Tammy Hart, I.D.D.P, CAPS is a graduate and tutor of Q.C. Design School as well as a Certified Aging in Place Specialist from the National Association of Home Builders. She is the owner and award-winning designer for Designer Chick Co., and she’s the previous director of the National Board for DDA (formerly CDECA). She is a professional speaker and has spoken at venues like IIDEXCanada and the Small Business Forum. She’s been featured in East in the City Magazine, has had a guest spot on Daytime Durham, Rogers TV and has won the HOUZZ Service Award 2017. She works to empower young women to become successful future leaders and supports ocean clean-up efforts.
In the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it’s important to take time to reflect on the previous year of your design business. Take the time to celebrate your successes, even if you’re a one-man or one-woman show.
Did you finish your QC Design School courses? Did you start your own business? Perhaps you landed a big client or even your first interior decorating job? They’re all great accomplishments and you need to celebrate them! Then, take time to reflect on what didn’t work so well – and celebrate those as well. Why celebrate our shortfalls, you ask? Because our “shortfalls”, “failures”, and “mistakes” are just learning opportunities that’ll drive our successes in 2019.
Picture all the moving parts of your business
Owning your own design business consists of many moving parts, especially if you are doing it solo. You shoulder the entire operation of your business: time management; responding to and sending emails/phone calls; client acquisition; advertising and marketing; as well as the client experience and financial planning. In addition to these aspects of business, you actually have to do your design work (meetings, design, plans, shopping, contractor sourcing and management). WOW! You’ve accomplished a lot this year!
But in your huge to-do list, are there other opportunities you’d like to pursue? What would you do differently? What goals didn’t you reach that you can move over into 2019 to your resolutions list? Perhaps “bright shiny ideas” tend to create squirrel moments – put them in a “Bright Shiny Ideas” book. Note to self: create an inspiring bright shiny moments book…
Maximize your strengths and address your weaknesses
Maybe you didn’t do so well with time management—I get it. Working from home can be challenging with house chores, dinners, and kids. Make office hours and then block off time for your business. This way, you’ll always have time to accomplish your tasks every day.
Figure out what you’re really good at and what your strengths aren’t. Your strongest assets are your strengths for your business, which should be designing and decorating. Think of it this way, we are the experts in design and decorating – that’s why people hire us, because they can’t or don’t want to do it. So you should consider doing the same. For example, if finances make you cringe and your head hurt, consider outsourcing this part of your business to a bookkeeper or accountant.
The biggest time-sucking, must-do marketing tool – social media – can take hours away from your day. How are you going to gain back that time or do it better? Consider using a social media posting site where you can create all your posts and have them posted for you in a timely manner that you schedule. Then, all you have to do is check in at night and like and comment.
Explore new career opportunities
Did you find an unexpected skillset that you require? Maybe after launching your decorating business, you find yourself getting a lot of inquiries for home staging and want to capitalize on those inquiries but you don’t feel confident in staging. Take a home staging course! QC Design School is packed with courses that can help you grow your business.
Honesty is the best policy when reflecting on your business. It will propel your success going into each and every year, so don’t shy away from this even though it might be hard to swallow your mistakes. Instead of calling them mistakes, call them learning opportunities, genius, or ah-ha moments, and embrace them!
From me to you, no matter how you celebrate, I wish you and yours all the success going into 2019!!!!!