FEATURED ON THIS EPISODE:

INTERIOR DESIGNER’S GUIDE TO CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE:

WHY YOU NEED TO EMBRACE THE SLOW SUMMER MONTHS

WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE A FULL PIPELINE OF PROJECTS FOR FALL/ WINTER

WHAT TO DO IF YOU DON’T HAVE A FULL PIPELINE OF PROJECTS FOR FALL/WINTER

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If you’re listening to this live, it’s July 30th. It’s the middle of summer, and it can feel really relaxing and calming for the first time in a while. I know it does for me. 

June and the beginning of July are frankly a shit show for me professionally. It coincides with when my kids get out of school, and their insanely predictable schedules go completely off the rails. New schedules are kind of crammed down my throat, and there are just several weeks of getting used to this new schedule!

Yet my work hasn’t changed. My contractors are still expecting the exact same thing out of me, but my private life is completely upended. Then we always go to the beach for two weeks, so by the third week of June, I have to scramble, knowing I’ll be out of town the first two weeks of July.

It’s really important to take the time now to rest and relax. 

While I am feeling relaxed, I also know that fall and winter are coming. It takes time to develop and bring in new projects. So now is a great time to sit at your desk and figure out what your fall and winter look like. 

What do you have scheduled right now? 

How are they overlapping, or are they not overlapping? 

What size projects do you have lined up? 

Often times, we skip this step because we don’t want to scare ourselves if our pipeline isn’t too full. NOT doing this is a big mistake. You CAN still do things about it now rather than waiting until after Labor Day and truly feeling panicked because your fall and winter were not as robust as you thought they would be. 

There are two scenarios you’re going to find when you sit down and map out your projects. 

The first is probably obvious: you have a great pipeline!

Your schedule is packed with projects, and clients are still calling or emailing and looking for more help. That, of course, would be an ideal situation but it can also bring serious overwhelm and less successful projects if you aren’t managing them properly. You may have overlapping projects or tight deadlines, which leads to obvious difficulty managing all of the client’s expectations. And, of course, you have to factor yourself in and understand that this will likely bring burnout to you. And I know I don’t work as well and definitely not as creative when I’m feeling burned out. 

What does your team look like? Do you need to hire someone? And this doesn’t have to be someone local. You can hire a virtual assistant. 

Or you need to touch base with a few of the showroom representatives that you have relationships with and say, “This is what I have coming down the pike. Let’s start on it now.” If you know you have a kitchen, you can go ahead and reach out to all of your vendors that you would normally be using and let them know what’s happening. Lean on the vendors and people who want to support you, and you will have more time to make the best creative decisions for your clients.  

Or, maybe that means you do need someone in person. You need a body to go to these job sites because you just simply have too many. Ok, now is the time to start putting out the feelers, to start the process because you’re going to want to do a proper interview, reference check, etc before you hire someone, and then you’re going to want a runway for them to learn your process, shadow you on projects, hear your thoughts so that they can be your best advocate and a valuable team member once those projects start moving forward at rapid speed. 

And then internally, what are your project management tools? Are they up to speed? Do you know how to thoroughly use them? I know I use a small percentage of all the capabilities for instance in Studio Designer. 

Do you have a good system to keep you organized? There are a bazillion task software programs you can use. 

Do you have a plan for each of these projects? Do I have the right resources? Do you need drawings, 3D rendering? Start looking at those lists. Really dial it down so that you are fully prepared and know what’s coming. Being able to anticipate with knowledge vs panic is staying way ahead of the game. 

And you’re going to want to prioritize self care as well. All of the things we have spoken about go towards your self care. Maintaining your sanity is probably the top of the list for self care. But you also need to have down time. Reach out to the people on your team, whether they are an internal team or the vendors you lean on for your products. Together, all of that goes towards your self care. 

And then, ofcourse, there’s true self-care like planning a trip, getting massages, facials, setting time aside to read a good book, whatever that looks like for you is important to consider to get you through this very busy fall/winter schedule you’ve established is coming. 

The second scenario is the opposite.

You sit down and plot out what you have planned for fall and winter, and you see that you have a pretty slow pipeline. This can be upsetting. I get that. You’re thinking about financial strain, anxiety about hte future. You lose some momentum when you’re feeling down and out. But wallowing in that anxiety and stress and sadness will keep you there. That is not what you want to do. What you also need to look at is that this is an opportunity for growth and development. 

It is not too late to get projects for fall and winter starting mid-summer. It just isn’t. 

Say you make your list and have one big project scheduled over the next few months, and no new clients or consultations are being scheduled. That can happen to all of us. This is an opportunity to lean into your marketing. 

Maybe your website is out of date, or you have tons of photos that have not been uploaded to the site yet. And in a positive way, you can lean in on your social media to attract new clients and then new industry partners. Because, of course, you’re going to want to network. Not only with industry partners, you know, past clients that have loved your work, but you might also want to go to some industry events and build new relationships. You can also reach out to new industry partners to draw in new business. 

I actually like to network during the slow times. I find I am more successful when I’m not panicked. And if you are doing it now, you are not panicked because you have the runway to fill these open spots in your schedule. 

This is also an opportunity during slower times to improve your skills and find new vendors. Maybe you’ve been looking for a new cabinet company for kitchens. Go out there, visit them, make an appointment, and find that vendor so that when you do get the next kitchen project—which you will—you already feel confident you have the right people in hand to implement the designs you’re going to create. 

Now is the time to dig into a new program or find a tutorial or course that will uplevel your skills. All the while you are marketing yourself for additional work for the fall and winter. 

So, with either scenario, there’s work to be done right now so you can be as successful as you want to be on every project you take on. 

Sit down at your desk and plot out your fall and winter project load. What does that look like? Depending on what that answer is, start down that path of planning and preparing to not only support the projects but to support yourself throughout them. If you do that now, I can promise that your projects will run smoother, and you will feel more in control of the work because you have done this extra step early in the process to get yourself ready.