If You’re An Interior Designer And You Struggle With Not Having Enough Time, Here's What To Do

Jan 13

UPDATED MAY 2024

If you’re anything like me, there’s a lot that needs to get done in your day for you to keep the odds stacked in your favor. Kids, pets, partners, homes, health, friends, family, school, travel…the list goes on and on, and I haven’t even mentioned work.

But here’s the truth (and a reminder I write in my journal just about daily):

I have time for the things that are important to me.

Like enjoying coffee and quiet time before the kids wake up.

Like having breakfast with my kids and hugging them goodbye before school.

Like taking the dog out and telling him he’s a “good boi” (even as he rips up the grass and flips over my outdoor furniture).

Like making sure my house is clean and organized.

Like lifting weights and listening to music.

Like unplugging during dinner and listening to my kids share about their days.

Like spending time talking with each of my girls at bedtime.

Like Facetiming my sister so I can talk to my sweet little niece who calls me “My Katie.”

Like sipping champagne with my husband to celebrate the week.

Like reading while I eat lunch and before I go to bed so I can hit my annual reading goal.

And here’s the thing: these all happen before and after my work.

They happen every day because they are deeply important to me.

A similar principle applies to my work: I make time for the things that are important to me.

Time management is a crucial skill for business owners and especially for creatives like interior designers. We all have the same amount of time, but those who excel in their work have mastered the art of leveraging their time. This means they have discovered how to multiply what they can get done at a given time).

Most often, this starts with understanding the value of your time and then protecting it at.all.costs through time and task assessments, systematizing, and delegating.

I’m sharing specific ways interior designers can save time and be more productive and even if you implement just ONE of these tips, you’ll be feeling much more in control of your time.

Ready to take your interior design business to the next level? Here are eighteen powerful strategies to help you leverage your time, maximize productivity, and increase profitability.

Create standard operating procedures for repeatable processes. Follow them with every service. Sell your process when you talk to potential clients. Have confidence in knowing your process!
Create rinse-and-repeat templates to use in your client process. Things like:
Use software created specifically to save you time. At a minimum, start small and use a scheduler like Acuity to schedule appointments, collect design consultation fees, and send appointment reminders. Think of the small monthly fee as your administrative assistant. Save time and brain space AND look professional to clients.
Use software specifically created for interior designers. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve worked with designers who were resistant to using design product management software (like Studio Designer, Design Manager, Houzz Pro, Design Files, Mydoma, etc.) So that meant they were managing hundreds of thousands of dollars of products either with paper printouts (hand me a paper bag, I’m hyperventilating) or in excel. THERE IS SOFTWARE MADE JUST FOR YOU that will make your job 1000 times easier. Add your products, store the manufacturer info and details for ordering, add your markup and sales tax, and voila. Client gets an invoice with an image and details of the item. They can approve and pay in an instant. You simply click “Send PO” and instantly send the purchase order created from that invoice to your vendor. If you’re not using one of these software programs, I would bet your desktop is covered with screenshots, you have links of items EVERYWHERE, and you spend a ton of time i) trying to figure out where a screenshot is from and ii) going back to vendor sites a 2nd and 3rd time to grab information about an item you’ve screenshotted (price, size, order info, lead time, etc.) NOT EFFICIENT.
Delegate work and train your team. Think: If I spend the time to train my team on this once, how much time will it save me going forward? And if I have more time, what other ways can I grow the business?
Remove anything that does not add value to your business or your clients’ experience. Endless revisions? Unlimited support? Extra meetings? Co-shopping? Posting on Facebook when you’ve never gotten a lead from there? Scrolling social media? Preparing concepts for potential clients?
Increase your prices if you can. Consider moving away from hourly if you’re “very fast” or if you plan to invest in your business or software to be more productive.
Block your days (but not down to the hour — I’ve found that too restrictive for most designers) based on the type of work you’ll do that day. Base this on how you feel on those days. Like, do you dread Mondays? Meaning, taking calls on Mondays would be the worst? Or are Mondays your best day for calls because you’re eager and excited to jump into the week? What days are best for new client meetings, presentations, site visits, team meetings, etc.? Figure that out, then set a weekly cadence.
Don’t waste your brain’s highest functioning time on low-value tasks. If you know you are focused and most creative in the morning, then don’t use that time to do admin work or run all over town picking up samples. Save that type of work for the time of day when your brain is most tired and groggy.
Reduce the times you are available to clients and instantly have more control over your time. For example, only take Discovery Calls on Tuesdays when you know you won’t have any disruptions. Only do New Client and Potential Client Meetings on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Only present designs on Fridays. Save Monday and Thursday for design and backend work.
Create authority-building content and a funnel to bring people into your business while you sleep. Write evergreen authority-building blog posts that your people will be Googling so they land on your site. Create a lead magnet and put it on your website. Create a welcome sequence that nurtures potential clients and lets them get to know you (and stay front of mind so your name comes up wehn they’re ready to hire.)
Set things to run in the background. Use a scheduling software for your social media posts. Use workflows to automatically onboard and offboard clients. Set up Zapier to integrate software (when X happens in Acuity, Y happens in Google Drive, etc.).
Productize a smaller service. How much time would you save if you offered a smaller service that didn’t require you to do an in-person consultation, put together a detailed scope of work, or prepare pricing for a custom contract? I’m guessing at least three hours! Look at your full service process and see what you can pull out and “sell separately”? The initial consultation? The design phase only? Just the space planning? The plan review? The styling? The renovation/construction consulting? <— YES, these are ALL standalone services you can offer that are NOT full service (we help designers define, price, and set boundaries for them in our signature program, The Designed to Scale® Method)
Bring a team member to every meeting. Provide your client with your full attention and expertise while your team member takes notes/photos/measurements. Then, the team member can later update the project status and handle any follow-ups, change requests, or post-meeting to-dos. Also, by bringing a team member to each meeting, your client will become familiar with them and feel comfortable reaching out to your team (not you). Just be sure to introduce your team as “the client’s main point of contact.”
Only touch things once. Stop touching things 100 times. When you source an item, grab all the product info and pricing. When you find something you may use for a design, add the item to your product library and order the memo right away. Second guessing your design choices before presentation and think you should double check to make sure there’s nothing better out there? Nope. You and I both know you (and your clients) almost ALWAYS come back to the original selection. Look at your process and find what’s broken and time consuming. Build a system around it so you only touch it once.
Solve problems at the root - not at the symptom. As an example, this is a conversation that comes up often. How can I delegate the ordering process as an interior designer when a single mistake could cost thousands of dollars? Well, the problem isn’t the ordering mistake. The problem is happening LONG before then. What is the process for placing an order? What checks and balances are in place? What protections can you build to decrease risk? Implement THOSE processes and policies, then watch the mistakes decrease.
Ask for testimonials. Strong testimonials make it so much easier to sell your services, which saves.you.time. People come into your pipeline ready to sign on the dotted line. So, ask for testimonials (you can automate this) and be sure to have clients post them on Google My Business ← If you don’t have an account, RUN and set one up now. It’s free! Click here for our complete guide on how to ask for and collect testimonials.
Create a referral-worthy process. Make your client experience so good that clients refer you to their friends from day one and throughout your time together. We all know referrals are your #1 source of business, and YES, you CAN systemize your referral process so it DOES become repeatable and consistent. Getting NEW clients takes SOOOOO much more time than serving repeat clients so focusing on your referral process can save you TONS in marketing (and will fill your pipeline with clients you know and love!)

I know, I know…doing the things on this list will take time, but like I always say:

Do things ONCE and let them serve you forever.

Start by choosing ONE (the easiest) and implementing it ASAP to reap the benefits. For most interior designers, that means tightening up their availability for Discovery Calls and blocking their days based on the activity they’ll do and then formalizing their client experience process with templates, emails, forms, etc.

If you’ve done most of these and simply cannot find the time to create a referral-worthy process or all the pieces to go out along the way so it’s as easy as cut-and-paste for you and your team, I’d encourage you to check out these resources created just for interior designers: