and has taught hundreds of residential and commercial design students across three universities.
Inside Private Consulting, Gloria brings the design-industry lens to presentation materials, industry relationships, professional practice, and positioning.
Private Consulting is for interior designers who want a more intentional, streamlined way to run their business.
Private Consulting is a good fit if:
You’ve worked with enough clients to see patterns in what is and is not working
You have existing services, pricing, scopes, processes, or presentation materials we can review
You can identify recurring friction in the business, even if you aren’t sure how to fix it
The business has enough activity that better decisions could have a meaningful financial or operational impact
You want experienced outside input on what to prioritize and where to focus first
You’re prepared to make changes and implement recommendations during the three-month engagement
If you’re not sure whether your business is far enough along for Private Consulting, book a Fit Call with Katie.
If you haven’t worked with paid clients yet, I’d recommend getting some real client experience first so you have a functioning business for us to evaluate and refine.
Private Consulting is not for you if:
You haven’t worked with enough paid clients yet to have a functioning business for us to evaluate.
You want us to implement everything for you.
You’re looking for more information, but aren’t ready to make changes.
You’re not open to rethinking your services, pricing, process, boundaries, or team structure.
You want to ask hundreds of questions a day but won’t apply the framework, tools, or recommendations we give you.
You aren’t prepared to implement during the three-month engagement.
Want to make sure Private Consulting is the right fit?
If you’re seriously considering Private Consulting but want to make sure it’s the right level of support for your business, you can book a Fit Call with us before enrolling.
We’ll talk through where your business, what you want help with, and whether Private Consulting makes sense for what you’re trying to solve.
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You do not need to have everything figured out before working with us.
Private Consulting is best suited to designers who have some client experience and enough business activity for us to evaluate what is working, identify patterns and problems, and give meaningful strategic feedback.
If you are brand new and have not yet worked with paid clients, I would focus first on getting a few clients through your process. Once you have real-world experience to evaluate, Private Consulting becomes much more useful.
If you want support building your pricing, services, processes, and business systems before you have that client experience, The Designed to Scale® Method Self-Study may be a better fit.
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We recommend setting aside a consistent 2-3 hours per week during the three-month engagement to follow your implementation path and use the resources we provide, implement recommendations, and bring questions to us as they come up.
The value of the consulting depends on having enough time to make decisions and put changes into practice.
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Yes. Private Consulting includes full access to The Designed to Scale® Method and the resources we use to help you implement the changes we recommend.
That includes our Business Blueprint, which includes SOPs, pricing calculators, and other implementation tools, plus our Proposal Template, Onboarding Questionnaire, Offboarding Questionnaire, our Pricing + Proposals Workshop, and our Hiring Blueprint.
We use these alongside consulting so we can make changes more quickly and avoid starting from scratch.
You’ll also have lifetime access to The DTS Method and future curriculum updates after your three-month consulting engagement ends.
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Your three-month consulting period begins on the date of your scheduled private kickoff call.
Your kickoff call must be scheduled within 30 days of signing up unless another arrangement is approved in writing due to limited availability for starting new clients.
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The Kickoff Call gives Katie context around your business, current priorities, and the areas creating the most friction.
We’ll review where you are now, discuss what you want to change, and establish the priorities for your three-month engagement.
From there, your individualized implementation path will guide which parts of The DTS Method you should focus on first.
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During your Private Consulting engagement, you’ll receive up to four deep-dive, private business reviews based on the areas we determine will be most impactful for your business.
Reviews may include:
Your services
Your pricing and scopes
Your client processes
Your design presentation materials
We’ll give you detailed feedback and recommendations based on industry best practices and what we know about your business, clients, and market.
FAQs
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Throughout your three-month engagement, you can submit private questions through your workspace as you implement our suggestions and the DTS framework into your business.
Katie and/or Gloria will respond based on the topic, generally within one Company business day. Our business days are Monday through Thursday, excluding holidays, Company closures, and scheduled time away.
Questions may include pricing or scope decisions, service structure, client-process issues, implementation decisions, operational challenges, or how to apply something from the framework to your business.
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Private Consulting is designed for strategic application, interpretation, and decision-making around the areas covered inside The DTS Method.
If a question is already fully covered in the curriculum, we may direct you back to the relevant lesson or resource before providing additional consulting.
We may also redirect requests that require substantial implementation work, fall outside the scope of the engagement, or would require us to perform the work for you.
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No. Private Consulting is strategic consulting, not outsourced business management or implementation.
We will review, advise, help you make decisions, and show you how to apply The DTS Method to your business, but you are responsible for completing and implementing the work.
Templates provided (Hiring Templates, SOPs, Proposal Template, and Questionnaires) are fully written and will only need minor customization.
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Private Consulting is designed to be completed within the three-month engagement and does not pause or extend.
Extraordinary circumstances may be considered at Dakota Design Company’s discretion and must be approved in writing.
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Any unused reviews or consulting services expire at the end of your three-month consulting period.
They cannot be transferred, carried forward, exchanged for credit, or refunded.
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For general enrollment questions, email support@dakotadesigncompany.com.
If you’re seriously considering Private Consulting and want to make sure it’s the right fit for your business, you can book a complimentary Fit Call with us before enrolling.
Designer
Testimonials
Katie, Gloria and the DTS team were incredible. They offered so much insight, care, and personal feedback about my company and brand. Investing in DTS brought value and insight into my business that I would not have had otherwise. I definitely recommend DTS to any designer who is looking for ways to improve their business and get relevant and actionable critiques to do so!
DTS Method DESIGNER
Let’s look at what’s working, what isn’t, and what needs to change.
Private Consulting gives you three months of experienced outside input as you refine the way you and your business operate.
PRIVATE CONSULTING
$7,500 or 3 payments of $2,500
Work with us 1:1
Not sure if it’s the right fit? Book a Fit Call with Katie.
NOTE: If you have purchased our Business Blueprint SOPs or our Business Blueprint Bundle,
we will credit that purchase toward your enrollment. Email us at support@dakotadesigncompany.com for details.
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