Hannah Bowyer: How To Automate Your Interior Design Business For Higher Client Conversion
Hannah Bowyer is the Dubsado expert who helps interior designers create automated client experiences that work even when they're at their kid's soccer game.
You're creating gorgeous interiors but drowning in client emails, texts, calls, DMs & smoke signals at 10 PM on a Friday night. Sound familiar?
Hannah Bowyer gets it. After working with dozens of interior designers, she's seen the same pattern: talented professionals keeping every project detail in their heads while their personal lives disappear into a black hole of manual processes and late-night "quick" client responses.
In this episode of the world-famous Interior DesignHer podcast, Hannah reveals how interior designers can build automated systems that handle the business side while you focus on what you do best - designing beautiful interior designs. Hannah shares exactly how to set up systems that respond to leads instantly, move clients through your process seamlessly, and yes, actually let you enjoy dinner without checking your phone.
The best part? You'll learn how these systems don't just save your sanity…they make you look more professional to clients and can significantly boost your conversion rates. Because when potential clients get an immediate, polished response instead of waiting three days for your scattered reply, they start the relationship feeling confident about their choice.
Ready to get your interior design business working for you instead of against you? Let's dive in.
Listen to the podcast…
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Watch the podcast…
Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:59 Origin Story
05:24 Intro to Dubsado
07:26 Dubsado Skills
10:13 Designers are Crazy Busy
11:03 Systems & Processes
14:17 Success
17:16 Interior Design = Luxury
21:27 How to Stand Out
23:06 The Onboarding Process
28:57 Change Can Be Scary
33:43 Lightbulb Moment
36:43 Success Stories
38:53 The Future
42:54 Outro
Read the transcript…
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Hannah, before we, dive into all my million and one questions, can you give me an idea of how. How you got into the business you're doing, how you became Hannah Bowyer?
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: Yeah. Well, it's kind of a funny start. I'd always been in the service industry, and had acquired some transferable skills. And I become a new mom and decided I wanted to branch out into the world of virtual assistants. And at the time, I was just picking up odds and end jobs.
Particularly I was working for a financial blogger, and I basically was just editing her copy. And it was brutal work. I didn't know what I was reading. And at the same time, I was kind of curating my home. We were pretty newly married, and I really loved being a part of the interior design world, but I knew that with my husband's work, I wasn't going to be able to be somewhere that I could really establish roots as an interior designer.
And so that led to the question, I wonder if interior designers use virtual assistants. And that was in the year 2019. So when I was searching on Google, I couldn't find anyone who was a virtual assistant for interior designers, except for one. And I'll name her because I credit all of it to her. Her name is Brittany Elms, with My Design Assistant. And, I went to her and I said, hey, can I work for you? She said, sorry, no, I'm not hiring. Okay. So then I started listening to podcasts.
I started searching just anything I could to figure out what designers needed, and started teaching myself chief architect. And I already had skills, in canvas, so I was able to kind of utilize that as well. And then, like, six months or so go by, maybe have a client or two. Brittany reaches back out to me and says, hey, would you like to work for me? I'll teach you and I'll pay you. And I was like, yes. So, I worked under her for at least six months. Got, that was my major, you know, push forward. And eventually I was like, okay, I'm ready to go back out on my own again. And she was super gracious. And that was what kicked off my business. And so, I mean, that was 2020, and as, you know, like, everyone went, virtual anyways, and so that just really, like, took my business to the next level.
Okay, so where is it today? Because I know you've not. Maybe not rebranded is the right word, but. But it's. The business looks different. Your online, Persona looks different now. Yeah, well, I was using Dubsado for my own business to manage the back end.
And I had a client reach out to me and say, do you think that Dubsado would work for interior designers? And I was like, yeah, I don't know, why not? And I went and looked for anything I could find again on Google for Dubsado and interior designers and there was nothing. You could find Dubsado for photographers or wedding planners.
But like, that wasn't the thing for interior designers. So I feel like I kind of pioneered that in a way. And so I did it with the one client and then it kind of just took off from there and I was able to create a repeatable process for that. And yeah, I, it just keeps growing. And as people have begun to understand what Dubsado can do for them, it just has really become like our a area, our expertise and what we're known for,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I've never used Dubsado. So maybe give us an idea of what you're saying, what it can do for a designer and let, let's look at it from two points of view. A designer who maybe isn't using any kind of software, like organized software like that. Let's start with that. Someone who isn't like, kind of is doing things with like a little bit of Google this or a little bit of something else.
What would that, that transition be like for them?
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: Yeah, well, for most of my designers are coming that way, I would say, where they have a lot of their questionnaires in the Google form, they are scheduling their calls back and forth via email.
Maybe they're sending a docusign or maybe they're having their documents signed in person. Those kinds of things are things that can be taken care of by Dubsado. And so for a designer who's just starting, understanding the pieces that fill clunky and messy or like not professional, those, those things are the things they're like, okay, yeah, I can, I can elevate that.
I can improve on that. Dubsado could potentially be the next step, for that designer.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay, let's say, that same designer had heard from a friend that Dubsado would be fantastic piece of software to use for their business. And they said, I've been working with it for couple of years, I can show you a couple of things as opposed to working with. Because I'm assuming you've worked with this for long enough now that you probably know all the, the tricks and things like that.
Like, back in the day, I had a friend who was like the Excel guru. And, you know, they had. Right. But they had all these weird little shortcuts. They're like, why are you doing it this way, you dummy? And then they'd click two buttons and all this stuff would happen. You're like, what? So I assume your level of expertise with Dubsado or somebody who's been working with it for numerous years is. It's probably like light years different than if I started playing with it. You know, after, say, three months. I'm probably still making so many mistakes. So what are the cool stuff that you would do that I would screw up? Probably cool things.
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: Well, one of the main features of Dubsado that I love to use when it makes sense in a designer's process is the ability to have the client see the, first proposal, like the design proposal, then scroll through it, click, yes, I agree to that. And then they're shown the contract, they sign that, and then they're shown the invoice and they pay. And it's all very cohesive, experience for the client. All they had to do is click on one button in the email and they're taken through that entire thing.
So that's something that maybe not every designer would know right off the bat that Dubsado can do. But if you connect those three things together, it's a very smooth process. The other thing is presentation feedback. So I see a lot of clients. Yes. To do in person presentations, but some send them online via email, and then they're maybe getting information back in email as well.
And so it just gets so convoluted. And so we have created these forms in Dubsado that allows you to put the presentation in that form. They can view it, and then they can answer prompted questions or rate or choose whatever, options you have in there.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Right. So again, it's an elevated experience that maybe a designer wouldn't know to create. Yeah. Which, which makes it. To me, it, it makes complete sense. Right. The whole concept of interior design is you're providing an experience and an end product to the homeowner that they want but they can't do.
Right. And if the designer in their business is clunking along with Gmail and spreadsheets and all this stuff, it's like, well, we could be doing it a better way, and here's a better way. Why would you not want to do that? It always. It boggles my mind that that happens.
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: Yeah. And I think the biggest thing is that designers are crazy busy, right? And they're just going along in their day to day and they're just keeping their heads above water and to, to shake the, the boat, rock the boat, creates a lot of unease and so I get it. It makes sense.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. Yeah. So that's where I see that. I mean, this is like the number one reason why I wanted to get you on the podcast was, is. So I, and when I looked into Dubsado and I saw, okay, obviously it does all these things and that's fantastic. But it's. Who's going to hold my hand when I'm that busy and I'm, you know, fighting fires all day?
Who's going to make that, that transition easy? Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Moving slightly aside from Dubsado into, into like systems and process more in a, in a general point of view. The designers that I speak with are mostly solo or very small team, like two employees. And the principal designer generally is keeping all of the balls in the air and all of the processes and all the steps up here in their brains. And in a past life, I ran two different fitness businesses and sold them both right before COVID hit. And the only reason I could sell them was because I had basically made myself, irrelevant to the day to day. You didn't need me anymore. And my wife's an interior designer. And during COVID I listened to all of her phone calls with clients and all of the details that she had to keep in her mind all day long.
And it, and I'm like, this is crazy pants. You can't do this. Yes. They've got to get it out of their brains. And I'm assuming you've got stories of designers who've come to you where this kind of automation and this kind of systems, has improved their business.
But what I'm curious about is, is some of the, the bad things that you've, you've heard stories of like, mistakes that have happened when they weren't doing, didn't have properly codified systems. Some of the bad stuff.
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: Yeah, I mean, I feel like designers are probably intimately, aware of the bad stuff. Right. Like so many of them hold it in their heads. I think about the, the procurement process and the, all the details that go into that. And it astounds me still to this day that there are designers that keep so much of that in their head.
And when you're dealing with those kinds of details, I mean, you, I don't know, something happens at home and your kids are sick or God forbid you're in the hospital, like those kinds of things, like where is that information going to be found for your team?
And so I don't know if I have a really, a specific story, but there's just so many opportunities for things to go awry. And then it compounds when those things, things that maybe were on the back end then become the front end and your clients become aware of them and you have upset clients or maybe money was accidentally mismanaged, you know, who knows?
Those details, if they had been in a process or even just written down somewhere, would have avoided probably a lot of that headache.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Agreed. Okay, well, let's go the other way then. Let's say you've now been working with one of these designers whose previous way of doing business was keeping all the the steps in their head.
And now they've started working with you and maybe it's six months down the road, maybe it's longer, maybe it's shorter. I'd love to know some success stories, things that have, like how you've changed or you've helped them change their business because you guys work together. It's not you doing it, it's.
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: I would say first and foremost it's, I see the time back that they receive from implementing systems and processes. And specifically if we're talking Dubsado, you know, when they, they're, they kind of take themselves out of the, the onboarding process.
Not entirely, but all that just like back and forth. Gotta send this email. I need to make sure I send them a reminder email. Oh, I need to make sure I ask them this question before I get on the call. Like those kinds of things are pre thought about and created in Dubsado so that they could go be at their daughter's basketball game and get a lead and that lead already has the information in their inbox, and maybe has already scheduled their discovery call.
Like that to me is the, the biggest perk, I guess, of having something like Dubsado is to be able to be more present in your life and in your business and have that freedom.
Yeah, I'm trying to think of other things. Well, so client experience, like designers will often say to me, I know that my designs are 10 out of 10, but my experience would be, makes it look like it's a completely different design firm and they feel like they are short selling themselves, that they're not getting the clients that they deserve because their process Their experience to signing up with them doesn't reflect the quality of their projects.
And so if they can create continuity between those two things, it makes them feel more secure, more professional as they show up for the client. But then the client also can see the value that the client brings or the designer brings before they ever begin to design.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. And I mean it's, it's. I've always thought interior design is a pretty unique business in that it sells a super luxury service at whatever price point. Right. If you do like really high end stuff, you're dealing with really affluent people.
But even for normal people who've got a small home and they want to put in a new kitchen. Right. It's a big deal, it's a big expense. Right. I mean after the home itself, it's probably the next thing that you're going to have. It's more expensive than a car.
Right. And, and yet you've got in on the residential side. The vast majority of design firms are micro sized, run by a principal who has almost zero formal business education.
And it's just what they've learned along the way. We all make mistakes. I mean, when, I ran my business, I didn't have a formal business education. I made tons of mistakes. But I had to bring somebody on as we grew to teach me the things I didn't know. And ever since then I've been a huge fan of like paying for knowledge when you can afford it.
Yeah, right. Yeah. I'm wondering if, if you find you get pushback maybe, or not pushback's not the right word. But when you have inquiries, people who maybe want to work with you, I'm sure price is always a major consideration.
How do you kind of sell yourself that it's going to cost X. But once we get you, you know, situated properly, my fee is, is going to be more than paid for in what we're going to be able to do and how your business is going to run, you're going to have happier clients, there'll be more referrals, like all of that kind of stuff. I assume that's probably a big concern.
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: Yeah, for sure. I would start with even just the initial setup, return on those costs. For us it takes us anywhere between 20 to 25 hours to get Dubsado set up.
And that's with all of our knowledge. And so I think it's very easy to say that it would take someone who's new to Dubsado at least double those hours. Right. Because you don't know how to use the platform yet, you're learning and you might be making mistakes.
So that right there is a lot of save time. But then once it's implemented, the save time that you get back to put into, going to the, I don't know, wherever you, wherever you're going to, specifically your tiles or your marble or like you know, all the different things that are on site and you have to be there for while your business is still at least your onboarding process is kind of working in the background like that.
Something that means that you don't have to do when you get home or on the weekend. It's more anything, it's just the added time and freedom back in your business. But yes, you also mentioned like the caliber of clients and the the. What's the word I'm looking for? The turnover but like the. Sorry, I'm floundering. What's the word? The closing rate on your, your clients. Right. Like if your experience is, is matching the caliber of your designs and they see your value, then it's more likely that they're going to say yes as opposed to them getting the Google form and the delayed emails back and forth. Right. Like it's, you're going to close more clients because you look more professional.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Right. And yeah, like you were saying earlier about the designer who thought their designs are a 10 out of 10 but the, the client experience, the, the how the business works is not presenting at a 10 out of 10.
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: I was just going to say there's so many designers. Right. You need to stand out too in your area. Like that could be the difference between you getting it or not. Like if they're not getting a fast response, if they're not getting a more professional response than what they expected.
Especially if like we're talking about a luxury service like interior design. If they're you know, checking out a few different people like that could make or break, who they go with.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Right. And it, and it's going to be a comparison because very few homeowners are going to approach one designer out of the blue and say I want you to, to, to do my home.
No, they're going to approach three, four, five designers and they're going to ask the same thing of them and they're going to get a different response. Right. So if my response is a Google form and your response is this very organized and quick and beautiful response and professional looking response.
Well that sets a tone. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And we all make snap judgments. Right. And maybe that's the snap judgment. They say, okay, Google form, you're out. Sorry.
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: Yeah, it is. And it's just. It's not even something that they. Yeah. Are consciously deciding, but that five seconds could. Could change it
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: for sure. Okay. I'm hoping that you can take me through an example of maybe one maybe onboarding, because you've mentioned that a couple of times. Yeah. So what would that be like? So you've. You've now started working with me, and you're. You're spending that 25 hours setting up my dubsado. That's the whole thing. But can we dive in on. On maybe that one process, how that would work?
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: Yeah, sure. We would start by asking you to write anything down that comes to mind about your current process. I just want it on paper and doesn't have to be pretty, doesn't have to be organized, nothing like that. And we get on a zoom call together, and I begin to create a visual map of that process. And we start with questions like, where do your leads come from?
Are they coming from Instagram? Are they coming from a website referral? We need to know how to capture those leads and get them into Dubsado. And I think initially, right off the bat, designers are going to say, they come in from so many different ways. And I just get so bogged down, overwhelmed, because I might get information from one client here, but then I didn't get the information from this referral here because we kind of like, jumped past some of these steps. And then later down the line, they realized they don't have all the information that was needed to really begin the project.
And so right off the bat, I want to kind of bring it back and find a way that we can funnel all those different leads into one form so that no matter where they come from, we say, okay, thanks so much for reaching out. I need you to fill out this form for me so I can get all your information. And that begins to kick off the client journey, through the onboarding stage to welcome, Welcoming them into the design firm family.
So we start there, and then quickly it becomes very nuanced, because some designers say, I don't want anyone to book a call before I first have fielded their initial, questionnaire.
And so. Okay, so then, you know, they receive the questionnaire. Dubsado pauses to accommodate for that. And then the designer might say, okay, yeah, I'm ready to go ahead and book. And then the question is, where does the investment guide. Come in. Some designers want investment guides to be the first thing that goes out to a potential client as a potential way to further weed out, that that person, maybe they see the investment costs and they're like, nope, great.
I mean that you don't want to work with that person anyway. So like that's part of my job is to figure out how wide you want to cast your net or how narrow you want to cast your net and figure out how you're going to, vet those people along the way.
So we determine when that investment guide is going out. Then again, part of creating the process is understanding when do you want to take discovery calls. Maybe you say, I wanted it anytime they want to book with me.
Or as I would recommend you choose days and times that you know you're available, available. And that helps streamline your processes. It also helps free up brain space to know, okay, these are my working days. These are the days that I'm more, you know, front facing what have you.
And so then tell me if this is getting too nitty gritty or if it's like way over the head.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Love all the details.
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: I'm just thinking through the process, mapping flow and again, it's all so specific to the designer that I really want to understand how they're operating the business currently and also how they want to operate the business.
So there's, there's this kind of middle ground we have to find because not always can we jump to the, the final end products. There might be some things that we have to slowly change.
And so I'm trying to think of an example of that. But designers might have a way. They are always doing things and then we implement Dubsado and then the way they think about their processes and how they show up has to change.
And so we have to kind of like break that down into more bite sized pieces. Let's see.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I 100% get that and I wouldn't be surprised if there's like when you're implementing this, there's a psychological kind of point to this is we could be doing processes the wrong way, but that's the way we've done them.
Yeah. And to change them is going to cause pain. Like anything else you want, you want to get better at something. You know, it's, it's January, everybody's got New Year's resolutions, they want to lose £20. Whatever it is. It's going to be painful before it's not painful.
Yes, right. So yeah, and, and designers, design firms are all going to be different in different ways and diff. Led by different people with different ways of doing things. Right. So I can see it being complicated, you having to.
You've got your plan of what you would like a client to do. But you're going to get pushback or, or fear or all of that kind of stuff. What I was trying to get you to do with all this detail stuff is paint a picture for the designer that's watching this right now and they're thinking, you know, I know I need to do this and my business isn't where I want it to be.
And I was pretty sure after reading your stuff and seeing previous podcasts that you were the person I wanted to talk to about this in terms of like humanizing this, this transition.
Right. Because it's, it's a business, but it's, it's a personal business. Right, Exactly. Right. Yeah.
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: So yeah, yeah, the process is, is very intimate and I'm constantly, you know, trying to dig a little bit deeper in their head, try to understand what is, what their fears are, what's motivating them, whether it be fear based or, or not.
And ultimately I'm trying to get to how do they want to show up and if they were to show up as their most ideal business self, what would that look like if they were to run their client experience that way?
And what does their, what are their clients need to know? When do they need to know it? What questions are being asked later down the line that should have been answered earlier on and not at install when they're like what I can't be here for install or what you need.
You want me to do photography. Like those kind of things are things that need to be documented somewhere and have been repeated over and over and over again. So yeah, it's, it's it's very nitty gritty. What other questions do you have?
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I, on, on other podcasts? I don't know. It's a topic that systems and processes that comes up. It comes up frequently on a lot of interior design business podcasts and I, I love it.
I'm a process nerd and I love podcasts. I get frustrated to no end when I hear somebody talk about, they're, they're the expert on, or presenting themselves as the expert. And there's never any discussion of these first steps of making the jump from pulling the processes out of my head to actually writing them down.
And I Liked how you described it, how you would just. You kept asking questions, well, how do you do this? Well, how do you do this? And then you help them bring that together. Because it's one thing to say you need. You need them in your business. Right, Right. I'm, like, yes, I get that.
I need it in my business. I get that. How do I do this? I have not been to business school. I do not know how to do this. Somebody take my hand, lead me along, and let's get it together. And. And to be fair, there are some business coaches that I've spoken with who they are able to do that, and they're able to describe that.
And I think that's such a huge thing. Right. That. Yeah. To make it feel easier. Right. Because it's not rocket science, but if you don't know, you don't know.
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I feel like so many designers get hung up on the thought that every project is different, and therefore their process must have to look different to match each of these clients.
And so they're re inventing the wheel every time. And I love it when the light bulb comes on for them and they realize, like, oh, all of these processes, for all these clients fit into the same process.
Like, yeah, it might deviate a little bit. I might have to edit a little bit more here or add a little bit more here. But, like, I still have to do step A, B and C to get them to the end. And so, yeah, it's.
I just. I love getting in their heads and figuring out those different pieces. And when that light bulb comes on for them, it's really cool.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And it's the exact same story for designers and their clients. Right?
Yeah. When it, like designing a kitchen, you know, they're all going to be different.
Right. There's going to be parts of it that are going to make it unique to that, to that family. But for the most part, there are rules to how a, designer designs a kitchen. You don't just throw everything and do this crazy stuff, and it's like, nope, we don't do it that way.
We do it this way. But then we'll make it special for you by doing this and this and this. And then it's going to be custom, and it's going to be perfect. Right. So why would their processes to deal with those clients not follow that same sort of pattern?
You have a system that's set, and then you tweak it here and there where you need to. Right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. And, no, go ahead, please.
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: Oh, I was just going to say, trying to decipher where those, those hard points are that you're not going to budge on. Like even I'm not going to take text messages. You know, I'm going to communicate everything to you via email. Like that's going to show up in their process when, they need to get a reminder email or they want further feedback or communication on a presentation like those things.
If it's already been established in the process and it's been communicated over time, then that's a hard line. No, I'm not going to deviate from this. I'm respecting my time. I'm respecting your time as the client. And just make things so simpler and it just, it saves so much extra brain space because you don't have to consider changing something. You just know how you're doing it and that's not the way it was or way it is. Cool. Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Without mentioning names, would you be, would you be able to share some, success stories of your clients, like how their businesses have changed?
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: Yeah, so there are a few that I've gotten to listen to on podcasts. So I get to hear like third party how they're describing their business after I've worked with them. It's really cool.
And they talked about how they're, they are showing up in a way that is more confident and more aligned with who they are. Because they know how they know that the service that they're bringing to their clients is 10 out of 10, that their experience is a 10 out of 10, and that their choices within their business is aligned with their priorities.
You know, so they've chosen that they want to have more time with their, their kids. And so they've been able to create that freedom by implementing these systems and processes. So I mean that ultimately is what I, I'm all about.
And I love to hear, and trying to think of another, another one. I was working with a stager, which is different than interior designers, but kind of similar. Right. And again, it was just like his day to day was so much simpler because he knew what the program was going to do for him. He knew what he had to do on the back end and he could just show up as more fully present. And yeah, I love that.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: That's amazing. Oh, that's amazing. I wanted to ask you about, one, the future of your company where you think you're Going and growing the future of Dubsado. And both of these things are going to be tied into artificial intelligence.
Probably to. The first thing we'll probably see is programs like Dubsado integrating AI into itself. Right. Salesforce. Right. Big, massive Salesforce. They're full on into AI.
And as much as we all play with, image generators or using chat, GPT or whatever to ask questions, odds are the first things that are really going to impact our lives are going to be pieces of existing software we use that are going to integrate AI.
I mean, for example, when I opened up this, to record this, now Google, Gemini is now taking a transcription. I recorded something two days ago and it wasn't doing that, so it automatically transcribes it now. I didn't ask for that.
Right. So, yeah. Do you know if Dubsado is moving towards AI? Have they made any kind of statements?
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: I have not seen anything in regards to AI. They just recently launched their app that was a long time coming. So I'm curious to see with the app if that's going to encourage even more trends towards AI. But I haven't heard anything from them. Okay. Yeah, I think we're in that kind of gray zone still. We are.
And for designers, AI is kind of a scary, scary word because they think that their jobs are going to be taken over. But I think that the right clients find the right designers and AI doesn't have to be something that's scary.
I think that it can be utilized in a really useful way. When we're talking about back end kinds of systems and such.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Okay. That's really all the questions I have.
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: But, yeah, you asked me about where Hannah Boyer and company is going. We have just added procurement to our list of services so that's something that we're excited about. We haven't been that deep in with our clients yet. And that's something that we, we've been asked for for a very long time. So we're working on that. Trying to figure out how to also just meet every designer, where they're at when it comes to Dubsado.
And, we have different templates that we do for like brand new designers. So if they just wanted like the best and most used form of onboarding process, like we have that for them to, to be able to utilize, and then all the way up to the full custom Dubsado.
But like we discussed today, there's a lot of designers that come to us and don't have all those process bits. And so trying to meet them where they're at, is something that we're always trying to continue to grow in.
And, yeah, I mean, I just. For. For me, it's just getting in front of more designers and being in more spaces, and I love going to different, different groups and meets with designers, podcasts. High point. Like, I love just mingling. So, that's kind of what's up for us.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay, fantastic. I'd like to hopefully, come back in six months or three months and talk with you again, because I think things are going to be different for all of our businesses, all of our service businesses, and I'd like to get your point of view on all that kind of stuff.
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: Yeah, I'd love to see where we are in six months. That'd be cool.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay, fantastic. Thanks very much, and I appreciate it.
Hannah Bowyer - Hannah Bowyer & Co: Thank you. I appreciate it, too.
Why Interior Designers Benefit From Strategic Systems Implementation
Interior design education rarely (never) addresses business operations. Strategic systems implementation reveals distinct advantages for interior design businesses:
Automated client intake creates consistent, professional first impressions at any time
Connected proposals, contracts, and payment experiences elevate client perception of value
Documented processes reduce operational risks when team members change or unexpected events occur
Strategic automation maintains client relationships without constant attention
Setting professional boundaries through systems builds client trust rather than distance
This approach enables interior designers to create cohesive client journeys while preserving creative energy for design work. During our chat, Hannah explains how systems implementation allows designers to be more fully present, both in their businesses and in their personal lives.
The Strategic Systems Implementation Blueprint
Based on our conversation with Hannah, successful systems implementation for interior designers involves several key elements:
Mapping your ideal client journey from initial inquiry through project completion
Identifying repetitive tasks that can be automated while maintaining personal connection
Establishing professional boundaries supported by intentional systems
Creating connected experiences that guide clients through each stage of the relationship
Documenting processes that currently exist only in your head
The difference between interior designers who struggle with operations and those who maintain efficient businesses isn't organizational talent—it's strategic systems implementation. With proper systems, designers can show up more confidently and provide services aligned with their professional priorities.
Transform Your Interior Design Business Through Strategic Automation
Interior designers who implement strategic systems approaches report meaningful business transformations:
Enhanced client perception of your entire practice through cohesive experiences
More responsive communication through automated intake processes
Improved work-life balance by establishing systems-supported boundaries
Greater business stability through documented processes and reduced risk
Increased business value by building a more sellable, sustainable practice
The goal for many interior designers extends beyond operational efficiency to creating a business that reflects the same attention to detail and sophistication as their design work. Strategic systems implementation achieves this balance by transforming reactive, manual processes into intentional, automated experiences that impress clients while preserving designer wellbeing.
Connect with Hannah Bowyer & Co
If you want to chat with Hannah and learn more about how she can help your already amazing interior design business, you can reach her at:
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