Every business will experience every cycle there is: The good, the bad and… the lull.

Here’s what not to do should your design business hit a temporary lull:

Don’t: Panic. Curl into a ball. Decide you’re a failure. Think it’s time to close shop. Comfort eat. Numb yourself watching TV. Tell everyone who’ll listen how slow things are. (Who wants to hire a designer who, word has it, has no work?).

Instead, lean into what is actually in your lap:  A fertile business opportunity!

Yes, lulls, taken correctly provide a terrific opportunity to focus single-mindedly on the powerful things to right your ship, and turbocharge your business to re-seed revenue production.

You do this by focusing on the “3 P’s”:  Process, Product. People.

Process:

If you have a lull in your business, there’s better than a 99% chance that you have a process problem somewhere, and that somewhere is almost always a problem with your marketing processes.

A favorite business mentor of mine often said, “The business you don’t have today is the marketing you didn’t do yesterday”.

Wise words. True words.

Now’s the time to objectively look at your Sales and Marketing efforts and processes. Where can you refine or add? A few ideas: ARE you networking – and networking with the people who can and will send business your way? Now’s the time.

Are you reaching out to old clients to let them know you have room in your calendar this quarter if they’d like to go ahead and design that “X” you talked about when you last worked together.

Or connect with current clients who are finishing up a job. Let them know some space opened in your calendar, which is a great opportunity to schedule another area in their home.

Marketing & networking is an ongoing, weekly process that requires your scheduled attention – or – you won’t do it.

Remember: you don’t design for a living – you SELL (and market) design for a living.

BUT to rock your marketing, you also must know – and love – specifically WHAT you’re marketing.

That brings us to the next “P”: Product:

Product:

Here’s the big question: Do you L.O.V.E. the design offerings, services, and packages you sell? Truly Love-Love-Love? Do you know what they are beyond the general, “I design spaces” generic, crappy lingo everyone else uses?

Do you have clear, kick-a** lingo to proudly talk about your offerings/brand/company in your social media; or when you are having coffee with a realtor; or when you’re re-awakening an old client?

Crafting these offers and this marketing language positioning about them is mission critical. That’s why it’s something I drill into in the very first module in my Successful Design Biz Academy. For the designer CEO’s I teach it to, it always leads to holy-cow-ah-ha moments…and then …revenue!

You must have various packages – from total full blown comprehensive design to some more fixed, finite service packages too.

Craft them right – so they are your proud pleasure to talk about, and a joy to sell. Your enthusiasm, true pride, AND belief in them is sales and marketing catnip. People will want it – and you.

Which brings us to the last “P”:

People:

I’m not talking about your team…that’s not the people problem you have- whether you’re a team of 1 or 100.

There are 2 “people categories” I’d love you to focus on here:

Who are the people in your Fan Circle:  people you have in your network; industry people who think of YOU as their “go-to”, to send THEIR clients to, or to bring into a project.

Who can you reach out to? Who should you be continuing to cultivate relationship with? Make a list; start reaching out. You have the gift of time right now.

The other “People” in this category? YOU, my friend. You might be your problem.

NOT your talent. NOT your brains. You have plenty of both. 😊

Your problem is more likely your inner narrative about your business.

What are you telling yourself about your business? About how you sell and market design? Where was your confidence level, before this lull?

As I say to all my design entrepreneurs who I coach: YOU ARE YOUR BUSINESS.

This is among the reasons why, when I coach designers to grow their business, I know I also have to coach on the mindset needed for a Profit Proud business. I look for the “mindset potholes” that usually go unnoticed because we are all too close to our businesses and to ourselves IN the business.

Double yes: I embrace a whole-person approach in business coaching: YOU ARE YOUR BUSINESS – and the story in your head, your mindset, your confidence, has a direct effect on every action you will or won’t take in your business; every person you will or won’t contact.

This is not “woo-woo”. This is fact. Mindset informs action. Action drives your earnings.

Yes, lulls are unnerving. But if you can dig into your courage and steer yourself out of emotion and into business objectivity – you can – like so many of your colleagues, turn a lull into a long-term-lift that will pay revenue dividends for a long time to come.

Cheering you on my friend.

Xo!  – d

PS: Want more coaching from me? Grab a free copy of my Irresistible Sales Lingo for Interior Designers Who Want to WOW Clients. Click now to download yours. It’s straight from my high-touch coaching program The Successful Design Biz Academy.

Once you do, it’ll automatically put me into your email inbox each month with more Profit Proud business support – perfect for people like us…Creative brains running and building a kick-a** Profit Proud business. 😊