Designing Your Design Business – Becoming a Homeowner Consultant

While on the one hand we recognize it’s impossible to

be all things to

all people,

it’s also true that interior design clients and prospects often need more than re-imagined spaces in their homes. What would happen to your business then, if you were able to add the title of Homeowner Consultant to your menu of services?

It’s not at all unusual for service providers to spread their wings and offer advice to their clients. After all, we frequently learn new approaches to common problems as we make our way through a business day. Sharing these experiences and ideas with our clients shows a true generosity of spirit and a desire to be helpful. It’s also a sign of increased professionalism for many of us.

Well, what if you could also make money from doing so?

Expand Your Design Services Menu as a Homeowner Consultant

Now, this is just an off-the-top-of-the-head sort of idea but, if you were able to present your clients with ideas that would simplify their lives, they would surely appreciate your efforts. And, if those ideas were based on real-world solutions to recognizable problems and challenges, they would very likely be willing to pay for such a service.

Here are three ideas for expanding your skillset and services as a homeowner consultant:

• Organize the mess – Small business owners tend to become intimately familiar with disorganization as their customer base expands and teams grow in response. Developing organizational skills is a prerequisite to success for a growing business. Sharing what you’ve learned about overcoming organizational challenges, whether your own or those of your team, will also be valuable to your busy design clients.

• Using space better – Of course, the effective use of limited space is one of the tenets of quality interior design. However, living well in the space one has is a very different matter. If you can help your design clients reduce clutter, increase comfort, and help them make their home feel more livable (in addition to more beautiful), you’ll be doing them a favor for which they would be happy to pay (whether they know it or not).

• Improve time management – Entrepreneurs often wear many hats in their businesses, especially during start-up and/or periods of robust growth. This requires the development of solid time management skills to avoid scheduling conflicts (and going insane), and to ensure tasks are completed on time. Sharing the secrets of managing your time effectively will have real value to busy parents who are trying to juggle the needs of everyone in the family.

Coaching and consulting are two huge growth industries today, especially in the world of online marketing services. Yet, despite this almost exponential growth, few of these self-proclaimed “experts” possess the level of experience that an interior designer can boast. You are, after all, intimately familiar with the transformation that can take place in your client’s homes during a truly transitional experience that can affect every aspect of their lives.

Why not put that experience and knowledge to work, for them and for yourself? Sure, maybe you can't please all the people all the time but, you can please some of them in more ways than one.

These are just a few ideas on how you might be able to expand your design services menu to boost revenue and profits. Can you think of other services, besides homeowner consultant, that you could provide as compliments to your interior design business? Share your ideas with others in the comments section.

Looking for more tips on designing your design business, new design trends, designer marketing tips, and product ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.