It's Reading Time: 10 Books Interior Designers Will Love!

Sometimes you just need a break from staring at the screen and to put your feet up with a good book. We’ve rounded up a selection of some favorite coffee table books, which can serve as inspiration, decoration, and conversation starters, plus a few dreamy novels if you want to get away for a little while.

100 Interiors Around the World

How could we not start with an interior design book? This compact coffee table book is a carousel of stunning snapshots from different countries and stylistic influences, from minimalist to eclectic and Brazil to Indonesia. It's a great way to get out of your bubble and admire the work of other designers.

Wild Interiors by Hilton Carter

Hilton Carter is an author and plant enthusiast who shares his personal plant journey and his top ten favorite house plants, and also profiles the beautiful homes and plant collections of 12 other plant enthusiasts around the world. He provides tips on how to decorate with plants in different types of spaces and offers advice on plant care.

Wonderland by Annie Leibovitz

An absolute legend in the photography industry, Annie Leibovitz shares striking moments in fashion spanning five decades in her coffee table book, Wonderland. It includes her most famous photographs featuring celebrities and style, as well as otherwise unpublished gems that can only be found within its pages.

Eat Drink Nap

Soho House is a chain of exclusive hotels, restaurants and clubs that has developed a reputation for its approach to hosting events and making guests feel at home. The company has compiled this book featuring insights and advice from its experts on how to recreate the Soho House experience in one's own home, including tips on design, lighting, cooking, and cocktail mixing.

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Breakfast: The Cookbook by Emily Elyse Miller

This book is one of Phaidon’s many gorgeous cookbooks and is a compilation of hundreds of easy-to-follow recipes for breakfast dishes from around the world, including notes on the cultural background and culinary characteristics of each dish. Breakfast includes recipes for a variety of sweet and savory dishes, including Egyptian Ful Medames, Mexican Chilaquiles, Chinese Pineapple Buns, American Scones, and Scottish Morning Rolls, among others.

Gold: The Impossible Collection (Special Edition) by Bérénice Geoffroy-Schneiter

If you’re looking to splurge, this premium Assouline book (which comes with complimentary white gloves) presents 100 examples of gold's use in art and artifacts, ranging from ancient civilizations to modern creations, and is packaged in a luxurious gold-covered case.

Remote Experiences by David De Vleeschauwer

A new gem courtesy of Taschen, Remote Experiences is a book that takes readers on a journey to 12 of the world's most isolated destinations, from a hidden kingdom in the Himalayas to the plains of Botswana. Photographer David De Vleeschauwer and writer Debbie Pappyn offer a tour of the people and places that remain untouched by modernity, from the North Pole to Antarctica.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

A cozy yet thought-provoking novel about a Tokyo back-alley cafe that has something very unexpected on the menu: time travel. Customers come hoping to get the most out of their visit - confronting and meeting people they didn’t have the chance to - but the experience doesn't come without certain rules and risks. And they must get back to the present before their coffee gets cold.

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Transit by Rachel Cusk

In Transit, the second book in Rachel Cusk's Outline trilogy, Faye, a writer, embarks on a challenging flat renovation after divorcing her husband. As she works on the project, Faye observes her neighbor's seemingly perfect family and deals with difficult neighbors. The renovation becomes a symbol for Faye's own struggles to rebuild her life.

Summer Crossing by Truman Capote

This younger, less polished novel by the author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s features Grady, a 17-year-old who belongs to 1945 New York's high society. She manages to escape from family plans and stay alone in her family's Central Park apartment. This apartment is an accomplice to the chaos of teenage passion over the summer while Grady's parents are distracted.

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Happy Reading!

xx, Danae

SideDoor: Transform Your Design Business

A Sourcing Tool That Makes Life Easier!

Monetizing an interior design business with products is a conversation that is ever evolving in the design industry. Between vendor accounts, affiliate links, buyer clubs and sales tools, at times it can be hard to decide what’s best for you and your business. Using a variety of these options can be very beneficial to your business and today, I’m going to share more information about one sales tool I came across that has become a real game-changer for many independent interior designers.

SideDoor is a sales tool and platform where interior designers can curate shoppable collections of products from their favorite vendors to share with their clients and/or social media followers. This tool gives you the option to create collections and invoices specifically for your clients AND it allows you to create collections in your style and brand to share on your website and social media platforms.

With over 150 popular vendors and average commissions of 30% this sales tool allows you to monetize your business in a much simpler way. There are over 4,000 creative professionals that use the tool everyday to simplify and monetize their business in all states.

So how does this work? Follow the steps below.

1. Request Access – you can go to www.onsidedoor.com and request to be a part of the program. SideDoor will review your request to see if you’ll be a good fit. Once you are accepted, you will get in on the early access program, which is currently FREE.

2. Curate Collections – After you are accepted, you can start creating collections using products from a vast array of vendors at vendor direct designer net pricing. You can share these collections in client proposals or directly online with your followers.

3. Share – Once your collections are curated you’ll be able to embed shoppable links on your website, blog and other social media platforms.

4. Earn Commission – When your clients or followers purchase products from you, you earn the spread between designer net and retail. SideDoor takes care of the rest.

5. Sit Back – Once your client makes a purchase, SideDoor will fulfill the order, get it to your client and deposit your earned commission.

If you are interested in learning more, you can visit the SideDoor website at www.onsidedoor.com to check out their current vendors, frequently asked questions and apply for access. You can also book a consultation with them to get more information.

SideDoor is a simple and easy to use tool but we know you are busy and actively growing your business. Whether you are currently using SideDoor or you decide to sign up now, we are here to help. There are several VDAs on my team who are able to help you manage your SideDoor account to make sure you are using the tool to its full potential.

As always, feel free to reply to this email with questions.

Have a wonderful day!

XX, Danae

Shop The Look: Winter Gear for Interior Designers

Dress for success - and to stay warm! Here is our curated collection of the perfect winter gear for interior designers.

Are You Thinking About Trying a New Interior Design Niche? Unique & Interesting Design Niches

Interior designers come in all shapes and sizes and I’m sure many you know, like yourself, may specialize in kitchen and bath or whole home. But what other niches are out there? The most recent niche to emerge is what I call the quarantine niche. Designers are designing homes with more recreational and entertaining space, more separation and sanitation and more comfort for those quarantined at home either alone or with other family members.

I thought it would be fun just to research other design niches that we often don’t think about on a day-to-day basis and this is what I found.

Aviation Design – There are interior designers who specialize in private jet design. This type of design is very challenging an extreme as you must be great with working with small spaces and working with all the codes that aircraft interior design entails.

Yacht Design – Although you could be working with more space than a private jet, this type of design is still challenging and requires knowledge of naval architecture and marine engineering.

AirStream Design – The other day I came across an interior designer on Instagram who specialized in AirStream interior design. Again, another change in our economy was the number of people who purchased RVs this spring and summer. Some of them have great bones but need an interior designer to create the luxurious and comfortable environment the owner wants.

She Shed Design – There are people who specialize in She Sheds, Man Cave, Playhouses and all sorts of room away from the home type structures. There are so many interesting options when it comes to this type of design.

Limo Design – Yes, there are people who design the interiors of limousines! I didn’t realize it until I did the research how crazy and luxurious limos can get. There are some that have narrow pools in them.

What other fun design niches can you come up with?

xx, Danae

How To Make Your Website More Accessible

“An inaccessible website can exclude people just as much as steps at an entrance to a physical location.” This is a reminder from the Americans with Disabilities Act website (ADA). As an interior designer, you probably frequently consider different types of accessibility in your designs, and that consideration should extend to your company's website.

While it’s not a legal requirement for all websites (see here if it is for you), complying with the standards laid out by the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design means a more inclusive and welcoming first point of contact with your business. Read on for examples of what this could look like on your website.

Colors & Contrasts

Comb through your website to see how color is currently used to highlight or distinguish content. People who are visually impaired will find it easier to navigate your website if there is greater contrast between text and its background, or if selected items are highlighted with other markers besides color, such as bold or underlined letters.

Headers & Labels

Understanding your website’s layout is much simpler with headers at the top of each page and titles introducing different sections on a page. And when it comes to forms, such as a contact form, there should be a brief description of what it is for and how to fill it out. Ideally, the settings would alert screen reader users if and how they’ve entered information incorrectly.

Alt Text

Text alternatives, also known as alt text or an alt tag, convey the purpose of an image, including photos and videos. Visually impaired people can use screen readers to hear the alt text read aloud. A useful alt text is brief yet provides a relevant description. One example would be: A bright minimalist kitchen with wooden cabinets and marble countertops, and an island with leather bar stools and brass pendant lamps. Bonus: alt text is good for SEO.

Captions

Apart from alt texts, one of the most obvious - yet too easily forgotten - ways to make videos more accessible is to add captions. For example, you may have a video presentation of your studio or a project walkthrough that you can update. Just try to make them as well synchronized as possible so that the experience is smooth for the hearing impaired.

A few final tips:

● Analyze your website with an accessibility checker such as accessibilitychecker.org.

● Find more ideas on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines website.

● Remember to apply these tips to your social media posts as well!

xx, Danae

Does Your Business Card Suck?

The team at Financially Wise isn’t sugarcoating it. “Your business card sucks” is their bold message, and they’ve got a revolutionary solution to bring the most classic business accessory up to date.

A traditional business card is printed on paper in large minimum batches, with information that is likely to change at some point. When handed to potential clients or business partners, it’s easy for them to lose it or never get around to taking the step of looking you up online. The result is that the card is often wasted, and opportunities fall flat.

A Ccard is a durable plastic digital card with a QR code that can instantly be scanned by anyone you’d like to share your information with, or used through the tap function on newer smartphones. This takes them right to your “mini website,” which is part of the package and works as a landing page that includes things like links to all your social media, portfolio images, and call-to-action buttons. This means your information will already be open on the other person’s phone, bringing them that much closer from the first point of contact.

This gives prospective clients and collaborators a chance to check out your work, and gives you the opportunity to address any questions or concerns they may have when considering working with you.

The pricing and features are available in three tiers. The Basic package gets you 1 card for which you can choose from a number of style options. You can also opt for the Custom package, which gives you 2 custom-designed cards to reinforce your brand image. And if you need a few more, the Team package includes 6 cards.

All packages, starting from the most basic, include a professionally designed mini website, which can serve as your main website or a bridge to your existing website. And all packages also provide Analytics, so you’ll have insights into visitors to the page. The Custom and Team packages additionally allow you to have e-commerce functions on your website.

As your business grows and evolves, you can always update your information via the dashboard or reach out to their team of specialists to edit your linked website.

It’s details like these that can help make a great impression when it comes to making new contacts…and keeping them!

xx, Danae

Start Creating Design Packages for Your Interior Design Business

For interior design studios that are able to provide the full spectrum of services, it might be tempting to lay out this extensive list of possibilities in order to wow potential clients or reach a broader client base. However, this approach has proven to be overwhelming and cause decision fatigue as clients look for options they can easily understand and choose with confidence.

Limiting the selection to about 3 or 4 design packages makes the exploration process clearer and more concise. In general, these are tiered, both in terms of scope of work and price points. This way your services are accessible to clients with a range of budgets, and they are able to get a quick overview of what to expect from the very beginning.

Each design package should have a name that reflects its level. Some designers like to present their packages with names like Silver, Gold, and Diamond. Others are more descriptive, such as Refresh, Transform, and Renovation. Take inventory of the services you want to promote, group them, and then decide on the most suitable name. Here are some examples of popular package concepts to get you inspired:

• Designer On Demand: Hourly Video Call Consultations

• Vision Boards: Clickable Shopping Lists

• E-Design: Complete Virtual Service

• Color & Material Selection: Fabric and Finishes

• Home Styling: Art and Accessories

• Custom Curation: Furnishing & Decor

• Full Service Design

• New Construction and Remodels

• Home Staging: Prep for Sale

Some design packages can be offered on a flat fee basis, per room or square foot, and many clients feel more comfortable knowing exactly how much the total investment will be. On-site services, especially those that include construction work, require a more thorough study in order to provide a realistic quote.

Bundling services into packages also guarantees you a worthwhile amount of work and allows you to establish practical processes for you and your team to execute. And the more you repeat these processes, the more streamlined they’re going to become, which translates into higher profits.

Remember:

• Design service packages that best represent your studio’s specialties or niche

• Be clear about what deliverables, formats, and revisions are included

• Charge an additional hourly rate for client requests outside the package scope

Let prospective clients know you’re available for a discovery call in order to assist them in determining which package best fits their needs. You may wish to offer online booking for a free 15 minute initial video call consultation.

Finally, as with all aspects of running your business, it's a good idea to occasionally analyze the results of the design packages you're offering, see what's working and what's not, and make adjustments as necessary.

xx, Danae

Top 10 Ways to Fully Enjoy & Experience the Holiday Season

As the internet begins to make jokes about Mariah Carey starting to defrost and holiday songs play overhead, it’s the perfect time to prepare for the season ahead. With a bit of intention and forethought, you can make the most of your holiday season. Here are ten tips to do just that!

1. Plan Ahead

Do your future self a favor and lock in your major plans ahead of time, outlining any prep work you need to do and creating lists, so you don't feel frantic as the dates approach.

2. Have Fun Decorating

Few things get people into the holiday spirit like seasonal decorating around the house. Get inspiration from Pinterest and other blogs, starting with our post on Simple and Elegant Holiday Tablescape Options!

3. Make Room for New Traditions

It can be liberating to remember that you're not bound by all the old holiday traditions you don't care for, and it can be a lot of fun and meaningful to create new ones with family or loved ones, such as new recipes or activities.

4. Choose Thoughtfulness Over Price

Not only can it benefit your wallet to not try to impress with the most expensive gifts, but the most memorable gifts are the ones that tell the person that you've paid attention to their interests and that they’ve been on your mind.

5. Be Intentional About Sharing

Sometimes it takes extra effort to arrange games to play together or create a space to share stories. If that's important to you, be sure to take the initiative and make time for it. Let your enthusiasm be contagious and allow others to add to the holiday bucket list!

6. Indulge in Moderation

When it comes to eating during the holidays, find a balance that makes you feel good. It's a time to enjoy, so indulge guilt-free, but pay attention to when your body tells you it's time to stop or introduce more nutritious foods.

7. Pick Your Battles

When certain relatives tend to stir up tension every year, don’t let it surprise you anymore. Brace yourself, set boundaries where you feel it’s important, get comfortable saying no, and try to let the rest go.

8. Tap Into Your Generosity

The holidays are a time when sharing and abundance are missed even more by those with less. Consider local volunteer opportunities or invite people you know who don't have family to celebrate with.

9. Get in Touch with Nature

Embrace the season by appreciating how the natural world changes and what winter has to offer. Whether it's playing in the snow, enjoying outdoor sports, or picking a sprig of holly berries or pine to make a wreath.

10. Take Time for Yourself

While one of the highlights of the holidays is the opportunity to spend more time with loved ones, it can be intense and exhausting. It's healthy and good to allow yourself some relaxing time alone to recharge your batteries in the midst of it all.

Happy Holidays!

xx, Danae

Tips for a Smooth Client Onboarding Process

Onboarding is the process of welcoming and familiarizing your new client with your company and the project journey ahead. After signing the contract, it's the first point of in-depth contact, so it's time to anticipate needs and exceed expectations. The onboarding process is all about forging a relationship with your client. They want to feel heard, informed, and taken care of, throughout the project process. While many interior design clients may not be repeat customers, their experience with you from the earliest phases will define your company's reputation and also unlock the potential of word-of-mouth marketing.

At a glance, a successful client onboarding process:

• keeps competitors at bay

• gives you the opportunity to upsell or cross-sell services

• helps you set expectations and avoid scope creep

• allows you to build a loyal client community

• provides insights into how to keep improving your business methods

Now, let’s look at several ways you can ensure a smooth client onboarding process.

Get to know the client and personalize their journey

Ask your client to answer a short online questionnaire to identify their pain points. Organize a meeting with the team to introduce yourselves. This is a personal touch that will facilitate future communication and demonstrate your commitment to the project. Follow up with a welcome email to your client to tell them how much you are looking forward to working with them and briefly outline the next steps that were discussed in the meeting.

Avoid information overload

While it’s vital to be transparent and make information accessible to the client, the goal is to streamline the process and facilitate the experience. So walk them through the main points and give them access to a Client Dashboard, where they can refer back to information like the contract, process outline, design options, and anything else that may be relevant. This will reduce unnecessary back and forth, give clients peace of mind, and prevent oversights that can lead to unmet expectations as the project progresses.

Include visual and interactive material

In the same spirit as the previous point, you can make the experience lighter and more enjoyable by incorporating different forms of media and interaction. Having videos on your website and social media allow clients to know you and understand better how you work. Consult a UX Design pro to fine-tune the format and functionality of things you send to clients: questionnaires, documents, inspiration images for feedback, or furniture options.

Stay available

Although you need to have a defined scope of work that includes a limited number of site visits and meetings, it’s important that clients can count on you to respond in a timely manner and resolve their concerns. That excellent service is one of the aspects that will have the greatest impact on the overall feeling and memory of the client’s experience. And it's what they’ll talk about when they recommend you to their family and friends.

Train and communicate with your teammates

The first step of onboarding is to be clear about who will be responsible for each step of the process. Everyone on your team should understand their role in order to keep things flowing, avoid redundant work and communications with the client, and so that no detail falls through the cracks. This kind of professionalism shines through to clients.

Celebrate small victories

Even if clients are well-informed, the interior design project process often turns out to be more complex and stressful than one might imagine. That's why it's so important to point out and celebrate project milestones with them along the way. This good energy will come across in your communication and site visits, helping to make the journey more enjoyable and convey confidence in the progress.

Review your onboarding practices

Be sure to write down all the steps you want to include in your client onboarding process. It should be detailed enough to be able to hand this process off to someone who is able to execute it. Put the process in a neat document, so that you can make any revisions over time and simply go through the steps each time a new client comes on board.

The chances of maintaining a positive relationship with a client are infinitely higher when you conduct a thorough onboarding procedure. While creating a successful onboarding plan may require some work upfront, it will ultimately save your team time and make your business run more smoothly.

xx, Danae

New Courses Available at Elite Design Assistants!

As a successful business owner, I’m sure you realized early on that in order to grow, scale and be successful you really need to be a lifelong learner. We are always learning and growing and strengthening our skills. If you are looking to polish your skills and/or learn new ones we’ve updated our courses page with some amazing new courses offered by industry partners.

The Standard, created by Sandra Funk at House of Funk, is an amazing course that teaches you step-by-step how to streamline your process and grow your firm into a luxury design business while giving yourself more freedom, creativity, and a job. This is the only program of its kind that not only provides a proven pricing model and turkey processes, but also the strategy, and tangible methods behind attracting and retaining luxury clients. This course is only open for enrollment twice per year! You can reserve your spot here, the next enrollment most likely will be around March 2023.

Chief Architect for Interior Designers is a Teachable-hosted course series, Kelly Fridline will broaden your knowledge of Chief Architect, Home Designer Pro, Sketchup, and Enscape. Kelly is an architecturally-trained designer and holds a Master of Architecture from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and almost a decade of professional experience, with 5 years working with Chief Architect software. Finally — a course specifically tailored to the Interior Design industry! You can either take the 6-course bundle or take the courses individually. The bundle is available here.

If you want to pick and choose from the individual courses, they are:

Chief Architect for Interior Designers – this is perfect for beginners.

Home Designer Pro – learn the ins and outs, and you’ll learn more than just the basics.

SketchUp Pro Organic 3D Modeling – Advanced 3D modeling in SketchUp Pro.

SketchUp Pro 3D Modeling – A full course on 3D modeling in SketchUp Pro.

SketchUp Free for Beginners – Learn 3D modeling in the SketchUp Free program.

Enscape for Interior Designers – Learn how to render in Enscape and create renderings that will make your clients say WOW!

We also have a Passive Investing course in the stock market for interior designers who are interested in learning how to increase their wealth. The course teaches you the ins and outs of starting your own brokerage account, and how to choose which stocks to buy and when to buy them. This course is perfect for those who are interested in learning how to get their money to make more money. Check it out here.

We are still working on passive investing in real estate and hope to see more information on that coming soon!

If there is something you are looking for in particular that you don’t see here let us know. We are always eager to help interior designers grow, scale, and create the business of their dreams!

xx, Danae