Biweekly business tips for residential interior designers who want better-fit clients, smoother projects, and more business strategy with less business stress. 💛
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Do you think Quartz is better than marble? 🤔
Published about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Happy Thursday interior designers and small business owners!
Do you think quartz is better than marble?
A recent contributor to Happy Starts at Home is a DIYer who decided she's firmly Team Quartz after installing marble in her own home and learning firsthand that:
Even when you're careful with it, marble etches. 😩
(She did not consider that a 'feature.' 😑)
Of course, hiring an interior designer wouldn't necessarily have changed that outcome. Plenty of designers adore marble, understand that it will develop a patina, and happily specify it anyway.
We all have different tolerances, priorities, experiences, and opinions about what makes a home work well.
And that's exactly the point.
Her newfound loyalty to quartz is part of her Design Point of View.
Your Design POV is the stuff you know, believe, notice, recommend, avoid, prioritize, and occasionally get a little soapboxy about after doing this work for a while.
And it belongs in your marketing.
In your blog posts.
In the flyer you give to real estate agents.
In your reels.
In the conversation you have with a contractor at a networking event.
Not simply because you need to “set yourself apart from other designers.”
But because your point of view is one of the ways people can recognize:
Oh! You're one of my people!
The thing is, it shouldn't be hard to find a designer who prioritizes easy-to-maintain materials.
Or one who cares deeply about ethical sourcing.
Or one who thinks about accessibility.
Or one whose particular cocktail is easy maintenance + ethical sourcing + accessibility.
And yet design website after dang design website makes talented designers almost impossible to distinguish from each other.
Wait, how are these different?
Meanwhile, the client is hoping to find a designer who will help them choose a countertop that'll survive the kids.
Sweet, sweet relief!
You do not need an outrageous opinion.
You just need to be a tiny bit more courageous about sharing what you genuinely know and believe so someone out there can read it and think:
FINALLY. This is my designer.
Do you have a well-developed Design POV and like to write?
I'm opening Happy Starts at Home to contributors, and I'm hosting a free live editorial workshop next Wednesday, Sept. 2 at 8am PT / 11am ET.
Bring something you know, believe, or have experienced. It does not need to be a polished article idea.
We'll work on turning those seeds into specific, useful articles that showcase your expertise and point of view, and that homeowners might actually search for and read.
There is no replay. It's live, with me, as a regular human. 🙂
We start September 14 and sprint for two weeks, not just nailing down your niche, but building the messaging and marketing ideas that help the right people sit up and pay attention.
Because knowing what makes you good at your work is one thing.
Making sure the right people can actually SEE it is another.
Schedule your free diagnostic chathere. Let's see if NYN is right for you.
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!
Rebecca West, Business Coach for Residential Interior Designers
Biweekly business tips for residential interior designers who want better-fit clients, smoother projects, and more business strategy with less business stress. 💛
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