Profit Is A Choice

Joining me on the podcast today are Michelle and Alex Gage of Michelle Gage Interiors and Business Measurements. We are focusing our attention on the need for business financial measurements that allow a business to know where it is and use the data to make decisions on where it is going.  

If you have been listening to my podcast for any time, you know how much I focus on profitability – hence the name of the podcast, as well as, the importance of not only knowing your numbers but knowing what they are telling you. The story of your numbers if you will. What Michelle and Alex have created is a dashboard that will help you know your numbers at a glance whenever you want. And knowledge is empowering. 

No matter where you are with your financials, listen in today. And don’t forget to go to my website and check out the Understanding Your Financials course and Master Your Profit course to really understand what all the numbers are telling you.  

• Financials

• Reports 

• Data

• Analysis

• The benefit of recording is to keep you accountable.  Michelle Gage (09:00) 

• Everything got just really too much for me to manage in Excel by myself. Michelle Gage (17:15)  

• QuickBooks is accurate for what it was updated to, but we couldn’t combine information. Alex Gage (30:04)

• I want to be in the position to make business decisions that make sense for me right now because I know where I stand financially. Michelle Gage (40:33) 

• Business Management gives you the information you need to know in a quick glance. Alex Gage (44:08)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: michellegage.co

• Facebook: Measure Your Business

• Instagram: @michellecgage

• The Designers' Inner Circle - Become a Member Today

• Manage Your Projects with Ease, Episode 014 with Sarah Daniele

• Understanding Your Financials and Master Your Profit

• Financial Health Checkup

Joining me on the podcast today is Eileen Hahn. Eileen is a leadership consultant who partners with organizations to assist them in hiring and leading exceptional people. Today we will be exploring the 5 keys to success that exceptional leaders employ. Eileen joined us on episode 50 where we talked about hiring exceptional people. See the connection? Eileen is all about working in and with the exceptional. Grab a pen and paper and get ready for a great conversation. 

• Vision 

• Strategic Plan 

• Key Performance Indicators

• Team

• Creating a big bold vision of who are you and where do you want to go, not just stay in business but stay in business and what?  Eileen  (07:13) 

• Once you have your big bold vision, step two is to have clear, measurable goals that increase every year in a manner to enable you to reach your vision. Eileen (15:51)  

• The KPIs are the factors that are critical to the success of your business. Eileen (21:12)

• Your next point was strategic planning every year, talk to us about strategic planning. Michele (36:02) 

• Set aside one day to talk about what data and information we want to gather and talk about in our two-day strategic planning. Eileen (41:50)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: eileenhahn.com

• Welcome Page: Divinesocial.com

• LinkedIn: Eileen Hahn

• Instagram: @eileen_hahn

• The Designers' Inner Circle - Become a Member Today

• Hiring Exceptional People to be Profitable, Episode 50 with Eileen Hahn

Scaling is the topic of this podcast. We know that scaling simply means growing in some capacity. When we set out to scale our business there are usually barriers and we will dig into 5 of them in this episode. Listen in and see what might need to shift in your business to allow it to grow. 

• Growth  

• Mindset 

• Infrastructure  

• Delegation

• Systems 

• You need to build your business Infrastructure. Michele (1:52) 

• You need to begin delegating your tasks. Michele (5:56)  

• Invest in yourself in learning how to manage and lead. Michele (13:13) 

• Market to not just your potential customers but also your potential team members. Michele (18:58) 

• You need to know your numbers and financials. Michele (20:46) 

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• The Designers' Inner Circle - Become a Member Today

• E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber

• Traction by Gino Wickman

• Profit First by Mike Michalowicz

On the podcast today is Keith Knapp. Keith is a nationally recognized speaker and educator in business, marketing, and credit. We are going to focus our conversation on business credit. We will be defining what it is, why you need it, how to get it – and how to keep it. This is a very interesting and timely discussion. Hope you enjoy! 

• Business Credit

• Funding

• Credit Store

• Business Entity

• How does a business get business credit? Michele (12:10) 

• There are 4 tiers of business credit. Michele (23:03) 

• Set up your business correctly, using specific entity structures that are best for your situation. Michele (28:50)  

• Who is looking through our credit? Keith (33:06) 

• How do you prepare for business credit. Keith (39:36) 

• How to qualify for business credit. Keith (45:13) 

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Facebook: Keith Knapp

• Website: Creditsuite.com

• The Designers' Inner Circle - Become a Member Today

We all leave a legacy of some type. We may think of it as an inheritance or heritage. But have you ever considered the legacy of your business?  

In this podcast episode, I am going to share with you five attributes of legacy in your design firm. Let's work to build intentional legacy in our business. Enjoy the podcast. 

• Community Continuance  

• Leadership  

• Heart-based  

• Planning  

• Create community continuance. Michele (4:06) 

• Create an intentional leadership turn. Michele (6:48)  

• Create heart-based promoters. Michele (9:20) 

• Complete quarterly planning. Michele (11:44) 

• Embrace ongoing adaption. Michele (13:33) 

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• The Designers' Inner Circle - Become a Member Today

• Signs Your Interior Design Sales Process is Working, Episode 094 with Michele Williams

• 5 Indicators Your Interior Design Firm Profit is on Target, Episode 096 with Michele Williams

• 5 Hallmarks of Order in Your Interior Design Business, Episode 099 with Michele Williams

• 5 Features of Impact in Your Interior Design Business, Episode 101 with Michele Williams

• Measure What Matters, by John Doerr.

• Traction by Gino Wickman

• The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington

On the podcast today is Maddie Poteat, the founding partner, and lead marketing strategist at MP Consulting based in Nashville, Tennessee. Maddie and I are going to jump into a conversation about testimonials. We're going to talk a little bit about the difference between just asking for feedback from your client and really having those social proof testimonials. We're also going to look at how to create the questions, how to collect that information, where to put it online, and why we need to do it. We're going to discuss the benefits, and then even what not to do, or what's not really the best way to go about gathering testimonials. Testimonials, as many offer to us, are a free way to have a large marketing impact, so we don't want to overlook how to get, use, and manage them properly in our business. So I hope you'll walk away with a couple of ideas of the testimonials you need to get, how to add that into your process, and where you want it to show up.  

• Testimonials 

• Feedback 

• Negative Reviews

• Analytics

• The benefit of asking for and receiving testimonials is that they help your business build trust and credibility. - Maddie (06:58)

• When do we ask for reviews and testimonials? Build it into the sales process where it makes most sense. Maddie (14:47) 

•  Make sure you have a process document on how you solve problems. Michele (25:43)

• Ask for reviews on Google, FB, Yelp, Houzz, LinkedIn, Angie’s List, Bing, then decide how you want your ads to show up. Maddie (33:47)

• Ask specific questions when requesting a testimonial or review. Michele (38:41)

• To get past being braggy you need to be very professional about how you ask for your reviews. Maddie (44:37)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: mpconsultingfirm.com

• LinkedIn: MP Consulting

• Facebook: MP Consulting

• The Designers' Inner Circle - Become a Member Today

Impact refers to transformation – not just information. When we can move our business relationships and outcomes past the transaction stage, that is where the real change occurs.  In this podcast episode we are going to review the five features of impact in an interior design business and see how after “getting” we can “give.”  Enjoy the podcast. 

• Transformation

• Feedback   

• Motivation

• Network

• You have a transformation orientation. Michele (2:58)

• You have mission motivation. Michele (8:52)

• Profitability You have dream alignment. Michele (11:39)

• You have feedback integrity. Michele (13:45)  

• You have a complimentary network. Michele (16:19)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• The Designers' Inner Circle - Become a Member Today

• Aim with Intent Methodology 

• Secret Service  by John Dijulius

• Fix This Next, by Mike Michalowicz

• Start with Why by Simon Senek

• 5 Signs Your Interior Design Sales Process is Working, Episode 94 with Michele Williams

• 5 Indicators Your Interior Design Firm Profit is on Target, Episode 096 with Michele Williams

• 5 Hallmarks of Order in Your Interior Design Business, Episode 099 with Michele Williams

On the podcast today are Erika Ward from Erika Ward Interiors and Veronica Solomon of Casa Vilora Interiors. Both of these women have a very strong faith. They are living it out in their day to day transactions including how they respond to people. They are very transparent with what they believe, and how it drives their lives and their businesses.

I invited them on the podcast to talk about how they integrate faith and business. Whether this is what you believe, or what you don't believe, I want to invite you to listen with an open heart. Then maybe ask yourself, "What do you believe, and how does that fit into how you live your life and run your business?" Again, we can all respect each other, and we can believe different things, but it is interesting to listen and to understand. As I love to say, seek first to understand and then be understood. I hope you find today's podcast different and interesting, but also enlightening. I also hope that it gives you food for thought for your own business. Enjoy the podcast.   

• Faith 

• Love 

• Hope

• Fear

• It was important to me to let people know on my website that this is my worldview. You don't have to have the same one, but you need to know mine if you're going to work with me. . - Michele (10:50)

• Be careful of what you put in your heart and mind. When we're saturating ourselves with things that are of God, then that's what comes out. - Michele (17:08)

• Late last year, I found a book that called Atomic Habits. The book really talked about what you do; your action is based on your identity, which is based on your belief system. - Michele (29:02)

• Honestly, that is it for me. When I'm overwhelmed or I find that fear like you mentioned, we all are feeling some level of what's going on, I pour it in out in writing instead of bottling it up inside. - Veronica (37:38)

• He's giving us the greatest gift of time. Erika (45:18)

• I keep feeling that I'm getting a new gift of perspective. - Michele (45:39)

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Website: Erika Ward - erikaward.com Veronica Solomon - veronicasolomon.com

• Instagram: Erika Ward - @mrserikaward Veronica Solomon - @casavilora

• Facebook: Erika Ward - MrsErikaWard Veronica Solomon - CasaViloraInteriors

• The Designers' Inner Circle - Become a Member Today

• Atomic Habits by James Clear

• Your Identity in Christ by Matthew Robert Payne

• These Final Days - Ryan Speakman

Order in a company allows for repeatability, efficiency, and expected outcomes. We create some order when we begin, but focusing on order, at the appropriate time, allows us to fine-tune the work being done and the product being delivered. 

 In this podcast episode, I am going to share with you five hallmarks of order in your design firm. Order becomes the focus after we have a solid sales and profitability plan in place.     

• Wasted Effort

• Reputation   

• Team

• Redundancy

• The first hallmark: Minimize wasted effort. Michele (3:26) 

• Second hallmark: Reputation. Michele (07:49)  

• Third hallmark: Team engagement. Michele (12:02) 

• Fourth hallmark: Role alignment. Michele (15:48) 

• Fifth hallmark: Linchpin redundancy. Michele (17:20) 

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• The Designers' Inner Circle - Become a Member Today

• 5 Signs Your Interior Design Sales Process is Working, Episode 094 with Michele Williams

• 5 Indicators Your Interior Design Firm Profit is on Target, Episode 096 with Michele Williams

On the podcast today is Katie Baldwin, the founder of Katie Baldwin Designs out of Lakeville, Connecticut. Katie is an awesome designer who has started shifting her business just a little bit to focus on some of the areas that she really loves, instead of doing what she thought she had to do. She's following her heart, her strengths, and skill set and finding that her joy has been increased. In addition, this focus has brought great opportunities for collaborations with other professionals.

I hope that you enjoy listening today. Maybe consider taking a step back and looking at your own life and your own business. Ask yourself where you're doing what you think you have to do, and maybe where you have an opportunity to do what you want to do. 

• FOMO

• Strengths

• Clarifying Questions

• Project Management

• Apologizing about and around the business, especially when it’s different from the rest of the industry. Michele (10:47) 

• How the reaction around you contributed to your apologizing. Michele (18:19) 

• Setting up a system to move through different types of business disruption. Katie (23:28)  

• Looking at what education or experiences do you need. Michele (33:34) 

• Doing a financial analysis for you to reach your business goal. Michele (42:33) 

• Putting a system in business is an iterative process. Michele (51:35) 

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

• Facebook: Katie Baldwin Designs

• Instagram: @katiebaldwindesigns

• Website: www.katiebaldwindesigns.com 

• The Designers' Inner Circle - Become a Member Today

• How to Build Supportive Relationships Within Your Design Business, Episode 097 with Kara Cox

• Bookkeeping for Success, Episode 053with Emily Moore