Practicing interior design is highly demanding. So is running a small business. Combine them and you have a perfect storm for generating stress and burnout. You can ease some of that pressure by getting help. Whether you’re a sole practitioner and like it that way or a firm with a small team, you don’t have to do everything yourself. You may not want or are not able to hire an employee or two, but you can get assistance by outsourcing to others who have expertise in areas you don’t have or don’t have time for.

In this episode, Gail talks with Danae Branson, founder of Elite Design Assistants, based in Alexandria, Minnesota. Since the early 2000s, her firm has helped hundreds of interior designers to grow and scale their businesses through a menu of virtual outsourced services. Danae has a background in interior design, but found her true calling was in helping other designers.

Gail asked Danae what kinds of services her firm provides. She said in the beginning they mostly focused on administrative and operational support. But over the years her clients asked for more services. Today, they also offer CAD drafting and 3D rendering, procurement and sourcing, bookkeeping, social media marketing, and project management. She said one reason for her firm’s success is that they are very good at matching clients with the appropriate people, both in terms of expertise and personality.

Danae said many of her clients stay with them for two to five years. Some just for short periods at a time, for example, to cover staff on vacation or during a position vacancy. It makes no difference to her firm. They work on an as-need basis with no minimums.

The main reason clients come to them is that they are feeling overwhelmed and stressed from trying to take on too much. “Every interior designer at some point has to outsource something,” she said. They just are unable to keep up.

Danae said outsourcing may not be for everyone. She admitted that when she started the business, ironically, she herself was reluctant to outsource. However, she came to realize, as do many of her clients, that there are so many opportunities when you start to outsource. Yes, there is always the risk that the arrangement may not work out well. But she said, “With risk comes reward.”

Gail and Danae also talked about how to find quality outsourced services, what to look for when selecting an outsourced service or freelancer, and how to prepare for outsourcing. For all that and more, listen to the entire podcast.

If you’re listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s11e5-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

To learn more about Elite Design Assistants and the services they provide, go to the company website at www.elitedesignassistants.com. You will also find information towards the bottom of the home page about how to sign up for the weekly newsletter Danae mentions near the end of the podcast.

Note: Transcript is created automatically and may contain errors.

to the Creative Genius podcast today. We are so excited that you’re here. I’d love for you to start off and just tell us about yourself. How did you find your way into the interior design industry? Sure, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, Gail. I appreciate it. Yes, so I have been in the interior design industry since the early 2000s. I was mainly self-taught and I did that for a while while my husband was in construction.

And then I kind of got a quote day job in the financial industry. That is where I actually created a virtual assistant agency. So I was in the financial industry for several years until I decided to get back into interior design around 2015, 2016. And in networking with designers, they were like, wait a minute, you have a virtual assistant agency that’s not an interior design. We think you need to start looking into

helping interior designers and outsourcing. And so that’s kind of where I developed Elite Design Assistance. And that’s where we’ve been ever since. Needless to say, I never did get back into interior design as a designer. I now just focus on helping interior designers grow and scale their businesses and their outsourcing. Well, that is a lot. it’s a great background that you have because you do understand the industry. You’ve been in it. You’ve done it.

and then you’re jumping in to assist people that are needing to scale, which is of course what we do as well. And it is definitely different to be thinking about how do you do this with somebody that you outsource to versus having somebody in-house. So we’ll dive into that quite a bit in our conversation today, but I think to me, that’s a great place to start for people who are fairly new to the business.

and they don’t have maybe the payroll capacity to handle somebody full time. So there’s definitely a lot of good to what you’re doing. Well, let’s really talk a little bit too about some of the things that you’ve experienced. For example, what is one of the biggest challenges that you’ve overcome? Sure, for me,

That is, it’s kind of ironic because I do help people outsource. I mean, that’s what I do for a living and I’m very good at it. But I look at my own business. I had an issue with that. And I think it was because I spent so much time making sure my clients were well taken care of and doing all of putting in all of the hours, all of the time and the energy into their businesses. It’s kind of like when you become a first time parent and you spend all this time on your child and then you step back and think, wow.

It really benefits the child if I take care of myself. It’s the same thing in your business. I think so many business owners focus on their clients and that excellent customer service and what they’re doing that they don’t really look at their own business and take care of it as well. And so it sounds like I said, extremely ironic, but I really had to learn how to outsource and let go of the tasks in my own business so that I could continue to grow and scale to better help and serve all of my interior design clients.

Okay. And so that, going back to what you just said before this too, and our earlier question, you started this business as a result of just networking with other designers. So that’s really interesting that, you, you went this direction. Do you miss interior design? I don’t, I mean, I love still being involved to a point, but I don’t miss, I love working with designers. I guess that’s where I should say I,

I really love working with designers and that are the type, those are the type of people that I actually hire for my business. Most all of them were interior designers at one point or went to school for interior design. And they really fell in love with the idea with helping and supporting interior designers and not having their own clients. And I guess that’s where I kind of fell into. So I love this business because I can work with designers. I can work with the virtual design assistants, but I’m not actively working with my own clients.

in a design process. Well, I think you and I are alike there because I actually prefer the business part of the business. And this end of it is so much more fascinating to me. So to me, what I’m hearing is you’re more of the tactical on the back end for the business. You’re providing the tactical people to get things done, executing things for the person that’s running the firm. We’re more on the strategic end where we’re teaching people how to

think about their business, how to scale their business from an intellectual viewpoint. And then you’re helping them actually make that happen. So this is kind of a nice little blend of our two businesses. So let’s talk a little bit about the services that you provide to the industry. were talking about hiring people who had run their own interior design business. So what are some of the things they provide?

Yeah, so there are a lot of services. I would say the most popular people come to us for is anything admin. So all of your backend office tasks, your procurement, your sourcing, 3D renders, CAD drafting, bookkeeping, social media marketing, project management, operations. It’s really anything that can be done virtually. When we started, we maybe only offered three or four services, but as we grew and our clients

We’re interested in getting more services because of how well we are at matching with the appropriate people that will really help them in their business. They wanted us to start adding more services. And so we’ve grown to quite a few. We even have somebody who helps with influencer support, which is really a lot more in the social media marketing, kind of leveraging those designers that have a lot of followers. great. Well, that’s an interesting little part of the niche too. Yeah, that’s a big job.

Social media is not easy to outsource. So let’s go off on that tangent for a second. So how do you do that? Because the voice of the designer, the vision of the designer is something that I hear them complain about. We can’t outsource this. Nobody understands our vision. They don’t know how to talk for us. How do you deal with that? Right, so obviously it’s finding the people that have the experience doing it. I mean, I had to do it for myself. I did all of my marketing, social media, excuse me,

by myself for years. Then when I went to outsource it, I had to find somebody who sounds exactly like me. It’s a little bit of research. They take a look at all of your social media, your website, your copy, and they really kind of hone down into what your voice looks like. They obviously can write sample copy. Everything’s approved by the designer anyway before it goes out.

but that’s kind of how we work to get that tone. And since everybody on the team’s used to working with interior designers, they kind of have the design feel, but yes, we are all very individual, unique people. So capturing somebody’s voice is extremely important when you’re hiring somebody for that social media. And do you feel like that is something that you have a system for doing that, or is it just a little bit of an instinct?

It’s a little bit of an instinct. I’ve been matching people since 2009. And for whatever reason, that is just my superpower. And so it is a little bit of an instinct when I’m visiting with people, when I’m finding out what clients are needing and just looking at what’s really going to work best. Cause we look at a whole bunch of different things when we’re matching people. are contracting is as needed because it is the interior design industry. want people to be able to work with us.

within the constraints of their business, but we are also really striving for long-term business relationships. So we do a really good job matching so that if they want to use their assistant or assistance ongoing long-term, that’s absolutely a possibility for them. great. What are some of the biggest challenges that you’re finding people facing in their business? Well, I would say that, you know, interior design, it’s very niche.

It’s multifaceted. You have a lot of balls in the air at one time. So I think a lot of people are just getting overwhelmed, stressed. They’re trying to do it all themselves. They’re busy. They’re trying to juggle multiple clients, multiple projects, and they really maybe know they need to outsource, but they’re not sure maybe where to start.

they might come to us and they need three different people all at once where we try to get them to prioritize the tasks and maybe start with one person and we grow from there. But as you know, interior design’s a multifaceted business. There’s a lot of things going on and a lot of times interior designers just get to that breaking point where they’re like, I need help. I need to regain the passion for my business and I need to start outsourcing so that I can continue to run my business and

you know, hopefully grow and scale it as well. Well, I know there are other firms doing some sort of VA services. Sometimes they’re not specialized like you are in this particular industry. But if somebody is looking for external help, how do they go about doing that? Yeah, I would say typically depending on if you’re if you’re needing experienced people, I would look at LinkedIn. I would talk to other designers, Facebook groups.

Kind of do some networking. Sometimes your software platforms that you’re using, like a studio designer type platform, may also have some resources for you as well. If you are somebody who’s interested in hiring somebody newer that you want to train, that would be maybe a college, a local college. But I do tell people to really look for those experienced people if you’re looking for experience, because a lot of times those are harder to find unless you go to a very specific

agency or, you know, firm that does specialize in interior design. Well, we definitely tell people that they should hire people that are experienced. They don’t have the time to train people. If they’re already coming to you because they’re overwhelmed, they’re going to be more overwhelmed trying to find somebody and then trying to train them. So that just makes it even harder than they have to go. They don’t have to do that. Okay. So since outsourcing is a little bit scary, you don’t know what you’re getting.

You don’t know that person’s experience and how they’re going to work with you until you’ve gone through it. What makes a good relationship in outsourcing and what does not work? Right. Definitely what works is when you are open to the idea. Obviously you need to be open to the idea that you’re going to be working with somebody else. I also, tell people, have a conversation with that person.

If you’re collecting resumes, look for details in the resume. Detailed oriented people is what you want to go with. And you want to obviously have those conversations, goals and expectations and make sure that it’s somebody that you’re willing to work with. Cause obviously you’re not going to know. But once you work with somebody, you need to be open to the idea that it might take a couple of weeks, just to kind of make sure that things are kind of ironed out as far as how we’re going to move forward.

I would say the things that don’t work, a lot of times it’s just based on personality of designers and a lot of designers know themselves. And if you know that you’re somebody who likes to have a bit more control over your employees and they maybe need to be in an office with you, virtual assistance is not going to work for you. If you know that you’re micromanaging or you’re a bit more

wanting to do everything yourself and you’re really hesitant to outsource because you’re not sure you’d ever find somebody who’s going to be as good as you are better. You know, those are some things to look at or to at least consider when you are outsourcing because we’re all very different. And some people just aren’t able to sleep at night outsourcing for whatever reason. It’s kind of like, you know, when you’re an entrepreneur, some people are cut out to be entrepreneurs and some people are cut out to be W2 employees.

And that’s kind of how it is with outsourcing. Well, and I think too, you have to know what you want that person to do for you and what a good outcome is. So you need to be clear on the good outcome. And I think one of the other things that I see that is hard for people when they’re not used to managing other people is really having the tough conversations if it’s not going right. And you have to be willing to give people feedback kindly so that they know

that either they’re off target or they’re close, but they need to work on improving something because if they don’t do that, then they’re not being fair to that other person because everybody wants to do a great job. All of your people that work on your team, I’m sure have that same mission to do a great job of what they’re doing. And I think where a lot of people fail as managers is that they just don’t want to have the tough conversations. And they also

think that they can bypass having clarity about what the role and responsibility needs to be and how to go about doing it. So I’m just throwing in a few things from what I observe when I’m working with people. Yes, I absolutely agree with you. And I do tell people, you have to have those conversations. I obviously will hop in at any time if that’s necessary, but it typically needs to come from the interior designer and they need to do it sooner rather than later.

I mean, occasionally they’ll just let things slide and then I don’t even hear about an issue for four weeks and it happened in week one or, you but yeah, just keeping that open line of communications. Communication is key. And I promise that every single person on my team, they want that constructive criticism. They want that feedback. They want to make sure that everybody’s on the same page. Cause a lot of times it could have just boiled down to a very minor miscommunication.

that if an interior designer would have let that virtual design assistant know immediately, then it would have been rectified and there would have not been an issue on going or, you know, going further. Okay. Well, good. Well, I think we’re on the same page with that. I When should somebody begin outsourcing? I say a lot of times just take a look at your business right now. Look at where you’re at and where you want to go because a lot of times people do need to be

again, outsourcing a little bit earlier than they actually think they do. And it’s just that planning piece. You know, know your business, you know what’s coming down the pipeline, you know what you want for your goals. Go ahead and start making your list of things that you maybe find very time consuming that you don’t like to do that you procrastinate. And go ahead and start looking at that. A lot of times there are several tasks that can be outsourced that you’re going to recruit that money and even make money.

from your clients. And so it’s just one of those things that it’s hard to say when you should begin outsourcing. I tell most people just go ahead and look at your business right now, because a lot of times they find things that they can start and then it just makes it a lot easier for them moving forward than to wait to your, to that breaking point of ready to throw in the towel because you’re so overwhelmed with your business that you don’t even know how to move forward or where to, where to begin. Yeah.

It’s painful. I’ve run my own interior design business, so I get it. And, it is a little bit scary to hire somebody, but I promise for those of you that have not hired yet is worth it. And it’s worth it to learn how to hire. You’re not going to be a great manager at the beginning, but you will learn. absolutely. It’s definitely worth it. Sure. So what is one of the first things that they should outsource? most people, depending again on what they love to do,

Most people will outsource either admin first or their CAD drawings and 3D renders or their social media marketing. Again, it’s just based on what they love to do, what they know how to do, what they don’t want to do. Some people bookkeeping, they really need help with bookkeeping. that just kind of depends on the interior designer, what’s best to outsource first.

And almost in all cases, anything that you don’t love to do and that you’re not great at doing needs to be given to somebody else. That would be my rule of thumb. Yes. Cause a lot of people will find themselves procrastinating on the things they don’t like to do. And that’s not very helpful either. That’s the best to get off your plate first. For sure. Those are, that is us indicating that we just really don’t want to do it or we don’t feel comfortable doing it. yeah, it’s a good one.

Is it possible to run an interior design business without hiring employees? I think it’s all based on what the actual interior designer needs. I mean, I’ve seen some interior designers who like to keep a fairly small business, try to do everything themselves. They’re not really making a living at interior design. Maybe it’s, you know, a part-time job, but almost every designer that I’ve seen, even a, you know, a one person design firm,

has to outsource at some point something because they just are not able to continue to keep up with all of the things that go into your design for each of their clients. And even if it’s just a project by project basis, even if it’s a little something here or there, almost always they are gonna need some help at some point. And that is why we do make our contracting as needed with no minimums because we wanna be able to help everybody.

There are a lot of people that will probably be calling you after this podcast. So how do you select that right person for each designer? Sure. So we obviously have a conversation with the designer. We figure out what exactly it is that they’re wanting to outsource. Does their assistant need to know any specific platforms, programs, even specific niches within interior design? We get all that information upfront.

Even communications, I have some designer clients who is like, whoever you get me, I need them to be available on Monday mornings for meetings or, you know, anything. we get all that information upfront and then we look at our team and we start to determine who is going to be the best fit for this designer. we always have the designer visit with somebody first just to make sure they also agree that this is going to be a good fit.

A lot of times we will even send them more than one candidate if they would like to interview a couple of different people so that they can choose on their own. That is totally fine too. But we really try to match everything that we can. Occasionally again, designers will come to us with specific time zones that they really want their virtual design assistant to live in. So we look at the big picture, personality, all of it, and we do our matching that way. And then we always make sure that they have a conversation.

before they even agree to move forward with the service. And typically how long do you, do your people work with a design firm? I would say most of them work, like a lot of my existing clients have been with us for at least two to five years. Sometimes we do have people that will only hire us to cover vacations, maternity leaves.

Maybe that interim between somebody left and we have to hire somebody new, but we got to get somebody in here to help us in the meantime. so those people, maybe we work with six, you know, six months, 18 months. it’s very rare we ever have somebody that comes on and only is working with us six months or less. Most of them are at least in the year or more range. Okay. Well, that’s good to know. All right. Well, where do you see yourself in 10 years in your business?

Well, I definitely want to continue doing what I’m doing. We have plans to continue to grow and scale elite design assistance. We still want to continue to look at the industry as a whole and how we can better serve our interior designer clients as well. We are looking at some alternative ways that they can maybe get in touch with us to get people on board for one-off projects and different things like that, where maybe they don’t need the hands-on matching that we’re currently doing. So that way they have some

different options when using our service. We’re definitely looking to more of the marketing and AI and helping them running their businesses with that sort of thing. So like I said, we definitely are gonna be here to continue to serve interior designers and we will continue to adapt with the industry as well. And we love our newsletter because we constantly are giving interior designers all that information too of what’s coming, what’s new.

different programs, platforms, just the industry as a whole. So we’re going to continue to do that for them as well. I’ve been reading some of your newsletters and I think there’s some good tips in there. What are three takeaways that you’d like to share with us? Sure. First of all, I would love for interior designers to sit back and really consider if they’re cut out for outsourcing. Is this something they want to do? Are they going to be able to do it from a virtual perspective, especially?

Just kind of, you okay with trusting someone else to help you in your business? Is that your personality? Are you going to be able to get over that? I know a lot of people have tried it and they do get over it. I mean, I’m a prime example. I do this for a living, but I had to get over outsourcing for my own business as well. But I always ask people first to look at that. And second, if they are considering outsourcing, go ahead and take a minute and assess your business. Where do you need help? Create those lists really fast.

figure out what you want your business to look like and what are those items that you can outsource. And then you can go ahead and start taking back some of your time. You can grow your business if you like. There’s so many opportunities when you do start outsourcing. You know, you’re an entrepreneur and with entrepreneurship comes risk, but with risk comes reward. And that’s how I tell everyone to kind of look at it when it comes to outsourcing. Sure. Understood.

Well, thank you so much for sharing your expertise today and we’ll be sharing in the show notes about your business. And thank you for being with us. Yes. Thank you, Gail, very much. appreciate it.