What sets apart design firms that are constantly struggling and ones that scale with ease? It often comes down to two simple things: systems and structures.
Systems include processes, workflows, and automations. They provide a blueprint for common tasks, which can save you time and effort. Meanwhile, structure is the overarching organizational framework of your business that clarifies who does what, and where different responsibilities belong.
An interior design business without systems and structures will have a hard time growing. They may be doomed to spend too much time and energy on the same repetitive tasks, or delegating new ones, and cannot scale up. In this guide, we will explain how systems and structures can help drive profitability, efficiency, and scalability.
How Systems Drive Profitability
Efficient processes mean you and your team have more time to spend on the aspects of your business that really matter. Repetitive administrative tasks should be optimized or automated, which will free up time for designers. When designers have more time, that means they have potential for more billable hours. And more billable hours equals more revenue! Think of the tasks that need to be done every month, or every time you get a new client. This could include invoicing or client onboarding, for example. Create a process so clear that it can be followed by a complete newcomer!
Standardizing your workflows doesn’t just free up time, though. When you’re consistent in your systems, you’re more likely to have predictable and repeatable results. Don’t mix up the process every time you get a new client. Instead, follow your own guidelines. You’ll find that you and your team make fewer mistakes, which means less time spent on putting out fires.
Core Systems for Design Firms
Client Onboarding System
Client onboarding should be a consistent experience. You can create welcome packets, contracts, and templates for proposals, all of which should remain the same across most new clients. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. Every client will have their own needs, of course, but it’s easier to tweak an existing template than it is to start from scratch. Read our full guide to client onboarding here!
Project Management Systems
It’s our nightmare scenario to see a firm that works out of spreadsheets for its project management. And not just one unified spreadsheet, but a different spreadsheet for every designer! Luckily, effective project management isn’t rocket science. Many digital services exist that make the process simple, such as Asana, Monday, or Studio Designer. With these tools, you can easily create standards for how to lay out a project, delegate tasks, and track milestones. Just be sure to use templates for common types of projects!
Financial Management Systems
Just like there are many great project management tools, there are plenty of financial tools available for designers. However, we always recommend hiring a bookkeeper as your first non-designer team member. A financial expert will be more efficient than most designers at tracking your finances and can create their own best practices. With the proper tools, you can budget, track expenses, and monitor cash flow. You can even create dashboards to check on every month. For even more organization between systems, many bookkeeping programs integrate with project management or marketing tools, which can automate certain tasks.
Sourcing and Procurement Systems
When dealing with different vendors, you may be at the whim of that entity’s systems. But there are a few standards you can set for yourself. Maintain an internal list of approved vendors, a central location for tracking orders, and a scheduled time to check up on the greater landscape of tariffs, taxes, and other factors that can affect your procurement.
Marketing and Sales Systems
Whether it’s a system for tracking leads, creating email newsletters, or analyzing your social media statistics, numerous tools can make your marketing and sales efforts both standardized and efficient. Tools that automatically qualify or disqualify potential clients can save you time manually filtering through lists, and third-party social media schedulers let you prepare your social posts when inspiration strikes, not when you feel like you need to post.
Building the Right Structure
The first step in creating an effective structure for your interior design business is to clearly define roles. The smaller the business, the more hats each team member is likely to wear. But as your firm grows, roles should be better-defined, so that there is never any confusion about who should tackle which tasks. Part of this involves the business owner moving from a “doer” to a true CEO. The CEO role is all about delegation and vision. So it’s important to define roles for design, operations, finance, marketing, client relations, and any other relevant aspects of your firm. Fill your team with great employees who are a good cultural fit, and you won’t have much to worry about!
Once roles are clearly defined, make sure that the system is working. Schedule regular team check-ins, and make sure that each team member or department has relevant KPIs that communicate at a high level how those employees are doing. But don’t just focus on the numbers and results. Poll your team members for satisfaction and feedback. Are they happy doing what they’re doing, or is there something they feel should be added or removed from their roles? Creating systems is not about being rigid—it’s about creating a starting point to work from so you can adapt to an ever-changing business landscape.
The last thing you want as a business leader is to be the bottleneck. Structure your business in such a way that you don’t have to approve everything or be part of every process. Part of this is about being willing to let go of control, or let go of your ego. The other half of the equation is hiring people who are a good cultural fit and have the skills you need. It’s also good to hire strategically for the business you want to evolve into, not for the business you are now.
Overcoming Roadblocks
Creating systems and structures is not always a smooth process, for the business leader as well as the team. It’s easy to fall into mindset traps like “It’s faster if I do it myself” or “We’re too creative to adopt rigid systems”.
Addressing the first concern is easy: if you don’t take the time to teach and train your employees, then it will never get faster for them to do it. It’s also important to keep in mind which tasks your time is best spent on, in terms of revenue generation. Don’t waste time on a non-essential task, even if you could do it quicker. For the second concern, this is actually a misconception! Creativity thrives within restrictions. Creating a system that keeps you within certain lines can shield you from outside chaos and allow you and your team to focus only on what matters. Your team will likely have some resistance as well. Change can be difficult, so be sure to listen to feedback and make adjustments as needed.
Strengthen Your Backbone
You likely already have some level of systems and structure already—it’s hard to have a functioning business without them. Start by identifying what you do well and what could use improvement. Where are the gaps and inefficiencies? Then, prioritize one or two systems to work on first. Don’t overwhelm your team by changing the entire business all at once. Make small changes at first, and always document the process.
Then train your team on the relevant documents, templates, and software, and make sure everything is easily accessible and as self-explanatory as possible. Work on getting your internal thoughts and assumptions down on paper, for everyone to see. Then, review and refine the systems every quarter to make sure they’re still working. Just don’t dramatically change them every quarter just to shake things up. This can cause unnecessary disruptions and set you back even further, plus it can cause fatigue among employees.
Profitability, efficiency, and scalability all rely on a solid set of systems and structure. Without these backbones of your business, chaos can take over, and you won’t focus your energy where it should be focused. Start identifying an area of weakness today, and see if there is a common task you can create a template or process for.