Not surprisingly, given the state of the economy in general and the housing market in particular, both exhibitor and attendees numbers were down this year at the Vision 10: International Window Coverings Expo in Atlanta.  Many vendors, designers, and workrooms decided they couldn’t justify the expense of participating.  If you were one of those who stayed away this year and you judged the event based on the photos your industry peers posted on Facebook pages, you know that those of us who traveled to Atlanta for the show had a blast.  You might even convince yourself that the week was all fun and games, and tell yourself that you did the right thing by passing up the luxury of a week of industry socializing in Atlanta this year. 
 
However, as much fun as it is to reunite with old and new friends and dish about the industry over dinner, the IWCE was anything but a frivolous expenditure.  Weeks have passed since I got back from Atlanta, and my business is already getting a great financial return on the time and money I invested in traveling to the show.
 
I have to admit, I headed to Atlanta in a serious negative funk.  I’ve been working such long hours over the past year or two that I was starting to burn out, and felt like I just couldn’t keep working like this anymore.  I’d never been to an IWCE event before, although I always read about them in Window Fashion Vision magazine, and I decided that I should go “at least once” and this was going to be the year.  I was shocked to discover that, if I had started attending this show the first year I was in business (when I thought I couldn’t afford to go) instead of waiting until the tenth year I was in business, I probably would have quadrupled my business in the second year and would be making at least twice as much money today.
 
Here are my top three money making takeaways from this year’s IWCE event that have gotten me excited about what I do all over again:
 
1. Mary Larsen’s seminar, “Money Changes (Everything!),” made me realize that I was feeling burned out and unappreciated because I had been giving away hundreds of hours of consulting time for free.  When I came to present a window treatment design that I was getting paid for, what should have been a 30-minute presentation would often drag out into a 3 ½ hour appointment because the client would say things like, “and what about the paint color?  While you’re here, could you take a look at this chair I saw in a catalog and tell me if you think it would look good in the guest room?  I bought some lamps but I still have the receipt; can you tell me which one you like best?”  I felt like, since I was making plenty of money on the window treatment, it was petty of me to hand her an hourly invoice on top of that just for asking my opinion, but all that time really adds up.  Affirmations like “Clients come easily, money comes easily, my clients are happy to pay me” felt silly to me at the beginning of Larsen’s seminar (I kept thinking of the Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley skits from SNL and wanted to add “…and doggonit, people like me!”). 
 
But by the end of her seminar, I realized that I had all kinds of psychological baggage that was holding me back and preventing me from implementing my own policies about charging for my design time.  Now that I’ve had a chance to put Larsen’s ideas into practice, though, it turns out that she was right – my current clientele has no problem paying me for consulting time as long as I tell them it’s billable up front when they start to digress from the current project.  One client last week even told me (as she was writing me a check for consulting time) that she’s not going to buy anything for her home anymore without running it by me first, because she’s made so many mistakes on her own but every time she follows my advice she “gets it right the first time.”  Can you believe it?  My clients really are happy to pay me for my time when I tell them matter-of-factly that “this is how I work.”   Charging for all of my consulting time is going to put thousands of dollars of additional income in my pocket this year, without doing any more work than I did last year, even if the economy stays as sluggish as it was last year.  Learn more about how Mary Larsen can help make your workroom or design business more profitable at http://www.growyourdesignbiz.com. 

 
2. I spent over an hour in the Minutes Matter booth, playing with Studio to get a feel for how it compared to my current design software, and I was really impressed.  With my current software, there just aren’t enough built in design options and I find myself spending hours and hours on every rendering because I have to create my own vector line drawings for many of the components I like to use in my designs.  With the addition of the Jackie Von Tobel modules for Studio, I realized that just about every design I have ever done or would ever want to do can be created using components of their built-in designs, which would save me hundreds of hours per year.  I prefer the fluid, sassy drawing style that Von Tobel has brought to Studio over the more rigid, technical look of my current software, and the folks at Minutes Matter will drastically discount their software to those of us who switch over and turn in our old software.  Since attending IWCE, I am much more aware that not only does time equal money, but my time is more valuable because it’s the only commodity I can never get more of.  Switching over to Studio is going to enable me to spend far less time working on each client’s design renderings, which will allow me to cut back on my hours without reducing my paycheck.  I’m not feeling so burned out anymore!  (By the way, my current software company was nowhere to be found at IWCE.  If they had a booth there, I would have stopped by and they would have at least had the opportunity to try to convince me to stick with their software and tell me why theirs is the better option for my business.  I wonder how many customers they lost by not exhibiting this year and letting Studio have the whole show to themselves?)  To learn more about Minutes Matter and Studio, visit http://www.minutesmatterstudio.com.  To see Jackie Von Tobel’s beautiful window and bedding designs, as well as her new fabric collection that debuted at IWCE this year, go to http://www.jackievontobel.com. 
 
 
3. I found some great new-to-me resources for affordable fabrics and trims at IWCE.  I have a weakness for Lee Jofa, Vervain, and Kravet Couture, but I’m finding that clients in this economy are more price-conscious than before and they are more willing to splurge in some areas when I can show them that I’m saving them money somewhere else.  I came home with some gorgeous but reasonably priced silks and crewel embroidered fabrics from Catania Silks (http://cataniasilk.com/) that rival high end showroom lines, and I’m already using one of their silks in a current client’s project.  I found some beautiful and unusual trims from D’Kei (http://www.dkei.net/) and Expo International (https://www.expointl.com/) that look way more expensive than they are. 
 La Finial, a brand-new miniature finial concept with truly custom finishes to match any fabric, debuted at this year’s show, and the L’Interior Le Nair booth reflected the creativity, originality, and Parisian flair of owner Tammi Le Nair. 
I was also able to see the beautiful new Evita swing arm hardware line from Helser Brothers in person for the first time.  Off the top of my head, I can think of three prior projects that I could have used the Evita line for.  This look is exactly what so many of my clients want for their homes.
 I know that these new resources are going to give me a competitive advantage in the months ahead. 
 
4. Okay, I know I said this was going to be a “top three,” but I lied.  Deb Barrett’s seminar, “Transforming Custom to Couture,” made me feel like Charlie Bucket the first time he set foot in the chocolate factory.  Did I die and go to drapery heaven?!  I thought I was doing high end drapery design before, but Deb’s samples and the techniques and resources that she shared are taking my work to a whole new level.  Having met Deb for the first time on our Paris trip in January (Merci mille fois, Jay and Mark!), this was my first time in one of her seminars and it was easy to see that her reputation in the industry is well-deserved.  The room was packed well before the seminar began, with everyone vying for the front row seats so they could get the best pictures of all of Deb’s goodies.  When she’d finished presenting, I had a cramp in my hand from an hour of furious note-taking and a camera full of photos to post on my business Facebook page.  What’s more, the day after I posted my photos, a former client who had moved away to the other side of the country several years ago contacted me because she fell in love with one of Deb’s gorgeous samples on my business Facebook page and she wondered if I could do something like that for her home in California.  Hmmm…  I think that can be arranged! 
 If you ever have the chance to see Deb in action, RUN to sign up for her class and camp out all night if you have to in order to get a good seat!  Find out more about what this industry maven is up to at http://www.debbarrett.com/. 
 
Are you getting the idea yet?  Times may be tough, and some businesses are going to weather this storm better than others.  Although there may be less business to be had today than in years past, the vendors who are still out there working the trade shows and the workrooms and designers who travel to the shows in search of new ideas and resources are going to get a bigger share of what business there is than those who stay home.  Skipping IWCE and other major industry events because the economy is down is like deciding that you can’t afford to advertise because you don’t have enough business – it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom.
 
Next year, the IWCE show is headed to Tampa, and I’m planning to be there.  Let’s all meet up for cocktails!

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Contributed by Rebecca Deming Rumpf of Custom Interiors By Rebecca.