Business of Design: Featured on an Interior Design Business Podcast "A Well-Designed Business"

​I have always shared my knowledge about the business of interior design with my interns, my interior design friends, and recently I had the wonderful opportunity to be a guest on a podcast, "A Well-Designed Business" created by my wonderful friend, LuAnn Nigara of Window Works and sponsored by Kravet.

LuAnn reached out to me because she thought her listeners would like to learn about how I rebuilt my business in Atlanta after being a successful interior designer in New Jersey.
She has created a wonderful podcast and interviews  many interior designers and other people in the design industry.

Whether you are a seasoned veteran of interior design or new to the industry, every guest on this podcast will inspire you to create a more successful design business.
She zeros in on specific topics, like being published, starting a second career in the design world, being in showhouses, online interior design, transferring the skills you already have to your business, or  the guests share their knowledge about how they run their interior design business.
 Consider this podcast to be Design Business 101.
At this writing she has interviewed 16 interior designers and design industry professionals.
I have learned  many new and useful ideas that I can incorporate into my interior design business.
I will share the podcast link at the end of this post.

My interview was about starting over in a new city and how I used digital marketing to gain new clients.
Starting over in a new city is just like starting up a new interior design business, except I had knowledge of 13 years in the interior design business.
I needed to use the internet as my new source to attract my clients because I had no one to refer me and I had only been published in New Jersey and New York. I was a new designer in a small city with a HUGE pool of talented interior designers. I needed to swim to the top quickly or drown..
Marketing in overdrive, is how I did it to get the clients I have today. I have now regained the profitability and number of projects per year that I had in 2012. I am now a busy  designer bee.

As a wonderful Atlanta Homes and Lifestyle publisher told me 2 years ago while having coffee with me, "Robin, Atlanta people don't care that you were a wonderful NJ-NY interior designer. Your new clients want you to be a HOT (read popular) interior designer from Atlanta."
He changed my whole perspective on how I needed to capture clients in Atlanta. His advice was that I needed to do showhouses in Atlanta. (read expensive)
I had the honor to be one of the decorators chosen for the 2015 Atlanta Symphony Decorator's Showhouse  which gave me the clout, but I still needed to reach a larger audience in Atlanta.
​

How I relaunched my interior design business:

• I discuss strategies I use on digital marketing, specifically on Houzz.
• I also talk about why I look at other interior designer's portfolios to see who my competition is. If my portfolio looks like everyone else, how will a client know which one of us is the right designer for them?
• I spoke about using social media as a way to get noticed and why I don't believe shoe selfies are a good way to show who you are as a designer on Instagram.(Not unless you are standing on an awesome floor and tag the photo with sources.)
• Why you need to spend 1-2 hours a day marketing yourself to get clients.
• Try different ways to market yourself i.e.:getting published,  YouTube videos, attend industry design events, podcasts, write e-books, and be a speaker at a design event.

On Houzz:
​ If your phone isn't ringing or no one is sending you an email for your design services, look at your activity and see which 5 photos are added to ideabooks. Make those photos the 5 for your profile. The landing photo should be your most popular.
If the magazines are not interested in your photos, send them to the editors at Houzz for their considerations. Remember Houzz is national and competes against the magazines. If you want to get published in a magazine, don't put your work on Houzz.
 I have been featured in 2 articles on Houzz at this writing. I always submit my design projects to the editors at Houzz if the magazines are not interested in them.
The Basement of the Week

​The showhouse kitchen was also a featured story.

Also make comments on the Houzz stories and show your work of the same subject. Show the readers how you did the same thing for your client.
I prefer to stay away from Design Dilemmas because I get paid for my professional advice.
 Let the Houzzers give each other ideas. Have you ever read some of them?? Yikes!!
Listen to the interview to hear another great way I went to the front page on Houzz.

Clue: My first photos uploaded onto Houzzer's  ideabooks in October 2012 were "Ho Ho Ho" spectacular!!!

On Instagram:​

• Develop a strategy of posting more than 3 times a week. Add at least 5-10 hashtags and best time to post is early in the morning before 9 am or after 8pm. Wednesdays are the highest days and 11pm gets the most likes.Make sure it's " interior design relevant."

Being an interior designer is not all space planning, fabrics, and furniture. Sometimes I am a therapist and need to fix people. Not just interiors... It's part of the job. Love my @tylerlynch_codarus. No worries, this gets billed to my client! #atlanta #interiordesigner #robinlamonte #therapist #spaceplanning #decor #interiordesign #imlistening #interiors #homedecor #homedesign #sigmundfreud #igotthis @moss_studio @codarus @americasmartatl #monday @kghotriz

A photo posted by Robin Lamonte (@robinlamonte) on Oct 3, 2016 at 5:01pm PDT

• Why I feel selfies are not always a good way to get "likes" on Instagram. 

People love to take selfies but it still doesn't help to build your design business. If you post too many photos of yourself and not your work, it tells me you're not busy.
Selfies belong on your personal page.
​Shoe selfies are also a "no no" in my book, not unless you include what you're standing on and who the manufacturer is.
If you have a really good reason why you posted a selfie, make it relevant to your design business. (If you're a well established interior designer, and have a huge following, by all means post selfies of yourself. Your followers eat it up. They love it when you post anything. Period. Otherwise stay away from selfies..)

I make quick videos for Instagram, which became  a selfie by accident when I was talking about the television behind the split mirrors at the Cloister hotel in Sea Island. Videos are very popular on Instagram.
​

Love this design idea that was in my Bedroom at the Cloister. The mirror splits to reveal the television! Love it! #atlanta #interiordesigner on #vacation and enjoying the #architecture and #designideas @sea_island #interiordesign #bedroom #interior #videooftheday #videoclip #homedesign #hotelroom #robinlamonte #roomsrevamped

A video posted by Robin Lamonte (@robinlamonte) on Jun 29, 2016 at 7:34am PDT

​If you're lucky you may have a very popular Instagrammer post some of your work.
​You want someone with more followers to repost your design work.
This photo I posted from a holiday showhouse I did in Atlanta was used on Traditional Homes Instagram site.
They wanted to use it for their Christmas campaign last year.
​The magazines love our photos and watch us. Keep posting your work on Instagram!

It's that time of year again! □ We want to see your #TradHomeTree and #TradHomeMantel! Tag us in your photo and use the hashtag. We will regram our favorites! Thanks to @lmr1024, @emilyruddo, @memehillstudio, @roomsrevamped for submitting their photos last year!

A photo posted by Traditional Home (@traditionalhome) on Dec 5, 2015 at 8:55am PST

​
Clients and followers like us because we show our work on social media.
Magazines will also see our work and ask to use it on their social media.
Absolutely sprinkle in family photos once and awhile to create a warm and fuzzy, but if your Instagram account has your business name on it, stay focused on your business.

Create another Instagram account for personal use.
​I have another Instagram account for my  fashion and lifestyle blog, "Hello I'm 50ish" and it really is about fashion over 50 selfies, travel, and my bucketlist.
​I also repost from one account to another because I have a different audience for both.

It's finally sweater weather in Atlanta! And I'm off to a client meeting! #atlanta #interiordesigner #robinlamonte #workingontheweekend #over50style #over50 #fashionblogger #40plusstyle #ontheblog #saturday #sweaterweather #fall #ootd #whatiworetoday #fallfashion

A photo posted by Robin LaMonte (@helloim50ish) on Oct 22, 2016 at 11:33am PDT

​LuAnn and I had a lot of fun and it is apparent on my guest appearance but so many wonderful designers share their wisdom and I really want you to hear all of the wonderful interviews!
Drop me a comment if you have any questions about your interior design business. Or send me an email: roomsrevamped@gmail.com.

I would love to hear from you!!