How long have you been a designer and why did you decide
to become an interior design business mentor/teacher? 

I became a serious Interior Designer when I suddenly found myself in the middle of a divorce. It was the late 1980’s and I had been a stay-at-home mom, working part-time in my husband’s real estate business, and the reality of parenting my five-year-old daughter by myself (and not having a job) was very real and very scary.

So, I did what I do best … found solutions.

I quickly accepted a commission based job at a high-end furniture store design studio in Tucson, AZ. There was little to no financial security at this studio, since the tiny draw was less than my mortgage payment. But I believed I had a creative gift and that my life’s work was to share it with the world – so I took the leap of faith and began learning the “furniture store” process of giving away my time and ideas in order to sell furniture.

Every day I hoped a customer would walk into the store and ask me to create something significant and wonderful. Unfortunately, hoping didn’t get me those great clients and nobody wanted to help.

My coworkers acted as if there was a secret to the business of interior design and no one was going to share it with me. I also realized there was no “instruction book” on how to attract clients and found myself at another crossroads; either give up and get a job at a drug store makeup counter OR figure out the business side of interior design.

I chose option #2 and made the commitment that design was my life career.

I began chasing down every lead I could get my hands on and passed the NCIDQ. I also started doing a million little jobs – worked long hours, made mistakes, and learned from them all.

My first major break came when the furniture store started photographing mwork and using it for their advertising. This lead to me winning my very first local ASID chapter’s Design Excellence Award. The store continued to showcase her work and soon more of her projects were published in local and national Interiors Magazines.

Then came the fateful day…the furniture store manager came to me and told her me that I HAD to sell pink sleeper sofas, because the store had bought too many and needed to get rid of them quickly.

That did it!

I decided I couldn’t take it anymore and made the leap to go out on my own. Even though I had a tween at home, a mortgage, and a new car payment – I knew that the time had come and I HAD to decide what kind of future I wanted to create for myself and my daughter.

I started marketing to my ideal clients, creating systems for selling design services, and writing letters of agreement and proposals. I even created a system for specifying, pricing, selling, ordering, tracking and delivering merchandise.

I couldn’t believe it – I started having more time to spend with my daughter, no longer worried about paying bills, and was having fun!

I quickly created a backroom system and developed staff to help me grow a multi million dollar business. My roster of clients included model homes for national homebuilders, luxury residential, and commercial projects. The cherry on top came when I won the ASID National Award of Design Excellence within 5 years of starting on my own.

My reputation continued to grow and I found my phone ringing off the hook from fellow designers looking for help in crafting contracts and capturing new jobs.
I was happy to help and after my daughter graduated from Design School, I felt like it was time again to make a change and created Interior Design Business Academy

I have since made a commitment to dedicate my life to supporting other self employed, sole practitioners and small business interior design professionals who face the same struggles I had those years ago. I share my “real life” design business knowledge and experience so you can bypass the hard times and mistakes and start having the life and business you’ve dreamed about.

Since then I have worked with thousands of design professionals, spoken in front of countless groups and created a 2 year plus curriculum: a series of important design practice-building systems that every design professional needs to know to create a business filled with ideal clients, creative jobs, abundant income and personal freedom.

Who are your clients exactly?

I work with people just like you, design professionals who work alone or with a small support staff who are really good at what they do; however, have never been taught exactly how to attract clients, figure out a design fee, write a good Letter of Agreement that sets boundaries around your time and sells the job or set up a system that will manage the back-end paperwork.

Sometimes they have design degrees, sometimes they have a degree in another field and sometimes their “degree” comes from real life experience, it doesn’t really matter. What they all have in common is a passion for “all things design” and a desire to use their creative gift to make their clients lives better.

That said, the professions I have worked with run the gamut of “creatives” who provide service and product in the built environment in North America.

To start with, Interior Design Business Academy (IDBA) is an education based company with 2 year + curriculum. I designed this curriculum based on my 30 years in design business, starting at the bottom of the business (my first job was upholstering a chair) to being the “go to” designer/contractor in my community. My studio staff of 12 and I produced award winning residential and commercial deign/build remodeling projects, model homes for national homebuilders, hospitality projects and medical facilities.

The combination of my design business knowledge culled from years “in the trenches” combined with developing systems for and problem solving with thousands of design professionals over the past 10 years has evolved into a comprehensive curriculum that starts with marketing “getting clients and making money”, moves through building systems, and a “backroom and team” that creates efficiency and time saving, and cumulates with “moving up-market” into big high profile jobs and substantial design fees, and published work.

The coaching component in my Growth, Structure and Masters programs is included because I believe in coaching… it works. Personalized help and support to stay focused, positive and confidant creates an environment that is primed for success.

Because my focus is very narrow, what you get with me is no-nonsense, undiluted expertise on what works for independent design professionals. I’ve simply become an expert at this stuff and that is why my students get predictably great results (and I throw in a healthy dose of compassion, humor and encouragement, which ALWAYS helps!)

Please know I am very selective about who I work with and I cherry pick my clients, choosing (gently) to turn away people who aren’t suited for my programs and won’t get the results they would have signed up for. (It wouldn’t be fair to them.)

The IDBA programs are NOT for those who have no money coming in and are financially desperate. It has been my experience that people in financial crisis do not trust the recommendations I give them and often do not do the work (perhaps because they are worried about where they are going to get the next month’s mortgage payment from.)

If you fall into this category, it is absolutely OK. We have all been in times of financial crisis at one time or another. Do yourself (3) favors:

1. Get some money coming in with a full –time or part – time job at the very least, and then call me. This will take the edge off and provide a little more peace of mind. Mostly, it will de-clutter your mind enough to focus on your IDBA assignments and see the BIG picture. Once you start seeing clients coming in as a result of our work, you can start reducing the hours you work at the other job ad focus on your own practice.

2. Be sure to listen to the weekly newsletter video and explore the IDBA library of blog articles about the business of design.
CLICK HERE This resource contains hundreds of free tips and advice for running a successful business.

3. Attend the IDBA monthly free online CEU offering. These CEUs are hour-long studies of topics I feel are extremely important to having a successful business and will give you a LOT of things to think about.

Doing these things will get you primed for our work. When you are ready, call me and we’ll get you started. (I am in no rush and will be here when you need me.)

Another type of person that I won’t work with (without exception) is the whiner or the chronic skeptic, as well as individuals who consistently make excuses for not getting their assignments done, or challenging every aspect of the program. If you are one of these people, I gently and respectfully ask that you not call and I hope you understand why. We’ll probably just not work together and I wouldn’t want you to waste your time or money. Is that fair?

Hone in on the EXACT clients that will pay you what you are worth, let you design fabulous amazing interiors and send you qualified referrals.

Create a compelling marketing message that will make your ideal client say, ”Wow, that is exactly what I need, can I have your card?”

Make your design service stand out in your industry and your marketplace.

Understand proven ways of educating your environment so more than just your clients are sending you referrals.

Set design fees and create packages that sell easily and keep you well paid.
.

Create offers in your Letter of Agreement so your clients stay longer and get better results, write compelling testimonials for you and have you make way more money.

Learn how to handle your clients (and your time) more efficiently so you actually have free personal time to do the things you love.

Discover how to get out there and have fun networking efficiently.
.

Reach your clients in large numbers consistently and inexpensively.

Work smarter at building your design practice, not harder.
.

Close the sale without feeling sales-ey.

Become the “go to” expert in your field (and be paid as such.)

Create new goals for business every 90 days to keep pulling yourself into the future as opposed to pushing so hard.

Stay accountable to these goals and achieve them.
.

Create powerful referral partnerships and strategic alliances that consistently bring you new ideal clients.

Get proven systems, actually step-by-step “recipes” that consistently work for:
      – Finding and signing up your ideal clients
      – Figuring out design fees that keep you well paid
      – Getting agreement on budget
      – Setting boundaries with clients on jobs
      – Creating more profit on product purchasing… and more.

Create greater exposure and visibility for yourself and your design business.
.

Learn time savings techniques that will up-level your productivity and dramatically cut down your working hours every week.

Make more money than you are making now, while enjoying having your own business even more.
.