Don't Bug Me; I'm On Sabbatical

So, have you noticed that I haven't posted about my interior design business lately?  I wrapped up the last of the client projects I was committed to in January, and was feeling incredibly burnt out and uninspired after several years of working long, crazy hours and trying to "do it all."  It got to the point that, when my office phone rang, I felt annoyed, yet I still felt obligated to meet with every prospective new client -- after all, that's why I was investing in marketing, right?  To get prospective new clients to call me!  However, I found that I wasn't able to get excited about these new clients' projects like I used to, and I found reasons to turn down each of the new clients, with mixed emotions.  First and foremost, I feel that each and every client deserves enthusiasm, creative energy, and fresh ideas from their designer, and I have no business taking on anyone's project if I'm feeling uninspired, unmotivated, or even resentful about it.  But at the same time, I felt guilty about actively advertising for new business, and then turning away (rejecting?) people when they sought out my services.  So I temporarily postponed my direct mailings to give myself a little breather.

Then in February, I was sifting through the hundreds of emails in my in-box in an attempt to figure out what I was supposed to send to school for each of my sons' Valentine's Day parties, and I realized that I had only been getting emails about a party for my third grader, Anders.  I sent Lars's fifth grade teacher an email to see if I'd inadvertenly been left off the email list, and was shocked when she replied that they don't do Valentine's Day parties any more after fourth grade.  This was a punched-in-the-stomach, wind-knocked-out-of-me moment.  There have been so many parties I didn't attend or field trips I didn't chaperone because "now isn't a good time for Mommy; I'm too busy with work right now."  Yes, elementary school parties are all the same: snacks, crafts, and a few photo ops, with more scowls of embarrassment each year, but I had no idea, when I chose work over Lars's fourth-grade Valentine's Day party, that it was my last chance.  I went back through all of the pictures on my computer, trying to figure out when was the last time I went to a Valentine's Day party for Lars, and realized that I had missed every one of them since 2008:

Valentine's Day 2008, Lars is Back Row, 2nd from the Right

The painted rock in this photo reads "1st graders Love Mrs. Steadman."  The last time I showed up for Lars's Valentine's Day party was in first grade.  I missed second, third, and fourth, and now there aren't any more.  My February photos for 2009, 2010, and 2011 are all of other people's draperies and sofas and kitchen cabinets instead of pictures of my kid and his buddies making Valentine's Day doily crafts with pink frosting smeared all over their faces.  Robert Brault has been credited with saying "Enjoy the little things in life.  One day, you may look back and realize they were the big things."  At the time, the tedious classroom Valentine's Day parties seemed like such little things compared to the "important" work piled up on my desk, but now that it's gone and I can't get it back, it feels like a really big deal.

Around this time, I began taking a hard look at our financial situation: what was coming in, and where it was all being spent.  I talked it over with my husband (over and over and over again) and decided that we could get by without my income if I curtailed some of my extravagant spending habits.  Last month, I finally took the plunge and disconnected my business line and took down my web site.  My favorite existing clients can still reach me on my cell phone if they need me (you special people know who you are!), but I'm pretty much on sabbatical this year.  Many businesses offer their employees the option of taking an unpaid sabbatical leave once every seven years.  I've been in business by myself for over a decade, working seven days a week with very few vacations, so I'm way past due for my sabbatical!

I never decided what I wanted to be when I grow up, you know.  It's not as though I deliberately planned a career in interior design -- I just sort of fell into it, to justify the purchase of an expensive sewing machine (a long story for another day).  It worked out well in the beginning when the kids were little, because at first it was something I was only doing part time, occasionally, while the boys were in preschool.  This was supposed to be something temporary, while I was home with small children, and I was going to figure out what I REALLY wanted to do professionally at some distant time in the far-off future.  I have learned a lot (mostly the hard way, through expensive mistakes) over the past decade about the principles of interior design, about marketing and running a business, and I have had the opportunity to meet and work with so many wonderful people in this industry whom I otherwise would not have known.  I have enjoyed the challenge, the creative outlet, and the satisfaction of seeing my designs come to fruition, and have been blessed to work with the best clients imaginable who appreciated and valued everything I did for them.  However, I never in a million years would have deliberately chosen to be an interior designer.  I studied voice performance, secondary education, and majored in history in college.  I'm going to be 39 next month.  I think it's time for me to figure out what I really want to be when I grow up, don't you?  Right now, I just want to be Lars's and Anders' mom and Bernie's wife, go to the grocery store without makeup on, read a couple of novels, and finish that quilt!

I don't know how long my sabbatical will last, or what my next move will be professionally.  Maybe I'll start something new in a year or two that builds on my prior design experience, or maybe I'll strike out in a completely different direction.  Meanwhile, I'm exercizing, practicing piano, and signing up for quilting classes.  I have time to help Anders with Suzuki violin practice in the afternoon, and I have time to make Lars's favorite egg salad sandwiches for his lunch box.  My kids are both doing much better in school since I pulled the plug on my business and am able to take a more active role in homework supervision and communicating with their teachers.  Most importantly, I'm not constantly stressed-out and sleep-deprived anymore from working all night long after the kids go to bed, so I'm much more patient and deliberate in my parenting.  As Bernie likes to point out, "If Momma ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy!" 

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have just enough time to make myself a latte before it's time to pick my boys up from play rehearsal. 

How to Hire the Best Interior Designer for Your Project: What to Look For & What to Ask

So, you’re ready to take the plunge and hire an interior designer or decorator?  Congratulations!  Working with a design professional is a great way to find and define your personal style, solve functional problems in your home, and gives you access to a whole host of “To The Trade” resources that are not available to the general public.  Yet, for many people, the process of finding the right design professional for their project can be just as daunting as their design dilemmas.  In this post, I'm going to discuss the process of hiring a design professional -- the questions you should be asking, and the answers you should be listening for at that first meeting, and how to know when you've found the designer who is the best fit for you. 1. Where to Find Potential Designers.  If your budget is truly unlimited (if your name is Sharon Osborne or Donald Trump), then you can just pick up the most recent issue of Architectural Digest or Veranda and call the designers whose work is being featured this month.  If you aren't planning to spend a million dollars or more, you'll have to do a bit more digging.  Professional organizations like the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), the Interior Design Society (IDS), the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA), and the Window Coverings Association of America (WCAA) all have online member registries that you can try, depending on the needs of your project.  These professional organizations provide designers with access to trade resources, continuing education, and the ability to network.  If a designer isn't affiliated with any of these organizations, they are probably more of a hobbyist than a full-time design professional.  You can also see local designers' work at local charity showhouses, Parade of Homes or Home-A-Rama events sponsored by custom homebuilders, or in local lifestyle magazines.  Of course, if your friends or neighbors can recommend a designer whom they've worked with, that's a great place to start, too.  By the way, be wary of furniture stores claiming to offer "free interior design services."  Even if the salesperson has a background or education in interior design, they are still a salesperson working for the furniture store, not for you.  Their job is to maximize sales for the furniture store, and they are limited to the products and brands sold by that store.  An independent design firm is working for YOU, to come up with the best possible solution within your budget, and is going to be able to source furnishings, fabrics, and other products from anywhere, not just one store.  I once had a client who had gone to a major higher-end furniture store prior to calling me, and the "Designer/Saleswoman" who they were working with had sold them so much furniture for their bedroom that it physically would not all fit in the room when it was delivered!  A professional interior designer would have measured the room and done space planning with precise furniture layouts before ordering furnishings, but retail salespeople are usually under pressure from management to increase Units Per Transaction and Average Dollar Sale figures.  2. Interview Several Designers Before Hiring Anyone.  Even if you're sure you're going to hire the designer who did your sister's house, do yourself a favor and talk to a few other professionals as well.  When you're working with a professional on a decorating or remodeling project, you will be spending a lot of time and money together and you will be relying heavily on their expertise and stylistic judgement for your home.  Interior design is a creative field, and no two designers are alike.  Some are more conservative, traditional, and professional.  Others may be cutting-edge and contemporary, but disorganized or difficult to work with.  Take the time to educate yourself about the designers in your area and choose the one who is the best fit for you. 3. How to Figure Out Which Designer You Can Afford.  A lot of homeowners assume that, when interviewing design professionals, they should be asking about the designer’s hourly rate and product markup, but comparisons based on rates and markups alone are almost always misleading.  Most design firms today use a combination of hourly rates, set fees based on square footage and project complexity, along with a markup on wholesale products, and that mix may even vary within the same firm depending on the unique requirements of each project.   Keep in mind that a very experienced designer with an established network of resources for the best product lines and subcontractors will likely have a higher hourly rate than a new designer fresh out of school, but the experienced designer will likely come up with a better design solution in less time than the newbie who is learning on the job.  A designer who quotes you a lower hourly rate may also end up costing you more in the long run if they are making up for a low hourly rate with a higher product markup.  Even if each designer disclosed their exact markup (some won't be comfortable with that), you still couldn't figure out ahead of time which designer would cost less for YOUR project, because no one can know ahead of time the exact number of hours it will take to put your unique project together.  Remember that the cost of your design project is actually determined by you, when you set the budget.  So, when you're interviewing designers, what you really want to determine is which designer best understands your needs and style preferences, and is most likely to be able to achieve your vision for your home within the total budget that you have set for your project.  It’s okay if you aren’t sure exactly how much you want to spend initially.  An experienced design professional will be able to help you come up with a realistic budget for accomplishing your goals by giving you a “good, better, best” scenario for what you want to achieve, and will be able to break a large project down into stages if necessary to make it more affordable. 4. For the best outcome, hire someone who is comfortable and experienced working on projects similar to yours both in scope and in budget. A great time to discuss your preliminary budget with prospective designers is when you are looking through their portfolios.  Ask to see pictures of completed projects with similar budgets to what you’re planning to invest in your own project.  If you hire a designer because you love her portfolio full of million dollar interiors, but you have only budgeted $10,000 for your own project, chances are you will be disappointed when your finished project doesn't look as amazing as the ultra-custom, high-end interiors in her book.  Prices for home furnishings, window treatments, and all the finishing touches range dramatically, and a good design professional should be able to create and execute a design plan within any reasonable budget.  However,  someone who has a lot of experience working on projects in your price range is going to already have the right resources and partnerships in place to make the best use of every penny you invest in your design project.  Just like when you're shopping for homes or cars, knowing approximately how much you are comfortable investing up front prevents you from wasting time and energy looking at (and falling in love with) things that are way out of your price range.  If you aren't comfortable discussing your financial considerations with a particular design professional, then you need to keep looking until you find another designer that you do feel comfortable with. 5. Forget Everything You Saw on HGTV!  If you've got the decorating buzz on your brain, chances are good that you're watching a lot of television shows like Design On a Dime, Designer's Challenge, Trading Spaces, or Divine Design.  These popular interior design shows can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they are great because they get everyone thinking about the possibilities for transforming their homes through interior design, and they are full of creative ideas for those who have the time and energy to devote to DIY.  However, the necessity of editing for television ends up vastly oversimplifying the process and can be very misleading about how the designer-client relationship works in real life. Your designer is going to spend hours and hours creating the perfect design just for you to achieve your unique objectives for your home, within your budget.  He's not just going to waltz into the first store he sees and find all of the right accessories for your living room in between commercial breaks.  Design professionals bring tremendous value to homeowners through their knowledge, experience, and project management skills, and designers often save their clients money by "getting it right the first time" and avoiding costly mistakes (such as custom made furniture that doesn't fit up the stairs but can't be returned, or paying to have your entire house repainted three times because you can't get the color right).   Yet TV shows make it seem like you can decorate your home for next to nothing by hiring a designer who will magically find you the perfect lamp for $12 at a rummage shop and build you a custom headboard for $20 in lumber and stain, and that's just not realistic. You’ll notice that when they add up the costs for these TV projects, they seldom include a fee for the designer or the labor costs for the carpenters, custom upholsterers, and other craftsmen involved.  In real life, sending a designer on a wild goose chase with an unrealistic budget is a terrible idea because the designer would need to spend (and charge you for) hours and hours of searching to find that amazing deal.  Furthermore, realize that the design projects on TV only need to look good for as long as it takes to film the episode.  You want to give your designer an adequate budget for furnishings that will still look beautiful 10 years from now and that will be durable enough to withstand daily use in your home.  That’s why it’s best to discuss a realistic budget for your project in the first place and let your designer allocate funds to give you the best value for your investment. 6. Ask for References, and Call Them!   No matter how much you love that decorator you just met with, don't hire him until you've contacted his references.  When you call, don't just ask if they were happy with the results of the design project.  Ask whether the project was completed on time and within the budget.  If the project went substantially over budget, was it due to upgrades the clients requested or unforseeable remodeling issues, or because the designer constantly pushed them to spend more money?  How promptly did the designer return phone calls or emails?  Did the designer do most of the work on their project, or were they dealing primarily with his or her assistants?  Every design project has its share of problems, especially those involving custom-made and special order items.  Ask the designers' previous clients to tell you about the problems that came up on their job, and how the designer handled them.  By now you should be getting a pretty clear idea of what it would be like to work with this designer.  7. Once You've Chosen Your Designer, Don't Be Afraid to Discuss Money!  I know clients worry about this, thinking that if they are vague about their budget they will somehow get a better deal.  Some people worry that, if they state their budget up front, the designer will be sure to spend every penny of that amount even if they could have come up with a great design for a lot less.  Once you've done your research and found the right professional, you need to be open about what you are comfortable investing in the project, in the same way that you have to tell a realtor how much you can spend before he or she can show you homes.  Just like with home shopping, home furnishings range tremendously in price and in quality.  Everyone thinks they'd rather spend less money than more money, but if your designer thinks your budget is lower than it really is, you're going to feel like he's showing you boring and/or cheap quality items, and you'll wonder why you hired a designer in the first place.  If the designer thinks your budget is higher than it really is, they are going to put together a breathtakingly gorgeous design for you that you will absolutely fall in love with, and you'll end up having to sell your kidneys to pay for it.  This is important, so I'm going to say it one more time: Having realistic budget conversations with your design professional from the very beginning is one of the most important things you can do to ensure that your decorating or remodeling project goes smoothly and delivers the results you're hoping to achieve.  Putting in the extra time up-front to find the right design professional will pay off in the long run, saving you lots of frustration and making sure that the whole experience is smooth, pleasant, and delivers a beautiful completed project that you will enjoy for years to come.

Small Business Identity Theft & Other Nuisances I Don't Have Time to Deal With

So, a couple of weeks ago, I received a voicemail message from a man in Boise, Idaho, who said that his bank had contacted him regarding a suspicious attempted charge to his credit card.  He said his bank gave him my phone number and the business name Custom Coverings by Rebecca (which is the original name of my design business -- I changed the name to Custom Interiors by Rebecca about 3 or 4 years ago) as the merchant for the transaction.  I checked my merchant credit card processing account as well as the business bank account that any credit card sales are deposited into, and found no record of the transaction.  I assumed it was an error, maybe a couple of digits transposed in the merchant number for the transaction, and put it out of my mind.

But then today I got another call on my business line, this time from a woman in Colorado Springs, Colorado, telling me the same thing -- her bank had red-flagged a debit card transaction because the card number was keyed in manually and because the transaction was in Charlotte, North Carolina and the cardholder lives on the other side of the country.  Again, supposedly my business is the one keying in her card number.  What's going on here?!  If these charges were being run on my equipment, or on any equipment associated with my merchant credit card processing account, the transactions would show up in my bank records.  I'm alarmed that I've gotten two of these phone calls now.  Obviously some crook somewhere has impersonated my business to establish their own merchant credit card processing account -- they're running phony charges on stolen card numbers, with the money depositing into some bank account somewhere with my business name and information on it, and then they withdraw the cash from the bank.  It's a variation on old-fashioned credit card fraud, where thieves try to make purchases with stolen cards at retail locations.  You can read more about delightful scams like these involving other small businesses here, and here.   

You might be thinking, "So what?  They aren't stealing anything from you, and the people who called you didn't lose any money either because their banks stopped the charges."  True, but how many other transactions are there besides these two people who took the extra time to call me and tell me that the charges weren't legit?  The man in Idaho wanted to know if someone had come into my "store" (I have no store; I work out of my home) with a fake card that had his number on it, and the woman from Colorado was concerned that my "store" had been defrauded out of whatever goods the criminal had purchased with her stolen debit card number and wanted to let me know what had happened.  I wonder how long this has been going on, and how many other victims are involved that I don't know about?

Also, it's not so easy to open a merchant credit card processing account.  You have to fill out paperwork listing all the information that would go on a loan application, like your EIN or Social Security number if your business is a sole proprietorship like mine, with your address, how long you've been in business, phone number, and bank information so they know where to deposit the money when someone pays you with a credit card.  The credit card processing company is supposed to verify all this information.  If this crook set up his account using my business name AND my business phone number, what other information do they have?  Do they have my Social Security number?  If so, what's to stop them from taking out small business loans in my name?!

The really annoying thing is that I haven't been able to figure out what to do about this yet.  Obviously I want the fake merchant account closed down, but I don't know who to call to report that it's a fraudulent account.  It's not like there's just one MasterCard/Visa Merchant Services number I can call.  There are tons of different companies offering credit card processing services to merchants, just like there are lots of different places where consumers can apply for these credit cards.  I tried calling the number for voice authorization, but they transferred me to a couple of different departments and ultimately decided there was nothing they could do to help me.  I tried calling the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department to file a police report, but after waiting on hold for 45 minutes I was simply told that there was nothing I could do about it because I was not the victim of a crime.  I even called the local office of the FBI, and they told me that it wasn't any of their concern, either.  Somewhere, somebody has to have a database of merchants who accept credit cards, and someone needs to shut this operation down, don't they?! 

I HATE CREDIT CARDS!!  Please, if there's anyone out there reading this who knows who I should call to resolve this issue, PLEASE let me know in the comments section.  All I can do at this point is to notify the credit reporting agencies to put an alert on my file and notify me if anyone attempts to open a new line of credit in my name, but meanwhile someone is still impersonating my business to steal from innocent consumers across the country, and I feel powerless to stop them.  I don't know the merchant account number that they're using, or which card processing company set up the account, and there are hundreds of them...

As of March 2nd of this year, my business no longer accepts credit cards.  I finally closed my real merchant account this month because so few clients are choosing to pay by credit card anymore, yet every month there's a $35 fee for having a merchant card processing account, and whenever I did have a charge transaction the credit card companies would take a percentage of those sales.  Every other month it seems I was getting another notice from MasterCard and Visa about rate increases, or new security procedures requiring me to sit on hold for half an hour in order to update my credit card terminal...  Since credit card transactions never accounted for even 10% of my business, and since I've only had one credit card transaction in the last 6 months, I decided to cancel my merchant account and stop accepting credit cards altogether.  It felt good to simplify things a little and tell the Merchant Services people to go take a hike.  I just wish I knew for sure that my personal information is still secure and that the fake Custom Coverings account was shut down.

UPDATE 3/22/2011: Yet another call today from a woman whose debit card was fraudulently charged by the lowlife scum impersonating my business.  This morning I called Bank of America Merchant Services, my former credit card processor, and the woman I spoke with there told me there is no way to find out which of the hundreds of card processing companies out there set up this fraudulent account, and the processing company is the only entity who can shut it down.  The Bank of America rep suggested that I check my credit report, which would list a new merchant account opened in association with either my Social Security number or my business EIN.  I checked my credit reports, and there's nothing there -- so the thieves must have used someone else's name and social security number in association with my business name.  I found a MSNBC article online about that happening to another business.  The thieves used the name and Social Security number of another individual who had no connection with the company they were impersonating and listed this guy as the CEO on the merchant services account application.  They also made some slight changes to the business address in hopes of ensuring the monthly merchant services statements get lost in the mail instead of delivered to the legitimate business they are impersonating.  That seems to be what has happened here -- if I got a welcome package or statement in the mail for an account I did not authorize, I'd just call the number on the statement and have it shut down.  Grrr...  The only good news is that the thieves do not seem to have my Social Security number and there are no crazy loans out there that I didn't know about.  I just feel terrible when these people keep calling me about the charges being made to their credit cards in my name!

Credit Card Companies STILL Encouraging Consumers to Overspend

My interior design business accepts credit card payments, so periodically I get these "Change in Merchant Processing Terms" notices from the bank telling me about increased processing rates, mandatory procedural changes to safeguard clients' account information, etc.  I recently received one of these notices advising me that, instead of declining credit card sales when the consumer has insufficient available credit, from now on, the credit card machine is going to partially approve the sale -- allowing the consumer to max out that credit card -- and prompt the sales person to request a second payment form to complete the sale.

Let's think about that for a moment.  At first glance, what's the big deal?  If the customer's card was declined outright, they were always able to request to have a lesser amount charged to the card and split the sale between two methods of tender if they wanted to.  When I worked in retail part-time as a student, I saw that happen quite a bit.  Some customers would ask ahead of time, before you ran the card; "Please put $800 on this card and the rest on that one."  However, I also saw that having one's credit card declined outright at the point-of-sale, especially when the store is busy and there are other shoppers in line behind you, can be a rock-bottom slap-in-the-face wakeup call to a consumer whose spending has gone out of control.  I like to think that some of those maxed-out shoppers went home and took a cold, hard look at their financial situation and perhaps began the hard work of digging themselves out.  I don't know what the exact statistics are, but I'd guess that an awful lot of consumers walked away without purchasing when their credit card was declined, or at least decided to purchase fewer items to bring down their total. Now that the credit card companies will be issuing partial approvals, cashiers will be saying "Your card went through for $xxx.  How would you like to pay the remaining balance?" instead of "I'm sorry sir/ma'am, but your card was declined."  It's a subtle difference, but the only reason I can think of why the credit card companies would want to do this is to encourage consumers to go deeper and deeper into debt.  What do you think?