How to Give Your Interior Design Business (and Yourself) the Gift of Time

Nov 23

Updated September 2023

It’s the holiday season, and everyone is thinking about their gifting strategy for their clients. Don’t forget to think about the gift/gifts you can give yourself -the business owner- this holiday season. If you’re the owner of an interior design business or wedding planning business, I know how badly you need a little TLC right now and could certainly use the gift of time, I’m sure.

When I’m working with my clients, I always ask them, “How do you celebrate wins in your business?” And sadly, some don’t. Sometimes, it’s a function of being too busy to even have time to reflect. Other times, it’s because they are so hard on themselves they can’t recognize how major their wins are.

I don’t mean the big “I got published” or “I booked a $400,000 project” wins. I also mean wins like “I had a great meeting with my team,” “I removed a step from my process that is saving me weeks of time,” or “I am halfway through my to-do list and was super productive today”.

As a business owner, all the hats are yours, and that means it’s up to you to recognize your achievements and your progress, big or small. It’s all important!

THE GIFT OF REFLECTION

A simple way you can work this time of reflection into your own business is to gift yourself a few minutes of time each week to reflect on your own business.

I do this in Asana, with a weekly “CEO Tasks” reminder that comes up each Friday. It takes me anywhere from 30-60 minutes of time and is a gift I give myself and my business, to take that time to reflect and focus on my business, no matter how busy I am. Some people call this Follow-Up Friday, Finance Friday, CEO Day, etc.

In this task, I have things like:

Review wins for the week and celebrate them
Reflect on what didn’t work
Think about [insert big picture goal]
Send follow up emails (you can read why here)
Send handwritten cards to referrals/clients
Reconcile QBO
Review project timelines and team hours
Prepare marketing for the upcoming week (this is the one that gets pushed if I’m slammed)
Review open tasks and prioritize

This saves me time because I never have to remember to do these things; they simply show up on my to-do list and I do them. At the end of each month or quarter, my books are clean and I can run accurate reports at the drop of a hat. I am always thinking about what’s working/not working so I can make changes quickly to save time and refine my services or processes to be more efficient.

HOW TO GIVE YOURSELF THE GIFT OF TIME AS A BUSINESS OWNER Install Day Process Checklist for Interior Designers HOW TO CREATE CLIENT PROCESSES FOR YOUR INTERIOR DESIGN BUSINESS Dakota Design Company Operations Consulting for Interior Designers

HOW TO CREATE A LUXURY CLIENT EXPERIENCE FOR YOUR DESIGN BUSINESS Dakota Design Company Operations Consulting for Interior Designers

THE GIFT OF INTENTIONAL SLOW TIME

I intentionally slow down over the summer and don’t take new clients, and I’m intentionally slowing down over the holidays so I can spend more time these next few weeks with my three little girls and our family. I’m the first to say I will still be busy over the holidays, BUT, I will have fewer new clients starting, fewer deadlines to meet, and fewer deliverables to put out.

I have a few internal projects and some big picture projects I’m hoping to make progress on and knowing I have this time set aside to focus on my business is a refreshing change of gears after spending so much time working on clients’ businesses.

←If you’re wanting to do some backend refinements during a slow time, I always recommend starting with your client experience. Grab my Client Experience Blueprint to see if you have any gaps in your process. Then check out my done-for-you resources and templates for interior designers in The Design Library.

THE GIFT OF MY TEAM

A team of women to help me with my business and with my clients’ businesses.

My team has been such a gift to me: additional brains in my business, new viewpoints, more hands on deck to tackle big projects, and the support I need when it all feels like too much (like when my youngest was home sick for seven days and I had to push every client timeline).

THE GIFT OF SYSTEMS

Systems.

My business wouldn’t function without these five software programs: Asana, Honeybook, Acuity, Squarespace, and Google Drive. The time spent setting them up, learning them, and incorporating them into my process is a gift that keeps on giving.

Let me repeat: the time spent setting up these software programs, learning them, and incorporating them into my process is a gift that keeps on giving (and will be the thing that lets me sell my company down the road).

Asana for storing all our processes, managing tasks, and communicating with the team and our clients. If you are considering using Asana for your interior design business or wedding planning business, be sure to download my complimentary Asana Blueprint to learn how to set it up and use it.

Honeybook for sending contracts, digitizing signatures, automating payments, housing all your email templates, and setting up email workflows that automatically go out so I can be removed from some of the admin side of things. Click here to save on your subscription, plus access to our free Honeybook Guided Setup course. As a Honeybook Affiliate and Educator, if you use my link to sign up, I’ll receive a small commission.

Acuity for scheduling appointments. Seriously, it’s like a personal assistant, and I never have to send a reminder email.

Squarespace for my website, my forms, my email sign-ups, my blog, my welcome pages, my team training pages, my shop (The Design Library), and SO much more.

Google Drive for housing every document, obviously, and for being able to make edits to content and client documents, review contracts, and write the gagillion emails we write on a daily basis for clients.

You might also like our complete guide to time management for interior design businesses.

If you’re not in a place to hire, and you’re feeling too slammed to even think straight, one way to gift yourself the luxury of more time is to invest in tools that will help streamline your process, both for you and your clients. Check out the Design Library where you can purchase done-for-you templates for interior designers. These have taken me HUNDREDS of hours, two businesses (this one + my wedding planning business), and a lifetime of experience working with designers and wedding planners to create, refine, and perfect. They can be yours in seconds.

Contracts. Email templates. Canva templates. Full service design. Design Day. Standard Operating Procedures. Hiring Templates. Company Guidebooks. Simply add your logo, colors, fonts, and images, and use them in minutes.