How I Built a Fully-Booked E-Design Business (and how you can too)

Building an E-Design business is so much more than creating an Instagram page and learning how to 3D render. If you want to be successful, there is a LOT that will need to happen behind the scenes. Today, I'm breaking down some of the biggest steps that took my E-Design business from barely booking any clients, to being fully-booked months in advance!

I mapped out my design packages and pricing properly (getting paid fairly for your work feels good!).

You can't compete with Havenly and charge ~$100 for designs if you want to turn a profit. Let's do the math here:

Let's think big here and say you want to make $100,000 a year with your E-design business (YES-this is possible for you!). Let's break this down:

How many clients would you need to have to make $100,000/year with a $100 design service?

$100,000 / $100 per client = 1,000 clients 😱

Breaking this down further, 1,000 clients = ~83 clients per month. 

If you average 10 hours per project, that's 830 hours a month on project work, which is over 200 hours per week. Guess what -- it's not possible! There are only 168 hours in a week 🙃.

Even if you adjust the hours per project and the price just a bit, I think we can agree this model just isn't going to work 

I learned how to create a business plan so that I knew exactly what I had to do each day to continue to be successful.

Do you know what you need to do every day to make sure that a) your clients are happy, b) you are bringing in more clients consistently, and c) you are working towards the future growth of your business? If the answer is no, I highly recommend sitting down and mapping out your goals and priorities, so that you have a clear path towards the future of your business. Once you know the steps you need to take, schedule them on your calendar to keep yourself accountable.

I learned the best tools to use to run my business logistically (booking, payment, time management, etc).

Look, I know there are SOO many softwares and tools out there that can help you run a smooth, professional design business. What's the best CRM? What's the best for Mood boards? What's the best rendering software? How do you create a clickable shopping list for your clients? Finding the best ones that work for your and your business in order to, not only run your business, but create an excellent and professional experience for your clients, will make a huge difference in your E-Design career. (I could go on for hours here about softwares, so I'm not going to break down my favorites here, but for a full lesson on the best softwares to use for E-Design, be sure to check out The E-Design Academy).

I learned how to market myself (so that I could book clients that weren’t just people I was related to).

I'm going to burst open a hard truth here: just because you put up an Instagram page and a website does not mean clients are going to start flooding into your emails. Especially when you are first starting, you need to go out there and find your clients. Networking, engaging online, let them know you are here and that you can help!

I created a client experience that had my clients referring me to all of their friends and family.

I know I've said it before, but I have to say this one again: The best place to get clients is from other clients. Having clients flowing into your business without spending time and money marketing is a HUGE bonus to your business. But how do you get referrals from other clients? The answer is that you give them an experience working with you that is so great, they can't help but spread your name around and talk about you. Creating this experience comes from being as helpful and truly caring as possible towards your clients, as well as having a process and systems that create a smoothly running project. Being professional, organized, and timely are all things that will go into how your clients feel about working with you.

If you follow this roadmap and learn to do these things for your E-Design business, I KNOW you will have so much success! If you want to follow my exact roadmap for E-Design success, The E-Design Academy will teach you all of this (and so much more!). Be sure to check it out at the link below:

 The E-Design Academy, where you will learn how to, not only start your business from scratch, but learn how to bring in real, paying clients and grow your business into your dream career.

To create an awesome client experience and get started with professional deliverables, check out the new E-Design Project Templates at The E-Design Desk!

I hope you've found this post helpful! I'd love to connect with you on Instagram - be sure to follow me @the_edesign_desk for more tips on growing your E-Design business. You can also say "hi" at my E-Design business Instagram @larkinlivingspaces.

Thanks for reading! 

Tierney