Create wise replies to questions posed by Business by Design this month, and you're in for a banner year.

THIS MONTH:
+ Adjusting Your Focus
+ Crucial Questions
+ Words to Work--and Live--By

ADJUSTING YOUR FOCUS
You don't need slick advertising or a glitzy new web site or trendy new product lines to make 2004 your "career year."

You need answers. Answers to questions about goals, what's working, and what needs to work better with your design business.

Many design professionals never consider the kinds of issues raised below. That's why they're so unfocused and unprofitable.

No need for guesswork as you ponder these questions. Use your sales records from previous years as your guide.

CRUCIAL QUESTIONS

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Home Depot? Budget Blinds? Dolly Designer? If not, stop trying to act like or compete with them. Create your own unique message. Target your own market.

You make a great you, but a lousy somebody else.

Calling all retailers, and design center and showroom managers: do you want this year to cater to the public or only to the trade? You can't have it both ways.

Why you?

Competition has never been tougher. It's never been easier to buy elsewhere the design services and products that you sell.

What do you offer that your competitors -- especially the lower priced ones -- don't? Don't say "good customer service." Every other design trade pro in your area talks about the same thing.

Who's Lovin' Ya, Baby?

Kojak, the TV cop, raised a key question there. Who are your blue chip clients? How have you built rapport with them? How do you stay in touch with and generate additional business from them?

How Do You Find the Fatcats?

Where and when do you get your best clients? What marketing strategies work best for you? What are you MVP (Most Valuable and Productive)promotational activities?

What's Makin' Ya Money?

What are they buying? What's your most lucrative product or service? How much of your income comes from your design consultations? From product sales? What percentage of your sales comes from residential clients? From commercial clients?

Who's on Your Team?

Who do you turn to for help when the going gets tough? Do you have--or can you create--an advisory board with a financial advisor, a lawyer, a business coach? Who are your mentors? Are you aligning yourself with top clients and/or allied professionals?


Words to Work--and Live--By
Everyone you seek to influence -- your prospects, customers and others -- gets an average 1250 sales messages a day over the internet, through the media, etc.

Make it your mission this year to make your message memorable.

Notable Quotables:

"If you can't succinctly explain why you're special to the man or woman on the street, you're headed for trouble." Tom Peters

"Anybody who is any good is different from anybody else." Felix Frankfurter

"To be successful, you have to be unique -- so different,that if people want what you have, they have to come to you to get it." Walt Disney