Profit Is A Choice

014 - Manage Your Projects With Ease

with Sarah Daniele

Sarah Daniele is the CEO and co-founder of Mydoma Studio, providing interior design professionals with the tools to enhance their value, create a repeatable process and collaborate with clients in the industry. Sarah and her team are passionate about using systems and processes to help interior designers grow their design businesses. In this episode we hear how Sarah began her career in interiors and what led her to where she is today.

Topics Mentioned:

• Efficiency
• Project Management
• Client Management
• Side Hustle
• Brand
• Systems

Thoughts From Sarah:

• At Mydoma Studio, we want to empower our designers to navigate and work confidently with their clients.
• It is important to not shelter the stress and paint the picture that it is always easy and fun. It might start out as a side hustle and you’re hustling!
• The company is built by designers for designers and with that we really pride ourselves in asking for feedback.
• Our voice we are giving is true to the brand. Everything you do, from the initial touch to the end is building your brand.
• You need to be efficient otherwise the company won’t be profitable or grow.
• Don’t let fear stifle whatever dream you are working on. Whatever it is, go do it. Be prepared to fail. But every failure means you’ve learned something and you’re one step closer to success.

• Instagram: @MyDoma
• Facebook: MyDoma Studios
• Website: www.mydomastudio.com

Lauren Davenport Imber is an Atlanta-based interior designer that works with clients to transform high-end residential and commercial spaces into livable, chic spaces. Lauren is known for her timeless style and attention to detail, creating projects for clients on time and within budget. Her work has been featured on multiple platforms including HGTV and was recently named as an emerging designer to watch by Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles. In this episode we look at the profitability of working on show houses.

• Getting Started
• Ideal Clients
• Showhouse
• Planning

• The important thing is to know when the project is going off the rails and when to reel it back in. Trial and error is the best teacher- cut the losses, realign expectations and move on.
• Processes and procedures are something you are always tweaking. It is important for you but also for the clients so they know what to expect.
• A great question to help with planning is ‘What direction do I want my business to go in the next few years?’ Plan and work on those initiatives to further meet growth goals.
• I never enter into a Showhouse thinking I’ll get clients. If you plan accordingly, the profitability can be huge. Take advantage of getting your name out, establishing relationships with either the magazine or vendor putting on the event.
• It is important to plan out and create a budget going into a Showhouse.

• 2018 Home for the Holidays Designer Showhouse, http://atlantaholidayhome.com/

SOCIALS:

• Instagram: @davenportdesignsltd
• Facebook: Davenport Designs
• Website: www.davenportdesignsltd.com

Valerie Leonard is an award winning Financial Advisor receiving awards from Forbes, Investment News, Birmingham Business Journal and many more. Valerie’s mission is to help people be the best they can be by making the most of their financial resources and time. She is the co-founder of Grinkmeyer Leonard Financial in Birmingham, Alabama. 

• Budget
• Financial Plan
• Insurance
• Priorities

• Sometimes debt is important in order to grow.
• My ideal client is someone that can value my advice and prioritize his or her financial goals and plan to work hard at it.
• My goal behind the Women and Cents events and my social media feed is to empower women and educate through it.
• It is extremely important to start with priorities and work backwards to set the financials in line to create the budget. We have the ownership and decision making with our budget.
• It is important to have quality time with clients and to give quality in order to maintain relationships.
• My profit goal is to improve the structure and accountability with my business. It is important to identify clear and measurable goals that are achievable.
• It is beneficial to show your work to your clients and let them know how much you really care and how much you’ve down for them. Identify the values and point those out to your clients.

• Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz
• Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• Secret Service by John DiJulius

• Facebook Group, Wisdom and Cents, https://www.facebook.com/wisdomandcents/
• Valerie’s blog, https://northsideofaverage.grinkmeyerleonard.com/

Tracie Taylor  is a Certified Interior Decorator, wife to her husband of 18 years, and mom to two beautiful kiddos. They live on a small ranch in the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Her family loves spending time in the outdoors hunting, camping, and fishing.  

In 2003 she opened an Interior Decorating company that she ran for 4 years. After spending some time raising her children who are now teens, and running an apron design company, she launched Tracie Grace Designs in July of 2017. She asked for backwards financials - and so we are doing a live coaching call on the podcast to help her work through this exercise.

• Strategy
• Intention
• Process
• Plan

• The biggest challenge to my business has been rebuilding and learning how to market myself in a new environment.
• The missing pieces I needed in order for me to grow were finding a business coach to work with and creating and organizing the financial systems.
• In the busiest times is when the need is greater to do the majority of the marketing.
• I’m uncomfortable with knowing what are healthy percentages and/or goals for a sustainable company.
• It is important to do a checks and balances system after every project to make sure any gaps aren’t left.  

• The local economy can impact the industry in each area and community. 
• Pricing plays into marketing and we need to ask ourselves ‘who is our ideal client and what are the services and packages we offer?’
• Success happens by making sure the financials and marketing are working together.
• The goal is to understand your company’s financials with an 80% Financial Health score. Celebrate what you do know and make a plan for what you don’t know.
• We first need to ask ourselves ‘what net profit do we need at the bottom so we can work up to the sales goal?’
• The cost of goods can greatly vary based on amount/percentage of mark up. How much are you willing to mark up and can you mark up?
• Where the company is, where you live and the clients you serve can be different things. It is that personal conversation that needs to be had to understand what is fair and reasonable when pricing and charging for your ideal client.

• Understanding Your Financials course

• Instagram: @traciegracedesigns
• Facebook: Tracie Grace Designs
• Website: www.traciegracedesigns.com
• Pinterest: Traciegracedesigns

Nancy Ganzekaufer is a motivated business coach empowering creative entrepreneurs to build the life and business they have always wanted. Nancy guides her clients to clarity on their business identity, offerings and services. In addition to Business Coaching, Nancy is a National Board Member of the Interior Design Society (IDS) and the current and founding President of the IDS Virtual Chapter.

• Confidence
• Calm
• Growth
• Knowing Who You Are

• It is our job to express what the value is for a client and take them on the journey to see it, feel it and visualize the outcome.
• It takes a lot of self-exploration to make your business your own.
• Three important things to continually be mindful of is confidence, consistency and calmness.
• It is important to take action. My goal is to get everybody to get up and get going and to be motivated to take the necessary steps to be profitable.

• Nancy’s Facebook group    www.ActionableEntrepreneurs.com
• Michele’s Facebook group       www.profitisachoice.club
• 8 Ways to Make Your Business More Profitable Webinar 

SOCIALS:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyGanzekauf
• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://nancyganzekaufer.com
• Instagram: @NancyGanzekaufer

Cory and Anthea Click are owners of Fresh Perspectives in Nashville, Tennessee.  Cory brings his expertise of home building to the team along with Anthea’s career in selling real estate. Together, the couple have created a staging business for 11 years. Anthea has won numerous awards, including Best of Houzz in design and service, as well as “Most Livable” award in both the 2014 and 2015 Parade of Homes. They also received Fixr Top 200 Home Design Influencers of 2017. Anthea was a featured designer for Kirkland’s and appeared on the popular show, Designing Spaces, as a guest designer.

• Getting Started
• Working With a Spouse
• Education
• Coaching Your Team

• We enjoy working as a team and it makes so much sense for us. The two of us are entrepreneurs and we have the same drive as a husband and wife team.
• It’s not about where you are; it’s about where you are going. You tell me no and I’m going to tell you I can do it. No means move on to the next opportunity.
• We took a jump into something that wasn’t going to devastate the progress we had already made.
• Its important to focus on the foundation to see what is working and what is not working. Focus on the direction and look for and build confidence in your team.
• Learning to let go and delegate means we can go a lot faster and with that brings less worrying.
• The most critical part to getting where we are is going to conferences and bringing back visions to share with our team.

• The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni

• Instagram: @fp.home.design
• Facebook: Fresh Perspectives
• Twitter: RealEstateHero
• Website: www.fpstaging.com

Richelle Plett is the owner of Haus and Home, specializing in custom upholstery for the Interior Design industry. Richelle’s story is one of hope and perseverance, taking the journey to find her passions and ultimately what makes her most proud of her work. She is a designer, educator, and supporter with a wicked sense of humor!

• Exhaustion
• Growth
• Starting Over

Thoughts From Richelle:

• Relationships, interactions and time with husband and family were stretched too far when working all day every day.
• It is important to be physically and mentally in the moment. If it’s just one or the other, there is still emptiness.
• A smart business strategy that I did not employ – but learned from is that I should’ve hired an accountant, bookkeeper and business coach early on.
• I want to teach the skills designers will benefit from in learning the workroom and upholstery. Education is what I’m driven by now.  
• It is important to know your profit centers and know what brings in money.
• I’m most proud of learning who I am and what I love to do. It’s working with clients and making those connections and seeing their stories evolve into relationships.

Links:

• Understanding Your Financials course

• Instagram: @richelleplett @sitzenhaus
• Facebook: Richelle.Plett
• Website: www.sitzenhaus.com

Kristy Lott is an entrepreneur and CPA specializing in working with creatives. She initially went to college for psychology and has always enjoyed helping people. However, after beginning her studies she learned psychology wasn’t for her but wanted to continue her passion for helping people and realized she could do that as an accountant. Watching clients grow and helping them understand the basics of their financials is what makes her tick. Kristy has over 10 years of public accounting experience with a goal to make taxes as simple as possible for her clients.

• Peace
• Pivoting
• Growth
• Understanding

Thoughts from Kristy:

• Accounting is personal and it’s driven by providing peace and understanding in others lives.
• It’s important to ask the question, ‘What do I need to be able to do to sustain so I can do what I am passionate about?’
• There is always time to step back even after you started and make corrections to move forward.
• Budgeting shows how much you’ve grown and what has been achieved and what is possible to achieve moving forward.
• Managing time is important and it helps to familiarize yourself with what boundaries work well in regards to balancing family and business.
• The Qualified Business Income Deduction is a huge benefit for small business owners.
• As small business owners, we should check in with our accountants at least 3 times a year.
• A few important questions to ask when working with accountants: How do you work with your clients and what does this look like? Ask what their passions are outside of the office so this partnership can be personal and conversations can be more open. What are their favorite ways to help small businesses save money with taxes?

• Understanding Your Financials course by Michele Williams
• Passion for Profit course by Michele Williams

• Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
• E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber

• Email- [email protected]
• Website- www.kmlottcpa.com

Today I have the pleasure of talking with Kate the Socialite, published author, podcast host of The Kate Show, and founder of Socialite. Kate’s #1 goal is to help home professionals market their businesses with ease and simplicity through email newsletters, social media, graphic design and website design.

• Confidence
• Consistency
• Connection

• It is important to have visuals before moving forward in a design project.
• Confidence is more valuable than the money itself because it propels us forward.
• Profit is about the confidence. Proverbs 31
• Confused customers do not come back. Keep a consistent message so disconnects do not happen.
• Find your niche.
• Select one social media platform and invest big in that marketing channel.
• The “pot of gold” in email-marketing campaigns is your email list. Your email list is more beneficial than how many followers you have on social media.
• Do not wait to start email marketing, do it now because it brings in a faster ROI than other activities.
• Review your marketing quarterly. On social media, look for how many people are going from social media to the website. On the website, the goal is to capture people’s names and emails. And with email marketing, look for how many people are actually opening the email. Your goal should be to stay above 20%.

• Get free email newsletters for your interior design firm or workroom by going to www.katethesocialite.com
• The Kate Show podcast: https://www.katethesocialite.com/the-kate-show/
• Hopper HQ is a great resource that Kate uses for scheduling social media posts and analytics. https://www.hopperhq.com

• Instagram: @kate.the.socialite
• Facebook: @KatetheSocialite
• Email: [email protected]

Today we hit shame head on. No more hiding, running away or feeling less than. Today is the day we remove the shackles of shame, replace them with forgiveness and move into our future. Our success depends on it.

1. Shame

• Shame weighs us down.
• Shame creates negativity.
• Shame creates blame.
• Shame creates self-doubt.
• Shame causes extreme thinking.
• We can stop the cycle of shame by doing the following:
  • Make peace with the idea that errors are a great part of our journey.
  • Recognize our errors early and acknowledge them.
  • Pour grace and forgiveness on ourselves and others.
  • Make restitution and set things right.
  • Move past the shame.
  • Be good to ourselves.

Understanding your Financials course  

001: The High Cost of Fear in a Creative Business

Failing Forward by John C. Maxwell

SOCIALS:

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting
• IG: @ScarletthreadATL
• FB Group: profitisachoice.club