The power of your growth as a person and business depends on the strategic duties you do on a weekly basis. Sometimes, duties that we partake in day after day, feel rather redundant. However, effective redundancy is what builds the momentum for ongoing success. These redundancies are your building blocks.
Just in case you have any curiosity about what these business building blocks are, not to worry. I have laid out 5 weekly tasks that can help you build momentum and stay IN momentum. Feel free to bookmark this page, if you need to refer to it in the future.
The 5 Weekly Business Building Blocks for Interior Designers
1. Keep Sharpening Your Craft
Sharpening your skills is highly psychological. How, so? The more you sharpen your skills, the more it refreshes your love and excitement for your field. You feel equipped. You feel on top of your game. You have greater pride in your work because you keep yourself on the cutting edge. When you are in the presence of potential clients, that energy precedes you. It goes ahead of you before you pitch anything. People innately and subconsciously desire to feel that you are so positively connected to what you do. It lets them know that YOU will do an upstanding job with the project(s) at hand.
By the time you actually show them what your sharpened skills can do, they are probably more than half way sold on you!
2. Know Your Numbers. Manage the Finances.
Finances. Often a word that makes you want to roll your eyes. However, the financial standing of your business on a week to week basis, is the life blood of moving forward. Knowing the numbers lets you know what you can take on and what you can’t. It gives you a clue into what to tailor or pull the reins on.
When you are on top of your finances on a weekly basis, you also can be ready to leverage your time and money when unique opportunities present themselves. Perhaps, you get invited to a weekend industry event/retreat where you end up meeting some new clients, etc.
3. Manage Your Calendar
What a miracle it would be if your minds could be as easily organized and categorized as a calendar. Well, that’s just not going to happen! You must rely on your calendars on a weekly basis to make sure you are truly making the most of your time.
If all your to-dos are just in your heads, the first problem will be “letting something slip”. Yes, forgetfulness! There is only so much you can remember. If you choose to not utilize your calendars, inevitably you will be being deceived about “how much” or “how little” you actually have going on.
When you are not managing your calendars on a weekly basis, you may overbook yourselves or underbook yourselves. You may not be aware of areas where you are misusing your time. That time could be used for building a better marketing plan. It could be used to follow up with potential clients. It could be used to sharpen skills or stay on top of interior design industry news.
4. Be an Interior Design Marketing Strategist
Have you fully exhausted the use of your current social media platforms? I’ll touch on the ones most are familiar with, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Depending on your budget or your knowledge, you may not realize how deep you can go on these platforms. You may be leaving a lot of potential clients on the table.
Allow me to give you some golden nuggets about each one, to help you decide what to spend your time on each week.
Twitter: Influencer Marketing
According to Sendible, about 90% of serious marketers are incorporating influencer marketing into their marketing arsenal. What is influencer marketing? Well, I am so glad that you asked because it is a powerful tool!
Those who have the power to influence people on social media have large followings. Not only do they have large followings, but their followers are actively responsive to the things influencers post.
For your purposes, there are influence marketers that compliment your niche of interior design. They have a fresh, new, and primed audience that you can tap into. That’s right, you can put your message out to their followers about what you do, or just have them share your Twitter profile, encouraging them to follow you.
You can either be matched by Influencer Marketing agencies or contact them on your own and set a rate, for them basically giving you a shout-out, on their profile.
Facebook: The ½ hr Social Butterfly
Well, I am sure you do your due diligence going out and networking. That can be a little tiring at some point. If you would like to take a break and switch things up a little bit you can be a “social butterfly” another way.
Find some Facebook pages or groups, where your potential clients would most than likely be hanging out. Spend half an hour a day being involved in their groups or posts, just getting to know them. Be friendly. Be engaging. Contribute to the conversation with some solid tips or advice.
It always piques people’s interest to see who is commenting and participating. Page and group members will check out your profile to see what you are about. It’s a low-key way to get some fresh interest and leads.
Here are some ideas as to where your potential clients might be:
- Fine Art Facebook pages or groups
- Handcrafted Furniture Facebook pages or groups
- Luxury Lifestyle Facebook pages or groups
- Fine Dining Facebook pages
- Local Moms Facebook pages or groups
Instagram: Be a Hashtag Machine
Please, don’t underestimate the power of hashtags. This is the key to getting your videos and pictures ranked in the “Explore” area of Instagram! As many of you know, you can add up to 30 hashtags per image or video. That means you can rank yourself in popularity, for each one of those hashtags. Especially, if you use those hashtags on a regular basis, you can potentially become known or popular in that hashtag category. Nail down those interior design hashtags. Take some time and find 30 solid hashtags that relate well to interior design. I personally, recommend you research hashtags to see the number of posts connected to them.
You would divide the hashtags you find into three categories 10 massive hashtags (millions of posts), 10 medium sized (six figures), and lastly, 10 small (5 figures). This way you are beginning to rank your photos and essentially your overall profile, from the smallest to the largest related hashtags.
As an extra resource, you can also use Display Purposes hashtag search. This one is great if you are in a hurry and need to see a lump sum of hashtags at once. This site generates 30 Instagram hashtags at a time. If you happen to be fond of all of them, you can literally just copy them, with one click and place them right into your Instagram posts. POWERFUL!
5. Updating Status on Client Files
The flurry of life and engaging clients on a daily basis can cause us to forget one simple, but yet crucial habit. The habit of updating the happenings with your clients. Once or twice a week it would be helpful to make notations of progress in their projects. Had you been waiting on them to fulfill a request and they finally did? Update that in the files.
Did you have a phone conversation with one of them and need to remember something important that they said? Put it in their file. All these little interactions with clients add up to a lot of details, that can get confusing if you are balancing multiple clients. However, if you take a few moments to update each client’s information, you can keep things organized. When you have a hard time recalling certain details about your clients, you don’t have to struggle to recall something. You won’t have to call or email them, to double-check.
In Conclusion
Of course, this is not the full scope of what it is to have, “Business Blocks” but every little one adds up. Every building block helps you to build momentum and creates the longevity of your business in your field.
Overwhelmed growing your business and need help? You don’t have to figure it out all alone anymore. Sign up for a business strategy call and I’ll help you make decisions on the next steps for you and your business.
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