Happy New Year! One thing's certain about 2007: You won't achieve superior results with inferior clients You won't prosper serving customers who are more trouble than they're worth. Customers who don't appreciate you. And who beat you up on price. But you will earn top dollar from top clie
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What's it going to take to make 2007 your best year yet? Good answers to some basic questions. You don't need slick advertising or a glitzy new web site or trendy new product lines to make 2007 your "career year." You need answers. Answers to questions about goals, what's working, and what nee
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I met a designer and landscaper once who wrote letters of introduction for each other. The landscaper's letter to his clients began: "I'm writing to introduce you to the most talented interior designer I know, and to recommend that you contact her the next time you or someone you know needs the s
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What's your plan for 2007? A design professional without a plan is like a ship without a rudder: you may have a rough idea of your destination, but not a clue on how to reach it. Set aside time over the holidays to create a personal wish list, and then determine the kind of income you need to
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Set aside some "self appreciation" time this season. Give yourself something over the holidays that doesn't cost anything, come in a box, or sit under a tree. Credit. Credit yourself for changing people's living space. And changing their work space. And changing their lives. Credit your
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"He's nuts!" That's what Cathy Orfall later told me she thought when I suggested she nearly double her rates. No way, the Hood River, OR. designer said. No way that her clients would agree to an hourly fee above her rate of $75. "I was kicking and screaming against your idea all the way," s
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“Where ya been?” We’ve heard that question lots lately. The short answer: we’ve come down with a case of technical troubles We figured that posting messages on InteriorDesignBusiness.net would be goof-proof. We figured wrong. Problems with our server have miffed – and muzzled – us in recent days.
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Use weather words to describe a new government report on the interior design job outlook, and the forecast is Partly Sunny. Or, for that matter, Partly Cloudy. The good news in the study by the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics(BLS) is that there will be plenty of demand for d
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"There always will be those who say you take too long and you charge too much." The words of Alex Chapman, one of Toronto's best-known residential designers. And wise words they are. If you're a design professional, you're going to run into price objections. They come with the territory -- an
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What do you say when they say you're "too expensive?" If there's one thing that design trade professionals dread, it's price objections. It's gotta be the No. 1 frustration they express when I coach them, or speak to them at my programs around the world. That's why dealing with price objecti
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