Dear Sean,

Last year, I had back-to-back installs in multiple states, and it just about brought me to my knees. Once I got through it, I vowed I would never let it happen again. Well, guess what? Builders on several projects have gone far past their schedules, which leaves me with four projects stacking up to be completed in May and June. Going into these jobs, I truly thought that they would nicely space out throughout the year—I absolutely don’t have it in me physically to do four homes in a row!

I love my clients, and they are all incredible, but I know they want their spaces done as soon as the contractor is out. How do I space it out? Do I flip a coin to see who gets a timely install? Can I just tell them now that I will be unavailable for certain weeks in order to give myself a break, even if it means they will need to wait a couple of months after the construction is done? Is that done in our industry?

I’ve done high-end homes for 30 years, and I just don’t have it in me to work at such a breakneck pace when each project demands ultimate attention to detail, especially at the end.

Install Overwhelm

Dear Install Overwhelm,

Let us start with the two promises you have to make as an interior designer: You can only do your best work (not your best work under the circumstances), and you must stake your reputation on every project you undertake. By your own admission, you will jeopardize both promises if you try to complete four projects between May and June. Whether another designer would try to do this is beside the point. You will put your whole business at risk if you try to do this work like you did last year. The real question is what to do about the situation—and more importantly, what you should have done to avoid it in the first place.

I am assuming you are not the builder or in contract with the builder, but rather just another party beholden to their delays. Who is in contract with the builder? That would be the client. By the tone and tenor of your question, it appears that the cause of the delays—and the consequences of those delays—were not fully explained to the client. If it takes three months to fabricate millwork and a month to install it, the time to alert the client to the potential for delay is not four months from expected completion—it is more like five or six months out, to make sure this critical element is on track. With each of these projects, I am guessing that nobody alerted the clients to the potential for delay or the consequences if the work was not undertaken when it was supposed to be. Just because the contractor yessed you all to death does not give them (or you) a pass. But here we are. So now it is about minimizing the risk of failure.

If your firm is about ultimate attention to detail during installation, then it’s simple: It takes what it takes to do this level of work. Rushing it, or having you and your team too exhausted to meet the client’s expectations, is a risk you cannot take, as it is simultaneously reputational, systemic and permanent. Sloppy installation will be noticed by the client. They will see it as you not caring enough to give them what you promised: a transformational new home. And no matter what you do to fix it after the fact, the idea that they were “just another client” will remain. That’s the kind of sour taste a client will be all too happy to voice on social media or share with friends who might otherwise have become referrals.

Of course, you can tell clients to simply wait. After all, they are in contract with the builder, and they can shoulder the consequences of the builder’s delays. However, we all know that will not work out well for you when their house sits empty for months after completion.

One solution would be to offer to pay for temporary furniture and continued storage so that the clients can live in their house while you are giving your firm the needed time to do your best work. You could also cover the cost of their vacating the house during install. Chalk those expenses up to marketing in order to make sure your client is thrilled in the end. (Ideally, these should be borne by the client and/or the builder, but if you have not been creating consequences all along for risks you did not cause, it’s hard to start now.)

All of this leads me to the most important lesson all designers must know: Risk matters. If you do not identify it and create consequences for what will happen if the risk manifests, you and your firm will pay for it, and dearly. In this case, we’re talking about the risk of delay and the price to be paid by the designer for not properly assessing and monitoring it (self-inflicted and unnecessary pain, to be sure)—as with the many other risks you must proactively manage throughout the design process. This time around, the lesson may be expensive, but you will absorb and apply the knowledge that when you know better, you actually have to act better.

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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.