Dear Sean,

I was reading the article on preventing burnout in the latest issue of BOH magazine, and I found myself wondering how it aligns with your ideas about how a design business should run. While I know it is important to have boundaries and practice self-care, it also seems like designers can sometimes shoot themselves in the foot by creating so much pressure to implement these practices. It can feel like we are competing with our businesses for our own sanity. Am I crazy to think this way, and is there anything we can do about it?

Soul Searcher

Dear Soul Searcher,

Two axioms have served me and my clients very well throughout my career. First, great clients are made, not born. Second, I never say no—only yes on my terms. Driving those rules are some underlying principles, chief among them: You follow what you measure, and structure dictates behavior.

Here’s an example of following what you measure without critically thinking about whether it’s the right metric and use case: How many of you find yourself still checking out how many likes you have on your latest Instagram post even though you know it really does not matter to your business?

Similarly, most designers measure revenue rather than profit—a crucial mistake. I can’t tell you how many designers come to me with a sense of pride in having a client who walks in wanting to spend a dollar but winds up spending five dollars, typically a result of the inefficient and economically unsound old-school markup system. (This whole cycle drives me crazy.) Never mind that design work should be valued about four times higher than any “markup,” and designers often ultimately lose money by encouraging clients to spend more on product, mistakenly thinking that boosts their firm’s bottom line. News flash: You’re likely only boosting the retailer’s bottom line, and sabotaging your own as well as your client’s in the process.

I am a broken record in saying that I am, for the most part, against the hourly plus commission model so many designers still employ. It’s not that this model can’t work. It is just that to my business-oriented brain, it is inefficient, impractical and a not-ideal fit for the work at hand—like hammering every nail with a sledgehammer. Hourly plus markup may technically work, but is not a very effective way of doing things. Many designers see it as a safer way to get paid in the event of scope or time creep, but the model actually introduces additional risks designers often miss, namely: Can you bill enough hours and “sell” enough product to make the project worthwhile?

The model also minimizes the value of design, which undermines your one-of-a-kind creative offering—the vision inside your head that no one else can see until you help them export it. Design happens first, and does not take nearly as long as procuring, storing and installation. When you’re not optimizing design charges upfront, but rather focusing on charging for production, you have no choice but to accept slow decision-makers who may seek to engineer value rather than maximize it. Your business is giddy if you can take an extra month to get your clients to spend 50 percent more on materials—but you as a designer, not so much.

As for the structure of your business, think of this as the framework that sets up successful client dynamics. That’s why it’s crucial to make sure your firm’s systems align with what you do as a designer—that’s how you allow your business to filter clients for you. If your potential client does not want to do things as your business does them, they likely will never sign on. You will be left with those who want to encourage (nourish?) you to do your best work as only you can. The value will be in landing clients who are the best clients they can be, not the ones with the biggest wallet.

If you measure success in joy, the picture shifts. Start tallying the number of referrals you get during the project; the effectiveness of decisions made (as in, they never look back); or how often you’re granted permission to do what you and your firm need to do with enthusiasm. It will take what it will take, because you went first and shared what that looks like in the absence of misaligned incentives driven by hourly plus commission. Saying yes on your terms means you are leading the way to your own success, setting the stage for your client to reap the benefits of that success. Alignment in what you measure is what you actually want as a business.

For me, it boils down to this: There should be no better champion for your boundaries and well-being than your business. Your firm should literally fight for you in the way it runs, creating the platform for the successes that lead to the ultimate execution of your vision.

Stress can be a helpful, even healthy catalyst when it comes in the form of the pressure to, say, present amazing design or execute installation flawlessly. That is the pressure of performance that most artists need to thrive, as opposed to the unnecessary stress created by a bad business model—like having to show a client three more sofas when you were thrilled with the two you asked them to choose from in the first place.

Unnecessary stress is what causes pain and burnout and ultimately saps your will to create. When you don’t prioritize the right metrics and structures in your business, you’re unintentionally silencing your own creative voice. Allowing your business to force you to do work that does not matter is at best soul-sucking and at worst a contributor to the industry’s worst qualities. Harsh, I know, but it’s self-inflicted pain that we can all work to eradicate.

Start with the notion that you exist because you see a world your clients never will without you. Understanding that if your responsibility is to show them what they cannot see, you can set out on that journey with them. At heart, wellness begins here. You go first.

____________

Sean Low is the go-to business coach for interior designers. His clients have included Nate Berkus, Sawyer Berson, Vicente Wolf, Barry Dixon, Kevin Isbell and McGrath II. Low earned his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and as founder-president of The Business of Being Creative, he has long consulted for design businesses. In his Business Advice column for BOH, he answers designers’ most pressing questions. Have a dilemma? Send us an email—and don’t worry, we can keep your details anonymous.