the six figure business trap

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Transcript

0:00

Um, uh, Welcome to Designing Success from Study to Studio. I'm your host, Rhiannon Lee, founder of the Oleandra 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.

Speaker 4: 0:50

Before I get into today's episode, I wanted to share a lovely message that was sent to me from one of my beautiful property styling and staging at Girlies. I just love helping these types of businesses. They are quite different in the industry to just a regular, interior designer. There's a different focus. They have different ideal clients, and it's so much fun to get in there and strip it down and rebuild it. Thank you, Lisa, for your kind words.

Speaker 2: 1:15

Hi. I run a staging business on the morning to Peninsula. I've started working with Rihanna this year. My AI knowledge is growing and growing. The way she has structured our interaction is perfect for my business and my lifestyle. I'm already seeing results and I cannot wait to see those results and the outcomes at the end of this year. Highly recommend Rhiannon.

Speaker 3: 1:37

I wanted to thank everybody sincerely, who has reached out to me this week to say thank you for the 2025 industry pricing report that I sent out last Friday. Overwhelming amount of click-throughs and comments and dms and people who took the time to come back and say, oh, wow, I didn't realize that we were heading in that direction. Or It wasn't just me, or, I've been leaving money on the table, or I didn't think about pricing from that perspective. I've been doing so much in the world of pricing at the moment. We've just had full pricing reviews for everybody in the framework express. And we lifted all of their pricing, we flipped all of their mindsets, and I taught them a rinse and repeat system for creating scope of works and proposals whereby they feel really confident in what it is that they're actually providing for their clients. So I wanted to give you this opportunity to get your hands on that industry report. I'm going to put a link in the show note. So that if you're not part of my email subscription group and you didn't see it and you wanted to get your eyes on it and you think that it would be helpful for your design business, which was the majority of feedback that I got, then you are so welcome to get it from the show notes. All right, let's get into today's episode. I've just gotten back into the studio today from a beautiful lunch and learn event at EM and Co living. I was out there as a keynote speaker having a conversation about Project Studio with the lovely team from Style Source book. It was a really great day. I got to meet a lot of you in person. There was a lot of squeals and oh my gosh, you're so tiny. Which you will understand if you've ever met me, and if you haven't and you've missed it, I'm five foot tall, very teeny tiny, and it often shocks people because they think they've followed along on Instagram or they've listened to the podcast and they just have an idea about what size I am, and I'm half that. But yes, today was really fun, really engaged audience. Lots of really clever questions and I loved chatting about it. But I've come home tonight and I want to record this for you before the framework. Okay, so I wanna talk about the six figure designer. What is a six figure designer and why is six figures this big elusive carrot that I cannot explain to you how many times I will sit down when goal setting or talking finances while coaching and say, okay, what are we aiming for? A hundred K, six figures. I just want six figures. It's not a magical number, it's just one that kind of, I think is a little bit validating. People just feel like, okay, I need to tip over. So I'm not a five figure designer. I'm a six figure designer, and it sounds huge until you actually do the maths and break it down and realize you've probably already worked your pants off without hitting it, but with some pricing tweaks you probably could have. It is actually very possible in the interior design industry to be making six figures. It's a lot less work than you think if you structure your business right. So today I'm gonna walk you through some real numbers, some real pricing models. And speaking of pricing, it's all I've done all week. I've had the framework express, we did a. Full pricing review and we got all really stuck into everybody's prices. I was able to lift everybody's prices up. We made some huge changes. Some are going to be, incredibly monumental for those businesses. Some of them might seem a bit scary, but they are going to bring the good. So I'm very excited for those girls. Let's kick off with a reality check because a hundred k, just as I mentioned, isn't actually as big as you think. So if I just rip that bandaid off, six figures breaks down to$8,333 per month. That's it. That's the whole number we're stressing over, and there are multiple ways to get there that don't involve working with 500 clients or grinding yourself into the ground or taking on additional projects. So let's break down some numbers. So let's go with our like luxury model. Big projects, fewer clients. So this is the type of designer who wants to take on two to four full service projects per year. But those projects need to be priced between 25 and 50 K per project in order to achieve this elusive number. Meaning you could hit six figures with just two projects at that price. Let's let that sink in. Two projects, each of them are 50 K projects. For the design fees, this is completely possible. This might be your model, in which case we are doing all this marketing. All this more is more. More is more. Let's get more clients. I need more discovery calls. I need more leads. You don't need more leads. You need good leads. You need leads who are willing to spend$50,000 on a project. So you need to be. Talking more like last week's episode, or sorry, the week before, which was around how to attract high-end clients. And this is you. If you are this luxury designer, you need to go back and listen to that episode so that you can start to model yourself on exclusivity and only doing a few projects a year. Then we have the mid-tier designer model or someone who's willing to do smaller, more frequent projects. So this person will take on around, for example, 10 projects at 10 K each or five projects at 10 k, and five projects at 5K. So these are still reasonable. This person is still not working 24 7, but that number is hitting 100 K. This isn't even talking about additional revenue streams like trade benefits or thinking about selling a digital product or doing a workshop. This is the core foundation piece on how we get a hundred K. And then lastly, there's the hybrid model. So this is a mixture of big projects and additional services. This person might do two full service projects at 30 K each, which is gonna give them$60,000 towards their a hundred K target. Then they'll do five mid-size projects at 5K each, which gives them 20 5K, and then they might even have a quick turnaround design service, and that they're plug and playing into their business all the time. And over the course of a calendar that brings in 15 k. So when I say two full service projects at 30 K each, that might actually look like 15 K in design fees, 15 k in trade revenue. You need to really have a think about, especially in this hybrid model, what is the mix and where is it coming from?'cause then you know where to focus as well. Where to upsell, where to think. Okay. I need to make my$8,333 this month. Am I going to do that once a quarter and be making more like 30 K or do I need to hustle? Now I wanna jump into why we actually charge these five figure invoices and why you should be too. It's totally possible if a client looks at your invoice and says, oh, why is this so expensive? Then we haven't articulated our value. Okay? So it's not actually your job to break down and justify your hours. It takes me. Five hours for sourcing and 25 hours for modeling and this and that. That is just gonna confuse people and it's just gonna get your clients to audit your time. So they're like, oh, can you do it faster? Or Why is it taking so long? They're gonna be really time focused and they're gonna wanna make you move. Whereas if you can sell and articulate the value properly. You're gonna get clients who understand that is the price to engage me on this project, to get that outcome. It's up to me. If I wanna do five or 50 hours sourcing a console table, I will do the calculations in the backend and whatever I'm comfortable with, sell it to you as the value. This works much better. In my personal opinion. I much prefer to be like, we're on track. It's a three week turnaround for phase two. It's this, it's that, rather than being like, oh, I'm sorry I took four and a half hours, I've only got half an hour left and I've got a whole room and a half to source, I just, I'm not into it. So remembering that our price actually covers the obvious stuff. So sourcing, project management, site visits, et cetera. But then there's the invisible stuff that really does need to be covered within our invoice. So endless emails, phone calls in the car, dealing with trades, dealing with misbehaving trades, fixing mistakes that clients don't even see. Are never privy to because that's why they have you on site and it just gets fixed and sorted. And also it's covering your growth, in my opinion. I always think that the invoice needs to. To help you to build enough profitability in your business that you can just say yes to the next barley retreat that you see. Or if you wanna come and work with me on personal development and you want to up your business skills and learn AI and look at your operations and processes, you can afford to reach out and say, Hey, can I do two weeks coaching with you? Because you blend it out over the course of the year on every invoice. So there's a little bit of that talks about your development and. You going to workshops like the Lunch and Learn workshop today, taking a few hours off work to invest in staying ahead of trends or, all those monthly software subscriptions. We know they're painful. I know. I know. Just clients are not thinking about this, but we need to, it does need to be built into invoices, almost like an ancillary fee that is covering some future education and what you've spent already. I am sure it costs you thousands of dollars to learn to be a designer who's paying that invoice, like who's picking up that bill? Because you don't have to be the one to do that. You can reassign it into your business. Okay, so what if we're in between big projects or if a client backs out, which totally happens, or you just want some extra money. 8,300 is good, but 18,000 is better, right? Maybe you find that you've got space or time, or you don't wanna be relying on one massive invoice and cashflow is an issue. So you're thinking. What are we gonna do? So this is where additional revenue streams come in. So I call it a bit of a quick and dirty service. Having a one hour fast cash, minimal effort, rinse and repeat. You've got a template, it's like your power hour consultations or your virtual room refresh where you just go in there and it's two week turnaround. You're gonna give the some suggestions or maybe you gotta do a floor plan audit. I know a lot of people do that, and who better to do that than an interior designer? You can look at how you can plug some of these revenue streams. It's not to overcomplicate your service suite, it's not to add everything to your website. It's just to have these things that you might jump on your stories and say, Hey, I've actually got two floor plan audits available this month. So yell out if you want one. See, that's not going on my website, but hey, if you reach out and you want one and I'm charging 1250, I've just made. I've just made two and a half K extra and tipped that 8.3 over into above 10 K for this month. Now I hear a lot about passive income and digital products, and of course I have them in my business because I run courses and I have resources, but. It's not money while you sleep. It's not what everyone says it is. It's still work. It's certainly work in the marketing and the execution and the delivery and all the automations that I have set up. There still is a human element to this and most of it is about getting on, showing what it is, articulating the value, explaining the product, but. There is money to be made in terms of additional revenue. You can do like a paid workshop. A workshop is a great one because it's a one to many model, meaning it's you there for the same amount of time, whether there's one person or 30 people sign up for the workshop. So that can be quite good in terms of maximizing time for money. Inside of my industry trend report, I spoke about subscription based services and I have spoken about them before. I used to take on retailers and do mood boards for retailers. There are a few things if you can get a homeowner that maybe has an incredibly long project and doesn't need. You maybe to do it as a big project, but would like to have you on hand for, one call a month, two calls a month. You could stagger it out and get some, lumpy income is a really big problem in this industry, and I think wherever you can promote security and regularity of incoming payments is a really great thing. Speaking of ongoing predictable revenue retainer clients, getting people on VIP styling memberships. If you've worked with people and you're gonna work with them again, take them to the next level. Offer them something more exclusive, offer them something more regular, and break down the payments. I know it sounds really corny to say we do, seasonal stuff can be really good for predictable revenue, but it can, like if I used to do Christmas looks all the time and knowing that you could charge for that and gift cards as well. I know December is a bumper month in my e-sign business when it was firing on all pistons. Now that you can see a doable six figure pathway. What you actually need, or even what six figures actually is. Let's make it happen. Decide on your revenue model. Are you luxury, mid-tier, or hybrid price? Like a business, not a freelancer. So stop pulling numbers outta thin air. Really start thinking about what all my expenses, I'm aiming for 30 to 40% profitability. If you don't understand what all of that means, read the industry trend report, come back and talk to me. Book a one hour coaching session and go deep into it. So you do understand hiding from these numbers or pretending that you know them is just wasting your time really, because the worst thing you can have is an assumption around the profitability of your business or like it feels like I'm headed towards six figures. Okay, cool. Let's look at that again. So I think it's good if you at least know that 8.3. Per month, we'll deliver it. And you can also think about what that needs to deliver per quarter. And if you fall short anywhere, you have to make it up somewhere else. So really need to be tracking these numbers. And if you're brave enough to do it and you wanna do it, just add one of those revenue stream ideas, but one that makes sense to your business. Just add one thing in and then market it three times a month in your stories. If you show up a lot, if you have an engaged audience, this is not gonna work. If you're like. You're a faceless account. You never do anything, and then all of a sudden you're like, guys, I've got two floor plan reviews. No one cares. We would've already jumped in because I'm like, who is that person who's yelling at me about that? If you find yourself identifying with a more luxury model, take a look at your marketing and make sure you are attracting those high value clients. And don't be too hard on yourself. Know that you only need to get two to four people across the line in 12 months. So a no is perfectly fine. Another trade will be along shortly and we can try again. So it's not a big deal when you are in the aiming for under five people to work within a year. Okay. And I'd love for you to practice to start saying, this is my rate. This is why I am worth it. Really learning the articulation of your value is going to help you, not just on discovery calls, but just help you. I hate the word justify those fees because I say we don't justify the fees, but if you can explain really clearly and really carefully to the person who you are. Sending an invoice and service agreement out to who you've had a discovery call. If they understand what you are going to do to their project and what and what you're going to deliver at the end of that, they will be much happier to send payment for that invoice. Some final words from me. Making six figures, like six figures is honestly something that it makes my throat a little bit itchy. I almost didn't even wanna do this episode around this because I'm like, Ugh, I'm so burned by how many coaches and business gurus and everyone out there. I can get you to six figures in six weeks. No, you need a foundation. You need a sustainable business. You need a business life balance. And six figures is not as fancy as it seems. Saying that, I completely check my privilege. I understand not everybody can see six figure income as the average mean income within Australian homes, but I do think more and more. We get fixated on this number. And I guess my point and my whole ethos with designing success is to run for your own numbers. Even if that's only 16,000, or if it's 600, not six figures, I'm so fine with it. It's not about charging more or making sure that you are part of this. Elusive gang because there's no jacket, there's no fun, there's no after hours activities. I've been in the gang for a while and nothing has happened, and no one has ever said anything about it or I've been excluded from the gang and I just don't know. It's about being more strategic, understanding the mix of what is the makeup that will get you there, valuing yourself, and just making sure that you. Sort of model that out in my three month, if I know for the quarter I only need to get one person across the line. I'm so much less desperate and frantic in my marketing than someone who's oh my God, I need more leads. I need more discovery calls. Maybe I don't. I just need the right ones because actually I know I'm only chasing three projects this year, and I'll do some other stuff for fun on the side. So really get to know those numbers and what you're doing. If you're out there and you're sick of undercharging and you wanna get your pricing and business strategy nailed down, come and have a chat to me. I have AI powered business buddies that will just get in there and help us. But also, I've been working now with hundreds and hundreds of interior designers. I know what people are sending out on their invoices, and I know with one look when it's under and I know straight away when it hits the sweet spot. I would be very happy to take a look to work with you and to give you that confidence because 90% of our pricing is in our confidence, and the other 10% is in the ink where we print the invoice. That's it. Like you just need to learn and understand and believe without a shadow of a doubt that you are worth the money that you are charging. I will be bringing you a beautiful episode next Thursday with Georgia Ezra from Tiles of Ezra, and I just know you're gonna love it. Okay, I'll talk to you then. Bye for now.

Speaker 5: 19:25

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've 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. Just like you for your daily dose of design business tips, and to get a closer look at what goes on behind the scenes, follow at Oleander and 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.