Meredith founded the “House of Huck” in 2020 as a passion project. She gave herself an ultimatum: If she wasn’t successful in three years, she’d go back to the corporate world. But in one year, she transformed her business into a full-time career.
She’s leveraged her unique background in corporate sales—and some genius social media marketing tactics—to build a thriving business. In this episode of Wingnut Social, Meredith shares some business tips for new interior designers that you just can’t miss!
Connect with Meredith Huck
Resources & People Mentioned
Why House of Huck grew quickly
95% of Meredith’s clients have come from social media. How does she leverage various platforms to gain visibility?
Meredith got in front of the camera. It allowed people to learn about herself and her life. She also embraced a unique social media marketing strategy: Throwing a scavenger hunt.
Meredith chose 5 local businesses, bought gift cards, and hid them around town. You had to follow her on social media and answer a riddle to find the gift card(s). Once someone found one, they had to tag her in a post.
She gained followers, gave back to her community, and it even led to a request for a design consultation.
Why Meredith doesn’t want to grow and scale a team
Meredith is struggling with a great problem to have: Getting too many requests for her design services. She’s learning how to take discovery calls, explaining how her process works, and scheduling out (sometimes weeks or months).
She sets the expectation that it may be weeks before she can connect back to work on their project. But then she communicates via email, notes in the mail, etc. She’ll have those clients work on creating a Pinterest board to fill in the gap during those weeks.
Meredith is busier than ever, but she isn’t interested in growing and scaling a team right now. She loves what she does and chooses to outsource when necessary. She works with a virtual assistant and outsources renderings and sourcing tasks.
Business tips for new interior designers
What has Meredith learned from her first couple of years as a new interior designer?
Tip #1: It’s not just about charging a design fee. Whenever you can, open up wholesale accounts and purchase furnishings directly from them. A large portion of Meredith’s revenue has come from the margin she makes on furnishings.
Tip #2: Trust your gut. Meredith agreed to do some design work for a couple despite seeing numerous red flags. Meredith requires her clients to request revisions within one week of her design presentation. After her design presentation, this client asked for more than a week to decide. Two months later, they asked her for a refund of her design fees.
Tip #3: Don’t take every job that comes your way. Only work with people who appreciate what you’re doing for them.
Meredith shares more tips, tricks, and business strategies in this episode of Wingnut Social. Check it out!
Connect With Darla & Wingnut Social
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PODCAST FAST TRACK
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How to Use Pinterest to Up-Level Your Social Media Marketing [Kate Ahl] - Episode 218
REPLAY: Infuse More Play in Your Day with Jeff Harry - Episode 217
Here’s How to Convert Your Expertise to a Money-Making Consulting Business with Laura Meyer - Episode 216
How to Hire—So You Don’t Have to Fire [with Colleen Baader] - Episode 215
Transform Your Business with Powerful Self-Talk [Roy Redd] - Episode 214
Lauren Brown's Wins, Losses, and Lessons Learned - Episode 213
How to Convert Discovery Calls to Clients with Nikki Rausch - Episode 212
Digital Product Libraries = The Way of the Future according to Rex Rogosch - Episode 211
The Science Behind Intuition with Sunil Godse - Episode 210
Want to Become a Thought Leader? Here’s How [Carol Cox Shares] - Episode 209
[Replay] Betsy Helmuth’s Guide to 10x Your Influence - Episode 208
Sean Castrina Shares Why You Should Never Say “No” to a “Yes” - Episode 207
How to Write Email Campaigns that DON’T Suck [with Abbi Perets] - Episode 206
Wendy Woloshchuk’s Time Blocking Tips for Designers - Episode 205
Richard Tarity Shares Why Now is THE Time to Embrace eDesign - Episode 204
Jessica Harling's Genius Hiring Process for Small Businesses - Episode 203
The Design World Hot Topic: Free Design Consultations [Sandra Funk Replay] - Episode 202
How to Use Influencers to GROW Your Business - Episode 201
Happy Holidays from Wingnut Social! – Episode 200
Jeff Harry: Why You Need to Infuse More Play in Your Day - Episode 199
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