Crocodile Dundee rip You don’t have time for time wasters.

You don’t have time for tasks that burn up lots of time, but don’t generate revenue.

You don’t have time to “do it all”  in your design business or career.

If your business is running you, rather than vice versa, that’s a sign that you’re not managing your time properly, and that you need help.

The best use of your time, now, may be to make a list of all the duties that drag you down and drive you crazy — the ones that cut into your productivity and profits.

Convert that list into a job description, or a help wanted ad.  Hire some one to sweat the small stuff, so you don’t have to.

That’s what Wilma Kulyk is doing.

She’s a very successful Newcastle, ON. window fashion professional who’s enrolled in my premium coaching program.

When she mentioned that time management is among her biggest challenges, I asked her to compose a list of tasks she needs to delegate.

She came up with the following:

+ accounting
+ order entry
+ checking purchase orders and back orders
+ reviewing shipments
+ marketing cards and letters to customers
+ newsletters
+ mailings and labels
+ data entry
+ photography

Once she finds the administrative assistant she needs, she’ll be able to focus on what she does best: draperies, blinds and other window treatments for high end clients.

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Time management is one of the biggest challenges confronting design professionals today.

You can overcome that challenge by concentrating on top dollar duties rather than chump change chores.

Think you can’t afford to hire administrative help in this tricky economy?

Think again.

What you can’t afford is the time you spend now on routine adminstrative tasks. Pay others to do them. Spend money to make money.

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Working longer hours is not the best way for you to increase your income. Managing your time more effectively is.

Teaching a class is an easy and economical way to get visibility, credibility and clients in challenging times such as these. eulexin

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Teach ‘em what you know – and watch your business grow. Here are some tips on how to add class to your class and book a bunch of business while you’re at it:

Team Up Blindness movie full – Ask a retailer, vendor, supplier or other “partner” to promote and host your program. Point out that it’s a great way for them to reach out to their prospects.

Touch ‘em with your Topic – Focus on a subject you know about – and your prospects care about. Reducing energy bills, motorization, privacy, child safety issues, preparing your home for resale – the possibilities are endless.
 
Touch  ‘em with your Title – Choose  a program name that catches their fancy – and attention. Examples: “Million Dollar Remodeling on a Shoestring Budget:” ” What’s Hot & Not in Wall Coverings;” “Turn Your House into a Home for the Holidays.” 

Make Yourself Memorable – Add pizzazz to your presentation by including humor and anecdotes. Provide top notch visual aids and handouts.

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Make Yourself “Reachable”

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– Supply your business cards, brochures and other marketing materials, so attendees can recontact with questions – and business.

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-  Promote yourself as well as your design products and services. Remember: Most do-it-yourselfers don’t. They want and need your help.

Fred Berns trains interior design professionals on sales, marketing and other business topics.

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This recession may be the best thing that ever happened to your interior design career.

That is, if you focus on what you’re learning rather than on what you’re losing.

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You’re learning how to work smarter. And how to do more with less. And how you need to serve your best clients better.

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You’re discovering which design services sell and which suffer in a lousy economy.

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All this price resistance is sharpening  your selling skills. You’re getting better at responding to “It’s too expensive” or “Maybe I’ll wait.”

You’re finding out which business advice to trust, and which to trash. And, when it comes to marketing, you’re realizing what’s a winner and what’s a waste.

You’re learning how to spend your time,energy and money when the going gets tough.  And how to find opportunities where others see only obstacles.

You’re learning how to perservere, dig deep, hang in, hang on, and maybe even find strength in the storm.

Sure, this “education” comes at a cost. It’s cost you clients. And contracts. And, perhaps,  confidence.

Maybe sales are down, bills are piling up, projects are ending, the phone’s not ringing, and  your calendar is sparse.

Behind all that misery is a message.

If, after many years in the design industry, you’re struggling, the message is that you can’t do business the old way.

If what used to work no longer does, than it’s time to rethink and reflect–reflect on all that you’re learning in this recession.

No, I’m not suggesting you rejoice in this recession.

Rather, appreciate what it’s giving you.

It’s giving you a signal to make your design business leaner and meaner.

It’s giving you resiliency.

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And, it’s giving you an opportunity to be a hero.

Those I admire most are not the designers and architects and window fashion professionals and industry partners who were successful from the get-go.

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I respect them.

To me, the real heros are those who rise to the top after rebounding from setbacks, mistakes, lousy breaks, physical challenges, family problems, financial loss, or any of life’s other hardships.

You can go from zero to hero when you stop thinking about what you’ve lost in this economy, and start thinking about what you’ve learned.

 

 Fred Berns, a speaker and coach, is the biggest name in the business of interior design.

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Inspirational it isn’t, but “dead on” it is, this “inconvenient truth” that information marketing guru Dan Kennedy shared recently about the current economy:

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“In the near term, you will be required to invest more, think more, create more, do more and work more to get less than you’ve been accustomed to.”

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Fred Berns is an interior design industry writer, trainer and coach.

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What do callers hear when they don’t hear you?

What you say – or don’t say – on your voicemail can have a major impact on your design business in these challenging times, considering the number of times prospects get your “message” before they get you.

Darby O’Gill and the Little People Too bad so many design professionals play the “same game” when it comes to voicemail. Their “Sorry-I-missed-your-call, please-leave-a-message” greeting sounds no different than the voicemail greeting used by their competitors.

Is Harry on the Boat? buy The Witches movie Estimates are that Americans spend 3.2 billion hours a year talking to and listening to voicemail. If you don’t use yours as a promotional tool, you’re missing out on a major marketing opportunity.
 
Your voicemail enables you to provide information about yourself and your products and services, along with benefits that you offer your clients. Callers need not listen to all of this, of course; most telephone systems enable them to immediately leave  their message by hitting the # sign on their phone.
 
But, apparently, many callers do listen to voicemail messages in their entirety. Many of my coaching clients report that their sales increased substantially once they adopted the longer format.
 

Here’s an example of how a design professional, with the help of a “narrator,” can use her voicemail message to blow her horn:

Hi, you’ve reached the office of Dee Ziner, an award-winning, internationally recognized window fashion professional.

At any point during this greeting you may exit and leave a message by hitting the # sign on your telephone.

Dee Ziner is a window treatment specialist whose services include selection and installation of high end draperies, blinds, shades and shutters.

She has worked with clients around the world, but she focuses primarily on working with homes and offices in such north shore Chicago suburbs as Kenilworth, Wilmette, Winnetka and Glencoe. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer divx

Dee can save you money on your window covering project by getting the work done more quickly. And she can save you the time of having to shop for window treatments, hire and schedule contractors, and handle other tasks.
 
She’s the area’s only window covering professional with 25 years experience, and who offers such a wide variety of services and products.

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We look forward to providing you with more information on how you can benefit from Dee’s expertise on covering the windows in your home or office. And we look forward to returning your call.

Some things to consider when you create your voice mail message:

+ Offer options, such as your cell phone number, for those who need to reach you now
+ Provide regular updates (“Today is Thursday, and I’ll be in appointments all morning”)
+ Offer callback information, such as a promise to return the call within 12 hours
+ Include mailboxes with information about separate products and services

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You can pump up the power of your message by including a million dollar marketing word: “Only.”

I tell the story in my seminars of the kitchen and bath professional in central Pennsylvania – we’ll call him John Doe — who I offered to promote years ago.

Each time I asked him during our first meeting to differentiate himself from competitors, he’d offer such underwhelming responses as: “Been in business a long time,” or “I care about my customers,” and “I like what I do.”

Nearly an hour into our fruitless dialogue, I noticed his business card on a nearby table, identifying him as a “CKD” (certified kitchen designer.).
“John,” I asked. “Are there any other CKD’s in this area?”

“No,” he replied.

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“John,” I said, “That is what’s different about you.”

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Thereafter, when callers reached his voicemail, they would hear: “Hi, this is John Doe – the ONLY certified kitchen designer in Central Pennsylvania.”

Turning your voicemail into a conversation piece is one way to promote yourself with pizzazz. It will help you get the recognition and rewards that you want and deserve.

 

Fred Berns Trains Interior Design Professionals on Marketing and Sales

One in four designers market themselves more extensively in challenging economic times.

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Which means that three in four do not.

Those, to me, are the most surprising statistics in the article in a recent issue of ASID’s  Icon

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on how design professionals are coping with the current economy.

The article, based on a survey of 1660 ASID active and allied members, reports that only about 25 per cent of them  ”increased their visibility” the past year through direct mail and/or advertising.

The rest, I assume, either maintained or reduced their marketing.

Talk about sorry statistics!

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At a time when design professionals need to blow their horns more than ever before, most aren’t.

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They ignore the wisdom of  P.T. Barnum, who said: “A terrible thing happens when you don’t promote yourself. Nothing.”

Design professionals can’t afford for “nothing” to happen in these economic times. They can’t afford to leave things to chance, and hope that the right prospects somehow discover them.

Granted, direct mail and advertising are among the weakest ways to toot your flute; writing articles, presenting seminars and blogging are just three of many more effective strategies.

Nevertheless, it appears from the survey that all too many design pros are taking a reactive, rather than proactive approach to business development at the moment.

They’re standing in front of an empty fireplace hoping for heat, before they gather the logs.

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The easy thing to do when your business slips is to blame the economy. The right thing to do is to take a look at the marketing you’re doing — or, not doing.

 

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Fred Berns, a marketing and sales specialist, coaches and speaks to the interior design industry worldwide.

It’s a question I hear from design professionals all the time: should I pay someone to improve my internet seach engine rankings?

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Dave Taylor, for one, has his doubts.

Taylor is a  Colorado technology guru and columnist whose website (AskDaveTaylor.com) does an excellent job of addressing internet issues–in a language that you and I can understand. The Narrow Margin hd

Here’s how he recently answered a question about a company which promises to get you   ”the top three sponsored positions on search engines.”

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Of all the aspects of the Internet, none seems to be so full of con artists and purveyors of dubious businesses than so-called search engine optimization companies.

The Scalphunters movies The reason for this is that the basics of SEO (which I’ll call it for simplicity) are simple and can be explained in five minutes. Heck, Google even has a free guide to SEO best practices.

But search engines are susceptible to gaming, to people playing tricks and doing things ranging from tricky to nefarious to downright unethical to try and gain better search engine ranking. Honestly, it’s the digital Cold War, with search engine companies identifying and blocking these tricks and SEO bad guys coming up with new ones.

Enter shady SEO people who are happy to take your money and do various of their tricks for your benefit. If it backfires? That’s your problem, they won’t publicly acknowledge any culpability.

As Micah Baldwin, SEO good guy, says: “There is a general rule when selecting a SEO/SEM company. If they provide a guarantee, they are only guaranteed to take your money. Its important to always ask for references and have them show examples of the successes they have had.”

The basic trick with the come-on you received is that they offer you top three positioning, but for what keywords? Also, top three sponsored positions you can do yourself by paying for an advert on Google’s AdWords program.

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If you’re willing to pay $1, $2 or even $5 for each click, you can easily buy your own way into the “top three sponsored slots”. No middleman needed.

Paying for a good sponsored result is a quite legitimate business practice, but it’s imperative that you understand the value of each lead before you can start to calculate a reasonable cost per lead.

Let’s say each new customer is worth $100 to your business over their lifetime, on average, and that 10% of the leads you get convert into customers.

That calculation is easy: each lead is worth $10. Now let’s say that 2% of those leads turn into customers. How much is each worth? If you’re paying $1.17/click through your AdWords ad campaign, are you getting a good return on your ad budget, or not?

Savvy online marketer Dan Murray adds this warning: “you aren’t being told how much of the money you spend with an SEO firm is going to buy clicks and how much is profit for them. What if they only spend 10% of what they charge you on clicks and pocket the rest? Does this still seem like a good deal?”

I will end by echoing the old adage there really ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. If it seems too good to be true, if a company is telling you that they’ve “reverse engineered Google”, just don’t believe it.

Or, to quote Aesop, slow and steady win this race too.

Pokémon: The Movie 2000 full  Fred Berns trains and coaches interior design professionals on sales and marketing topics.