IDEAS

an eZine from Design Success University

Volume 3 Issue 2.3

Mistake #8 Interior Designers Make With Fees

Not establishing a PIB price for difficult clients.  My favorite contractor taught this to me many years ago.  He can tell when someone will be difficult (pain in the you-know-what), and now he adds a premium to his price for this.  Good advice.

Who are the PIBS?  You know the characteristics all too well:

• Can’t make a decision…have to ask their friends on family design committee
• Huge ego…they know more than you do
• Low self-esteem…want your undivided attention
• Nit picky…nothing is ever quite right
• Demanding…want it yesterday and let you know if you didn’t do it quickly enough
• Busy, busy, busy…always on their cell phone and taking calls in the middle of a conversation
• Unreasonable…they want you to meet after hours and on the weekends frequently
• Powerful…they want you to kow-tow to them

You know the types.  Personally, my Ideal Client Profile includes the personality traits I avoid and the ones I prefer.  The types above take so much energy that it isn’t worth it to me to take the jobs.  Don’t let your fears about needing work overtake your rational mind when approached by these time-suckers…or at least, charge more.

I’d rather eat worms.

When you read our blog posts, would you do us a favor and tweet them, too?  Thanks ever so much…

Tech Tips

Our webmasters in Florida sent this out yesterday and I used it to clean up my computer:

http://www.jivesystems.com/blog/2010/02/essential-maintenance-tools/

If your computer is slow, this will help.  Just be aware that it cleans your cookies (traces to other sites that remember your computer ID and allow you to auto-fill your account information).

Thanks to Sue Moss for sharing this tech tip.  This free download helps you find information, emails, conversations and contacts in Microsoft Outlook more easily.

http://www.xobni.com/learnmore/

Need help creating a headline? Here are 102 Headline-Writing Formulas from Authority Blogger.

http://socialmediaworkbook.com/wp-content/uploads/102-headline-formulas.pdf

Social Media Tip

When you are writing your tweets or posts on your Facebook fan page, be sure to use key words like “interior design.”  Each post you make on your fan page or twitter is indexed separately by Google, so if you want to be found in your market, include the words Interior Design and Your City in the body copy.  What key words best fit your work?  Commercial interior design, master bedroom design, contemporary interior design, etc.?

Time Management Tips

I was listening to a call from one of my coaches the other day and decided to try this for myself.  I’ll let you know how it goes for me.

Why did I decide to try it?  I get a lot done every week and I’m very focused on my top priorities.  I don’t have problems with motivation.

My problem? I work all of the time including weekends.  I love what I do, and part of the problem is, I want to do it all yesterday.

Enough is enough – focus on progress and not perfection.  Here’s his advice with a few of my tips:

• Get a paper planning calendar that breaks things down in 15 minute increments.  I bought Staples (barcode 12945-10) 2010 calendar.
• Your #1 priority is marketing, so block off 2 prime time hours of your day
• Schedule what you need to do for others and get that done early in the day so they can get their jobs done
• Schedule your email and telephone message time – mid day and late in the day for a specific time period
• Give your cell phone number or IM to VIPs only and use that for emergency contacts
• Pencil in your meetings and project activities next
• Only work on the project you scheduled during the allotted time…no time creep
• Schedule thinking time – I like morning
  • What are you grateful for
  • What did you learn yesterday and will apply today or later?
  • What did I accomplish that took me closer to my goals?
  • What do I need to stop doing, start doing, do more of, less of, or stop completely?
  • What is the highest leverage marketing activity that I will work on right away?
  • What do I most need to learn/do to advance me toward my goals
• Stop multi-tasking!!!  It actually slows you down.  It takes time for your brain to ramp up to each activity, and you lose valuable time each time you changes tasks.  If you start three projects and work on a little of each one at a time, you actually add hours, days, weeks or months to how long it will take to complete it
• Accounting or expediting are left brained activities and design is right-brained.  If you switch between these types of activities, it will really slow you down
• Chunk similar types of activities together.  Write blog posts and ezines consecutively, for instance.
• If you don’t estimate your time for each activity, you’ll never be able to manage your time.  Why?  You’ll either cut into your personal time or miss important deadlines.
• Schedule the important things first (and that includes family and your personal time)

I struggle with scheduling personal time because I’m busy working on projects that really intrigue me.  In fact, my mother was the same way.  She’d get so focused on what she was doing that she would stay up all night writing or studying something. Working on that for myself?

What will you change today?

Business Mastery Membership

Monthly Mentor Calls are the second Wednesday of each month at noon Eastern.  All calls are recorded and transcribed and are available for MP3 or PDF download within 10 days of the call and usually much more quickly.

March 10th, Wednesday at 12:00 Eastern
Monthly Mentor Call with Gail Doby
(11:00 am Central/ 10:00 am Mountain/ 9:00 am Pacific)

March 17th, Wednesday at 12:00 Eastern
Live Q & A Call with Gail Doby and Erin Weir
(11:00 am Central/ 10:00 am Mountain/ 9:00 am Pacific)
Business Mastery Members can ask any question and we’ll answer it for you or get the answers.  Just email us (info@designsuccessu.com) your question prior to the call so we can prepare, or even if you can’t attend, we’ll answer your question and you’ll receive the recording shortly after the session.

Even if you can’t attend the call, please send in your questions and we’ll answer them even if you can’t make it.  This month, we’ll have one hot seat. I’ll take a question submitted by a member and do live coaching.  If you’re not a member of our Business Mastery Membership yet, this is where you can get your specific problem addressed every month.

If you’d like to volunteer to be in the hot seat, please email pat@designsuccessu.com.  You’ll need to submit your question at least two days in advance.