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The Seriously Happy Herald
Time to get schooled by business.
Should you charge your interior design clients hourly, or with a flat fee?
Whether you charge hourly or with a flat fee in your interior design business is entirely up to you, and there are pros and cons to both options. Pros of charging interior design clients hourly: Cons of charging interior design clients hourly: Pros of charging interior design clients a flat fee: Cons of charging interior…
How to avoid the pick-your-brain clients (or at least get paid for working with them!)
Have you ever spent an hour with a client on an “initial consultation” and then not get hired you because they just took your ideas and ran with them on their own? It is SO frustrating! That used to happen to me, but I figured how to fix it. Now – I may have 99 problems,…
Why you should track your time (even if you don’t have employees)
The list of things I wish I’d known when I started my business is too long to count, but one of them is this: the sooner you start tracking your time, the more money you will make. Want to know more? Time tracking doesn’t have to be hard, but it does mean building a new habit.…
Self-Care for small business owners: Setting communication expectations with your clients
Your boss isn’t likely to help you take care of yourself (cuz it’s YOU lol) Whether you work for yourself as a small business owner or as a freelancer in the gig economy, it’s essential that you find ways to care of yourself… cuz no one else is going to do it for you. Unlike…
Hey Rebecca, how do I handle client questions like: “can I bring a friend?”
Rules & boundaries that serve you *and* your clients. You know that moment when things are going great with your interior design client, and then they throw a question at you that you didn’t expect? Here’s a great formula for dealing with this kind of sticky situation. A colleague of mine was about to go on a…
What to say when a contractor low-balls a remodel project (without bad mouthing the contractor)
No interior design project can become a reality without the help of a contractor (unless you are dealing with an avid DIYer, of course) and that means you need to keep these hard working folks on your side. So what do you do when a contractor has given a client a really low, unrealistic price…
It’s not a competition
If you’ve ever had an idea, maybe for a business, or a poem, or a painting, I’ll bet a little voice inside you piped up and said something along the lines of “you’re not good enough,” “it’s not a good idea,” or “someone else is, can, or will be doing it better.” If you have…
Pin-sanity vs. Contentment
About two years ago I stopped all my subscriptions to my home decorating magazines and I tossed out all my copies of Elle Decor, House Beautiful, Better Homes and Gardens, and Simple Living. With that one choice, my life got happier. Why? I discovered that flipping through those magazines made me feel badly about my…
I wanted to write a book, so I ran away from home.
A few years ago I decided I wanted to write a book. Of course, I was already running a full time business and my husband still wanted to see me once in a while, so the challenge was figuring out how I’d make time to write and have the discipline to get it done while balancing…
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