Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.
For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub on my website ; https://oleanderandfinch.com/
Ready to take your interior design business to the next level? Check out my online course, "The Framework," designed to provide you with everything they don’t teach you in design school and to give you high touch mentorship essential to having a successful new business in the industry. Check it out now and start designing YOUR own success (waitlist now open) https://oleanderandfinch.com/first-year-framework/
Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations.
Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.
For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub on my website ; https://oleanderandfinch.com/
Ready to take your interior design business to the next level? Check out my online course, "The Framework," designed to provide you with everything they don’t teach you in design school and to give you high touch mentorship essential to having a successful new business in the industry. Check it out now and start designing YOUR own success (waitlist now open) https://oleanderandfinch.com/first-year-framework/
Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations.
Thank you for yo...
Welcome to Designing Success from Study to Studio. I'm your host, Rhiannon Lee, founder of the Oleander Finch Design Studio. I've lived the transformation from study to studio and then stripped it bare and wrote down the framework so you don't have to overthink it. In this podcast, you can expect real talk with industry friends, community, connection, and actionable tips to help you conquer whatever's holding you back. Now let's get designing your own success. Today's episode, it's going to be a really quick little mini episode today on Instagram, I had a post that had a template that goes along with it and it's around business assets. And I think sometimes we hear these words like business assets and feel like they are. Uh, And overhang from my corporate days. They just sound so stuffy. And I'm like, what even is that? It's nowhere near as scary as it sounds. Simply put a business asset for your business. It's just something that we create once and use repeatedly. So we might use it as a lead magnet, or we might use it to boost awareness of our brand, or we could use it. It might be a digital product or something that you sell. So it might be like. You see a lot of people with 27 downloads or whatnot. And as we diversify our revenue streams and scale businesses and create different ways to showcase what we can do, we're able to reach more people and have a greater impact in the world, which is what a lot of us are definitely here for. But when it comes to whether or not you should start building these in your business today, I would say have a really good think about where you're at in business. If you have consistent income or a long list of regular clients or just lots of clients in general, it might be a really good time to start thinking about doing some of this Diversification and looking at other ways you can bring things into your business. But if you are just setting up or you're in that sort of one to three year mark, where you really should be focusing on getting consistent income on bringing in more clients, and maybe this stuff is a bit of like shiny distractee kind of things, it might not be right for you. So just have a bit of a self qualifier there. And today I'm just going to very quickly go through three. So I had. Oh, goodness, like 30 ideas in this and you can have this menu, by the way, just DM me over at Instagram at oleander underscore and underscore Finch, the word asset or assets, and it will pop up instantly the menu, you just click a button and you're good to go. So I had everything in here from design look books, online courses, social media templates Pinterest boards, all sorts of things that you can sell or create. But today the three that I'm going to go through are ones that I get the most questions about. So I'm going to start with a mood board subscription service. Now a mood board subscription service is something that I did inside of my business when I sort of had the time to do so. I used to run a subscription service for retailers. So I would offer a monthly mood board on a subscription for retailers with their retail products in it, or I would create, the lifestyle look and feel and add one or two featured products that they would like. I'm not going to go into the full flyer and the business model, but effectively my retail clients received a regular mood board once a month that they could use on their own social media that I had created for them, that they had a creative brief for me. And they had to buy a six or 12 month package. So I always knew that we were in it for a little while and you get to know their style. You get to know what they like. It's a nice easy way to have consistency in income and to know, okay, I've got four retailers. The one a week, across the four weeks of the month that they will each receive their mood board. So I spread it out really easily. It wasn't a lot. It wasn't like it was something that was a huge of the revenue in my business, but it's really great, especially when you are relatively new, you can go out and pitch yourself to aligned brands and things that you think you could do a really good job and help with their social media content and get something in the books. That's for six or nine months. This doesn't have to be limited to retailers or to, people who sell furniture or things like that. Mood boards are important to lots of different companies. You could have a subscription where you shared in their company newsletter, seasonal trends ways to decorate for holidays. You could be having a subscription model for a sort of local publication. I always do this when I'm on the podcast. I start having brainstorming moments where I'm just thinking of all the different ways that you could approach people and share with them that you have these mood boarding skills and that you'd love to create something customized for their brand. And this is how much the package is. But it's probably not the best place to be brainstorming. I should be a little bit, I read and see a lot of people who are very scripted in the way that they, Create their podcasts and it's all these sorts of topics. And I feel like a bit of a crazy person. I'm always off on a tangent. Anyway, let's get back into it and I'll choose another one to go through. Okay. Let's look at pre made design packages because I have a lot of conversations over 200 designers in the last 18 months that I have privately coached and group coached a lot of them have similar ideas. Like I want to make a pre made or pre designed design packet that people can just order like Coastal or order Farmhouse or just log in and say, Oh, my style is modern organic and just order it. And I'll send them the samples and a style dossier and pieces that they can purchase that would compliment that style. And a bit of information about the principles and elements of design. This is all well and good. These work really well, as long as you keep them extremely simple they need to be something that you create once, set and forget. And some of the challenges that come up are like stock levels. And, if you've specified a unique or bar stool, and then it's no longer available, you have to go back in and update all of the procurement lists, all of the links and everything like that. And for selling something on Etsy, for example, for 69. 95 or 129, it's a lot of maintenance. You would have to be driving a really strong auto. And this is the piece that people forget. They create a thing. They list it on Etsy. There's no paid advertising or there's no marketing strategy. There's nothing to keep you talking about that thing consistently. Because when you run the numbers, if it's a low cost offer, like a 27 offer, you need to have 500 to 800 people buying it a month for it to be, like, Worth all of the time and energy that you put into it. And of course, maybe not those numbers specifically, but it's just something to highlight that you need to actually have a strategy far too many people are grabbing at revenue streams and creating new things that I'm going to put this on my website. I'll sell this. I'll write a course. I'll do a digital download. People can just buy this. Style guide, and we miss out on a whole bunch of the strategy behind it. The first thing is very often it's not validated. It's not what people want to buy. They can Google it themselves. They don't want to invest in it. They don't want to invest in it from you. There's all this like devastating information you can find out after the fact, and you've gone and spent months writing something only to find out that They were happy to say in a poll that yes, they wanted it, but they wanted it for free. They didn't want to actually buy it. That validation stuff is really eye opening to say the least. And the second thing is to understand your growth strategy and your marketing strategy and how am I going to teach people that they want it and reach enough people that they add to cart to make it viable at that low cost. So there's some stuff that I think just gets missed or doesn't get thought about. If you are looking at adding like pre designed packages onto your website to cater to different budgets or clients or styles, just start with creating three and have three different choices and then get a read on what's more popular. Because if you have way too many, you're also selling too many sorts of things. You almost want to go in and say, I've got this and it's. In my niche example, if you are a designer whose niche is Japan D and you have a Japan D guide, a Japan D. samples pack, a Japan, they can add it all to cart and it's all pre done. That might be a good fit for you, but that doesn't mean you have to have a Scandi one and a Coastal one and get it. Like you don't have to do all of them. You just have to find one that is going to be, that will elevate the client experience that you're already delivering. Today's podcast episode is proudly brought to you by Purefloor. Purefloor is a cleaning solution that I use in my own home. I have a white rug, a white sofa, three boys, a dog, a cat, and a husband. I definitely need this in my life. And because it's all natural, it's soap and chlorine free. It's a hundred percent a plant based formula, and 000 square meters of surface. Cozzy lives, am I right? It's gone a long way and it's been a total game changer for us at home. So thank you Purefloor for sponsoring Designing Success. Okay. Now I'm in the menu and I'm just going to blindly tap on one and we're going to talk about what will we add dah. Product sourcing guides, curated lists of furniture, decor, and materials from trusted suppliers. These would make excellent lead magnets. If you are able to showcase with your potential client places that they could shop, or perhaps you have a curated Pinterest board of your favorite. Leather dining chairs, your favorite bench seats, your favorite sofas, et cetera. It's your IP. It's your curation. It's your beautiful design. I, and maybe you have two of each kind of thing, two sofas, two armchairs, two coffee tables, two dining chairs, a this or that you could pull that together very quickly and create a lead magnet that people would actually give you their email address for, because they're like, I really would like to see what your favorite sofas are. Who is your go to? Fabric armchair versus leather armchair, for example, and because people who follow you connect with your design aesthetic and your design eye and what you're all about, they're going to want to see that sort of product library from you. I have a really great way of delivering it. I have an automated way I deal with my private coaching clients. I do teach them that method so that once we have created the library, it's as Simple as setting it all up in the background. And then there are automations that take care of everything. So when people DM you and say, can I get a look at your selections? You're like, yep, sure. And off it all shoots without you doing too much after you've set it up. If that sort of automation and lead magnet focus is something that you want to get into, I am currently rewriting the framework course, and I've just been doing a whole section in scale where we're looking at automations. Yes. Workflows, lead magnets, and what makes a good lead magnet. And what like, I just see so much time and energy and knowledge wasted on things that I know people will never give you even their email address for, cause they just don't. Need it or they can Google it or it just isn't marketed in a way where it's shut up and take my email address. Let me in your world. I want this yesterday. That's the reaction you have to have. And I feel like a lot of you, if you really, truly asked yourself, does my lead magnet make me want to push other people out of the way to get to it? Most people would answer no, it's a bit uninspired. I just was like what would be a good, what do I know about? Okay. My lead magnet is how to hang artwork, people aren't really going to knock themselves out of the way to get towards that and I think we sometimes can overanalyze and overthink stuff and then panic and then just put any old thing out but really ask yourself what kind of lead magnets did you last give up your email address from and they're generally really value packed and there's something that other people would be charging for or that you expected to pay money for but you were given as a lead magnet. Anyway, that's all in the scale course. If you want me to guide you through lead magnets, and we can come up with something customizable and original for your brand, you can work with me privately or jump on the wait list for the framework scale version going to have a chat in the next couple of weeks about exactly what does scaling your interior design business entail, and who is it right for? There's so many big buzzwords like scales, do all this stuff, scale to multi six figures, scale your business scale, what does that actually even mean? And are you right for that type of a course, or are you still in the setup? Years, or are where, how do you qualify where you're actually at? So I will get to that in the next couple of weeks what I really wanted to do today is just showcase a few ideas. This menu that I've created to spark some ideas in your own mind about things that you can create and charge money for and things that you can create as lead magnets. So lots of different ways that you can diversify your revenue streams and think about bringing. Other assets into your business that you could create between now and Christmas. And then they will just sit there all of 2025 and they'll be sellable. They'll be on your website and bringing in a little bit more income for you. If you've got any questions, always come and chat to me over on Instagram at oleander underscore and underscore Finch. That is also where you can DM me the word assets and just get a look at the menu and have a look if any of those things would be a great fit for your business. Next week on the winter series, I am bringing back another guest and we're going all the way back to my very first interview. I'm not sure that I really even want to listen to this one again, just through, it's interesting, isn't it? When you start a podcast there's a lot of learning to do. And I think I probably interviewed in a very different style now, as well as the fact that I am a huge fan of this guest. It is Carleen from Cedar and Suede. And so I think I was probably fangirling a bit and a little. Little bit nervous, so interested to see what that sounds like in the editing process again, but that will be shared with you this Thursday. All right, I'll chat to you next Tuesday. Bye for now. That wraps up another episode of Designing Success from Study to Studio. Thanks for lending me your ears. Remember, progress over perfection is the key. If you found value in today's episode, go ahead and hit subscribe or share it with a friend. Your feedback means so much to me and it helps me improve, but it also helps this podcast reach more emerging and evolving designers. For your daily dose of design business tips and to get a closer look at what goes on behind the scenes, follow at oleander underscore and underscore finch on Instagram. You'll find tons of resources available at www. oleanderandfinch. com to support you on your journey. Remember, this is your path, your vision, your future, and your business. Now let's get out there and start designing your success. today's podcast partner was Purefloor. Purefloor is a 100 percent natural plant based formula cleaning product. It uses multi enzymes that continue to work up to 72 hours after you clean, it's a soap and chlorine free stain remover and odor remover. I can absolutely attest to this because my father in law rang me in a blind panic last week after he'd spilt hot, dirty, chocolate, milk, all through his beautiful rug. I whipped over there with my Purefloor, we treated the rug and I can tell you there are no milk smells and no remaining stains. So thank you Purefloor for sponsoring Designing Success.