Let me ask you a question. Have your clients ever said anything like this to you?
“I don’t understand how you and the other 3 designers I’ve been through on this project can’t get it right.”
“This experience has been worse than bearing my husband.”
“I thought you were good at this, why can’t you figure out what’s in my head?”
“I would’ve thought that for $1500 you would’ve given me so much more than this.”
Believe it or not, these are all things interior designers have told me their clients have actually said to them. Yes, I’m for real!!
As you can probably imagine, working with the people behind these quotes wasn’t exactly a walk in the park for my clients. In fact, most of them were nightmare clients that made my clients miserable.
If you’ve ever experienced a nightmare client like this, then you already know how awful and stressful of an experience it is. It can take a toll on your confidence, and make you question your abilities. It can even make you start to wonder if you picked the wrong career! But the problem isn’t YOU! It’s just the wrong-fit clients affecting how you feel in your business.
And here’s the thing – there’s an abundance of great business advice out there. But all the best business tips and tricks in the world won’t make you happy in your business if you’re working with people who treat you badly!
After a decade of seeing my designer clients through all the many highs and lows of their businesses, it’s glaringly obvious to me that what makes or breaks their entire experience is their clients. You can have the best business model, be the most talented designer, have all the right logistical pieces in place, and still be miserable and unprofitable in your business if you’re not attracting the right kinds of clients.
If you want to build a profitable, fulfilling, design business that you love, it’s all about working with the right-fit people!
Right-fit clients and wrong-fit clients create two totally different business experiences
We all have past experiences–whether professional or personal–with people who’ve affected us negatively. We know how emotionally and energetically draining it can be to interact with someone who nitpicks, criticizes, micromanages, steamrolls, or just plain doesn’t seem to value us.
It’s no different in your design business. If you’re (unintentionally) attracting clients who push back constantly, put you on the defensive, and/or try to make you feel terrible about yourself and your work, you’re going to be miserable. Even the tasks that are usually super easy breezy for you will feel like you’re pushing a boulder up a hill.
If I had a dime for every designer who cried on calls with me because their clients were TERRIBLE! It breaks my heart for them!
Too much of this and you’ll end up hating your business altogether. Not to mention, you’ll be spending so much time and energy trying to please those wrong-fit clients that you’ll be leaking money left and right!
You’ll know you’re working with the wrong-fit clients if they:
- don’t value you or your services
- try to micromanage you
- don’t trust your design advice or decisions
- limit your creativity
- are slow to pay you and question your fees
- make you cry
On the other hand, when you’re set up to attract clients who are the right fit for you, your business (and life!) is a whole other ballgame. Taking your business goals, differentiators, and personality into consideration to figure out what kinds of clients you need to attract means you get to run a business that’s in alignment with everything about who you are and what you want–not just what others are saying you SHOULD do.
Messaging and marketing that get you in the room with clients who are the right fit for you will change the game, giving you a business you’re in love with again, filling your days with ease and flow, and letting your creativity and profitability soar! It’s ALL about the people!
Though the specifics of right-fit clients vary for every designer, they all…
- value your time and treat you like a professional
- respect and trust your expertise and experience
- are good communicators
- appreciate your creativity and love your ideas
- pay you on time and without question
There’s a night and day difference between running your business with right-fit vs. wrong-fit clients, right?! I so want the better, easier, more profitable one for you, my friend!
Tailor-made brand messaging is the gamechanger you need
If you’ve followed me for a while you know I feel strongly about creating custom brand messaging for all my clients–and this is why. It’s the key to getting in the room with the right clients!
When your brand messaging is focused on addressing the needs of your ideal clients in language that resonates with them, you can’t help but attract them!
And we’ve already established that working with ideal clients = a design business you love, right?!
When done right, tailor-made brand messaging will:
- Show who you authentically are – so that prospective clients get an accurate feel for you online. They want to hire a designer they can vibe with; someone who feels like “their kind of person,” who shares their values, and whose design style they love. The better you showcase who you really are in your messaging, the more you catch the attention of aligned clients!
- Speak to the needs of your ideal client – so that they feel seen, heard, and understood by you on a deeper level. They want to entrust their home to someone who really understands their needs and who they can communicate with. The more effectively your messaging communicates this, the more on target you’ll be with attracting your dream clients!
- Conveys the value you bring to your ideal clients’ projects – so that they aren’t left guessing why your fees are what they are, but instead start their projects knowing you’re worth every penny and more!
All in all, the right custom messaging is the tool to getting right-fit clients who’ll allow you to build a fulfilling, profitable, interior design business that you love.
My unique approach to creating brand messaging that gets you in the room with the right clients
My approach to creating effective messaging is a tried and true system that centers around your authenticity and your ideal client.
My goal is to get you in the room with good, kind, respectful clients who’ll trust you and value your work, and the way to do this is to work your business strategy and messaging around THEM.
But first, we have to deeply understand who those right-fit clients are for you. What do they value in their homes? What are they looking for in a designer? What kind of language can we speak to earn their attention and trust?
Once this is nailed down, I shine a spotlight on these clients in your messaging. Even when the messaging is about you, I angle it to show how it benefits them. We’re not trying to write a resume or an IMDB bio here, folks. This is all about your ideal clients and how you’re the right designer for them.
My Message LevelUp service is the first step. This is a deep-dive session where I ask you all the right questions to get everything out of your head and get a 360° view of you and your business.
Then I create a detailed written report called the Message LevelUp Roadmap, where I define your best messaging opportunities. I advise you on what to start doing and what to stop doing with your brand messaging, so that you start attracting your ideal clients like moths to the flame!
You’ll get a ton of value out of this service alone, but most clients opt to have me help them apply the recommendations to their messaging, web copy, and other marketing and communication touchpoints.
So, my question for you is – Which kind of business are you running right now?
One that you love or one that’s draining the life out of you?
If it’s the latter, and you’re ready to change that by getting in the room with the dreamy-fit clients you deserve, we should get in touch!
Schedule a call with me to learn more and see if a Message LevelUp session would be right for you!
