Featured on the Show:

• Renovation Management for Interior Designers – Expanding your business with a lucrative service

What you will learn in this episode: 

• Why niching down in bathroom renovation can set you apart from other designers

• The importance of allowing your clients to dream big and design a bathroom unique to them

• How to specialize in this niche even if you don’t think you’re experienced enough

There are a lot of designers who choose to focus solely on kitchens and baths within the renovation management niche. This can allow you to set yourself apart even further from those of us who don’t specialize in those two spaces. 

That doesn’t mean designers like myself don’t design and manage projects in bathrooms and kitchens. It’s just that I will go beyond those two rooms instead of being really set on those two spaces. 

Today I want to talk specifically about bathrooms. 

I have done an inordinate number of bathrooms over the last several years. I think this is an important topic to keep circling back to for designers to keep in mind that it s almost natural to come into a new project with maybe the same agenda or design ideas if you are doing bathrooms one after the other. I know I fall into that trap as well. 

So I always remind myself that the Jones family is not the Smith family, and what the Jones want for their bathroom really should never reflect what the Smiths desire for their bathroom unless, just by chance, they have a lot of the same tastes and likes. 

So I want to challenge all of the designers listening to take that same stance when you are in the process of interviewing with a client after they’ve hired you. 

The times that I have truly stayed in the moment with my client is when their bathrooms are unique to them. 

I try to sit with them and really open up their minds. Likely this won’t be solved in one meeting because I like to leave them with homework. One of the reasons I don’t ask them to do this before the meeting is I find the clients don’t fully understand that they truly have the license to dream big, think of things they never thought would be possible, and let you, the designer, figure out the logistics of it. 

Knowing what works specifically for your client – not the homeowners before them or the people they will be selling the house to – but for them. Knowing these details is what elevates you beyond your competition, and that is what I want for each of you. 

This task takes trust. And trust is a very crucial part of a successful design project, and that is something you will have to establish with your clients, and the sooner, the better your project will be overall. 

I hope after listening today that you will come to realize that the more experience you gain, the more kind of ‘wacky’ asks that you get, the more commonplace they become and something you will actually direct your client and ask better probing questions to get the information you need to elevate their project to a whole other level they didn’t even know was possible. 

You’ll gain experience from that and apply it to the next project and the next project until you are the sought after designer for renovation projects that you want to be!

Like this Episode?

• Be sure to check out Episode #86: How to Build Experience in Renovation Management

• Don’t miss an episode, listen on Spotify, and follow via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or RSS.

• Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.