The Profit is a Choice Podcast
Owning every choice in your business is not for the faint of heart. Each Monday, join Michele Williams, strategic profitability coach for the interior design industry as she interviews guests who are taking control of their business one decision at a time to increase their profits. If you are an entrepreneur who wants to make money while working in your passion, this is the podcast for you.
189: Reviewing Your Profit First Strategy
Have you created a Profit First strategy and implemented it – then left it alone? Are you still confident in the percentages you have allocated? Is your system and process growing with the evolving financials and needs of your company? If you are not sure, then this is the podcast for you. Let’s talk about how to review your profit first strategy and how to tweak it to make it work for your business today.
188: Building Heroism in Business
Scott Beebe is the founder and head coach of My Business on Purpose and he's the host of the My Business on Purpose podcast. He loves to liberate small business owners from the chaos of working in their business and helps to get their lives back by assisting them in articulating and implementing intentional vision mission values, systems and processes.
187: Introducing Metrique Solutions
For years I have been asked to write a book. And while I have co-authored a book and enjoyed that process, I felt like there was something else I was supposed to put out into the world. Today I want to introduce you to Metrique Solutions. A software application that will help you make financial decisions in your business in just minutes a month. On this episode I will share with you the origin of Metrique Solutions along with the problems it solves. I am excited – so let’s get to it.
186: Preparing Your Business to Step Away
As owners, we build and build and work and work on our business. But what happens when we need to step away for a time? Can the business move on without us? What if we are out for a hot minute and someone needs to step in on our behalf, have we established a company that they can move into? On the podcast today, we will look at the areas we need to consider for continuity of service if we, the owner, need to take a sabbatical.
185: Backwards Financials for the Win
Today I'm bringing you a replay of a podcast that we launched in the first few months of our podcast back in 2018. This particular podcast was in response to a question that Tracy Taylor emailed and asked me about how she could figure out her financials backwards. I work with my clients to create a top-down and a bottom-up model of their financials. And on this episode, you will hear Tracy and I work through her numbers, I want you to really listen in for some actionable takeaways so that you can look at your business financials backwards.
184: How to Build a Design Business that Fits Your Strengths
I am so excited to have Carol Lang, of Carol Lang Interiors in NJ, on the podcast with me today. Carol is an excellent designer who has really learned to create her own path forward in this industry. We will be sharing her journey of discovery to clarify what she wants out of her business, and how that work is iterative and ongoing. I hope you enjoy!
183: Preparing for an OPs Resource in Your Design Firm
On the podcast today with me, again is Kelcee Sparks. And she is the Director of Operations and Success for Scarlet Thread Consulting. You might remember that Kelcee and I did Episode 168, together on how to hire an operations person for your design firm. And in that episode, if you haven't listened you may want to go check it out. We discussed operations, building trust, working within your zone of genius and process, we really focused on what an operations person did and why you might need one. Today, we're going to go a little bit deeper. And we're going to really focus on the details of being ready, creating the first steps to move in the direction of hiring an operations person, we're going to talk 30-60-90 day plans. And we're also going to talk about creating a hybrid, so that sometimes the person may be in the office, and sometimes they may be working remotely. And so I hope that you gather a lot from this and are able to put it into practice.
182: Managing to a Budget in Your Design Firm
Do you currently create a budget for your new year and then manage to it? If so, you are going to enjoy this podcast. If not, I ask that you listen with an open mind and perhaps are swayed to begin this process of financial management. Either way – let’s talk about budgets and how to manage to them effectively in your firm.
181: Working With a Recruiting Agency for Your Design Firm
Joining me on the podcast today are Paige Risley and Beth Moffatt of We Recruit Well, both of these women have worked in the online space, both in positions of being virtual assistants. And now they have pulled together their resources and created a company, We Recruit Well, where they help place online resources for your company. And so we're going to talk today about what that process looks like, how to be prepared for hiring, and how to make sure that you are matched with the correct person.
180: Financial Management and Oversight in Your Design Firm
Joining me on the podcast today is Peter Lang, owner of the designer CPA, Peter and I both have a heart for supporting this industry with good financial practices and understanding. And today we're going to talk about what we see as kind of the lifecycle, if you will, of bookkeeping and bookkeeping needs and the overwhelming hole and desire in the industry to have better bookkeeping practices. So I hope you enjoy the podcast and are able to see where you fit in the bookkeeping trajectory.
179: Setting and Revising Your Financial Goals
Each year we go through a process of setting our financial goals for the following year, or at least we should. And I don’t use the “should” word without consideration. Many of us hate to be told what to do, so my hope is that in this podcast you understand the why behind it and you decide for yourself that you ‘should’ create financial goals.
178: Creating a Niche, Authority and Visibility Strategy for Your Design Firm
With me today is Rachael Bozsik, an international speaker and the “go-to” elite personal branding coach for high achieving interior designers. Rachael has been featured in Forbes, Glamour, at Harvard Business School, Oprah’s Leadership Academy and more. Our conversation today will focus on building out your niche, your authority and your visibility to attract your ideal client and keep your pipeline full.
177: Measuring What Matters in Your Design Firm
Welcome to 2022! This year we are going to focus on metrics in our companies. Identifying what metrics are, what we need, and how to go about monitoring them. Last year it was all about strategy – and this year all about how to make the strategy work. Listen in for tips and tricks that will help you determine if you are still on task or not.
176: Building a Mindset of Resilience in Your Business
I am so excited to welcome Ceil DiGuglielmo of the Sew Much More podcast back to share the podcast with me continuing a 4-year tradition of reviewing our year and preparing for the next. Ceil is the owner of the custom drapery workroom, Sew Much More, a podcast by the same name, the owner of the Curtains and Soft Furnishings Resource Library, and the publisher of the Drapery & Design Digital Digest. Enjoy listening to us dig into the challenges and shifts that happened in 2021 and find out what books are on our holiday reading list.
175: Ending the Year Well for Your Design Business
Can we just talk for a few minutes about what it means to end the year well? Does it mean to have every job go our way? Does it mean to make more money than ever? Does it mean to barely get through it but still be standing? On today’s podcast we are going to chat about ending the year well – defining that – and using the little time we have left to do it.
174: Importance of Finance Management for Interior Designers
With us today is Damari Gold, owner of The Gold Standard Accounting & Tax firm. Damari is passionate about helping small business owners understand their money. So you can easily see why I am excited to have her on the podcast.
We will be talking about the yes and no items for tax deductions, the importance of CFO days in your firm, and why we need a tax plan. Enjoy the conversation!
172: 4 Areas to Build Processes in Your Design Firm
Joining me on the podcast today are Debra Scarpa and Ashley Blaesing of Home Designer Marketing. We are going to talk systems and processes which you all know by now is a favorite topic of mine. We will look at the benefits of having systems, which areas of the company we need to create them in and go over an idea of the types of systems that will make our work more efficient. Enjoy the podcast.
171: How to Create an Interior Design Business to Sell
John Warrillow is the founder of The Value Builder System™, a simple software for building the value of a company used by thousands of businesses worldwide. He is the author of Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You, The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry, and The Art of Selling Your Business: Winning Strategies & Secret Hacks for Exiting on Top. John also hosts the popular podcast, Built to Sell Radio. Today, we are talking about how to create a business to sell, the difference between a job and a business, and who needs to be on your team.
170: The Scarlet Thread Origin Story
On the podcast today I’m going to share my origin story. Some of you have reached out to me and asked me to share more and that you want to hear more. And so I thought it would be a great thing to just put my story out there beginning to end. That's what I'm going to do today. I hope that there's something that you can take away from it and that it inspires you.
169: Growing Your Design Business With Your Spouse
Joining me on the podcast today are Jenny and Ben Slingerland of Black Ink Interiors. Jenny and Ben are clients of mine who have had tremendous growth over the last year. Today they are going to share their story of how they began working together in the company, how their business has morphed over the years, and how they each have their area of specialty that makes it all work.