Those of you on Twitter will understand the prolific Fail Whale that tells us that Twitter is overloaded.  For those of you not on Twitter, get to it and sign up here!  Drink this martini while you’re setting up your profile.  You may be much more charming and intelligent.

This martini is featured in our February e-newsletter, The Gibson.  If you don’t receive The Gibson, click here to sign up!

Ingredients:

• 1.5 ounce vodka (top shelf)
• 1.5 ounce Cointreau
• 1.5 ounce Blue Curacao
• Lime slice

Preparation:

1. Chill martini glass.
2. In a large cocktail shaker, combine the ingredients with ice.  Shake until mixed and chilled.
3. Strain the cocktail into the chilled glass and garnish with the lime.
4. Tweet to your heart’s content.
5. Enjoy!

Like an amorous high schooler (but less creepy), I occasionally run across companies that I develop a severe business crush on.

My latest company crush is on a Greenville, South Carolina identity and branding company called Brains on Fire.  I am obsessed with the culture that they’ve created and enamored with the fact that their website shows that culture and personality.  [I especially like their Tequila Shots book which explains the 12 company beliefs; imagine a mission statement minus the boring undertones].

I know that I have this business crush when I think

1.  I want our company to be like that, or

2.  If I wasn’t having so much fun working with my team, I would want to work for theirs, or

3.  I want to be their client because I want to hang out with them.  [Pay for friends?  Hmm, they must be that good].

In the Brains on Fire case, all 3 fit the bill.  Is this crush actually business love????!

Amanda Butterworth, our Director, Creative Services, was lucky enough to meet Spike Jones, one of BOF’s Firestarters, and she said that Spike epitomizes the brand.  It’s always good to know that your business crush is not just smoke and mirrors.

Now that I’ve aired my crush to the world…Who is your business crush?

Mmm…bacon.

Thanks to primermagazine.com for the suggestion on this artery clogging, liver pickling glass of goodness.

This martini is featured in our January e-newsletter, The Gibson.  If you don’t receive The Gibson, click here to sign up!

Ingredients:

• 1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger vodka (top shelf)
• 1 ounce Applejack brandy or apple-flavored liqueur
• 1/2 ounce amaretto liqueur
• 1/2 ounces good-quality maple syrup
• 1/2 slice bacon, halved crosswise

Preparation:

1. Candy the bacon.  Prepare a baking sheet with foil.  Coat each bacon slice in brown sugar.  Arrange on foil-covered baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes.  Use tongs to transfer to a cooling rack or clean plate and allow to cool.
2. Chill martini glass.
3. In a large cocktail shaker or pint glass, combine the vodka, brandy/apple liqueur, amaretto and maple syrup with ice.  Shake until mixed and chilled.
4. Strain the cocktail into the chilled glass and garnish each with half a slice of candied bacon.
5. Place bottle of Lipitor at arm’s reach.
6. Enjoy!

Now that the New Year is upon us, we find ourselves cleaning up the holiday leftovers and formulating resolutions.  This year instead of pledging to improve your life through diet, developing your tennis serve, or organizing your travel photo’s, I challenge all of you to look around and see what compels you.  Think about what inspires you, give yourself a list of goals and once you are able to narrow that list down, then you will have a positive constructive vision on which to live by.

So look around yourself and soak in the little things.  Find the inspiration that made you who you are today.  Chances are if you surround yourself with positive and creative sources you will be the best version of yourself.

Contrary to popular belief, an interior designer’s job does not consist primarily of design time.  This is not the sexy vision that young men and women dream about when they enter design school but it’s the reality that any seasoned designer can confirm.  Project management and project administration are the largest part of being an interior designer; all the brilliant design in the world cannot make up for a poorly run project and an unhappy client.  Effective management and administration will continue to be of paramount importance when running a successful firm but can there be a better mousetrap?

The question that I encourage you to ask yourself and your staff is where that important project management and administration borders on inefficiency.  If you’re like most design firms that we work with, that greatest inefficiency is in the purchasing process.  You may have great technology (like Studio IT) and great systems in place to make this process a little less painful but the reality is that pricing, creating proposals, creating purchase orders, tracking and expediting takes time, often a lot of time.  In fact, I can imagine that much of your purchase order management time can be summed up with a few of these frustrating points:

-         Calling multiple showrooms and vendors to get pricing…leaving messages…then calling them again because they didn’t get back to you.

-         Calling multiple showrooms and vendors to get pricing…leaving messages…and then missing their next calls because you’re on the phone with another vendor.  Thus begins the illustrious PO management game of phone tag.

-         Checking on orders weekly (if you know what’s good for you) because you’ve had too many times where a vendor has failed to notify you that the sofa, which was supposed to ship last week, will actually be another four weeks.  The vendor does not have to deal with your irate client who wanted the sofa before Thanksgiving.

-         Creating client proposals that accurately describe the items but don’t give the client too much information so that they don’t “shop” you.

-         Dealing with a delay in orders when you’re on vacation, in High Point, on another project install, or generally completely incapable of handling the crises as you’re nowhere near your computer and your office, and might not even have a pen in your purse/pocket that seems to work.

In our design firm, we utilize great technology and we institute effective systems.  Despite our finest efforts, this has not, however, eliminated the items above from rearing their ugly heads.  The reality is that on each project, a design firm may deal with 30+ vendors and showrooms which mean 30+ lines of communication.  When I look at our bottom line, I see this part of our business as the greatest drain, the greatest hindrance to our growth, and our greatest cost.

When we launched Gibson Design Management, we focused on purchase order management.  While we now have multiple services that we offer for the interior design industry, I still believe that our purchase order management service is the best way to make a design firm more profitable and healthy.

Instead of having those 30+ lines of communication open at all times and being the central hub with a plethora of spokes, our purchase order management services give you one “go to” person that handles every order that you place, every item that you want to price, and every piece that you need to track.  At the same time, your company can actually make more money with fewer paper-pushing efforts.

As I write this post I worry that this might be the first time in the history of this blog that I’ve written a sales-y post that is also an educational post.  I would not risk our readers with shameless self-promotion if I did not truly believe that this service can have the greatest impact on a single interior design firm.

We offer a lot of great services and our team is really, really good at what they do.  However, when we sit and talk about our different services, purchase order management is the one service that the team unanimously says “that’s a no-brainer; every design firm should use that.”  Once I explain and write down the numbers on the time and money lost on managing purchasing in-house and then I show that the design firm can actually make more money, it’s not surprising that they say that.

In 2010, if you are interested in growing your bottom line and getting back to the real reason you became a designer, please contact me and we can talk more.  Don’t continue to do things the old way as we all now see that the old way is slowly taking a choke hold on the livelihood of our industry.

Should every business have a website? ABSOLUTELY.

Why? Here are our top 10 reasons (but trust us, there are many more):

1. Credibility – Having a website gives credibility to your design firm. It gives you an opportunity to establish yourself as an expert in the field.
2. Portfolio – An online gallery of your work is important for any business in a design related industry. A website is the easiest way to display examples of your work. Your portfolio can speak the most about who you are as a designer.
3. Feedback – Your website is the easiest and most efficient place for your clients and the design community to find you and contact you with feedback. Good feedback and testimonials are a great way to establish credibility.
4. Around‐the‐Clock Access – A websites makes your information available to clients and potentials 24/7. Even when you’re not working, your website is still working for you!
5. Chances for FREE publicity ‐ Local media or a design blog could find your website, like what they see, and want to mention you in an article or blog post. Free publicity? Yes, please.
6. Search Engines – When a person is looking for design services, the first step many of them will take is to run an online search on Google, Yahoo, etc. Don’t miss the opportunity for someone to find you just because you don’t have a website!
7. Referrals – A website is the simplest way for your friends, family, and happy clients to refer their friends to you. Place a “Share with Friends” link on your website and with the click of a button a site visitor can send your information to someone new!
8. First Impressions – An informative, well‐designed, professional website can make a great first impression on site visitors in search of a designer. A poorly designed or nonexistent website might send a potential client to someone else.
9. Provide Information – Educate your customers on your background and what services you offer. An advertisement or live conversation will explain the very basics about who you are, but what about when someone wants to learn more before calling about design services? Give your social contacts and potential clients an easy way to find out more about you.
10. Clients expect it! – Most importantly, it’s expected.  In these modern times, the internet is the first place someone will look for information, services, and products. If they can’t find you, they’ll find someone else!

Are you in need of a new website or website overhaul? Contact Martha at
martha@gibsondesignmanagement.com for more information on launching your online
presence.

On January 1, 2007, the Boise State Broncos shocked the country by upsetting the powerhouse known as the Oklahoma Sooners in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.  At the same time, the Broncos showed, in a David vs. Goliath battle, that hope, faith, and preparedness can be recipe for greatness.

I was lucky enough to be at this game.  I must admit that I lost faith; it seemed that the there were so many things that had to go “right” for Boise State to win the game after losing a 17 point lead and falling behind with only 1:30 left in regulation.  Sooners fans filed out of the stadium, bound to get an early break on the traffic, to only listen to the game going into double overtime on their car radios.

There is a great article from the New York Times about how this game even inspired the numbed sportswriters in the press box to believe that great things were possible.

This is not a football blog post though.  This is a New Year’s post about the importance of hope, faith, and positive thinking in each of our businesses.  We must be prepared.  Boise State would not have succeeded if they had not been completely prepared.  However, almost more importantly, when it seems that the odds are against you, there is never an excuse to give up hope.  Hope costs you nothing.  Great things happen every day; they’re not just on the SportsCenter highlights.

When setting your company goals this year, remember the nuts and bolts, but don’t ever forget the hope and faith that must accompany every day that you run your business and face adversity.  A little team from Idaho stunned the nation; everything did go “right” for them that day.  When you are faced with adversity in your business, don’t forget the Broncos.

We hope that you all had a very merry Christmas and happy holidays thus far.  For many of us, decorating the Christmas tree is a favorite pastime during December.  It’s especially nostalgic when you take out that beloved ornament that brings back memories of yesteryear.

Here are some favorite ornaments and the memories that they evoke from a few of our team members:

Little. Musical. Pinecone. Elves.  The words come together to form this sweet little trio.  My parents purchased these in 1964 for our first Christmas in my childhood home, the year I was four.  We had a large hearth with flagstone display shelves, which my mother festooned with evergreen garland, ribbons, small packages and figures.  I was so proud when my father held me up, so that I could tuck the miniature musicians among the fragrant branches, forming a little orchestral vignette.  They have been a part of my Christmas décor ever since, through my childhood, my daughter’s childhood, and now my grandchildren’s.  Truly making music and celebrating the holidays with us for 45 years!  – Martha Kirkpatrick, Director, Member Services

My mother’s side of the family is Cuban, moving to the US from Cuba almost 50 years ago. My family is big on continuing its Hispanic traditions, so my sister and I grew up celebrating El Día de los Tres Reyes, or Three Kings Day, on January 6 of each year. Every Christmas my family would set up two separate trees – a larger Christmas tree that we would place all of the presents under, and a much smaller Christmas tree that my sister and I would decorate on our own. At the top of the first tree we would place an angel, but we always topped the second tree with a star to represent the star the three magi followed. On January 6 each year, my sister and I would sing along with our mother to a song about the three kings. It was a childhood tradition that I looked forward to every year, so the star tree‐topper will always hold a special place in my heart.  – Amanda Butterworth, Director, Creative Services

One year ago, my fiancé and I decided to start a Christmas tradition where we picked out a Christmas tree ornament once a year.  With this being our first tree and start to a new tradition the choice to start at the top was an easy one.  Enjoying a favorite pastime, we were strolling the Charlottesville downtown mall, and spotted an angel in the window of a local shop.  We went inside, and after careful examination we knew this was the one.  The angel was made of metal screen and had a silver finish with gold accents around her wings and skirt.  The halo looked as if it were made of a bird’s nest.  It was perfect!  The angel has stood on top of our tree for two years now, and will proudly be the focal point of our Christmas tree for years to come.  – Lolly Rush, Senior Associate, Member Services

One of my favorite Christmas ornaments is a commemorative  White House ornament.  Although I have collected these for years, I do have a certain favorite.  The ornament has an eagle on it, and it reminds me of my father.  He was a WWII veteran, who at the age of 40 built a business that was so respected, he actually renovated and restored the Office of the Vice President, and many other executive buildings in DC.  This ornament reminds me that we live in a wonderful country, where our possibilities are only limited by our own imagination and drive.  – Margie Strickland, Associate Director, Accounting Services

We hope that your Christmas and New Years is a time filled with both memories of the past and visions for the future.

This martini was featured in our December e-newsletter, The Gibson.  If you don’t receive The Gibson, click here to sign up!

Many of the Christmas and holiday martinis that I found sounded very sweet and thick.  This one, however, is a perfect marriage of class and elegance to add to a holiday night.

Ingredients:

• 1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger vodka (top shelf)
• 1/4 ounce Grand Marnier
• 1-1/2 ounces fresh lime juice
• 1 tsp cinnamon water (boiled water with cinnamon and sugar)
• 1 ounce blood orange juice
• 1 fig slice garnish

Preparation:

1. Place liquid ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice.
2. Shake to blend and chill.
   
3. Strain into a chilled martini glass, and garnish with a fig slice.
4. Enjoy!

The design industry is no stranger to the acronym heavy list of professional organizations available to the trade. Professional organizations serve a vital purpose to those well established within the industry, help to foster connections with those that are new to their chosen field, and act as a resource and a mentor to those seeking an education or degree within the trade.

Let’s spell out a few of them for you!

AKBD – Associate Kitchen & Bath Designer. A certification examination for students provided by the National Kitchen & Bath Association.
ASID – American Society of Interior Designers. The leading organization for interior designers. Founded in 1975, with 40,000 members, there are also student chapters that are very active throughout the country.
IDS – Interior Design Society. Founded in 1973, dedicated to serving the residential interior design industry through its 3,000 members.
IIDA – International Interior Design Association. Founded in 1994, this organization has a global reach with 13,000 members in 29 chapters around the world.
NCIDQ – National Council of Interior Design Qualification. A competency based examination for interior designers, and serves as a qualifier for many of the professional organizations.
NKBA – National Kitchen & Bath Association. Founded in 1963 with over 40,000 members serving 11 industry segments in chapters throughout the US and Canada.

These organizations provide an excellent opportunity to network with your industry partners, celebrate at their many festive events and laud the achievements of fellow designers.