As a positive sign that the economy is improving, the gross revenues of interior designers’ businesses were up 11% in the first quarter of 2010 as compared to the first quarter of 2009.
US personal income, which drives consumer ability to pay for interior design services, rose 1.1 percent in January 2010 compared to the [...]
In these difficult financial times, it is more important than ever to clearly explain your fee structure to prospective clients. In one of my prior blogs, we established that a typical interior design business needs between a 20-30% of markup JUST TO BREAK EVEN on office overhead expenses. Therefore, given that average markups range between [...]
DesignerAdvantage recently examined the interior design businesses that performed the best during 2009 to find out why they outperformed the rest of the market. What we found as the common variable is that nearly all of these designers’ business came from previous client “referrals.” In a tough economy as we are in now, it is [...]
Continue Reading →Interior designers face many challenges when it comes to managing the endless financial and operational variables that exist on a project. From client receivables and vendor payables, to the status and production of purchase orders, and to meeting tight client deadlines – among others — it is quite an undertaking to run a successful interior [...]
Continue Reading →Quarterly Gross Revenues Still Down, Difficult Fourth Quarter
Gross revenues for interior design businesses were down 32% in the fourth quarter compared to the same period in 2008. While the third quarter showed a slight improvement in the revenue trend (down 25% compared to Q3 2008), the fourth quarter’s dip yielded revenue numbers closer to [...]
Continue Reading →In early 2010, a survey of American executives performed by Accenture illustrated the growing trend of outsourcing of “non-core” business functions across all major industries. Outsourcing is rapidly becoming a new business “norm” because it offers significant efficiencies, cost savings and other competitive advantages.
Research suggests that interior designers spend nearly 70% of their [...]
Continue Reading →DesignerAdvantage, Inc. has been managing the bookkeeping and back office operations of interior design businesses throughout the country for over ten years. Over that time, we have proven — with our existing customers — that an interior design business with annual gross revenues in excess of $400,000 should be achieving a net profit equal [...]
Continue Reading →Here is a little more background information on 1099′s, in case you are unfamiliar with what they are:
The basic idea of a 1099 is that the IRS requires that you report income paid to vendors which do not have an established business (that would file it’s own return). A 1099 is essentially a W-2 [...]
Continue Reading →As the leading provider of bookkeeping services to the interior design trade, it is essential that DA select the best accounting software for our interior design clients. We revisit this decision every single year and continually arrive at the same conclusion: there is no “perfect” software for the interior design trade. However, DA strongly [...]
Continue Reading →If you do not have access to real time, accurate financial reports, you are running your interior design business with blinders on. You must hold your bookkeeper accountable for providing you weekly reports on accounts payable, accounts receivable and cash flow as well as monthly profitability reports. If you are not getting this information on [...]
Continue Reading →Free, Confidential Business Analysis
It takes only 5 minutes to find out if your interior design business is missing out on precious profits. Click Here to fill out our Free Interior Design Business Analysis Form, or call us at 617.953.3134 for more information.