March 25th – I’ll be giving a live seminar in Atlanta -  and it’s F*r*e*e* – Turn Your Marketing into Money – if you think you’d like to attend, shoot me an email for more information

March 29th – I am one of ten experts hosting a 10 part teleseminar – Marketing that Works for the design field.  You can find out about it and register for it at www.businessofdesigntelesummit.com and again, it’s F*r*e*e*

May 3rd – 7th – 4 day hands on training to learn how to become a redesigner or stager – in Raleigh – shoot me an email for more information

May 12th – 13th – I’ll be teaching at the Window Fashions Expo and teaching 2 classes – one on Money – one on Marketing.  You can learn more about and register for it here.

Let me know if you’ll be able to attend any of these events – I would love to meet up!

Here’s to Designing Your Success,

-Mary Larsen

WE Magazine for Women named me as a “Top 101 Women Bloggers to Watch” in 2009 – and I was really thrilled to receive the honor. If you haven’t read my previous blog posts – you should. Lots of helpful information here from me AND your peers – good stuff!

What was funny/not about this honor is that WE Magazine caters to women in their 40s – and I don’t turn 40 til NEXT WEEK! HA! But really, just like everyone else, I am looking around saying – how did 40 happen already???

At the end of May I am hosting a webinar in conjunction with the ADE on “The Art of Window Treatments: How to Add a Proven Revenue Stream to Your Staging, Redesign and Decorating Business.” This will be a great introductory look at adding window treatments to your business if it is not something you are doing already. I’ll keep you posted with more details as they develop.

Don’t forget I will be at the EXPO in Atlanta May 13-16! Here is a little blurb about the redesign class I am teaching – you might want to check it out.

And I have big plans for a retreat this fall for a lucky handful of you – and the topic is “money.” As in “how to make it work for you, and how to make more of it.” Just getting started on the details, but will keep you posted.

And for today’s Marketing Minute I am going a bit off of the beaten path – I am hosting 19 of my family for an Easter/Big FOUR-OH (before the big trip with my siblings to the Dominican Republic to REALLY celebrate) dinner and I thought these tips from Southern Accent Magazine on how to host a dinner party were really helpful - and beautiful, too.

Happy Easter!

Here’s to Designing Your Success™,

-Mary Larsen

Leadership Matters
By Nancy McGuire, McGuire Consulting, Inc
(Be sure to contact Nancy by clicking above if you need any help with leadership development!)There is no one way to be a perfect leader, but there are many ways to be a great one. If you have leadership responsibility, even simple actions can mean the difference between outstanding and poor results. Here are the first five of 10 of the most basic ways to ensure that you’re being an effective leader:

6. If you love somebody, set them free. When you have terrific people who have great developmental opportunities elsewhere, you need to let them move on. This can be especially hard when they are your top performers. What’s worse, you sometimes have to do this knowing you won’t be able to replace them in the short term. Still, you need to do the right thing and let them move on to their next opportunity. Trap: Some managers will hold on to their best people under the guise of “the needs of the business.” Although in the short term this can appear to be a good justification, it hurts you and your employee in the long term. Your organization will gain a reputation for being a trap; your good people may leave anyway, and the best people from other organizations will be reluctant to join your team. Tip: When you take a short term personnel loss, involve the rest of the team in handling his or her responsibilities until you have the ability to bring in a replacement. You may find a diamond-in-the-rough out there who was overshadowed by this top performer.

7. Take a look at yourself: Do people get you?It is essential that your team members understand you. So, your written word and verbal word must be equally clear. Trap: One of your responsibilities as a leader is to give performance feedback. If your feedback is too general, the recipient has a low probability of getting the message. Tip: Listen more than you talk. [Mary's Note: This is always a tough one for me, but it is so worth doing!]Ask your team members for their impressions of a person’s contributions.

8. Look at your team’s progress: Are they still storming when they should be performing? Teams often remain stuck in formulating plans rather than implementing them. [Another one of my favorites! Decide and DO!] Trap: Teams that continue to argue or follow competing or disconnected objectives are not likely to meet the end game. Look for warning signs such as continually re-visiting old decisions, missed deadlines, and lack of esprit-de-corps. Tip: If the team isn’t moving past the storming phase, consider changing the power structure or leadership within the team.

9. Get out of the way. As the leader, you need to keep an eye on the big picture. If you’re nitpicking small details and “adding value” where none was needed, your team will slow down. Trap: Many leaders think they need to add something. After all, isn’t that why you’re in charge? In fact, unless you need to alter significantly the direction or decision, you’re better off leaving well enough alone. Tip: Ask questions of the team concerning outlook for completion, rather than auditing progress at each individual step.

10.  Say thank you. And mean it. 

I am sure you found some inspiration here for you and your business – Which tips are you using now or will start using in your business today???

Have a great rest of the week!
-Mary

I am so proud of everyone who jumped on board twitter last week – and you might have noticed – I haven’t done any tweeting! Turns out I am new at it too!  But we will all get there.

I have had a ton of ideas this week for the Marketing Minute, and decided to share a version of my sister’s newsletter – she is a corporate consultant on leadership and her stuff is good (she’s really funny too, but it probably doesn’t show up here.)

Even if you are only leading yourself, there are a lot of tips you can put into practice – in fact, the article was filled with so many great tips today you are only getting tips 1 -5 – you’ll have to wait til next week for the rest.

Leadership Matters

By Nancy McGuire, McGuire Consulting, Inc
(Be sure to contact Nancy by clicking above if you need any help with leadership development!)

There is no one way to be a perfect leader, but there are many ways to be a great one. If you have leadership responsibility, even simple actions can mean the difference between outstanding and poor results. Here are the first five of 10 of the most basic ways to ensure that you’re being an effective leader:

1. Ensure everyone knows why you are there. Whether you’re running a meeting or leading a large organization, make certain that everyone knows your purpose. Say it aloud. What do you want to accomplish? Trap: Don’t become so fixated with your objectives that you don’t recognize when they need to change. Evaluate your environment and assess whether the objective needs to be altered. Tip: When things run off-course, which they invariably will, use your objective as a means of getting the team re-focused.

2. This is work — expect people to do something. If someone has agreed to do something, hold her to it. Trap: If you are working with people from other organizations, you may not be aware of their own workload and priorities. However, if your project is dependent on their contribution, you still need them to deliver as expected. Don’t let that work dump into your lap. Tip: Check on the status of the work, and reinforce its value. People actually enjoy sharing their progress and seeing how they contribute to the end result.

3. Don’t just simply track progress — offer help. When your team hits stumbling blocks, help to overcome them. Trap: This doesn’t mean you have to determine all of the potential solutions. Part of your role as a leader is to help your team members find their own answers. Tip: When the solution requires you to help (get funding, gain executive decisions, hire additional resources), make it clear that you own that action.

4. Be known as someone who actually makes a decision. Teams need direction and decisions to be made. Trap: Consensus management isn’t always the best leadership style. Many decisions need to be made by the leader alone. Tip: To facilitate your decision-making, encourage your team to provide alternatives with associated pros and cons. This increases the chances of buy-in on the team, even if the members didn’t make the decision themselves. [Mary's Note: I think you all know how strongly I feel about decision making - make the decision - and move on!]

5. Follow up and follow through. Track progress. Deliver what you say you will. Trap: Many projects fail because milestones weren’t measured along the way. Look at your own deliverables to the team, and ensure that you are making your own commitments. Tip: Reflect back on the history of the project. Are there areas where deadlines are repeatedly missed? These may be areas where you, as the leader, need to intervene.

The truth of the matter is – I love all of these tips!  Which tips are you using in your business today???

Have a great rest of the week!

-Mary

Twitter is everywhere – everyone is talking about it! But what I want to know is – can it work for OUR industry?

Since it is everywhere – today’s Marketing Minute is going to explore it a little bit – enjoy.
Twitter – For You and Me

Let’s get right to the details!

1. Twitter is – a micro-blogging platform. It is a cross between a blog and a public “instant message.” You have 140 characters to “tweet” your message.

2. You have followers. People sign up to “follow you” and get your tweets. They find you by searching for you on twitter.com, or by someone else forwarding your tweet – “re-tweeting”.

3. You only need a computer. When twitter came out I was sure you needed a blackberry or some kind of handheld – turns out you just need a computer, and be logged in to twitter.

4. What it’s good for. The idea is to directly connect with your customers and clients. Think “conversation” not sales pitch.

5. Why it might help your business. Your “brand” is being seen everytime you tweet – helps expand your network beyond your current friends – you can pose a question to get realtime feedback if you are doing research for products, etc – you can notify customers of sales and promotions or having new pix up on your portfolio

6. Is it worth it? Like all social media – this is a “try it – you just might like it” situation. It is SIMPLE. Go to twitter.com and sign up – it is that simple. Sign up to follow a couple of people and see what THEY tweet about – that will help you get ideas.

7. Follow ME! I have just started tweeting – and am not a regular by any means – but I plan on giving it a try and will keep you posted.

So what do you think? Are you going to try it? If you do – follow me and I will follow you – that’s how to get things going! You can find me at twitter.com/marylarsenor search for me at twitter.com under the name marylarsen
.
Let me know how twitter works out for you!

I cannot tell you how incredible it is to be on the same list as business experts Alan Weiss and Seth Godin and Design Experts Celeri Kemble and Carolyne Roehm.

So thank you to all of you who have supported me by purchashing the book and thank you to all of the kind comments I have received about how helpful you found the book.  I truly appreciate it!

-Mary

For the past several weeks in my Marketing Minute Newsletter that goes out to members of the design field (click HERE to sign up for your own copy) I have been talking about the importance of sending online newsletters to your clients.  However, even after speaking about this topic at conferences and teaching classes on how to do it, designers have told me they are just not going to WRITE a newsletter.  No matter HOW effective it is for gaining and keeping clients.

So – finally – I have written them FOR YOU!!! YAY!  Click below to learn more.

Every week I stay in front of my group of peers through a weekly newsletter, and I suggest that you do the same with your clients.  And to help you through that process I have written one years worth of MONTHLY articles that you can take and use for your own. 

I have also segmented the newsletters, so if you are a Redesigner, there is a set just for you – if you are a Designer or Decorator, that is a set just for you, if you are a Drapery Designer there is a set just for you, and if you are a Real Estate or Home Stager there is a set just for you.  (Click HERE to learn more and to place your order now!) 

I also suggest that you use the online email service that I use – just click HERE here to get started.  And research has shown that the most effective templates for you to use from this service (you'll know what I mean when you start) is crisp, contemporary ii, or professional.

So to give you a taste of what you will find when you purchase your set of newsletters, the following is a sample newsletter – I know you will like it, and will easily see how helpful your clients will find it – so that they think of YOU the next time they want to launch a project.  Oh!  And did I mention that I will also send them FOR you if you want???  Really! 

So here is the newsletter below – enjoy!!

Refresh and Renew

It only takes one weekend of being stuck in your home due to cold weather to realize that spring – and therefore spring cleaning! – is right around the corner.

As a designer who does a lot of custom work for clients, spring cleaning tips can take on quite a different feel. Just how do you clean a pair of draperies that hang from ceiling to floor in a double story room? Following are some helpful tips for your special spring cleaning.

Custom Window Treatments

As you might have guessed, never for any reason should you take down your custom window treatments and run them through a washing machine or even take them to a dry cleaner. These type of window treatments are not intended to be taken down and manipulated in any way. The good news – many fabrics that are used for window treatments have a special finish that resist any type of soiling. And it is not as though these treatments are being handled or walked on – typically they are just doing their job, dressing your windows and accenting your surroundings.

There are three things you can do if you are feeling the need to freshen up your window treatments.

1.  Febreeze is a wonderful product that really does remove lingering odors in fabric, and can make a world of difference if you feel that any scent has been trapped in your fabrics.

2.  You can use a vacuum cleaner with a hose attachment with low suction to run lightly over your treatments to remove any surface soil.

3. Contact a local interior designer to have a professional window drapery and blind cleaner out to your home to do an in-home cleaning using static-electricity technology.

Upholstered Furniture

Ideally, upholstered furniture should have a finish applied that resists soiling even before the piece is put to use in your home. These finishes have a come a long way, and application does not change the feel or hand of the original fabric. Interior designers can bring these specialists into your home to finish furniture as well as rugs. Or you can try a  retail product such as Force Field. If your furniture does not have a finish, spot cleaning with a very mild cleaner is helpful.  Try your dish detergent as the cleaner. Because it is designed to have your hands soaking in it, it is non-acidic and neutral – good for both upholstery and rugs.

Glass and Mirrors

Have you ever heard that urban myth that washing your windows and wiping them down with newspaper will leave a streak-free finish?  Myth, it is. Using newspapers to wipe down your windows actually allows ink residue to apply to the surface causing smears. Try microfiber cleaning cloths – with water only. Use glass spray only on dirty areas – actually cuts down on your cleaning time!

Saving Time

Don't let spring cleaning overwhelm you. With great products on the market today, you should actually be able to save time. My favorite all-purpose cleaner is SimplyWow. And that is exactly what it is. Not only will it get out ANY stain that EVER existed in your silk clothing (yes – even that red wine stain that has been there for four years) it does wonders on carpet stains and anything that is remotely related to grease – clothing stains, kitchen cleaning, and rug and upholstery cleaning. Go to http://www.simplywow.com/  to check out all of their products.

Lastly, another great time saver is Wrinkle Release from Downy. It does wonders on taking out wrinkles – from your clothing to your comforter covers – quickly and easily, without dragging out the iron and ironing board. Perfect for quick touch-ups on items from your linen closet, too.

So don't let these gray days of winter get you down. Just think – after a little  bit of spring cleaning – you will have a refreshed home with crystal clear windows that will let that sunshine pour right in!

For more tips on how to get your home ready for spring, contact insert your name here at your number here or visit your website here.

I hope you are loving the idea of using newsletters for YOUR clients.  Feel free to contact me with any questions and click HERE to learn more and order! 

Have a GREAT WEEK!

-Mary

When I returned I had an inquiry from a peer from Australia…. and one from a peer in Denmark (and yes, Larsen IS of Danish decent : )

Today I want to do something a little different – I want to know where YOU are from!

We have so much power in impacting the world in a BIG WAY because of all the technology we have at our fingertips – and I would love for everyone in our design circle to have a chance to get to know one another.  Cause hey, you never know when you just might need someone in Denmark – or someone in Lansdale, PA to help you out!

Click on COMMENT below and leave a little bit of info about yourself and where you are – let’s see how far we can take this!

Here’s to Designing Your Success,
-Mary

SAVE THE DATE        Mary Larsen Book Signing and Home Tour   Benefiting April's Angels    Sunday, October 19, 2008   2-4 pm   Historic Guess-Ogle House in Cary, North Carolina Cary, NC  27519   Hosted by Sheila and Carroll Ogle and Kathy Hawkins

Mary Larsen, local interior designer and author of "How to Open a Financially Successful Redesign, Redecorating and Home Staging Business" will be signing copies of her book, which will be available for sale at the signing.  Mary is a national speaker on the topic of design, and has been very fortunate to have done some decorating work in the Ogle home.  Her book was released this spring, and is the perfect book for those who are interested in starting their own decorating business.

For more information visit www.AprilsAngels.org and www.MaryLarsenDesigns.com or www.GrowYourDesignBiz.com or contact Mary Larsen at Mary@marylarsendesigns.com or call 919-773-1445

Leave a comment below if you think you can make it!

Or click HERE if you can't attend and would like to learn more about the book!