The life of an Interior Designer is an interesting one. People often ask me what my day-to-day job involves. How I manage to fit everything in. How I create a work-life balance that works. Honestly, it’s a lot to do with 2 things:
- Organisation
- Knowing your limits
Organisation
We use many tools to make sure we stay on top of our clients projects. Our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) means that every task is assigned to a specific person. These are easily tracked making sure that tasks are completely by the best informed person within a set time limit. This also means that we can work remotely as our CRM is completely online. So even if we are working on projects around the world our team can be adequately assigned.
We are able to share information through cloud services so that everyone has the same information instantly. This cuts down on any lag that projects can sometimes have. We try and work in this way as much as possible.
This is backed up by our online project management tool, Basecamp, this means that all communication with clients and contractors is in one place. Together with all the plans for that project. No hunting through 5000 emails to find the most up to date plan.
Its not always coffees in Palm Springs. Okay, sometimes it is coffee’s in Palm Springs
Knowing your limits
We take on a set amount of projects. This means that each project will receive the right amount of time and will run through the same process. This is a process that has been almost 10 years in the making and is constantly tweaked with the changing times but it is one that ultimately works. This isn’t to say there are no problems (wow, that would be nice!) but it does mean that if there are we are always in a good position and poised to be able to provide solutions.
Things will inevitably go wrong. Whether it be a company filing for administration (yes, even companies with 20 years of pristine service!) or a set of tiles turning up broken. I find that with good organisation we can provide a clear path forward. It can be hard and frustrating but it is this kind of reaction and quick thinking that you are often paying for when hiring a professional.
