Profitable Perspectives: Podcasts for Interior Design Business Owners
The BEST Interior Design Business Podcasts - Episode 172
In today’s curated collection of the best interior design business podcasts, we’ve got episodes from hosts Rebecca Ward, LuAnn Nigara and Beth Bieske.
Today’s podcast guests include LoriAnn Kuntz and Jillian Lare.
Here’s hoping that today’s collection of interior design podcasts inspires & educates you to level up your design biz.
Design Curious - Rebecca Ward - From Chaos to Cash Flow: The Transformative Power of Hiring a Bookkeeper for Your Design Business With LoriAnn Kuntz - 35 min
A Well-Designed Business - LuAnn Nigara - Jillian Lare: Tech You Can Use to Run Your Design Firm - 1 hr 10 min
Design Dialogues - Beth Bieske - Solo with Beth: Why you need to think like a General Manager - 19 min
Design Curious - From Chaos to Cash Flow: The Transformative Power of Hiring a Bookkeeper for Your Design Business With LoriAnn Kuntz - 35 min
Are you an interior designer who is struggling to keep track of your finances? Many interior designers find bookkeeping to be a daunting task. It can be time-consuming, challenging, and even stressful. If you're one of those designers, you're not alone. That's why host Rebecca Ward invited LoriAnn Kuntz to discuss the importance of hiring a bookkeeper for your interior design business.
As a virtual bookkeeper and fractional CFO who specializes in working with interior designers, she knows firsthand the challenges that designers face when it comes to finances. She talks about the importance of hiring a bookkeeper to keep track of your income and expenses, prepare financial reports, and file taxes; and how this can alleviate stress and bring peace of mind to creative professionals. She shares her expertise on the differences between tax accountants and bookkeepers, highlighting the value of having a bookkeeper throughout the year, not just at tax time.
So whether you're ready to hire your first bookkeeper or you prefer doing it yourself, I encourage you to listen to this episode and learn why hiring a bookkeeper is so crucial for interior designers and how to find the right one for your business.
Why you’ve got to check out today’s episode:
Identify the 5 reasons why people are anxious about their finances and understand the importance of tailoring financial advice individually
Discover the #1 challenge faced by interior designers in business
Compare her top 3 bookkeeping software recommendations and find out why you should DIY your books using spreadsheets first
You can check out this podcast episode here:
A Well-Designed Business - Jillian Lare: Tech You Can Use to Run Your Design Firm - 1 hr 10 min
In today’s episode, host LuAnn Nigara is joined once again by Jillian Lare, a trained engineer, experienced college lecturer, and award-winning interior designer.
A few years ago, Jillian partnered with her friend and fellow designer to start Morris Lare Interiors in Des Moines, Iowa, and it has been a growing success. Jillian credits a lot of her success and smooth business operations to the technology she implements.
She is sharing what is working well in her business, along with suggestions on where to get started integrating technology into your businesses as well. She’s also got a great prompt if you want ChatGPT to create a great Spotify playlist just for you.
Pick It Apart
[4:12] Jillian explains how she uses various project management software platforms in her firm.
[19:04] Jillian shares how her team does a daily check in each morning on Slack to stay up to date on their priorities without having to meet in person.
[27:20] LuAnn and Jillian discuss tracking time and expenses within the project management systems and by using the app Harvest.
[30:07] Jillian talks about how she is using Milanote.
[44:03] LuAnn shares her thoughts on naming conventions and how these need to be thought through at the beginning so they are easily searchable.
[48:33] Jillian explains why she uses DesignSpec to keep a record of all of their specs in one database.
[54:16] LuAnn and Jillian discuss using AI for idea generation, making a great Spotify playlist, and prompting Midjourney.
LuAnn Nigara and Jillian Lare's Ah-Ha Moments
“I'm about just get something that works. And email is not the answer.” – LuAnn Nigara
“f it's not easy to do, it doesn't matter how good it is. It's not going to get done.” – LuAnn Nigara
“I just want everything to be accessible wherever I am. The minute it's like not accessible is when I'm kind of like start to lose interest in it, because we're just out and about so much.” – Jillian Lare
“Every time you enter the same information in multiple places, that's an opportunity to get it wrong.” – Jillian Lare
You can check out this podcast episode here:
Design Dialogues - Solo with Beth: Why you need to think like a General Manager - 19 min
Beth Bieske, the founder of More Time to Design and host of the Design Dialogues podcast, shares her background and business journey in this episode.
Starting as a florist, then studing interior design and working for renowned design studios and eventually starting her own design studio, The Navy Edit. As a general manager, she emphasizes the need for a strategic mindset and organized approach to ensure smooth operations and maximize profitability. In future episodes, she will delve into managing the business side of a design studio and offer tips on improving systems and processes.
Key Parts of the episode
5.50 Beth talks about how she got her first design job at Blainey North
9.25 Beth talk about why it is important to have system and processes in place.
11.04 We look at what role a general manager plays in a design studio
14.10 Why it is so important to have the mindset of a general manager regardless of the size of your studio.
You can check out this podcast episode here: