Designers Daily Journal 8/31/07

I had a really great day today. I have been working for months on a condo remodel and the owners finally came down to see it this weekend. They absolutely love it and even brought me a present because they knew my birthday is next weekend. Then we went shopping for a new chandelier and found a really unique showstopper that we fell in love with. We also found a bedside lamp for the guest room and a silk palm tree for the living room and a torchiere lamp for the living room as well. I think everything we purchased was on sale because of the holiday weekend. We loaded all the purchases in my truck and then they took me to lunch at Sam Sneads, again for my birthday. I just love it when my clients love their remodels! Although I dont think the property management company is going to love me because the owners dont want to rent the unit out anymore.....oops. Well, now it's time to enjoy the long holiday weekend.

Designers Daily Journal 8/29/07

Today was short but sweet. I met with the Director of Sales of a new resort on the island and presented my company to him and explained how I could be of service to the builder by developing a design concept for the rooms and spec the products for the builder to purchase. It was a good meeting and we'll see what comes of it. Then I spent a few hours at the beach with my husband since it was his day off.

Designers Daily Journal 8/29/07

Wow, what a busy day. I went to the breakfast meeting at the Longboat Key Chamber and decided to wear my Ambassador shirt and play that role instead of standing up and talking about my business. Had a great conversation with the lady that's involved with promoting the EDC (Economic Development Council). SO everyone eats breakfast, sits down and gets a minute to talk about their business. I decided to talk about what you can do when business is slow and re-evaluate your marketing strategy and brainstorm with people. Everyone thought I had great ideas and was right on track. Next I went straight to meet with the owner of Superior Interiors, to make the final selections for materials that are going into a condo remodel we are working. This was the second meeting we've had about this and both lasted a good 4 hours. But we finalized all the details this time and I feel really good about the direction of the project. Afterwards I went to the Plumbing Gallery and chose all the plumbing products for the project. The only thing left for me to do is get him the lighting products. After that we will wait for the permitting to be approved (it should have been done by now but the architect has been stalling us for far too long). Then once we're approved, the demo will get started, when demo is done and their building the new walls and installing the wiring and plumbing in the walls, I will start with shopping for the furniture, window treatments, rugs and accessories. Some furniture will take 3 months to come in and that is about how long it will take the construction guys to remodel the unit. God willing! The condo is complete in my head, I know exactly what it's going to look like when it's completed so now all I have to do is order the products to make it look that way.
Next I met with another client that was nearby to show him the fabric samples for his window treatments. That reminds me, his check is in my car. He hates writing checks and no matter how much something is, it's always too much in his mind.

Afterwards, I came home, the house was 83 degres for some reason, and I had to make dinner! Yikes, you just want to serve watermellon when it's that hot! Fed everyone then went to the volunteers meeting at my daughters school to sign up for the events I will help out with (in my spare time! ha!) for the year - private school.

Now I'm answering emails and updating blogsite. During a loud thunder and lightening storm that is freaking out my dog so I must attend to her now. Cheers!

Designers Daily Journal 8/28/07

My handyman team is so great! They refered me to one of their clients, whom I met with this morning. Lovely couple who moved here recently, brought their furniture and want to use it in their new place here. Their style is eclectic, and not very expensive but they do have some original modern pieces from the 60's. This is actually a small job for me but still quite challenging trying to make a mish-mash of furniture look good, all while making them both happy when its entirely clear they never agree. However, I told them they have to at least let me try the pieces in some new places even if they dont "think" it will work. I've done this enough times, I have a good eye and a great sense of room balance and I've had awesome results so they will just have to discover this as we go.

Afterwards, I met with Kimmy my web designer and went over some website details. She does great work! It's all Greek to me, but she walked me through it. It's easier just to have her make the changes and me keep to the things I do best. While I was with her we submitted the website to Google and attempted to submit to Yahoo! but registration was required so I didnt feel like spending the time on it then.

Next I went to my workroom to pick up some fabric samples for my client to look at tomorrow.

Finally I came home, discovered a new business social site called linkedIn and it looked worthwhile so I registered for it and found out that many of the people I do business with are already members so I asked them to give me recommendations. Then I sent invites to all the other people and invited them to join - it's free! Finally, I went back to submitting my website to Yahoo! - the hard way, I tried to do it myself. But thankfully I screwed it up and had to call in and got a great gal to help me and she is going to have them do a profile on my business and get the right keywords programmed and have their people get me good positioning so in the end I felt better - during the middle of it she probably should have hung up on me because I was flustered and a bit of a _itch.

Ok, so all this computer stuff I launched on this past week, has been time consuming but it will pan out eventually and it damn well better pay off!

Designer's Daily Journal 08/27/07

Well, for a Monday, today is starting out quite nicely! I met with a mentor at the Small Business Development Center at MCC in Lakewood Ranch. We worked on finding new markets for me to target and he had a lot of great ideas. I am going to take a couple of weeks to implement those ideas and then meet back with him again to go over my "branding position" (what makes me stand out from my competition). During those two weeks I will make a list of everything that comes to mind as to how I am different from my competition so that we will have something to get started with.

Next I entered two new blogs pertaining to design and I think I'll market my blog to the local papers, I think they might appreciate having this type of content at their fingertips.

While typing my entries, I got a call from a lady that was refered to me by my handyman team, Glen and Troy (they are THE BEST!). I will meet with her tomorrow to see about placing her existing furniture and artwork that she brought from Savannah, into her new home here in Bradenton.

I have so much new stuff for my webmaster, Kimmy, to implement into my website after my meeting at the SBDC, that she'll probably be able to retire while I still have to work!

ROI-Return on Investment Property

If your vacation property has tired, worn furnishings you are losing money. You may not want to spend the money to update the interiors because it is just a rental and you and your family hardly ever use it. Think again. After all, this property is income property, and your goal is to produce income. What if I told you that by making the necessary upgrades to your furnishings, your property will rent faster, more frequently and you have a good chance at recapturing the money you spent on the improvements in the first year!

Many local property management companies refer me when their clients properties are not renting, due to the condition of the furniture. Let's face it, if people can afford to spend $6 - 8,000 a month on a rental property they expect the property to have the level of furnishings that they are accustomed to.

A recently upgraded condo on the beach, showed a remarkable increase in renters, specifically because of the recent improvements. Now,the owners can hardly get in to use it themselves! AND, they've already recaptured much of their investment in the first few months! Before making the improvements, they were so disappointed with the lack of rental traffic that they actually considered selling it. Now, they are thrilled that they finally comitted to making the improvements instead.

Hiring a designer to assist with upgrades is a great way to get started. Designers have a trained eye to see the potential of a property and can save you time and money by doing it right the first time. My clients can't get over how easy it is to work with a designer and the peace of mind they get by puting the project in my hands while they get on with their busy lives.

There is one possible drawback, I recently completed two condo remodels for two seperate clients. Both couples liked the improvements to their units so much, they decided to pull out of the rental market and keep the units exclusively to themselves!

New Trend with Property Investors

Not too long ago property investors were buying places for a low price, making some minor improvements to the property, turning around and reselling them for a much higher price and earning a nice profit in a relatively short period of time. Now, with the real estate market taking such a huge downturn, property investors are left holding many properties in their portfolio and are looking for new ways to create income and pay these mortgages.

Here in Sarasota, Florida there is an increased trend for these property investors to turn-key furnish their properties and use them as vacatation rental properties. Turn-key is a term used to describe a place that is completely ready to use. In this case it means that the properties are completely furnished, including bed linens, towels and kitchenware, for the renter to walk in and start using the place immediately.

It still takes a considerble investment to completely furnish a place, especially if window coverings are involved and these investors are not used to purchasing this type of product. Being an interior designer myself, I have found it challenging to meet their budgets, but after intense research and making new supplier contacts I have found that together we can come up with a satisfactory working budget to meet their needs.

By furnishing the property and managing it as a seasonal rental these investors are creating enough income to pay for the full year of mortgage payments and they can thus afford to hold onto the properties until the market changes again.

The bonus to furnishing a property is that on average the property sells faster than those properties that sit bare.

So, if your a property investor and you haven't turned your properties into rentals, now is the time to do it, before you miss our high tourist season. It takes a minimum of 4 weeks to get the place turn-key ready, so don't wait until the last minute.

Beach Cabana Theme

I love themed designs. I created this Beach Cabana theme design for the entry of a client's vacation condo. You can see more of my designs at www.interiorsbydeb.com

Designer's Daily Journal

Since this is my first day of blogging let me get you up to speed. I'm an interior designer in Sarasota and in Orlando, specifically Celebration Florida. I started my business in 2003 and have been growing it ever since. I specialize in vacation homes and condos and 80% of my clients dont live here full time. I get all of my business through referals. Usually, realtors and property management companies refer me to their clients.

I belong to the Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce and the Kissimmee Chamber of Commerce.

So, I've recently been doing a marketing push. I joined the Lakewood Ranch Business Aliance group in order to make more contacts in the LWR area. Networking is huge here in Florida - it's the best way to get business. I signed up to help out on the events committee and we're in the process of planning an event during the Christmas season.

I am also in the process of joining the Sarasota Association of Realtors. The reason I've decided to join is because many of the people who give me leads already belong to this organization and suggested that I join. The main reason for joining is that I am now trying to really focus on International clients and SAR is hosting an event focusing on international clients. Also, there is an organization called International Real state Council that I want to learn more about.

Friday I went to the beach with my husband, while the kids were at school, and I brought some reading material that I wanted to catch up on. I read in Biz941 about the importance of blogging. I made some business calls and played in the surf.

Saturday I drove to Orlando to attend the Furniture and Accessories Market at the Orlando Convention Center. I drove 3.5 hours round trip to go to show that took me 1.5 hrs to walk through! At first I thought it was going to be a total waste because most of the stuff was cheap crap. However, I did make some worthwhile supplier contacts. I now have two places to purchase mattress sets, a great contact for buying silk florals, and numerous contacts for artwork. All of these contacts will sell to me at wholesale prices so in the end this was more than worth my time and effort.

Today, I decided to do research on blogggin and how I can benefit from it and I set up my blogsite. A new learning experience! I also printed out my business plan and a copy of my 1-page condensed business plan for tomorrows appointment.

Tomorrow I have an appointment at the Small Business Development Center where I will review, with one of their experts, my business strategy, how it can be improved, what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong, how to direct more people to my website and now blogsite, and any other advice they have to offer. No matter how long you've been in business you should review your business plan, make changes if needed and always look for professional advice. You should also commit 30% of your time marketing.

Got what it takes to be a designer?

So, you've watched Design Star and now you want to be a designer. Do you have what it takes? Most designers will tell you that it starts first with Passion- you have to have a passion for design. You will never make it without a passion for the business. Got passion?

OK, next is Education - go to school and earn a degree in Interior Design. I did a lot of research on many schools and their programs. Then when I had found two schools I was considering, I called the top designers in the area and asked them for their opinions on the schools and their programs and if they were going to hire someone, which school education would they prefer. All the designers I called were more than happy to give me their input and I chose my school. Education is key!

Experience! Obviousely, you will need experience. How do you get experience? With an internship - preferably two internships. Some internships are paid. My design program required two internships and I decided that "where" I interned was more important than if it was a paid internship. I also decided to explore two of three design areas.

The three areas of design are Residential, Hospitality and Commercial design. Residential is working with Homeowners. Hospitality is vast and includes Hotels, Hospitals, Restaurants, Casinos. Commercial includes Office Space, Retail Space, Corporate Space.

I chose Hospitality as my first internship and joined NEWH (Network of Executive Women in Hospitality) through this networking organization I met a lady who owned Interior Design International a hospitality design firm in Seattle. I was able to eventually hire on as an intern which led to a full time paid position. The second internship was with two well established interior designers that shared an office space in the Seattle Design Center building. They were awesome designers that taught me a lot! Internships are a great way to get experience!