The thing I created after burnout that turned my interior design business around
You don't need to be a numbers person, but you do need to be willing to look at what your business data is telling you.
Hello,
We have sunshine!! I’ll say no more as I don’t want to bring on rain, but I’m thinking of hanging the washing on the line outside…
I made this thing and here’s why
I made this thing called Sales Lab because, when it comes to finding clients and getting money into their business, I see too many interior designers either:
a) flailing about, unsure what action to take so attempting to do everything
b) frozen and fearful so not taking any action at all
c) taking action in sporadic bouts
All of these lead to pretty much the same results. Uncertainty about where to focus your precious time and energy. Feeling exhausted when nothing seems to be working.
Frustration when you get enquiries, but they’re not really the clients or projects you want (but you feel pressured to take them on as who knows where the next piece of work is coming from).
Feeling elated when you land a perfect client, but not exactly sure how it happened (so you can’t repeat it and get more of the same).
It happened to me first
Truth be told. Long before I started working with other interior designers, I created what has evolved into Sales Lab for myself. It didn’t have a fancy name back then, it was just a spreadsheet.
When I was running my own interior design business there was an overwhelming amount of messaging about what marketing I should be doing, the platforms I should be on (back in 2013 I laughed when someone told me to get on Instagram - it was just pictures - how could that help find work?), the networking I should attend.
What there wasn’t - and still isn’t in my opinion - is any guidance on how the devil you’re supposed to achieve all of this marketing with a limited amount of energy, or with only the capacity to deliver on your client projects. What do you do when you’ve got no spare mental bandwidth?
I had a mini little burnout. Actually, it wasn’t mini and I should stop trivialising it. It knocked me sideways. Did you know…
…research indicates that up to 75% of creatives report being close to or actively experiencing burnout, highlighting the scale of the issue.
Burnout is understood as an imbalance between what work demands from you and what you have available to give. This idea comes from Arnold Bakker and Evangelia Demerouti’s Job Demands–Resources model (2007). When workload, client pressure, and decision-making demands consistently outweigh time, energy, systems, and support, burnout becomes inevitable.
So, when I returned to work, I knew I needed a better approach to finding a steady flow of work. I couldn’t continue with such a rattled nervous system. I needed to move away from the feast-and-famine.
What I’d done previously is a pattern I see a lot in other interior designers now.
My head was down delivering design work, and when that happened my marketing stopped, and (suprise, surprise) a little further down the track my enquiries dried up. And then it was a monumental effort to get it all going again.
The solution
What I needed was a way to figure out which of the marketing I was doing was actually effective. To track the return on all the time and energy I was putting into different marketing activities - then I could dump the ones that weren’t working and double down on those that delivered results. Bingo - time and energy back!
And, also, I thought - how many ‘blimmin leads did I need to end up with the right number of clients and the income I wanted? How could I forecast accurately?
I wanted to know that when I was quiet I didn’t have to panic, as work was in the pipeline, but I also needed to not over-schedule myself and stretch myself too thin.
It was about managing my time and energy as much as getting enough money in.
And so the precursor to Sales Lab was born. I built a (rather crude) spreadsheet that allowed me to track all of this information - and in turn it allowed me to build an interior design business that worked brilliantly.
In the last few years of my interior design studio I was booked out between 3 and 6 months ahead. I can tell you this is soooooo great for your nervous system.
We hate data
What I realised - once I started mentoring other interior designers - is that I had a bit of a head start. Not only had I worked at Microsoft, so was quite comfortable with a spreadsheet, but I has also been a Programme Manager (PM).
As a PM, once a month I sat on a half day global call and presented the business results for the EMEA region. I was very used to looking at lots of data, analysing what it meant, figuring out what it was telling us about the business, and recommending improvements and next steps.
Designers told me they didn’t really know what to track, or if they did track data they didn’t really know what to do with it. It was all a bit overwhelming and not much fun.
I realised that any solution I shared with other interior designers needed to do these two things:
all of the formulas and calculations done for you
tell you what the data means for your business and suggest the action to take
So, the solution is not only a done for you spreadsheet, but there’s an action planner, a CALM business dashboard AND you get a 1:1 strategy call with me to ensure you understand exactly what your data is telling you and set you on the right path forward.
You do not need to be a numbers genius or love spreadsheets to use Sales Lab.
You just need to be an established Interior Designer, ready to do the work, and so ready to understand exactly where your enquiries come from, how they convert into clients, and what is truly driving income in your business.
This is a programme you’ll use every year to support your business. The easiest way to figure out what’s causing the feast-or-famine - and fix it!
How does Sales Lab help you?
You’ll develop a plan that’s specific to your interior design business (not what everyone else’s doing, but designed around what’s working for you).
Stop guessing which marketing works
Understand where client enquiries actually come from
Identify revenue leaks in your sales process
Reduce wasted marketing time (and money)
Make fewer reactive decisions
Stop overworking to compensate for poor business clarity
You’ll feel calm because all of your decisions are informed (not reactive).
Get your mitts on Sales Lab
I have one plucky interior designer on board - but I’m looking for another 7 early-adopters to go through the Sales Lab programme. As a thank you (for a bit of feedback) I’m offering £200 off.
That makes Sales Lab just £399.
It’s self-paced and includes the online Sales Lab programme (with six modules that walk you through every step including videos and guidance notes), an Action Planner, the Sales Lab spreadsheet, the CALM business dashboard, and a 1:1 with me.
Plus - this isn’t a once and done. You’ll use the spreadsheet, action planner and dashboard every year in your business with no further charge or fee.
Find out more or purchase by clicking the button below. If you’re ready to sign-up, use code MAGICSAVE at the check-out for the £200 discount.
If you’re interested, but would like to make staged payments - that’s possible too - just drop me a line.
I’m genuinely excited about the difference this can make to your business and your life.
LISA LOVES
Two tools making a difference in my life right now:
TidyCal - I switched over from Calendly and haven’t looked back. It’s a one-off payment so goodbye to annual fees and exactly the same great functionality. This is a great way to speed up bookings (and take payments if you want) for Discovery Calls and Consultancy sessions.
OnpageSEO.ai A “scan + fix” tool that sits on top of any webpage and does an SEO audit. You need to download the extension, then go to the page you want to optimise (like a blog, services page, sales page), click the extension icon and it triggers an SEO audit. Do make sure you go through the results tab by tab to get the most from this tool.
Thanks for reading. If you have any questions about Sales Lab and what it does let me know. But trust me, once you’ve used it - you’ll never look back.
