A guest blog post by Gail Doby, ASID, Design Success University

Starting in 2007, the market for interior designers turned into quicksand.   The credit markets tightened, and projects that typically went to designers were brought in-house both residentially and commercially.

HGTV and the Internet created more competitors in the middle of the market from the consumers themselves, and frankly, for most designers, those weren’t and aren’t your best clients anyway.

High-end projects stayed fairly steady until the economic debacle of October 2008, and then many of the projects slowed, stopped or didn’t start at all.  Especially in markets tied to the financial markets like New York, the wealthiest clients lost their jobs and their sense of security if they were in jobs associated with money and wealth.

The commercial market was devastated by the credit crisis, and according to economists, the concerns aren’t behind us yet.

Even with this perfect storm, some designers were very busy.  Why?  They adapted to the market shifts, changed their pricing strategies, developed an online presence, spent as much as 10% on marketing, focused on a niche, learned how to differentiate themselves better, and didn’t wait for the phone to ring.  They took these conditions as a challenge and they worked even harder than before.

If commercial and hospitality is your preferred area of business, you’ll want to focus on renovations.  If you can show companies that an investment in renovation can lead to more dollars at the bottom line especially if they depend on consumer spending, then you have an opportunity to build a logical reason why a company should invest.  The commercial designers that become a marketing partner with their clients differentiate themselves and become a valuable solution-oriented team member instead of an expense.

If your specialty is residential design, bathroom and kitchen renovation is still steady.  The budgets might be smaller, but there is work in this specialty area.

A kitchen renovation featured on the Traditional Home blog

Some designers created packages of services they offered on their websites.  Why did that work for them?  The consumers wanted (and demanded) to know the investment required .

Other designers offered Value Based Fees because consumers resisted hourly fees.  ASID surveyed consumers a few years ago and approximately 70% said they wanted fixed fees.  Designers who offered this option found that it completely shifted their role from an hourly wage slave to a trusted advisor, and that helped many designers kick-start their businesses even during the last several months.

You could be the greatest designer, but if people don’t hear about you consistently, then your business will struggle.  These days, you need great photography, a great head shot, articles about you in magazines, online and in newspapers (third party endorsements), a web presence including a website, blog and social media and search engine optimization of your website and blog.

And, if you don’t have a written business plan, marketing plan, vision and strategy for your business, it’s time to get busy and take action.  Referrals and networking may have worked in the past, but they are less effective than ever, so that means it’s time to rethink and reposition your business.

[Originally written for Decorati Access Interior Design, Published June 11]

Thank you so much to Todd Wickersty at Business Bullpen for inviting me to guest post on their blog today.  See the full post on their blog by clicking “read more” below!

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Those who are not active on Twitter (or have never signed up) frequently ask: “What’s the point?” or “Is this really going to help my business?”

The short answer is: yes.  I know that it works because it has worked for our business in 6 very distinct ways.  The holy grail of social media still leaves the question of how to effectively analyze social media efforts.  It seems that John Lovett and Jeremiah Owyang, from Web Analytics Demystified and the Altimeter Group, are on the right track for creating a framework.  Until then, the list of 6 will have to be statistics free.

Creating leads. Twitter helps foster relationships if used properly.  It’s a way to engage in conversation and offer answers when asked—without expecting anything in return.

Click here to read more…

As small companies, our most limited resource is our time.  Therefore, it is not surprising that the question arises, “Why should my business be on Twitter?”

1.  It’s one of the least expensive ways to perform research and development. Once you have even a few hundred followers, you have a great sample size to extend business questions.  Wondering whether people would be interested in a certain new service?  Put it out to the Twitterverse.  The worst thing that can happen is that no one answers.  The best thing that can happen is that you receive several responses and have valuable information about how to proceed.  This could save you a tremendous amount of time and money.

2.  Someone may be talking about you. Whether it be positive or negative, someone on Twitter may be talking about your business.  How will you respond if you are not there to listen?  I recently tweeted that a restaurant I frequent in Charlottesville always has terrible service.  This received a huge response from my Charlottesville following (15+ tweets back and forth about the pros and cons of the restaurant).  Crickets from the restaurant (even though they are on Twitter- this actually makes the silence worse).  This could have been a perfect opportunity for the restaurant to make happy customers.  [See a video here about how P.F. Chang's is on the cutting edge of using Twitter to make customers happy].

3.  You are able to show your company’s true personality. By showing your true personality, you will attract more of  your ideal clients.

4.  You never know who you are going to meet. Just like you can’t expect your phone to ring if you never leave the house and network, Twitter is an opportunity to network and engage with people on an even broader scale.  I have not only met people across the world (we seem to click well with Toronto twitterers for some reason) but have also met some great people in our area who I may never have met otherwise.  This has translated to real life connections and business referrals.

5.  Become a better educated businessperson. Twitter is full of tweets with resources for business.  It is also a great place to pose a question like, “Are there less expensive alternatives to Photoshop?”  Then just wait for your following to chime in on its experiences and knowledge.

This would not be a complete blog post if I did not mention that I posed this question to my Twitter following and received the following responses.

Question:

Received these answers from some of my great followers:

If your business is already on Twitter, what are some of your success stories?  What have you found to be the greatest benefit of Twitter?