You and Marlene Oliphant have something in common: photos on your website.

The difference is, her photos have captions. Chances are, yours don’t.

Marlene, a Glendale, CA. designer who is a coaching client of mine, has an explanation for every one of her photos at www.marleneoliphant.com.

There’s the caption for the “country French kitchen with red, toffee and cream cabinet finishes, copper sinks and hood and a bleached wood floor.”

And there’s one for the mountain home master bath featuring a “heated slate floor and a two-person shower. The window seat conceals a warming drawer for heating towels.”

And check out the photo of the dining space. The caption explains that the “ultrasuede dining chairs clean up easily from wine spills, and the Italian glass table has extendable leaves.”

Because of their captions, Marlene’s pictures have something which most interior design website photos don’t have: meaning.

If you don’t include captions, I gotta problem with the photos on your website.

The photos may be pretty, but they don’t seem to serve a purpose. They’re a waste of my time and your money.

That’s because you don’t explain what you’re showing me — and why.  What’s your point? What do these pictures prove? Why should I care?

Your website photos will have greater impact if you give me guidance. A little caption can say a lot.

Fred Berns is an interior design industry  sales and marketing coach and trainer.

The median income for U.S. interior designers with at least eight years experience is only $72,120.

For those with 4-6 years experience, it’s $50,501. For those with an experience level of 2-4 years: $43,374.

My source for those numbers: a report released by Salary.com.

My word for those numbers: “disappointing.”

Disappointing because design professionals work way too hard to earn that little.

Disappointing because they know so much about so much — from classic to contemporary — and don’t get adequately compensated for it.

Disappointing because they’re three times as skilled as professionals in other fields who earn six times more money.

The income numbers should give you a clear message: it’s time to quit.

Quit giving away your time and expertise. And negotiating your fees. And working with clients who can’t afford you.

Quit wasting your time on non-income producing activities. And taking on projects that are more trouble than their worth.

Quit thinking small.

Fred Berns coaches interior design professionals worldwide on how to increase their income, and promote themselves more effectively.

Forget, for a moment, what your income is. Focus, instead, on what it can be.

Your income this year can be substantially higher.

And it WILL be if you follow the steps in my new FREE report entitled: “10 for ’10: The Ten VERY BEST Ways to Turbocharge Your Design Business in 2010.”

This report, based on my recent sold-out tele-seminar, explains how to achieve much bigger profits, land much bigger contracts and connect with much better clients.

Download this FREE report, and you’ll learn ten strategies that can immediately turn your business around, and dramatically increase your sales and profits.

Some are sales strategies. Some are marketing strategies. Some are time management strategies.

All are shortcuts to greater success in your design business and career than you’ve known before.

This report will help you take charge of your interior design business and career, and make this your best year.

For more information and download details about the FREE “10 for ‘10” Report, click here: http://www.fredberns.com/10for10/

Fred Berns is the world’s leading business coach for interior design professionals.

When you work with large commercial clients, multiple contacts are as key as meaningful ones.

For years you work with a big client– a firm responsible, say, for hospitals, or banks or shopping malls. The design projects and the orders and the money keep pouring in. You couldn’t be happier.

One day, your key contact — the person who brought you in – - quits. The company never hires you again.

Whose fault is that?

It’s great to have a key contact at a corporate client. But that’s not enough.

A key contact can get reassigned.

Or get fired.

Or retire.

Or die.

If you haven’t connected with others at the firm, then see ya later.

You’re gone, too.

Your future with a corporate client depends on how many people in the company you know — and how many know you.

In this era of downsizing, outsourcing, turnover and change, it pays to “go deep” within the company.

Some tips on how to to do that:

Seek contacts from your contact – Ask the person who brought you in for names of others you should know.

Aim high — Request that all of the senior managers and vice presidents attend initial brainstorming sessions.

Gab with the Gatekeepers — Network with office managers, secretaries, executive assistants and others in tune with daily operations.

Bond with the Brass — Seek onging input throughout the project from top decisionmakers .

Play Pool – Set up your “next shot” by discussing additional projects and other services you can provide.

You can never know too many people within the company.

Fred Berns, a trainer and coach, is among the biggest names in the business of interior design.

Asking more questions ges your more business. Just ask a physician.

The most financially successful doctors do the best job of finding their clients’ pain, and prescribing remedies.

Make this the year that you play doctor.

Make this the year that you spend more time identifying your clients’ needs, problems and pains when in it comes to design, and then offering solutions.

Some examples of “pain questions:”

+ What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to updating your corporate offices?

+ What’s your biggest concern when it comes to remodeling your vacation home?

+ What’s your major fear about tearing out all of that carpeting in the lobby?

+ What would it cost you if you don’t install more energy-efficient window treatments?

+ What do you see as the biggest problem in the design of the employee break room?

Questions like those will convince prospects that you care, and will get their focus off your fee.

Fact is, most prospects are more interested in coming up with solutions to their design challenges than they are in paying the very lowest price for a designer.

Fred Berns is a business coach and trainer for interior design professionals worldwide.

If bigger sales and higher profits are on your mind, Baltimore is the place to be on Feb. 13-14.

Baltimore is the site of the  Exciting Windows! annual conference, for which registration is free.

The two day event will offer programs on topics ranging from building your sales to internet marketing, and will feature such industry experts as Grace McNamara, the publisher of Visions magazine.

Exciting Windows! is a franchise organization which bills itself as “America’s only nationally advertised full service” company whose professionals “come to your home with all window products – blinds, draperies, shadings, and shutters.”

Franchise owners will be on had at the conference to share their success stories.

Speakers will discuss how to target customers who have money and want to buy NOW, and such internet marketing ideas as interactive websites, email campaigns, social networking and search engine optimization.

When you register for free, you get your choice of two online classes, valued at $300, at Window Coverings University.

For information and free registration details for the Exciting Windows! annual conference, contact Steve Bursten at steveb@excitingwindows.com.

Fred Berns is a sales and marketing coach for window fashion specialists and other interior design professionals worldwide.

There may have been as many industry partners as design professionals on hand last week at my presentation for an ASID chapter.

Maybe more.

The ample IP turnout at my “Supersize Your Success” program for the ASID Los Angeles chapter was a familiar sight.

I’ve noticed an increased effort in recent months by showrooms and manufacturers to reach out to design pros at industry events.

What are the other ways for industry partners to connect with designers and others?

A while back, I surveyed managers of some of the nation’s most financially successful showrooms, and they shared these ideas:

+ Conduct designer focus groups

+ Build strong road rep programs

+ Turn the showroom into an event center

+ Keep showrooms looking “fresh” by updating signage, lighting, etc.

+ Smile and dial: call designers often

+ Handwritten thank you notes

+ Meet and eat: take lunch to top designers

+ Interactive showroom and manufacturer’s websites

+ Website columns on how designers can increase sales

+ Newsletters

+ Ezines

+ Blogs

+ Free publicity

+ Speaking engagements

+ Design review book (competition finalists get work published in coffee table book sold in showrooms)

+ Bring in business speakers

+ Make business coaching available

+ Offer business-building books and tapes

+ Ship out product samples

+ Quick response time

+ Flexibility of hours (weekends, etc.)

+ Simplified ordering

+ Customer niche / specialized products

+ Say “yes” when you should say “no” (cover for your customers)

+ Showroom tours

+ Voicemail

+ Think globally (One Dallas showroom sells $10,000 sofas and $70,000 kitchen sets over its website.)

+ Frequent buyer awards

+ Cross market with other showrooms.

Fred Berns is a trainer and coach for design industry partners and design professionals worldwide