Find Your Sweet Spot - Your Ideal Number of Kitchen and Bath Design Projects

As a self-employed designer, it’s so easy to feel like it’s either feast or famine when it comes to workload.  We swing between too much work - stressful!  And too little work - equally stressful, just in a different way.  

Because we never want to be without work or have too little work, it’s easy to say “yes” to every project that comes our way, quickly overloading ourselves with too much work.  For many of us, having 10, 20 or even 30 projects going at a time is a normal way of life, and stress and overwhelm are just the cost of doing business for us.  

For many of us, the “Sweet Spot” of just the right amount of work - not too much and not too little, can feel like this magical elusive unicorn - nice in theory but impossible to achieve in reality.  A fantasy.  But I’m here today to teach you that it is not only achievable, but it is in fact easier than you think to achieve and maintain.  And I’m going to show you how. 

But first, what is the cost of not knowing your Sweet Spot? For many of us who are used to always having more work than we can easily handle, being busy is a badge of honor and a sign of business “success”.  But what is the cost?  

Stress 

It’s stressful to have too many projects going on at once.  Every time you focus on one to get some work done, you fall behind on all your other work, leading to a never ending cycle of stress.   Prolonged stress over time can take a toll on your health and lead to burnout, depression and anxiety.  

Unhappy Clients

When you have too many projects going at once, projects naturally take longer to complete, leading to unhappy clients.   It’s inevitable that things will slip through the cracks and apologizing to your clients is a common occurrence.  You feel like you're running around like a chicken with your head cut off and it shows.  You’re not able to show up as the calm, commanding professional you know yourself to be.  

Lack of Focus

When you have too many projects at once, you are constantly multi-tasking and shifting focus, making it easy to forget important information.  It’s hard to focus on high level tasks and find the creativity to do your best work.  

Loss of income

It can affect  your income, because you’ll feel like you can’t bill for a job if you haven’t completed the work, or that you need to discount your bill because the work is late.  

These are just some of the common problems that happen when you’re in the habit of taking on too many projects at once.  

So what is the solution?  The solution is knowing your Sweet Spot.  The Sweet Spot means doing FEWER projects FASTER.  Working in your Sweet Spot means:

Feeling Calm

When you have just the right amount of work, you feel calm and in control, and you can do your best work.  You can sleep well at night knowing everything is under control, and nothing is slipping through the cracks.  

Happy Clients

Your clients are thrilled because they have your full attention, and their project is getting done in a timely manner.  It’s not dragging out forever  - there is energy and momentum.  You’re giving them your full attention, and you show up calm, in control and with all of your ducks in a row.  Nothing is slipping through the cracks.  

Focus

When you have fewer projects going at once, you can focus your attention and energy on each of them more fully.  You’re able to bring the full depth of your creativity and do higher level work.  Better ideas come to you and you have the energy and attention to develop and complete them.  

Better Income

Your work is getting done well, and on time so billing in a timely manner is no problem.  You never feel like you have to discount work for being late because it’s always on time.  You’ve exceeded your clients expectations so you can even raise your rates.  

Sounds good, doesn’t it? 

I’ve created a quick and easy (and FREE!) worksheet to help you find your Sweet Spot.  In the worksheet, you take into account your hourly rate, your billable hours per week, as well as your typical project fees and timeframe.  Just a few important numbers, and you can easily do the math and find your Sweet Spot - your ideal number of projects.  

“But Betsy,” you may be saying, “I have all different kinds of projects going at once, all with different fees and timelines.”  

I get it - it's the nature of the beast.  That will always be the case.  But here’s what I have found.  Your Sweet Spot is like a North Star - it gives you a guideline to work towards.  I have found that when I know my Sweet Spot, I can have all different types of projects going at once, but it still works best when I stick to that same number of projects. 

The Sweet Spot is all about knowing your rhythm - when you know your ideal number of projects and you stick to that even when you have larger or smaller projects in the mix, it all balances out.  The larger projects just take longer to complete, and the smaller projects are quicker, but you still work the same amount of hours on each project each week.

“But Betsy”, you may be saying, “I have way more projects than my Sweet Spot.  What should I do?”  

It’s easy. As you complete projects, RESIST THE URGE TO IMMEDIATELY BEGIN NEW ONES.  Let your number of projects gradually decrease over time until you reach your Sweet Spot.  

The closer you get to your Sweet Spot, the more focus you will have, and the more you’ll feel all the benefits I listed above.  You’ll know you’ve reached your Sweet Spot when you feel calm and in control, and you’re reaching your financial goals.  

If you go too far and overshoot the mark and have too few projects, you’ll find yourself feeling stressed because you’re not making enough money.  That’s when it’s time to add in more work, slowly, until you find the right balance. 

Start a Waitlist

One important part of doing fewer projects faster, is to create a project wait list.  How it works is that instead of starting each new project as it comes in (leading to too many projects going at once = stress/overwhelm), you put each new project on a waitlist.  

As you complete projects, you pull each new project off the waitlist.  

You can let your clients know that you only do a limited number of  projects at a time because it’s important to you to give your current clients your utmost attention and focus so you can do your best work for them.  Therefore, they will be on a waitlist for a few months (or however long your waitlist is), so that when it is their turn, they will have your full attention too.  

Clients tend to be happy to hear this.  They’re usually happy to wait to have better work done for them, rather than getting started right away but having the process take forever.  It’s a  win-win for everyone involved for you to have a waitlist and do fewer projects at a time, better and faster.  

The Find Your Sweet Spot Worksheet is all about learning to think about your workload in a new way. 

Imagine this new way of working - truly having the time, energy and focus to give your full attention to a fewer number of projects at a time.   

I want to remind you that as the business owner, you have control over this.  Take it!  Your wellbeing, and the wellbeing of your business is at stake.  I want you to know that it really is possible to live into this new, stress-free way of working in your design business, and it truly is a joy!

Download your FREE "Find Your Sweet Spot" worksheet HERE.

PS - If learning how to have greater control over your projects so you can find more peace and harmony in your design business is calling you, you’re going to want to check out my Design Roadmap Course.  I’ve taken the system I created to take control of my projects so I could enjoy more peace in my business and made it into a self-paced online course.  It’s truly transformative and there’s nothing else like it out there for kitchen and bath designers.  Learn more here.