Running an interior design company in this modern age is more challenging than it ever was. You’re competing with both businesses and individuals who specialize in DIY home design. Social media has turned marketing efforts more aggressive, and in the process of engaging and losing prospective clients, you may develop fears that eventually hold back your business.
The only way to move forward is to identify these fears so you can properly address them.
Negative Feedback
Nobody likes to receive negative feedback, least of all a business owner. Whatever people say about your business tends to reflect on your management skills, and often it’s easier to avoid asking for feedback than it is to swallow the negative ones.
Still, that doesn’t cancel the fact that in an industry like interior design, feedback is one element that will benefit your business from your humble beginnings to your biggest milestones. The reason you’re holding on to this fear is that you haven’t objectified its management. There’s no system in place on how to deal with them as you would deal with your taxes and revenues.
One of the first things you have to do is to automate your surveys and questionnaires through reliable companies such as Alchemer. This will simplify the process of collecting and addressing all feedback. You must also establish a step-by-step procedure on how to manage all kinds of information. When you and your employees abide by specific guidelines, you minimize the stress of handling negative feedback and amplify the opportunity to use it for your benefit.
Revamping Your Brand
Branding is critical in business, so much so that when yours stop working, your best move is to revamp it. There’s a certain trepidation that comes with building a company’s image from the ground up. By all means, if it’s possible to just tweak the current brand to suit your vision and goals, do that. But at the end of the day, you know whether or not you’re pushing back a much-needed revamp because you’re being sentimental and frugal for the wrong reasons.
Industries that require a level of artistic mastery are more badly affected by weak branding. How can your clients trust you to turn their home’s interior into a masterpiece if your logo doesn’t make sense? While rebranding may cost you a few customers and a lot of money, it should relaunch your business with a new savvy to conquer the industry.
Make sure to work with rebranding professionals and follow a comprehensive strategy. This is one endeavor that doesn’t happen overnight, after all, and you only succeed when you do it well.
Outsourcing Your Needs
Like other businesses, interior design companies need to outsource their needs. The fear of outsourcing sometimes stems from the added financial burden and the fear that they will hire the wrong people or company. Unless your team is comprised of professionals in their respective jobs, you put your company at risk of some major drawbacks. This is particularly true in accounting.
Keeping track of your tax and revenues is a full-time job, and if you’re a professional interior designer yourself, you won’t have time to squeeze that into your schedule and do a good job at it. The same applies to hiring a lawyer to come up with all your contracts. Doing these things by yourself in the name of convenience and saving money will only put you on the losing side of your accounting and legal responsibilities in the future.
Surviving in a competitive industry means overcoming your fears and pushing forward with the best decisions for your company. Analyze the things you’re afraid of through an objective lens. Starting an interior design company is a risk, so you might as haul your entire company through these risks with the right mindset and strategy to overcome them.
