START WITH BUSINESS PLAN – TEST DIFFERENT STATEGIES –
EXCEL PROJECTIONS
Plan for your own way of managing business? Plan for obtaining additional funds for
expansion?.
Information we need.
STARTUP AND
MONTHLY COSTS - Send this to
us first.
Pricing for Your Services –and products
being sold if this is planned.
Interior Design
Project Management & General
Contracting
Home Styling & Decor
EXPANSION AND MONTHLY
EXPENSES – Fill in form to mail back to us.
Some decorators work
for free; they're earning commissions from merchants and may steer you to the
highest priced products.
Others charge a
fixed fee, of $500-$10,000 or more depending on location and reputation.
Hourly rates can be
$35-$500, again based on location and reputation.
Decorators working on a
flat rate or hourly basis may also charge a percentage of any products
purchased.
It's possible to hire a
decorator for just a few hours, to give you guidance and ideas
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Your On-Line Image
FACEBOOK BUSINESS PAGE LOOKS GOOD
http://www.mjc-designstudio.com/
URL SHOULD NEVER A DASH –
Good Pictures…In Our Story Tab - great personal picture.
. Good spot for short intro. Video.
You should have a video explaining the benefits of your
service.
Put contact Tel # in Header.
Create a Blog - Instant Marketing and Publicity
Increase in Search Ranking
You gain additional income
Blogs are what get you
noticed online. It’s a great way to educate potential clients about your
services, provide decorating tips, profile your strengths and show what you can
do by featuring some of your finest work.
HomeAdvisor
Announces First Apple Watch App for Digital Home Services Market
Check If You are Mobile Friendly
Your Listing on Google Plus -
Good
Linked in does not connect
For clients with small budgets you can
provide affordable consulting services
such as selecting paint and wallpaper to
complement a lifestyle,
choosing accent pieces to integrate with
existing furniture or designing window treatments.
Also consider partnering with furniture
stores and other businesses offering related services and products to keep your
overhead down while tapping a built-in clientele with larger budgets.
How Are You Marketing Your Service?
Word of mouth is just about the best and reliable form
of marketing there is for a lot of small businesses! Join Local Business
Groups.
Ads in community newspapers
or small, targeted direct mail pieces to establish yourself in the limited area
you serve.
People have to be able to find you. That means you must have a fabulous website and that site has to be on the first
page of Google. The higher ranking the better. It’s not going to get there if
you don’t have great content. You know good design and a quality web designer
knows their business. SEO = content –
keywords – back links = traffic.
Clear information easy to read about what you do. Use
bullets and Read More buttons.
Your website and blog
must reflect your style. Accent your uniqueness. Must
use customer
Testimonials on website and listing services.
Give PDF book and other free stuff when
they register, thus building your mailing list.
You have to showcase your
work with high-resolution images. Interior design is a visual product. Your
photographs have to reflect that. There are plenty of photographers out there.
If you are starting out and can’t afford to spend a lot of money, check around
at the art colleges or photography schools. Look for someone who can photograph
interiors, but find someone who has a unique style.
Going viral means going video.
YouTube has become one of the major forms of marketing. Show your clients how
you come up with these creative ideas. Take them on a tour of a house you
transformed. Be interviewed video…can use on website.
Be a social butterfly: Have you been ignoring your Facebook and Twitter accounts?
This is one of the easiest, cheapest and most successful ways to engage people.
Pin it! Pinterest is the end all and be all for visual imagery and feeding
people’s hunger for beautiful design.
Thanks to camera-equipped mobile phones,
which have become cheap and ubiquitous, it’s easy for consumers to produce and
share photos and other media. In fact, that casual simplicity is Instagram's
biggest attraction.
Link
to keyword planner Must sign up
first for adwords but do not need to start adwords, but will have the ability
to use the keyword program.
Find keywords high in volume and low in competition.
Content
– This links to our Blog to learn how to acquire content for your website and
blog.
GOOGLE ALERTS - VIDEO
GET DAILY CONTENT FOR YOUR NICHE - VIDEO 5 MIN
Network with a
newsletter: Yes, there are people who don’t like Facebook or wouldn’t know a
tweet from a tweed. High-end clients who are busy with their own careers don’t
have time to check into your blog every day.
The way to reach those important
clients is with a regular newsletter.
By sending your newsletter through secure email, you ensure clients that you
are security conscious and your email won’t be flagged as spam.
Google Places - Free -
Video 10 Min
Localize Your Business - Customers Will Find You on First Page of Search
Localize Your Business - Customers Will Find You on First Page of Search
Email Marketing
– Info link to our Blog with videos and suggestions.
Constant Contact
MailChimp – Free – For 2,000 listing – Small Fee for
Upgrade.
Your clients are probably reading many of their emails or
search for businesses on their smart phones. Mobile marketing is
crucial in today’s world. Make sure your
website is mobile friendly.
A newsletter allows you
to link to all of your channels and reach more clients. It’s like lighting.
Consider
Affiliate Marketing - Info link to our Blog with videos and suggestions.
Affiliate
marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a
business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by
the affiliate's own marketing efforts.
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Interior Designer vs. Interior Decorator
Interior design is the art and science of
understanding people's behavior to create functional spaces within a building.
Decoration is the furnishing or adorning of a space with fashionable or
beautiful things. In short, interior
designers may decorate, but decorators do not design.
Certified Interior
Designer
Most interior designers
complete a training program two to four years in length at a university,
college or trade school. After graduation they may work under another designer
to complete their training. Currently, 26 states require designers to have
certification before practicing as professional interior designers. The
National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) offers an exam that
tests individuals' knowledge of the minimum standards of design. Passing the
exam grants the designer licensure in NCIDQ member jurisdictions as well as
qualifying her for membership into other interior
design organizations. The
applicant must present proof of prior work experience before taking the exam.
General
Requirements
Any use of the title "Certified Interior
Designer," within New York
State
To be licensed as a certified interior designer
in New York State
be at least 21 years of age
meet education and examination requirements
meet experience requirements
be of good moral character
You must submit an application for licensure and
the other forms indicated, along with the appropriate fee, to the Office of the
Professions at the address specified on each form. It is your responsibility to
follow up with anyone you have asked to send us material.
The specific requirements for licensure are
contained in Title 8, Article 161, Section
8305 of New York
You should also read the general licensing information applicable for all professions.
The licensure fee for Certified Interior Design is $377.
For Interior Designers, Self-Employed
hands out the highest paychecks — $88K on average — relative to the national
average of $43K per year.
