Are You Sabotaging Yourself?
Five Ways to Increase Your Earnings Without Increasing Your Work

By MARY TROCHLIL LARSEN

If we’re lucky, we love the work that we do. And, studies have shown we love our work even more when we are well compensated for what we do. Follow any or all of the tips below and you can help ensure you will continue to love your work.

1. Know What You Want
Sounds simple enough, but being very clear on what you are trying to achieve before you take a phone call or leave for an appointment can make a huge difference to your outcome.

Action Step: Decide exactly what you are trying to achieve before your appointment or call and then write it down. Review it immediately before you accept the call or go into the appointment. Are you trying to schedule an appointment? Are you trying to close a sale and get a check? Are you trying to make a sale that is $500 more than your last sale? Know what you want BEFORE your appointments so that you can be working specifically toward that goal.

2. Have a Process
Again, sounds simple, but having a process is so easily overlooked when we are creative—great ideas come to us all the time and we love trying new things. But trying new things can often lead to confusion for both you and your client, and suddenly money matters get foggy, questions are raised and no one is comfortable. When you have a process, you do things the same way every time—and this process includes sharing with the client how your business works, what part they play in the process and when and how you expect to be paid.

Action Step: Put your process down on paper, beginning with the first client conversation (including “What You Want” from step one above) and your expectations for how and when you will collect your earnings. When do you talk about rates or prices (at the beginning, the middle or the end)? A lot of time can be saved by giving the client an idea upfront how much this will cost (rule of thumb). The process should be set up to avoid multiple meetings. Your time and travel are valuable to you. Decide how many in-person meetings you are willing to provide in your pricing.

3. Use the Magic Words
It took me several years to learn this little lesson, and it has since saved me—and earned me!—thousands of dollars. How often has a neighbor or a client said, “Oh, let me ask you a quick question,” and the next thing you know you are spending way too much of your time and your knowledge “working” for someone who hasn’t hired you and has no intention of paying you.

Action Step: Use the magic words, “Call me—and let’s set up an appointment.” As soon as these words are spoken, it ends the free consultation and makes it clear that an “appointment” means this is business and you need to be hired. This also works right into having a process—as soon as the appointment is made, you rely on your process to take you through the steps that will ensure you earn what you are worth.

4. Don’t Sabotage Yourself
We are often our own worst enemies. From not being clear on what we want to not making it clear to the client how billing works, we can really wreak havoc on our business and our earnings. One area in which we often play mind games is in trying to guess what our clients are “willing” to pay for our services. How many times have you said to yourself, “They will never pay me $500 for that, so I’ll charge them $425.” What? Why? How do you know what they will pay? How do you know what it is worth to them? Don’t forget—any time you lower your price, you are lowering what YOU are earning.

Action Step: Set your pricing and stick to it. Every time. A peer of mine actually hired an assistant specifically to do the billing so the designer wasn’t agonizing over what the client was willing to pay. The designer found her earnings went up by 40 percent and not one single client left for someone less expensive.

5. Add-on, Add-on, Add-on
Also known as The Up Sell. When you know you want this sale to be larger than the last sale, how are you going to do that? With add-ons, of course. It is your goal to make sure that the client knows everything they are missing out on when they say they want a pair of simple drapery panels.

Action Step: It is your job to make sure your client knows about lining, interlining, bump, trim, more trim,hardware, upgraded fabric, detailed leading edges, ruching, hand hemming, cording, pleating, embroidery, candlewicking, trapunto, tassels, buttons and motorization. And let’s not forget coordinating fabric, pillows and accessories for the room, not to mention for the next room in the home.

We really have a lot more control than we often think we do. By putting a process into place and following it—and by knowing what you want to achieve before starting out—you can put more money into your pocket without adding more work to your day. Follow the tips outlined here and let me know how it turns out for you. I’d love to know!

Mary Trochlil Larsen works with drapery designers, interior designers, stagers and others in the design field to help them grow their business and earn the money they deserve. To work with Larsen or for more business tips on how and to share how these tips worked out for you, go to GrowYourDesignBiz.com or find Larsen on Facebook and Twitter.

CLOSER LOOK

Mary Larsen Designs
GrowYourDesignBiz.com