Today in The Lounge, Nick joins interior designer Bria Hammel of Bria Hammel Interiors, who discusses her entry into the design world and the skills she has learned along the way!

Welcome back! Today in The Lounge, Nick sits down with Chloe Brown of Fresh Paint Art Advisors! She’s an art consultant who has a tremendous amount of experience working with interior designers, and today she shares her wisdom on the niche role of art advisors in the residential, commercial, hospitality and healthcare design world.

Today in The Lounge, Nick chats with Eric Mauskopf of J Pocker Custom Frames. Learn about the history and legacy of the Pocker Brand, where the store is today and their upcoming plans for the future. Eric Mauskopf is the newest owner of J Pocker, which specializes in high-end custom framing and artwork in NYC. Eric purchased the store in 2017 from Robyn Pocker, whose family has been in the frame business since around 1926. They currently operate four stores: in New York, NY, Bronxville, NY, Greenwich, CT and Westport, CT.

Today in the Lounge Nick chats with Christine Phillips of Viola! Public Relations and Design. Christine is a publicist and occasional designer based out of Wisconsin. During the chat we learn about Christine on a more personal level. She speaks about how she entered the business, found clients, how to know when you’re ready for a publicist, and maintaining professional relationships.

Julia Molloy: Bold Business Logistics

Today in The Lounge, Nick is joined by interior designer Julia Molloy for a conversation on today’s interior design business models and the ways that designers are generating revenue. Plus, she details strategies to bring your business to the optimal industry-wide gross profit margin.

In addition to having ten years of professional experience, Julia is the founder of BOLD-Business of Luxury design summit and is considered an expert on the business of interior design. Her events are organized at various times throughout the year, all over the country. She recently wrapped up events in Dallas and Costa Mesa, and her upcoming event is in Portland, Oregon on September 17th and 18th. Check back on her website soon to see the dates for the 2019 summits, which will be hosted in either early spring or fall.

Business Logistics Today

Julia knows that business models differ from region to region and type of design firm. Most of the clients she works with are boutique model firms with about 2-7 staffers. Regardless of the size, Julia says that designers generally struggle with two challenges. The first: keeping an organized workflow, info structures and systems in place -- and the second: optimal billing and a high profit margin. And on top of this, new technology and product competition is decreasing product revenue. Hence, a majority of her work focuses on re-framing the billing structure of an interior design business, which we describe in more detail below.

Methods of Generating Revenue

Julia says that there has been a huge shift from past to present billing models and, as a result, the industry standard has shifted. Generally there are three methods to generate revenue: the margin on the product, time billing and service profitability, and fee billing. She calculates overall revenue for a project by what the client has spent on the project divided by the cost.

The optimal gross profit margin per project should be at a target of 40%. This percentage comes directly from Mark Collins, the managing partner of Designer Advantage.

Generating Optimal Gross Profit Margin

No matter which firm you're at, there are various systems to generate the optimal gross project margin. One is markup on product: try to purchase products with a discount 40-50% off retail. With this method, you can markup 35% with the low- to mid-level clients, while being competitive. In the contract, offer a 10-20% discount off retail -- that way, you are not obligated to pass the extra discount to your client.

Another method is focusing on time efficiency. She says that, if you are doing all the work, you should be charging the company no less than $50/hour. She recommends charging $125-300/hour as a principal designer, even if you are starting out. Hiring a junior or assistant designer is a money machine, especially is they are attached to the project. For example, if you hire a junior or assistant designer, plug in $50 an hour, paying a junior/assistant $30/hr, with days off and compensation etc., and markup 30% buffer for payroll, insurance, and so on. If you are doing most of the work on the project versus a junior or assistant, you are costing the company $20 more per hour for the company. This method frees up 10% of your time by hiring a junior/assistant for $400-600/week, with a net profit of $3,000/month for the company. "When you get the efficiency and structure in place," she says, "there is more creativity and you are serving your clients faster and better."

To learn more about Julia, attend a Bold Logistics summit, and buy her profit calculator, visit her at www.juliamolloy.com.

The Chaise Lounge Podcast Updates

The Student Lounge is up and running! Visit us to hear podcast episodes produced for students, by students.

Angela Schuster: Uniting the Painting and Interior Design Worlds

Today in The Lounge, Nick hosts a special interview with Angela Schuster, who has extensive expertise in both the interior design and paint contracting industries. Based in Northern New Jersey, Angela's decorative finishing and painting business, Faux Time Design, serves a variety of clients in the greater New York City area. Through her collaboration with various interior designers and general painting contractors, Angela emphasizes the importance of effectively marketing one’s business.

A Career Change

With a degree in marketing under her belt, Angela originally began a career in corporate planning and sales. It was not until a decorative artist gave her a quote on a mural for her newborn son’s nursery that she found an interest in design. She found it too expensive and decided to tackle it herself. Angela later returned to school for art and design where she studied under some of the leading names in the decorative finishing industry including Gary Lord and Melanie Royals. In 2005, she launched her company Faux Time Design.

Marketing is Everything

Using her marketing background, Angela developed a business plan for her new startup. This included an intensive email marketing and social media campaign. In addition, there are two marketing actions made by Angela that she believes were “instrumental in making [her] company what it is today.” The first is that she hosts annual art gallery-style open houses at local hotels in conference/banquet areas, in which she arranges her decorative finishes on easels. She invites designers, contractors, builders, and clients, and talks about up-and-coming trends and concepts in the field. Angela says that it isn’t uncommon to book four to six months worth of work from these events.

Taking Your Design Business to the Next Level with Showhouses

The second avenue of marketing that helped dramatically grow Angela's business was her use of showhouses. These are special houses typically sponsored by nonprofit groups that showcase the exclusive designs of interior designers and decorators who each design a room in the house. Although designing a space in a showhome is a several week-long time commitment of from set ups to follow ups, Angela testifies that these events are huge marketing tools for designers to discuss designs with potential clients. She highly recommends that designers look into booking showhouses early on and reach out to the designers featured the previous year.

Angela shows how imperative effective marketing is, especially when growing a young design business. Whether that means digital marketing, showhouses, or word of mouth, she advises designers to never pass up an opportunity to market and advertise their design business.

Learn more about Angela Schuster at https://www.fauxtimedesign.com/

The Chaise Lounge Podcast Updates

Nick May has won the Industry Leadership award from the RESA Home Industry Staging Awards! We’re so grateful for the recognition. Stay tuned for dates and info for the International Association of Home Staging Professionals (IAHSP) expo and award ceremony!

We’re also in the running for the 13th Annual Podcast Awards! We’d love to have your vote, which you can cast in the Business or People’s Choice categories. Let us know you’ve voted!

Stay in the know. Head over to our Events page to connect with Nick at market and beyond.

Not attending market this year? Get all of the action on our Facebook and Instagram! Don’t miss our upcoming Instagram takeover at Las Vegas.

Resources

Benjamin Moore has a fabulous new product that commercial and residential designers can use to spice up a project. It’s called Notable Dry Erase Paint, and turns any surface into a blackboard. Watch the video below to learn more!

Douglas Graneto: The Natural Talent

Today in The Lounge we have Douglas Graneto of Douglas Graneto Design from Greenwich, Connecticut. Nick has a great conversation with Douglas about shoes, traveling, choosing a career, and finding success. Plus, they dive into marketing and Douglas' challenges for the future.

Getting to Know Douglas

Douglas is originally from Portland, Oregon, but has been based out of New York City for much of his career. He's fallen head-over-heels for shoes -- recently, he's loving his double-strap leather Guccis. When he's not running his top-notch design business, Douglas loves to spend time with his husband and their daughter, or if they're really lucky, take a trip to Capri! He's a big proponent of traveling in general, but especially outside of the U.S. for new sights and perspectives.

Beginnings

Interestingly, enough, Douglas didn't know that he wanted to be an interior design until he was actually working for one. He's got a degree in art history and only took a few classes related to design, like histories of architecture and furniture, which he really enjoyed. In fact, he didn't even know that interior design was a viable career! Instead, he learned on the job, working directly under Tony Ingrao -- what he calls a "trial by fire," but he had the talent to get through with flying colors. In his first job, he had many different responsibilities as a project manager and credits Tony for being a great mentor in those 9 years he stayed with the firm.

The Firm Today

Now, Douglas runs his own firm with a staff of four: himself, two project managers, and his husband who runs the office! They focus on residential projects in Connecticut, New York, Miami, and recently took a project in Tennessee. Indeed, much of their projects are acquired by word-of-mouth only, whether that means old clients who put them in touch with friends and family, or an old client that needs a new project. They don't market themselves but focus instead on social media promotion and volunteer work in their communities, which has gotten them many write-ups in local media! "I feel like being a part of your community is a huge part of a respected designer," he says. He has recently hired a publicist, though, who has been very successful, and he's poised to begin marketing himself a bit more to weather lean periods.

Learn more about Douglas at http://www.douglasgraneto.com/!

The Chaise Lounge Podcast Updates

Nick May has won the Industry Leadership award from the RESA Home Industry Staging Awards! We’re so grateful for the recognition. Stay tuned for dates and info for the International Association of Home Staging Professionals (IAHSP) expo and award ceremony!

We’re also in the running for the 13th Annual Podcast Awards! We’d love to have your vote, which you can cast in the Business or People’s Choice categories. Let us know you’ve voted!

Stay in the know. Head over to our Events page to connect with Nick at market and beyond.

Not attending market this year? Get all of the action on our Facebook and Instagram! Don’t miss our upcoming Instagram takeover at Las Vegas.

Resources

Benjamin Moore has a fabulous new product that commercial and residential designers can use to spice up a project. It's called Notable Dry Erase Paint, and turns any surface into a blackboard. Watch the video below to learn more!

 

 

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Upcoming Markets

Las Vegas Market July 29 – Aug 2

High Point Market October 13 – 17

BDNY Nov 11 – 12

Wrap Up

If you would like to hear more episodes, please visit us on iTunes or on our website at TheChaiseLoungePodcast.com. Lastly, find The Chaise Lounge on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter,

Glenn Gissler: From Milwaukee to Manhattan

Welcome to The Lounge! Today, Nick is joined by Glenn Gissler. He's the founder and principal of Glenn Gissler Design, a luxury residential design firm. On the podcast, Nick and Glenn discuss Glenn’s education, how he got his start in the industry, and what his firm looks like today. Plus, we give you a sneak peak at our brand new podcast The Student Lounge. Read on for more information about Glenn, The Student Lounge, and what The Chaise Lounge has been up to!

Background

Glenn grew up in America’s Midwest in a small suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He considers it an advantage to be from the Midwest because of how "regular" it is, and he admires simple values. The lack of entitlement in his childhood is something that he finds extremely advantageous in his career as a luxury residential designer.

Education

Glenn’s education was somewhat unconventional and a key component in making him the designer he is today. Rather than the expected four, Glenn was in college for about seven years. He spent his first two years at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he took a large array of classes and almost majored in sociology. After realizing that the University of Wisconsin was not for him, he joined a work-study program in Boston called Boston Architectural Center (now College). During the program, he worked for architects during the day and took classes at night. After two years, he found that the program was not for him. He then transferred a final time to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where he studied architecture and received his degree!

Getting Started

After graduating from RISD, Glenn began working for Juan Montoya, where he stayed for two years. After leaving Juan, Glenn went to work for another notable Latin American designer, Rafael Viñoly, to set up their design showroom.  He stayed with Rafael for another two years until he was asked to design Michael Kors’ first showroom, a 10,000 sq. ft space with a budget of $250,000. He quit his job and opened his own small office in 1987. Two weeks later, though, Black Monday sent shock waves through the economy.

Glenn Gissler Design

Glenn weathered the economic downturn -- and several more! Today, the office is made up of four staffers who approach interior design in a very broad sense. The firm covers everything from architectural design all the way down to art advising. After many years of working with his lead designer they have developed a well-oiled and efficient method of work. However, they choose not to take on too many clients. On the interior side of the firm, Glenn and his team focus more on layout, furnishings, budget, and design context. They also have a focus on what Glenn calls "architectural corrections." Some projects also call for them to act as design directors, including overseeing landscape design.

Learn more about Glenn at www.gissler.com!

The Chaise Lounge Podcast Updates

Nick May has won the Industry Leadership award from the RESA Home Industry Staging Awards! We're so grateful for the recognition. Stay tuned for dates and info for the International Association of Home Staging Professionals (IAHSP) expo and award ceremony!

We're also in the running for the 13th Annual Podcast Awards! We'd love to have your vote, which you can cast in the Business or People's Choice categories. Let us know you've voted!

Our blog is up and running! Look for us on Mondays and Fridays to hear from foremost designers as on topics like the latest at market, social media marketing and the nitty-gritty of running a business.

Stay in the know. Head over to our Events page to connect with Nick at market and beyond.

Not attending market this year? Get all of the action on our Facebook and Instagram! Don’t miss our Instagram takeover.

From Pitch to Press: Live from Los Angeles Today we have a very special episode live from Los Angeles! Last week in “From Pitch to Press,” an all-star panel with four incredible interior designers — and Nick! — dove into the nitty gritty of getting press and different PR strategies. As Nick says, press is...

Angelo Adamo: Creating Memories In Design Today in The Lounge, Nick is joined by Angelo Adamo, a former interior designer at Walter Robbs in North Carolina who is now running his own firm, Angelo Adamo Design. The two chat about the meaning behind designing interiors and Angelo’s fascinating design philosophy of creating memories that last....