Happy Thursday interior designers and small business owners!
Interior designers tell me all the time that every project is different.
And they’re right.
The house is different. The client is different. The budget, the personalities, the contractor, the weird thing hiding behind the wall... all different.
But somewhere along the way, “every project is different” can become permission to reinvent the process every time, too.
That is a good way to ruin a great design firm. 😬
→ Customize the design. Don’t customize the process.
This problem usually makes itself known when a designer is ready to hire an assistant.
The new person asks, “Okay, what do I do when a new inquiry comes in?”
And the answer is some version of: “Just do what I normally do.”
Which would be useful advice if “what I normally do” were an actual process and not 47 tiny judgment calls living in the owner’s head. 😂
- Sometimes you use that template, but more often than you care to admit, you write a completely new email because this client feels a little different. 🙈
- Sometimes you send the investment guide first... but sometimes not till after the Discovery call. 🤔
- Sometimes you explain a policy upfront, but a lot of times you deal with it when it comes up. 👀
It all works reasonably well when you are the one doing it, because you know what you mean by “normally.”
But then you hire help because you need relief, and somehow you still have to answer all the questions. 😣 Your assistant has to reverse-engineer your instincts. 😑 And the client gets a slightly different experience depending on who happened to respond that day. 😬
When too much of the process lives in your head, it works right up until you want someone else to help you run it.
Instead of using your creative energy over and over on things you’ve already solved, use that creative energy on your process once, then save the rest for your actual design work!
Figure out what every prospective client needs to understand.
- What questions need to be answered.
- What expectations need to be set.
- What happens first, second and third.
- Which emails you keep rewriting.
- Which parts actually need CEO judgment & which parts really don’t.
Make that process excellent, then let it do its job.
That doesn’t make your business less personal.
It means you have more attention left for the things that genuinely deserve customization: the design, the problem-solving, the relationship, and yes, whatever weird thing you just found out is hiding behind the wall. 😂
And yes, this is exactly the kind of thing we work on in Contact to Contract.
So you might be expecting me to invite you to join the October 5th cohort but... plot twist! The fall cohort is now full. 🎉
If you were hoping to join us, well, for now you’ll have to keep stealing my excellent ideas from these emails. 😉 I’ll share the next cohort dates when they’re set.
And if this email just made you realize, Oh crap, way too much of MY process lives in my head, I’m still here for 1:1 private coaching if you want help standardizing your process, establishing your policies, and setting clearer boundaries.
Whatever you do, try to stop reinventing your process for every client and get the darn thing out of your head and onto paper.
Future you will thank you. And so will your future assistant. 😂
💛 Rebecca
Well, hello there — have we met?
I’m Rebecca West. I help residential interior designers feel seriously confident about their marketing, sales, and client onboarding.
Everything I teach comes from running my firm, Seriously Happy Homes, for 17 years. Between 2007 and 2023, my team and I helped over 2,000 clients transform their small, tired houses into happy homes. 💛 Our work, and my book Happy Starts at Home, was featured on TV’s New Day, in The Wall Street Journal, Live Happy Magazine, Success Magazine, & beyond!
Then, in 2023, I closed my design studio and moved to Paris, and, a couple of years later, to the south of France. ( 🤩 !! )
As a coach, consultant, and gal-who's-been-there, I'm here to help the next generation of creative, hardworking, detail-oriented interior designers get found, get great clients, and get paid like a pro!
Let’s make it happen for you!
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