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ISSUE 4 | 2019

DEPARTMENTS PRESIDENT LETTER

ON THE COVER A start of a new decade in Los Angeles is always a good reason to break out the bubbly!

08 11 12 14 18 20

CONTENTS

SEO FOR INTERIOR DESIGNERS Separating fact from fiction By Deb Mitchell

MODERNISM WEEKEND Join ASID Los Angeles in Palm Springs February 14-16th, 2020

AMERICANS IN PARIS Paris Deco-Off 2020 is a design celebration like no other. By Lissette Meza, Student ASID

5 REASONS OUTSOURCING MAKES SENSE By Marc A. Molinsky

KEYS TO GETTING YOUR INTERIOR DESIGN TEAM TO DO THINGS RIGHT! By Julia A. Molloy

36 LEGAL DO’S AND DON’TS FOR INTERIOR DESIGNERS By Alan M. Siegel, Esq.

22 25 26 27 28 30

DESIGNING YOUR 2020 STRATEGY By Julia A. Molloy

ARE YOU MAKING GOOD USE OF OUR INDUSTRY PARTNERS? By Victoria Reitz, ASID

TIME BILLING By Marc A. Molinsky

ARE YOU SPENDING MONEY OR ARE YOU INVESTING MONEY? By Tony Estrada

SANTA BARBARA: THE AMERICAN RIVIERA DESIGN CONFERENCE It’s a Celebration of Design! June 4 - 7, 2020

HOLIDAY CABARET Sponsored by ASID Industry Partner Custom Comfort Mattress

LADESIGN | ISSUE 3 | 2019

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Los Angeles Chapter sincerely wish that you’ve all had a joyous and healthy Holiday Season and that 2020 will bring increased clarity and prosperity along with fresh, new design visions in the coming year!

I am very pleased and honored to be your ASID California Los Angeles Chapter President for 2020. It just so happens that I come from a lineage of three generations of optometrists and of course I was naturally expected to carry on with that family tradition. Yet I had a different calling, another vision in mind! Thereby it seems a wonderful coincidence that I get to serve our ASID Chapter during the year 2020! When kismet and serendipity would arise, my dear grandmother would always proclaim with a twinkle in her eye: "It’s a funny life!" That said, I’m hoping that 2020 will bring us all renewed and invigorating visions! May we all carry on with our chosen ASID tradition of impacting lives through great design solutions! On another note, we need to ask all members to kindly sign up for our Chapter events at your earliest convenience, as acquiring Industry Partner sponsorships toward venues and refreshments leans heavily on knowing our final headcounts. Also we’ll need to start initiating a nominal charge to attend certain events as we’ve found a trend that many people decide not to show up at the last minute -- after the host has spent a fortune on food and drink. It was a huge problem at our Annual Meeting in August -- and very embarrassing for our Chapter Board. So please RSVP early and mean it! Wishing you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year! Sincerely,

Shepard E. Vineburg, ASID ASID Los Angeles 2020 Chapter President

LADESIGN is a Quarterly Publication of the American Society of Interior Designers - Los Angeles Chapter

The many ways we celebrate our Chapter

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P LU M B I N G

019 18/2 2 | 20 ISSUE

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T TRACES N O C H FINIS

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Y sterday’s C Ye lassics Inspire Tooddaayy’’ss Innno vations

Personal Branding This Issue

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6 2 6 . 7 9 9. 3 5 0 3 m i s s i o n w e s t. b i z CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES This Quarterly offers a plethora of insights and tips from experts in the worlds of finance, marketing and branding -- all designed to help you reach your goals of excelling in expanding your business knowledge and personal growth. We wish you all the very best for an exciting New Year!

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mission tile west Send your contributions to administrator@cala.asid.org

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LADESIGN | ISSUE 4 | 2019

SEOfor Interior Designers By Deb Mitchell

SEPARATING FACT FROM FICTION

Let's be clear - I don't consider myself an SEO expert. But as a copywriter, it's vital that I maintain a working knowledge of SEO basics and that I stay on top of current best practices. Besides, I love software and apps that help me do my job better, and working with my clients' SEO gives me an excuse to geek out on all the cool tech tools out there for SEO keyword research. It's true that - even when it's explained in the simplest possible terms - SEO is complex and confusing. As a business owner, you may not really understand the ins and outs of SEO, but you certainly feel its effects when you lose business to your competition because they show up in your prospects' Google searches and you don't.

SEO is the only form marketing that really works these days FACT

While that may be true for online businesses whose sales of products and services happen exclusively online, you're actually a local service provider. You serve your clientele mostly in person within your local area (excepting e-design services and selling products in an online shop). Take it as good news that a lot of the deeper complexities and usages of SEO are meant to apply to businesses competing for sales online in a sea of competition from all over the world. For those businesses it's highly likely the only way prospects will ever even know they exist is if they're effective with SEO.

But don't worry - you don't have to be an SEO expert to help get your business in front of your prospects online. To help you take the first step toward understanding and using SEO, I've pinpointed a few of the more commonly held ideas and fact-checked them for accuracy in light of what they mean to you and your business. By separating fact from fiction, you can avoid wasting time and/or money on SEO efforts that ultimately won't help you grow your bottom line.

SEO is complicated and highly technical FACT

SEO truly is something of a bottomless pit of information. Most of us who aren't tech gurus who work with it full-time are hard-pressed to devote enough time and energy into understanding it and putting it into practice in full measure. In addition, SEO is also a moving target. As businesses find ways (both honest and nefarious) to beat Google's algorithm in order to rank at the top of a search, they up the stakes on how hard the rest of us have to work to rank highly too. When search results that have little or nothing to do with what searchers are actually looking for get thrown into the mix, Google is compelled to react by changing their algorithm to filter out those bad search results. That all said you actually don't need to understand SEO or Google's algorithm completely to be able to put it to work for your design business. Read on!

LADESIGN is a Quarterly Publication of the American Society of Interior Designers - Los Angeles Chapter

You, on the other hand, have the advantage of being a needle in a little pile of hay - not a global haystack. When someone searches online for, say, an interior designer in Portland, Oregon, Google only needs to sift through a fairly small handful of potentially relevant search results. Compare that to a search for something like "online business coach" and it's easy to see how your SEO needs are relatively small and simple. What that means is that SEO is important for you, but it should only be one slice of your marketing pie. Ranking higher in online searches may play a role in getting you in front of the right clients, but so does doing great work that gets you awesome client reviews, putting your project images out on social media, and going where your prospects are (both online and off ) and building genuine relationships with them. If you're already doing all of that but you're still not getting all the clients you want and need, giving your SEO more attention could make a difference. But conversely, I can promise you that focusing all of your resources on SEO at the expense of the quality of your work or in lieu of connecting personally with prospects in your area will put your business on shaky ground in the long run.

Keywords are the key to effective SEO FACT

The whole concept of SEO is based on the notion that people use certain words and phrases to search online for specific information. Keywords are the force behind Google's algorithm, a complex decision tree - IF a searcher enters a certain keyword or phrase THEN Google quickly

returns a set of results it deems relevant to those search terms. From another angle, IF you use the keywords your prospects are searching for THEN you'll land in their results (ideally, at or near the top). Businesses' increasing need to earn high search rankings has prompted the development of apps and software that help them determine the keywords their prospects are using. And while, as mentioned earlier, I love playing around with those tools and I'm always quick to test out new ones, I actually find that the two most effective tools for finding the right keywords to use in my clients' marketing are about as non-tech as you can get - empathy and imagination. Knowing your prospects well and having a deep understanding of how they think is crucial for anticipating the search terms they'll use when looking for interior design help. For example, you may want to be known for delivering a highly professional level of service to your clients because you know they value solid processes and great communication. But if you truly understand your prospects, you'll realize that when they sit down to look online for an interior designer to help them renovate their kitchen, their minds won't be on an "interior designer who's a great communicator" - which also means that's not what they'll be typing into Google's search bar. What will be on their minds and in their search bars, however, is an interior designer in their area who's well qualified and experienced in kitchen renovations. Knowing that, you can then use your imagination to come up with a handful of search terms they're likely to use, such as "interior designer Your City kitchen design renovation," "professional kitchen design Your City," and even "interior design help with kitchen cabinets, lighting, and flooring in Your City." It's not that your commitment to delivering the help they're looking for with professional service and great communication skills isn't relevant to them. It's just that they're looking for all of that when they talk with you on the phone and in person, as well as when they review what your processes look like - not when they're searching online to figure out who to call in the first place.

SEO is a one-time project that involves getting the right keywords on your website

FICTION

While determining a set of relevant keywords for your business and putting them on your website is part of the picture, no SEO strategy is "set it and forget it" - something placed deep in the recesses of your site that works automatically and indefinitely to get you better Google rankings. In fact, the top experts agree that SEO should be approached by any business as an ongoing activity. How your website is or isn't being found by your prospects is ever changing. Monitoring that and changing your SEO efforts accordingly on a regular basis is just part of the deal.

So what should that kind of maintenance look like in a basic, DIY-able form? • Do some keyword research to find what terminology your prospects use to search online for interior designers. Here's a great article on how to get started with keyword research: How to do Keyword Research for SEO: A Beginner's Guide by Rachel Leist • Local SEO is important to get you in front of your prospects, so opt for keywords like "Your City, your state interior designer" over general terms like "polished, timeless interior design." • Because SEO is a process that ebbs and flows, it's ideal to look at it over the course of a 3-month period of time so you can get a complete picture of what's happening overall. Every 3 months or so, review your target keywords and how you're ranking for them. • To do that, search each of the keywords you're using in an incognito browser window to see where you rank in the search results (if you don't go incognito, your computer might remember that you look at your own site often and react by pulling it to the top of your keyword search to personalize the results to you, as opposed to showing how you actually rank when others search that keyword) • If you're ranking well for certain keywords, capitalize on them by increasing their use in your web copy, blog posts, design project descriptions, etc. • If you're not ranking well for others, increase their use as well, or if you think they're simply not good target keywords for you, retire them and replace them with new ones. • When creating new content, be sure to optimize it by placing your keywords whenever possible in blog post headlines, subheadings, copy, image alt tags, and meta descriptions. As much as I sometimes wish there was a tech tool I could just plug into my website that would automatically do it all for me, at the end of the day, SEO is more about understanding the thoughts and needs of our prospects than it is about technology. And as business owners and high-touch service providers who truly care about our clients and prospects, those human factors can't (and shouldn't) be left to automation anyway. By approaching your SEO strategy and all of your marketing efforts as vital parts of learning how to better serve your clients, your business can't help but grow - no matter how Google ranks you!

Previously a freelance features writer for lifestyle and shelter publications, Deb Mitchell now works with interior designers and other creative professionals through one-on-one copywriting, ghostblogging services, and online courses in content creation and marketing. With nearly a decade of experience in and around the interior design industry, Deb has a deep understanding of designers' unique marketing needs. She's currently undergoing a full rebrand and getting a new website for her own business, so she knows the struggle is real! For more of Deb's website tips, visit http://bit.ly/sneaky-website-mistakes .

LADESIGN | ISSUE 4 | 2019

HED S NGUI I T S DI T MOS S A NI OR F I L #A N HER 3OUT NG I V 3ER S R EA Y ER OV OR F Y T OMMUNI C GN I DES ND A HOMES Editor in Chief Kelly Azzarello, Allied ASID

ASID LOS ANGELES

Production Manager Gregory Firlotte

8687 Melrose Avenue, Suite M33 West Hollywood, CA 90069-5701 310-659-4716 www.asidla.org asidoffice@asidla.org

Contributing Writers Tony Estrada Lissette Meza, Student ASID Deb Mitchell Marc A. Molinsky Julia A. Molloy Gerald Olesker, ASID IP Victoria Reitz, ASID Alan M. Siegel, Esq. Shepard Vineburg, ASID

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Contributing Photographers Michele LaFlesch, ASID IP Lissette Meza, Student ASID Breeze Munson

President Elect Victoria Reitz, ASID

Financial Director Isla Schmidt ASID Industry Partner

Professional Development Director Karen Hickey, Allied ASID

Duff Tussing, Publisher Dawn Lyon, Art Director

Membership Director Michele LaFlesch ASID Industry Partner

CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES

LADESIGN Quarterly is a publication of the American Society of Interior Designers, Los Angeles Chapter. More than 1,300 designers, industry partners and students are members making us one of the largest chapters in the country. The views and opinions expressed in the LADESIGN Quarterly are not necessarily those of the ASID Los Angeles Chapter. Please feel free to comment on features and articles by sending your thoughts to the Editor via the ASID LA Chapter Office. Â©2019 ASID Los Angeles Chapter 8687 Melrose Avenue, Suite M33 West Hollywood, CA 90069-5701 310-659-4716 FAX 310-659-9189 www.asidla.org

LADESIGN is a Quarterly Publication of the American Society of Interior Designers - Los Angeles Chapter

President Shepard E. Vineburg, ASID

PUBLISHED BY

Jamie Williams, Sales DSA Publishing & Design, Inc. 352-448-5873 jwilliams@dsapubs.com

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Communications Director Michelle Koo, Allied ASID

At-Large Director Alexandra Anderson ASID Industry Partner

Student Rep to the Board Sarah Lutchmansingh Student ASID

Chapter Administrator Ninnette Stewart

We encourage our members to submit innovative products or professional projects for potential publication in LADesign ASID magazine. Please contact the Chapter Administrator at administrator@cala.asid.org or call 310-659-9189 for further information regarding submissions.

LADESIGN | ISSUE 4 | 2019

LADESIGN is a Quarterly Publication of the American Society of Interior Designers - Los Angeles Chapter

5 Reasons Outsourcing Makes Sense By Marc A. Molinsky “Outsourcing” is becoming more popular with interior design firms than ever before. In fact, our research shows that nearly 8 out of 10 interior design firms outsource at least one component of their business to a third party. As labor and benefits costs continue to increase, it has become much riskier and expensive to hire in-house employees. This increasing demand for outsourcing has resulted in many more businesses popping up within the interior design industry that offer outsourcing. The most common task that designers outsource is bookkeeping. Bookkeeping is the ideal candidate for outsourcing because it is not a skill that is taught in design school and it is very expensive to hire and manage in-house. DesignerAdvantage, Inc. has become the leading provider of outsourced bookkeeping and ordering services for interior designers because they understand all of the intricacies of the design business. Other tasks that are commonly outsourced by designers are CAD drawings, purchasing/ordering, social media management and public relations. One of the newer outsourced services within the industry is the work typically performed by an assistant designer such as sourcing, budgeting, project management and installations. Coupar Consulting, a consulting firm based out of San Francisco, is the first in the industry to offer a unique suite of services for interior designers which includes assistant design work, public relations, website design and social media management.

There are the 5 primary reasons why outsourcing has become more popular in the interior design industry: Reduce Cost - The most popular reason to outsource business functions to a third party is to reduce costs. Outsourced providers can execute tasks faster and cheaper than in house employees because they hyper focus their business and invest heavily on perfecting that one task resulting in savings and efficiencies for their clients. Variable Expense – Variable expenses are business expenses that typically increase or decrease along with the size of sales and they can be controlled and “turned off” as needed. Examples of variable expenses are sales and marketing, office supplies and consulting. Fixed expenses are expenses that cannot be turned off such as payroll, rent, and insurance. Outsourced services are considered variable and therefore, are more attractive for your firm. Focus on what you do best – By outsourcing your firm’s “non-core competencies” you are allowing you and your employees to focus the majority of your time on the aspects of your business that you do best, which results in happier employees, better employee retention and most importantly, a higher level of customer service for your clients. More time to grow your firm – Your firm will function better and faster when your internal staff are not spending a significant amount of their time the smaller, less critical tasks of the business. Outsourcing allows you to increase the capacity of your firm to take on more business without the expense and time needed to hire and train new employees. Best Practices - When you outsource you are essentially hiring an “expert” in that particular task and therefore you have access to the best practices in that particular area of the business. Our research shows that design firms who opt to outsource non-core competencies to a third party generally are happy with their decision and tend to commit to those resources long term.

LADESIGN is a Quarterly Publication of the American Society of Interior Designers - Los Angeles Chapter

Marc is currently the founder and CEO of DesignerAdvantage, Inc., the nation's first and largest provider of business services and software exclusively to the interior design trade. Prior to founding DesignerAdvantage, Marc obtained his CPA while working as an auditor at Ernst & Young, LLP. Marc obtained his B.S. in Accounting at Boston College.

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LADESIGN | ISSUE 3 | 2019

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Keys to Getting Your Interior Design Team to Do Things Right! By Julia Molloy

Empowering feedback, does just that. It empowers the employee to be more effective and take more personal accountability for their performance.

s many of you are building your teams to handle the new wave of business this year, you are faced with the challenges associated with getting your team to do what they are supposed to do. As the Principal Interior Designer, it is your job to not only be an amazing designer, but to also manage and lead your team. This is a tall order and getting your employees efficient and keeping the quality of work high is incredibly challenging! I want to share with you my thoughts on the power of effective communication, as it relates to team development. The smaller your firm, the more important each employee’s productivity is. How do you maximize your return on investment as it relates to your team members?

First and foremost, it is important to remember that this is not about you. Come from the perspective of the company and what it needs to fulfill its purpose and run really well. (As always, refer back to your Company Vision and Key Characteristics). Phrase your feedback in terms of the company’s needs and their role within the company. Try not to start your comments with “I like / don’t like”. Conversely, do not make the feedback about them either. Everyone has intrinsic value and you are judging their work, not them as a person. You are providing feedback on the ROLE they play and the work they DO. Phrase your feedback in terms of the task or objective. It is about their work. Tie in how their work impacts the company and/or the client’s experience. After all, that is what it is really about; the outcome of their actions and choices. Use the power of ‘self-referral’. Brain science now tells us that people more often modify their behavior based on their own self-assessment, versus the words of others. A very powerful technique for inspiring change is to ask questions. Lead them to the conclusion you are looking to get and then expound on it. For example, a Jr. Designer turned in a CAD drawing that was sloppy, incomplete and did not follow your company standards for line weights and file set up… AGAIN! A knee jerk response would be to pick it apart and tell them all the things wrong with it. Or for some of you less confrontational or exhausted designers, just not say anything at all and fix it yourself (and internally give up on them.) Here’s an alternative approach. Ask them a series of questions that puts the onus on them:

I know this is how you feel when they don’t do what you asked and you spend more time getting them to do it right than it would have taken you to just do it yourself. No, you are not alone!

One of the keys to successful management is feedback. Not just feedback though, ’EMPOWERING FEEDBACK.’ Empowering feedback is guidance that is given that truly hones your team members’ skills, methods and clarity. It is important to share with them what they are doing well and what needs improvement. Here are some tips on doing this effectively.

LADESIGN is a Quarterly Publication of the American Society of Interior Designers - Los Angeles Chapter

Have you reviewed this CAD Drawing and made sure it includes all details? Do you understand our guidelines for line weights and file structure? Do you understand how this drawing impacts the project? Are you willing to verify that it’s perfect? Do you want to review it again before you submit something as an example of your work? In another situation, you may ask them what they feel they could have done better and then agree with them and expand on the idea. Ask them if they think their work is congruent with the company’s standards for excellence and so on.

And conversely, when they don’t hit the mark, make it clear exactly what it is that could have been done better. If they did a really good job, let them know what it was about what they did, that was so effective. Be very specific about what didn’t work, or what did work. Utilizing these techniques really helps to hone in their skills. That’s important because you invest a lot in your team and you need that to start coming back. You invest time, energy, and money in these people. At a certain point, you need it to start coming back to you. Empowering feedback is a great method to boost your team’s value to the firm and keep them on the right track. In reality, your team will make or break your design firm. Getting it right is a huge challenge and is of paramount importance. I hope you are able to incorporate these techniques into your own leadership style and experience the joy of leading a happy and effective team. Expecting Great Things. Get them to evaluate their own work and then provide your input. Train them to be more accountable for the quality of their work and their decision-making.

You get the idea. Ask them a question or a series of questions that lead them to the right answer. In addition, refer them to your operations manual. If you don’t have a well-developed manual, you’re in for a rough road. Without it, upholding quality standards and procedures is an ongoing battle. If this is the case for you, be in touch. I have a template you can purchase that will save you about 5 years of ops manual development time. Asking well-devised questions that lead them to the self-awareness of the issue at hand or modification needed is your goal. Give them a framework for evaluating their work. Let them know what the important details are and what questions to ask themselves when assessing the quality of their own work.

Brain science shows us that people are more likely to modify their behavior based on their own evaluation and inner dialogue versus the critique of a supervisor.

This in practice could look something like this: “I see 3 things that need adjusting. Let’s take a look at this drawing together. What details are you are looking for when QC’ing your drawings before you pass them on?” “What do you see? What details are you looking for? What do you reference to double check your work?” Guide them to the realization you want them to get to by asking questions. When possible, do NOT give them the answer. Make them FIND the problem themselves. Step away and have them come to you with the answer and the proposed solution. This approach will have a much higher rate of sinking into their brain and will translate to better work or improved performance.

Finally, be sure to be specific in your feedback in general. When a team member does something well, the natural inclination would be to say, “Great job!” or something of the like. More effective praise may sound more like, “Your attention to detail and the speed you cranked that out was impressive!”

Julia Molloy is the leading operations specialist for the interior design industry. She has over 2 decades of operations experience, 12 of them in the design field and has a wealth of knowledge from the interior design, graphic design, operations and technology sectors. She is a sought after speaker, a Business of Design faculty member, on the Better Practices Network board of advisors, has been a continued education instructor to the faculty at New York School of Interior Design and a member of ASID. Molloy has also chaired the ASID Student Affairs Committee and the board of advisors for the Art Institute – Interior Design program. Julia Molloy is also the founder of the renowned BOLD Summit – Business of Luxury Design Summit. This event focuses on the special business needs unique to firms positioned in the luxury market and is a powerful catalyst for luxury focused interior designers and architects around the world. In pursuing her mission to advance the industry, each year she galvanizes the world’s leaders in luxury design to share their wisdom and advice. The BOLD Summit continues to be a driving force for enriching lives and propelling excellence in the design community around the globe.

LADESIGN | ISSUE 4 | 2019

LEGAL MATTERS

36 Legal Do’s and Don’ts for Interior Designers 36 DO’S AND DON’TS

Alan M. Siegel, Esq.

must confess; I am a die-hard list maker. Some of my lists are of no real consequence, and others have a very short lifespan, particularly when they are forgotten in a pocket and sent to the dry cleaner. Other lists survive longer, and often become the basis for one of my articles. Such is the case with my everevolving list below. The Do’s and Don’ts are in no particular order of importance—they are all important! Some are obvious, others not so much. Some are self-explanatory, others need explanation. No doubt this list is not exhaustive; nor is it intended to be. If you have any questions, need an explanation, or wish to offer a comment, feel free to send me an e-mail at asiegel@LSSLLP.com

• Do not select the wrong client to work for.

• Do not do favors for clients at your own peril.

• If you intend to use a form contract, use the correct one, and be sure to modify it according to the project requirements.

• Do advise your advisors (your attorneys, accountants and insurance brokers) as to what you actually do for a living. They will then be in a much better position to advise you.

• Do understand the legal importance of contract “boilerplate” provisions.

• Do use the contract as an opportunity to educate your client. Remember, a surprised client is not a happy client.

• Do understand your vendor’s terms of sale. They are not in your best interests!

• Do recognize when you have a problem (in other words—do not stick your head in the sand!).

• Deal with the problem on a timely basis. Problems do not go away over time—they only get worse.

• Do be familiar with local laws applicable to your services.

• Do not forget the three biggest client

• Do not put all your “contractor eggs” in one basket.

• Do not make “innocuous” representations; particularly when they are not “innocuous.”

• Do understand contract termination rights.

• Do contractually reserve the right to suspend performance of services and to withhold delivery of merchandise if your client fails to make timely payments.

• Do take a ﬂexible approach to your fees and compensation.

• Do keep historical time records. They help you determine how best to charge fees on your next project.

• Do have the last letter in the ﬁle. You will make your attorney happy.

• Do understand your insurance coverage; specifically, what is and what is not covered.

• Do not ignore your client’s calls. The client you don’t want to call back is the ﬁrst client you should call back.

• Do communicate often with your client, even if nothing is happening.

• Do understand the importance of the pre-contract phase. How can you prepare a contract when you don’t understand your new project?

• Do not relinquish intellectual ownership rights in your designs to your clients.

• Do not underestimate your client’s anger or frustration.

• Do reserve the right to photograph your client’s project and to use the photographs (for business purposes).

• Do try to contractually shift responsibilities over to third parties where they properly belong.

• Do not violate the home improvement contractor laws. The consequences are usually quite severe.

• Do not practice “interior architecture” or hold yourself out as being an “interior architect.”

• Do understand the exclusions of your professional errors and omissions insurance policy.

• Do limit your personal exposure by operating your design business in a legal entity that provides you with the beneﬁt of limited liability.

• Do remember, however, that some types of business liability can become personal obligations (e.g. sales tax), even though your business entity enjoys limited liability.

• Do not ignore the statutory licensing requirements governing interior designers in the states where your client’s project is located.

• Do not be “hard of hearing” during contract negotiations.

• Do practice good risk management techniques.

Alan M. Siegel is a partner of the New York law ﬁrm of Levy, Sonet & Siegel, LLP, 630 Third Avenue, New York, New York 10017, (212) 661-1212; asiegel@LSSLLP.com. 40+ years of legal experience within the design and architectural industry representing the interests of interior designers, architects, product designers and resources to the design industry. For over twenty years served as national legal counsel to the American Society of Interior Designers.

Interior Designers, Inc. Member of National Board of Trustees of DIFFA. Trustee of the Angelo Donghia Foundation. Co-author of A Guide to Business Principles and Practices for Interior Designers, published by Whitney Library of Design. Frequent lecturer and contributor to industry and trade groups publications.

General Counsel for the Association for the Contract Textiles Inc. and the Decorative Fabrics and Furnishing Association. Honorary Fellow of the American Society of

Alex K. Ross, a senior associate in the ﬁrm, assisted with the preparation of this article.

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Designing your

2020

Strategy

Invite those you respect and trust to help you navigate your firm forward.

By Julia A. Molloy The year is almost over! Do you know what that means? Yes, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to plan on setting aside some time

to review our progress this past year and look forward to the New Year! Next year is going to be a great one and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m truly looking forward to it. So how do we begin? Well, we all hear about goal setting and

resolutions for the New Year and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m all for it, but there is something that comes first, STRATEGY!

Before you can prioritize and set goals, you need an overarching strategy session! I recommend having

2 a year, one at the beginning of January and one during the 3rd quarter if possible. There are a few

prerequisites and components involved with strategy sessions.

List out items for discussion including challenges, problems and areas for growth.

You need your company’s key characteristics clearly defined and updated

Those of you that know me well know that I constantly refer to the key

characteristics. Simply put, this is a list of a dozen or so adjectives or

short phases that describe your firm’s values. The bottom line is, you

need guiding principles and a mission statement to help you navigate

through all the ideas and options that will come up in your strategy

meeting. You will also want to put some ideas down on paper and

develop an outline for a meeting agenda.

Put together an advisory board

Who are the few people that you absolutely trust and respect

for their savvy, expertise in their field, sage experience and vision?

Find them and invite them to be an adviser for your firm. You just

need 1 to start. They can be a senior member of your firm if you’re

fortunate enough to have someone of that caliber on your team. All

that is required on their part is to join your 2 strategy sessions each year.

It is helpful if most of them are in completely different fields and bring

to the table strengths that you do not possess.

Have an agenda or list of objectives Like any meeting, put together a list of objectives or an agenda

of items you’d like to discuss and resolve during the meeting.

Often the first one will be to review all products and services as well

as areas of concern or need for refinement. Pull them together and

brainstorm about what is possible and what fits with your firm’s mission

and values. Don’t focus too much on logistics, as you’ll have a separate

meeting for that. This is all about ideation, vision and overarching direction

for your company’s growth and development as well as innovative ideas

for solving issues you’ve been challenged by.

Hold the meeting out of your office, in an inspiring environment

Studies have shown that you cannot think ‘outside of the box’

very effectively when you are physically sitting ‘inside your box’. So

have the meeting out of your normal environment. Preferably somewhere

uplifting, non-distracting and open feeling. High ceilings are important

and expansive views are ideal. Changing the scene will disrupt your

normal thinking patterns and make new ideas come to you more easily.

Have lunch brought in and run from morning through the end of the

day. You may need to have a 2 day intensive, especially as you run

yours for the first time, or as massive growth or changes are occurring

in your interior design business.

LADESIGN | ISSUE 4 | 2019

Follow it up with a plan of action meeting to discuss implementation and timing

Once you are clear about what you want to create

or the solutions to implement, it is all about execution. Have a secondary meeting a couple days later

with the team members or advisory board members

that are logistically oriented and get a firm plan of

action on the books. Include tasks, timing and the

persons accountable so that it really does get done. Add all tasks to your Master Task List and if needed,

hold a few follow up meetings at set intervals to

To effectively implement, establish clear tasks, who is responsible and when it is to be done.

discuss progress on assigned projects.

Your objective is to come up with an overarching approach and direction for your

interior design business. You’ll want to emerge with a crystal clear understanding

You will be empowered by the clarity this session will provide. Once your strategy

is clear, you are ready to set goals, milestones, and plan for the needed resources

of what your firm does and, more importantly, what it does NOT do and who it

to accomplish your goals.

along with your various modalities for charging for them.

To assist you in this process, I have created a Strategic Plan Worksheet. It can serve

does it for. Be clear on your ‘packaging’ or how you present or bundle your services,

Accessories ucts

Antiques

Craftsman

Appliances

Cabinetry

Delivery/Moving

Art Installation

SHOP Awnings

Fireplaces

ture Custom

Artisan/

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as a template for putting your thoughts down on paper as you start to formulate

your ideas for where you are going next year. I hope it is helpful. Enjoy!

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sectors. She is a sought after speaker, a

Business of Design faculty member, on the Better Practices Network board of advisors,

Glass/ Mir

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has been a continued education instructor to

anytime you wish. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s the

Music/Game Rooms

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the faculty at New York School of Interior Design and a member of ASID. Molloy has

right thing to do. Shop Industry Partners first-

Surfacing

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Liaison/Design Center/Showroom

Light

and support those companies that make our ing

Linens/Bedding

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Chapter events, programs and CEUs possible.

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Other

Outdoor Furniture/Accessories/Garden Art

YOURPhotography GREATESTPianos/Musical RESOURCEInstruments FOR THEPlants/ FINEST INTERIOR PRODUCTS & Landscaping Plumbing/Fixtures Pools and Spas SERVICES Professional Orga nizing

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SOCIETY OF Window Covering Motorization INTERIOR DESIGNERS

dow Treatment

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Show

Win

Wood Finishing

also chaired the ASID Student Affairs Committee and the board of advisors for the Art Institute – Interior Design program. Julia Molloy is also the founder of the renowned BOLD Summit – Business of Luxury Design Summit. This event focuses on the special business needs unique to firms positioned in the luxury market and is a powerful catalyst for luxury focused interior designers and architects around the world. In pursuing her

mission to advance the industry, each year she galvanizes the world’s leaders in luxury design to share their wisdom and advice. The BOLD Summit continues to be a driving force for enriching lives and propelling excellence in the design community around the globe.

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LADESIGN | ISSUE 4 | 2019

TIME BILLING By Marc A. Molinsky

As the leading provider of bookkeeping and expediting services to interior designers in the United States, we have seen first-hand how the interior design industry has been changed dramatically over the past 20 years. No change in the industry has impacted design businesses more than the way designers charge fees for their services. Pre-1990, the interior design business model was originally designed to build in all or most of a designers’ fees directly into the price of the product. This technique, called “charging retail” allowed interior designers to receive a “built in” 40% profit margin (which also equates to a 67% “markup” on the designer net price). For example, if a designer were to sell a sofa to a client with a $10,000 suggested retail price, they would achieve a profit of $4,000 because their net designer price would typically be 40% “off retail” or $6,000. This “built in” profit margin of 40% was precisely what a design business needs to achieve a reasonable bottom line. This “retail” model was quickly blown up by the internet when consumers for the first time had gained transparency into designers’ profit margins. Consumers were quick to condemn this model because they could not imagine how and why a design business would need to make some much money on product to sustain their businesses. Consequently, designers were forced over to reduce their markups on product from 67% down to 35-40% despite the fact that the cost to run their businesses had not changed and if anything went up. Given the financial reality that a design business cannot run their businesses on simply a 35% markup, designers slowly over time began charging hourly for their time. The evolution of the time billing model for interior designers has overall been a positive change for the industry but it is a model that has some challenges that must be overcome for a designer to achieve a healthy profit margin. Based upon our years of experience and research, the following is a list of the top 5 challenges that designers are currently facing with time billing along with our recommendation for how to solve them: Keep Description of Time on Invoice Short – It is very common for interior designers to use very lengthy descriptions of their work in their time billing invoices with the intention of “answering all of the clients questions up front”. Our experience has shown us that lengthy descriptions make the billing process far more tedious and cumbersome and though not intuitive, it actually results in more client grumbling, not less. We recommend that you group and present your time in general categories such as: sourcing, client communication, vendor communication, on site meetings, project management, project administration, travel and construction management. This approach will speed up the time billing editing process and reduce the amount of painful client feedback. Negative Client Feedback – It is very common for interior designers to receive negative feedback from their clients about their time billing invoices because

LADESIGN is a Quarterly Publication of the American Society of Interior Designers - Los Angeles Chapter

clients do not have a clear understanding of how much time and effort is required behind the scenes to bring a design to reality. This negative feedback can significantly impair a designer’s confidence and consequently cause them to invoice far less time than what their contractual arrangement allows. We recommend that you carefully consider what type of client is giving you negative feedback before making any changes to your time billing process. We recommend that you classify each of your clients as either A, B or C. A & B clients are reasonable people that value what you do for them and they are interested in you making a profit on your work. C clients do not value your time or your design, regardless of their net worth, and therefore you should not take their criticisms to heart because they are not reasonable in nature. Find the Right Time Tracking System – There are countless systems currently being used by interior designers to track and invoice time (ie. Microsoft Excel, Google docs, Quickbooks, Studiodesigner, Harvest and DesignerLinkapp.com). Finding the right system for your firm can be challenging due prodigious number of options. We recommend that you try and use the same system for both of your time billing and accounting – so if you use Quickbooks for accounting, it is best to use Quickbooks for your time billing (the same holds true for Studiodesigner). Our experience shows that Harvest and Designerlinkapp.com are the most user friendly and popular time billing software other than Quickbooks and Studiodesigner. Managing Client Expectations – Due to the tremendous amount of time that goes into a design project, it is imperative to manage the clients’ expectations of your time billing from the very beginning of a project. Although it must be explained to the client that it is impossible to give them an exact estimate of your time before the project starts, you can tell them that time billing usually represents 20-30% of the total project spend (which includes the sum of hourly billings, cost of product of labor and markup). You can also explain that where they fall in that range will depend on how custom and how decisive they are during the sourcing process. Are Your Billing Rates in Line with the Market? Interior designers generally do not have access to the time billing rates of other firms in their region so it is a very common problem for firms to be charging far less for their time (or more) than the market rates. We recommend that you try to join a network of designers in your area that are comfortable in exchanging information about their own firms in a “non-threatening” way. These designer groups are growing in popularity and likely to present in your city.

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