Marketing & Sales
When Interior Design Firm Overhead Gets Too High: 25-40% Rule
Overhead becomes a problem when it exceeds 40 percent of your interior design firm’s revenue, and most principals catch the problem too late because they check it only annually. The real fix usually involves your fees and fee structure, not cutting spending. Tracking overhead monthly on a trailing 12-month average reveals the slow margin drift that annual snapshots hide.
Calculate Your True Hourly Cost in 4 Steps
Most solo design business owners set their fees on a hunch, then wonder why they work 60-hour weeks and still feel broke. Your true hourly cost is the number that ends the guessing. It tells you the floor beneath every fee you quote, whether you bill by the hour or (better) by flat fee. Key…
In-House vs. Outsourced Marketing for Interior Design Firms: Pros and Cons
Running a design firm at $500K or $1M+ in revenue means you’ve already made dozens of important business decisions. Yet many designers have never stopped to calculate what their approach to marketing is really costing them. Most design firm owners either underestimate what in-house marketing actually costs when you account for your own time, or…
Digital Marketing vs. Everything Else: What Works for Interior Design Firm Owners Earning $300K – $2M+
You’re posting on Instagram. Maybe you’ve invested in SEO. Perhaps you’ve even experimented with paid ads. And yet your best clients still seem to come from referrals. If that’s frustrating, it’s also completely normal. After 25+ years in this industry, first as a designer and then coaching firm owners across the country, I’ve found that…
Why Your Interior Design Revenue Has Hit a Ceiling (And How to Break Through It)
You’re fully booked. The projects are coming in. Revenue looks respectable on paper. And yet you’re working harder than ever while wondering why your profit isn’t keeping pace. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. After 25+ years in this industry, first as a designer and then coaching firm owners across the country, I’ve found…
Bad Interior Design Marketing Advice: 7 Red Flags Costing You Affluent Clients
How to spot the poor guidance quietly draining your design firm, and what converts affluent clients. You’re posting. You’re emailing. Maybe you’re even running ads. You’re doing all the things. And yet your revenue isn’t growing. That gap between how hard you’re working and what’s landing in your bank account? It’s often the very first…
How to Make More Money in Interior Design
As an interior designer you got into business with a passion to change people’s lives through design, and now you want to know how to make more money in interior design. The design landscape has changed dramatically in the last decade. The advent of the internet, design centers opening to the public, online design, and…
7 Interior Design Marketing Strategies: Get More Leads
Interior design marketing strategies only work when you apply them to your business. The point of the strategies here is to generate more quality leads for your interior design business in a lot less time. Key Takeaways ✓Interior design marketing strategies generate more quality leads when applied consistently and focused on attracting ideal clients rather…
Interior Design Lead Generation: 3 Sources
The fastest path to interior design lead generation is to connect with other businesses who already serve your ideal client but aren’t competing with you. Instead of creating your own visibility and credibility, you can leverage theirs; this is the path to building Profit Partners. Here are three you’ll want to consider. Key takeaways ✓The…
