The to-do list can be a daunting document.  For every one item you check off, you probably add two.  For many of us, it is far longer than the number of hours that we each have in our days.  The question then is: “how can we set up a strategy to prioritize the to-do list so that you are best utilizing your time”?  Think about ROI (return on investment) as your ROT (return on time).

Too Familiar?

Here is a new system that we created within our company.  I suggest that everyone have the same 3 categories across the team, but that the prioritization is role-specific.

Determine your 3 categories that all of your actions fall under (or should fall under).  In our company, I determined the following as our 3 categories:

1. Revenue producing:  an item on the to-do list that will bring money into the company
2. Service-related:  an item on the to-do list that will make our members or clients lives and businesses better
3. Brand awareness and networking: actions that will help build our brand throughout the industry and beyond

Based on your list, prioritize your categories.  My particular role in our company is bringing in new business and also long-term strategy.  If my role was to service our clients and members more directly, I would prioritize the categories differently.  Therefore, my category prioritization is as follows:

1. Revenue production
2. Brand awareness, strategy, and networking
3. Service

Determine some examples of what each category would entail.  For example, I would use the following examples for our company:

1. Revenue production: sales calls, creating letters of agreement, invoicing, etc.  For your firm, this might also be billable hours or creating proposals.
2. Brand awareness, strategy, and networking:  arranging presentations at design centers, writing blog posts, staying connected with my professional network, etc.
3. Service:  adding functionality to the website that would improve the client experience, monthly member calls, etc.

A few more ideas:

• Establish a “D” category.  There will naturally be things that fall into the “Other” category.  We call those category “D” items.  These will still need to get done but in the prioritization exercise, they will be the items that are least important to your business.
• Every time you add something to your to-do list, make sure that you put a letter next to it or color code it.  This will show you where you need to be prioritizing and what items can be downgraded.

For more great techniques to work smarter, I suggest Gina Trapani’s columns at FastCompany.com. What systems do you use to prioritize your laundry list of to-dos?

Sometimes, receiving confirmation that you’re taking the right steps for your business is all it takes to push you ahead even further.  Success is closely linked to communication, which is why it can be particularly advantageous to talk to someone, ask questions, and discuss any possible ideas you hope to incorporate into your business structure.  This is exactly where Martha Kirkpatrick, Director, Member Services comes in for our Gibson Design Management members.  Martha provides immeasurable assistance to clients through monthly “sounding board” calls, where she lends an ear and her thoughts, helping members sort through any inquiries or ideas regarding their business’ success.

This is a service offered to all members (and included in the price of monthly membership!), and one that has played a particularly important role within our clients’ businesses—allowing clients to fine-tune new ventures, determine how to effectively use their Gibson Design Management membership, and mold personalized strategies for branding, marketing, expansion and more.  Here’s what members have said about the importance of conversation and sounding board calls:

“I think of Gibson Design Management as a very capable employee that I have on call at all times. Whether it’s product sourcing, CAD drawings or advice that I need, Gibson is always there to save me!” — Marlene Oliphant, Marlene Oliphant Designs LLC

“I love working with Gibson Design Management!  Although technically a solo-entrepreneur, I have a team of knowledge, support and creativity on my side at all times.  Monthly member calls with Martha remind me that I never need to “go it alone”!” – Sarah Devaney-O’Neil, Storibook Designs, Inc.

“The monthly mentor calls with Martha Kirkpatrick have been very helpful.  Martha always immediately finds the answers to my questions and reports back to me within 24 hours, if not sooner.  I know that in Martha I have someone to go to if I ever have a question or a need and that it will be taken care of.” — Randy Trainor, C. Randolph Trainor, LLC

“For the past several months, I’ve had the opportunity to participate in monthly coaching calls with Martha Kirkpatrick.  As the owner of a small interior design firm, I have found the calls to be both productive and motivating. Martha has listened to challenges and helped brainstorm solutions for a variety of business topics. These calls have become, without a doubt, one of the greatest benefits of my membership with Gibson Design Management.” — Vicky Serany, Southern Studio Interior Design

If you are a Gibson Design Management member and have not yet taken advantage of the sounding board calls, please email Martha to schedule.  If you are not a member, and you would like to find out more about becoming a member, please email Alexandra Gibson.

Unless you’ve been stuck under a pile of F. Schumacher sample books for the last two years, you have probably heard of the social media phenomenon with the cute bird mascot.  Twitter is a micro-blogging site that allows you to post status updates that range from personal (“Why are there so many crumbs in my purse?”) to educational (“Pantone announces its new color for 2010 is turquoise”) to conversational (“@gibsondm That was a great article about 5 steps to start Twitter”). Your tweets are limited to 140 characters.

While this article is not about why to use Twitter, I must devote one quick paragraph to my soapbox. Twitter has helped grow our business. I’ve hired people that I first interacted with via Twitter, created business relationships, found clients, been interviewed for USA Today, been interviewed for a marketing book, and more. If you still don’t get how it can help your business, email me and we’ll discuss.

Getting your feet wet with Twitter is the right way to start.

Here are 5 easy steps:

1. Go to http://twitter.com. Click on the big button that says “Sign Up Now”.

2. Select a username. Your username will also be called your Twitter “handle”. You’ll want to choose something that is close to your name or close to your company name. Make it as simple as possible. If I could do it all over again, I would have chosen my name “alexandragibson”. Unfortunately, that name is no longer available and I’ve developed a following with my current handle—@gibsonmd.

3. Write a profile and upload a picture. Be sure to do this before following anyone. Your profile is limited to 160 characters; I suggest using a mixture of professional information and personality. My profile is:

CEO of Gibson Design Management; MP for Gibson Design Group; social butterfly; type A (personality not blood); competitive horseback rider; martini drinker

4. Enter your first tweet. We typically write things like “Just getting started on Twitter. Thanks @gibsondm for teaching me! ”

5. Start following people. This will both mean that their tweets will update in your newsfeed and that they will be alerted that you are also on Twitter. If I know that my friend Bob Willywog is on Twitter, I can find him by clicking “Find People” and entering his name. If I just want to start following people in my town, in my industry, or who have similar interests, I go to www.twellow.com and run a search. This will search profiles for your keyword.

If this all seems overwhelming, don’t despair. Contact us about our social media services. We can hold your hand through not only getting your business set up but also on how to use these tools to improve your marketing.

I wouldn’t tell this to just anyone, but I love working in excel. It is such a powerful tool that is too often underutilized. In the design industry it can improve your business no matter what purchase order management program you use.  If you are struggling to make your spreadsheets look just right look, then look no further but here for three easy excel formatting tips.

If you are an interior designer, you’ve probably been asked this question.  Or you’ve at least had to correct someone who thinks that your job consists of picking out fabric and paint colors (solely).  If you are not an interior designer, you might actually wonder what it is that these creative interior designers do?

The good people at Beasley and Henley Interior Design wrote a great post on their blog about the day in the life of an interior designer.  I found it helpful to hone my message, and I actually know what designers do.

Click here to read the full blog post from Beasley and Henley.

Interior designers- how do you educate your clients on what a designer does?  If you’re not an interior designer- what misconceptions do you think there are about interior designers?

If you are in the Mid-Atlantic region you know what I speak of when I refer to the weekend’s blizzard as Snowpocalypse (or Snowmageddon).  It was major snowfall, even for this Idaho girl.  We ventured out briefly to trot around the city and take pictures of the sites in the snow, but most of the time was spent inside, catching up on some much neglected business book reading.

There’s no better time to catch up on some past due business reading than when you’re snowed in.  If you’re like me, you probably have several books in the rotation, plus a couple that are on your desk or nightstand that are in queue.  My most recent conquest:

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For those of you who think that you just need to have a Facebook page, tweet, and do some blogging, think again.  You actually need to use them as tools to get results.  Ramon DeLeon, owner of 7 Domino’s Pizzas, is the king of monitoring what people are saying about his brand.  He doesn’t just listen though, he answers and he makes things right if they’re not already, often in very memorable ways.

Domino’s Pizza catering SMC Chicago event from Andres J. DeLeon on Vimeo.

Read more about how exactly DeLeon is using social media and the amazing results he’s getting from this post on SocialMediaExaminer.com.

Way to go Ramon.  We salute you.

Like an amorous high schooler (but less creepy), I occasionally run across companies that I develop a severe business crush on.

My latest company crush is on a Greenville, South Carolina identity and branding company called Brains on Fire.  I am obsessed with the culture that they’ve created and enamored with the fact that their website shows that culture and personality.  [I especially like their Tequila Shots book which explains the 12 company beliefs; imagine a mission statement minus the boring undertones].

I know that I have this business crush when I think

1.  I want our company to be like that, or

2.  If I wasn’t having so much fun working with my team, I would want to work for theirs, or

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Now that the New Year is upon us, we find ourselves cleaning up the holiday leftovers and formulating resolutions.  This year instead of pledging to improve your life through diet, developing your tennis serve, or organizing your travel photo’s, I challenge all of you to look around and see what compels you.  Think about what inspires you, give yourself a list of goals and once you are able to narrow that list down, then you will have a positive constructive vision on which to live by.

So look around yourself and soak in the little things.  Find the inspiration that made you who you are today.  Chances are if you surround yourself with positive and creative sources you will be the best version of yourself.

Contrary to popular belief, an interior designer’s job does not consist primarily of design time.  This is not the sexy vision that young men and women dream about when they enter design school but it’s the reality that any seasoned designer can confirm.  Project management and project administration are the largest part of being an interior designer; all the brilliant design in the world cannot make up for a poorly run project and an unhappy client.  Effective management and administration will continue to be of paramount importance when running a successful firm but can there be a better mousetrap?

The question that I encourage you to ask yourself and your staff is where that important project management and administration borders on inefficiency.  If you’re like most design firms that we work with, that greatest inefficiency is in the purchasing process.  You may have great technology (like Studio IT) and great systems in place to make this process a little less painful but the reality is that pricing, creating proposals, creating purchase orders, tracking and expediting takes time, often a lot of time.  In fact, I can imagine that much of your purchase order management time can be summed up with a few of these frustrating points:

• Calling multiple showrooms and vendors to get pricing…leaving messages…then calling them again because they didn’t get back to you.
• Calling multiple showrooms and vendors to get pricing…leaving messages…and then missing their next calls because you’re on the phone with another vendor.  Thus begins the illustrious PO management game of phone tag.
• Checking on orders weekly (if you know what’s good for you) because you’ve had too many times where a vendor has failed to notify you that the sofa, which was supposed to ship last week, will actually be another four weeks.  The vendor does not have to deal with your irate client who wanted the sofa before Thanksgiving.
• Creating client proposals that accurately describe the items but don’t give the client too much information so that they don’t “shop” you.
• Dealing with a delay in orders when you’re on vacation, in High Point, on another project install, or generally completely incapable of handling the crises as you’re nowhere near your computer and your office, and might not even have a pen in your purse/pocket that seems to work.

In our design firm, we utilize great technology and we institute effective systems.  Despite our finest efforts, this has not, however, eliminated the items above from rearing their ugly heads.  The reality is that on each project, a design firm may deal with 30+ vendors and showrooms which mean 30+ lines of communication.  When I look at our bottom line, I see this part of our business as the greatest drain, the greatest hindrance to our growth, and our greatest cost.

When we launched Gibson Design Management, we focused on purchase order management.  While we now have multiple services that we offer for the interior design industry, I still believe that our purchase order management service is the best way to make a design firm more profitable and healthy.

Instead of having those 30+ lines of communication open at all times and being the central hub with a plethora of spokes, our purchase order management services give you one “go to” person that handles every order that you place, every item that you want to price, and every piece that you need to track.  At the same time, your company can actually make more money with fewer paper-pushing efforts.

As I write this post I worry that this might be the first time in the history of this blog that I’ve written a sales-y post that is also an educational post.  I would not risk our readers with shameless self-promotion if I did not truly believe that this service can have the greatest impact on a single interior design firm.

We offer a lot of great services and our team is really, really good at what they do.  However, when we sit and talk about our different services, purchase order management is the one service that the team unanimously says “that’s a no-brainer; every design firm should use that.”  Once I explain and write down the numbers on the time and money lost on managing purchasing in-house and then I show that the design firm can actually make more money, it’s not surprising that they say that.

In 2010, if you are interested in growing your bottom line and getting back to the real reason you became a designer, please contact me and we can talk more.  Don’t continue to do things the old way as we all now see that the old way is slowly taking a choke hold on the livelihood of our industry.