Interior Designers…The Internet Changes Everything!
Last week, we hosted an interview with Starr Miller of Charlotte, NC and Valentina Cirasola of San Francisco, California. Both designers are exceptionally busy right now, and in fact, Starr’s business is up 300% over last year. I didn’t ask Valentina to specifically mention how much her business is up this year, but it is up and that is in the middle of this economic crisis.
What’s different about Starr’s and Valentina’s business vs. most other designers? They spend 10 – 15% of gross revenue on marketing, and they market every single day. They don’t rely on just referrals. They each use unique methods to get business.
Starr has been in business for less than two years, and Valentina for more than twenty.
What does that mean for you? Get busy marketing every single day!
I’ll be interviewing Valentina again in a few weeks to discuss how she does Fixed Fees. This will be part of a short series on Value Based Fees.
There are some inherent problems in our industry, and they involve how fees are calculated and how clients perceive our value. Connecting the two thoughts is a challenge, and we will be exploring this as an introduction to a series we’ll be offering in 2010.
By the way, if you haven’t been to the Decorati site lately, you might want to sign up. www.Decorati.com. Shane O’Reilly is a bright woman with an interesting concept. If you haven’t gotten started on the Internet besides a basic website or blog, you’ll want to know about this site. It will change the way consumers do business with designers.
Some of you may fear what this will do to you, and that’s why you really need to get away from the hourly fee and product mark-up as the way to work with consumers. It is more important than ever to differentiate yourself, establish your brand and offer something that no one else offers. Now that your clients can buy trade products on the Internet, the whole game changes.
Are you ready?
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