REMODELER SUCCESS PODCAST
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About this Episode
Join us for an insightful conversation with Lori Wiles, a visionary interior designer known for blending modern aesthetics with functionality. In this episode, we dive into a unique approach to creating personalized, wellness-focused spaces that enhance both beauty and daily living. Lori Wiles shares her design philosophy, the importance of client relationships, and how integrate sustainability and cutting-edge technology into their projects. A must-listen for anyone passionate about innovative, purpose-driven design.
- Innovative Design Approach: Lori Wiles seamlessly merges modern aesthetics with practicality to create stunning spaces.
- Focus on Wellness: Their design philosophy emphasizes creating environments that promote both physical and emotional well-being.
- Personalized Interiors: Lori Wiles tailors each project to meet the unique needs and preferences of their clients.
- Sustainability and Technology: Lori integrates sustainable materials and cutting-edge technology into their designs for a future-forward approach.
- Elegant and Functional Spaces: Lori Wiles crafts interiors that combine elegance with everyday functionality, elevating their clients’ living experiences.
Transcription
Dennis Oz: Welcome to the Remodeler Success Podcast. Today, I’m so thrilled to have a special guest with me. With over 30 years of experience in interior design. She’s the founder and CEO of Interior Design of Wiles Design Group. And we’re going to dive in about the business journey and all these, clients, and like growing the business, those kind of things we will talk about today.
And, she’s also known for blending the artistic and also scientific aspects in our design. That’s really excites me to talk about today. And, we know that she also focuses on understanding client’s true needs and has a wealth of experience, a lot of experience and credentials, including being even a registered interior designer. in a local interior designer. We’re going to talk about that. I’m so excited. So I don’t want to steal her storm. Please welcome Lori Wiles, to the show. Lori, it’s great to have you with me today.
Lori Wiles: Oh, thank you. Thank you for inviting me.
Dennis Oz: Oh yeah, sure. Lori, with all these years of experience in the interior design industry, . Can you share what initially inspired you to pursue in this field?
Lori Wiles: I, I grew up in a really creative home. So my, um, my parents, my mother was an artist and just, we were exposed to all kinds of things, but my, we also grew up in my, uh, dad’s veterinary business. So I was exposed to a lot of science. And so it seems like, to me, like, um, interior design really, um, Combine those things that I loved and it’s I’ve not been disappointed in that.
It truly has been a combination of a lot of different things,
Dennis Oz: Right? It’s always like that, right? It’s always like bringing us this. We start from somewhere. That’s pretty usual that we start from somewhere. But let me ask you this, then, you have your clients, they’re coming to you and I’m sure that you have a process of understanding what they really want. How do you assess those needs?
Lori Wiles: The funniest thing is that people can say what they think they need in any given space In a very technical way like oh, I need one more bedroom. I want to enlarge the kitchen Something like that, but they really can’t tell you what they want.
What they can tell you is what they don’t want. That’s very clear to them. I don’t want this look. I don’t want it to, you know, I don’t want it to be, uh, that style. I don’t want this way. I, and so what we really do is kind of dial down on how they use space. So whether that that’s a very active room, like a kitchen or bath, uh, or if that’s even a room, like, uh, you know, a living room, uh, study, whatever.
And how did they use that? Who’s using it? Is it, uh, you know, I was just in a house and, uh, she wants white sofas, but she also has 5 dogs. So, uh, you know, it’s our job to say, okay, is this good? What is, what do you like about a white sofa? And it’s really trying to lighten the room. So we might go in and say, here are other ways to lighten this room.
And if you’re set on that white fabric, let’s make sure it’s durable and cleanable and all that. So we’re really. Taking, dialing down on there once and then we’re applying the science of the actual fabrics and things. So it’s really even something you haven’t mentioned, but a lot of psychology with it too, you know, feeling like fulfilling some emotional need.
Dennis Oz: Yeah, that psychology you emphasize that importance that design psychology plus the wellness in your projects. The goal here is to positively impact your clients well being right? How do you incorporate these to your project?
Lori Wiles: Um, there are things that we know that have been tested. There’s data on them. Uh, for example, uh, what products can we specify that make the air quality better than another product they might choose? So we’ll compare those. We might, um, look at, uh, how do the light fixtures themselves function for, you know, an example would be if you’re, let’s say you’re prone to seizures.
Um, we don’t want to use anything that flickers any lights that flicker because that might be a trigger. Um, if you have a, a illness that you are really susceptible to environmental toxins, then we can actually dial into what are the least toxic products. How can we, uh, bring a professional in to improve your air quality?
Just, you know, some things like that that are, uh, really from. Our knowledge in the field and, you know, what you said, I’ve been doing this for a long time. And 1 of the things that I really love is how do we make this a better, a healthier space for people? Not just not as a beautiful or not as a functional.
How’s that? Really healthier. And additionally, we want that to meet an emotional need that they might have. And so we talked to our clients pretty in depth about. Is there something from their past that would make them feel better? Is there an aspirational thing that would make them feel better? We do even a lot of, um, spaces for people that are for yoga and meditation and maybe a religious altar and, uh, you know, working out and all kinds of things like that, that really impact them very much in their health.
Dennis Oz: Well, it’s interesting to hear that you also do a lot of spaces for this type of clients too, because when you think about like interior design or it could be anything about in home that right now we’re talking about commercial is also interesting to hear that you also work with them as well.
But let me ask you this, not about the commercial, but a little more like the residential side of design. Selecting the right material is really important. You have to talk with that with your client and the material is one of the most important thing that we have to consider before we even embark a project.
What do you consider when you’re just understanding actually the need, then deciding on the actual material, how do you choose materials? Let’s say.
Lori Wiles: Well, ultimately we want to give our clients options. So they often don’t know what’s what’s even available or how things affect you in different ways.
So we are going to, uh, try to do what I consider the very basics of healthy design. Um, for example, if you’re designing a shower and you have a shower floor. What, what product do you put there that people aren’t going to automatically slide all over the room, you know, the shower for, that’s a very basic thing where we could put the most beautiful product there.
But ultimately, if it’s not what rated have a skid resistance, or be applied in that setting, uh, that’s not good for our clients, which is not good for us. So we’re going to try to educate our client. Based on our long term knowledge based on their needs. It’s very much a layering process
Dennis Oz: of course, since we are talking in the question and answer mode, I’m sure that a lot more details going into that, I can sense it because among our listeners, Lori. We have a lot of people who are trying to grow their business and they don’t even know how to tackle these questions.
So, today I’m sure that our audience even watching or listening and tuning in today, they’re really happy that things that they are learning from Lori and thank you so much for sharing your golden nuggets, with all the questions that I asked you today. This is great. So let me go ahead and ask you some of the challenges that you faced. Do you have an example that you have a really hard project that you give you a lot of hard time and then you just finalize in a way that everybody feels comfortable at the end of the day?
Lori Wiles: I would say that the only thing that makes projects hard are our clients that can’t come to a decision.
Because really, we’re not trying to make something look like our company designed it. We’re trying to provide a very personal result. And you mentioned a little earlier, we do quite a bit of commercial work as well. And the, who we’re working for in that respect is someone who wants to reflect their brand, you know, to say, whether that be for a church or a, you know, A tech office or a financial consulting or a, um, you know, a clinic or something like that.
They want to provide a unique setting that doesn’t look like everyone else’s. So, even if it’s commercial or, or if it’s residential, we’re just looking at and analyzing what does the client want and how can we provide inspired design with a safety component always in mind. And then the difficulty is, can the client.
Afford what they want, or can they actually. Uh, narrow it down so that they’re not afraid of missing out on something else that’s coming down the road. Yeah, but really, we just don’t have very many difficult client. Um, I find that if they are given a lot of information, and then they trust us to make those decisions and they might give some input.
But for the most part, they really trust us as the experts to get them what they want.
Dennis Oz: Yeah, this is great to hear, and also I think you have different processes for the residential and commercial projects as well.
Lori Wiles: We do, but we do have very set processes.
So we have, um, we typically do, uh, an initial consultation where we spend an hour to an hour and a half with that client. We really want to get to know them. We want to know what is their, uh, end goal and we do, uh, you know, really some, a big time and discovery. What do they want? Then we actually put everything in writing.
Here’s the scope of the project. Do we agree on this? Is this the goal? Um, and here, or wait, then our processes go on and say, here’s our, here’s how we, um, track everything within the process. Whether that be a full scale build, you know, from zero up or a remodel or a, you know, are we just doing some surface, uh, decorations, furniture, everything has the, has a very similar process.
And, and, um, everything is pretty collaborative with the client and the subcontractors that are providing services.
Dennis Oz: Yeah. Everything is pretty much like similar as you said, but if you just talk about some fundamental differences between the residential and commercial project, how do you name them?
Lori Wiles: Um, with commercial projects there, we’re looking at a lot more, uh, what are, what are really, we’re going to dial into what are the codes requiring, what are the safety regulations for having X number of people there, uh, we would really look at, uh, the lighting has to be much different than in a residence.
Uh, it’s funny to me that there are a lot of times people, uh, novices will think that you can just use, uh, residential furniture in a commercial building. And not knowing that they have different flammability ratings that they have different where ratings. Um, and so a lot of times again, it’s educating that commercial client to say, hey, you know, this is constructed differently.
Or if we say if this. Let’s say this carpet or tile looks one way in a room that’s 12 by 14, but if you’re looking at a room that you may have a 200 foot sight line, how will that affect your eyesight? How will that pattern feel in that space? So typically with residential, we’re looking at a different scale than we are in commercial.
We’re looking at different requirements for health and safety.
Dennis Oz: By the way, thank you so much. This is great information. I’m just bombarding you with the questions because, you know, it’s a really important, really interesting subjects we’re talking here.
Well, then, how about educating the clients? Do you think it’s good to have uneducated clients, or you prefer clients that come to you really prepared to ask you what they are asking or would you prefer people, they don’t really know what they’re looking and they need all the answers from you from the first hand.
What do you think?
Lori Wiles: I don’t have a preference one over the other. I really just want to meet them where they are. But I will say sometimes when, when a client comes and they believe they’ve done all this research and they’re, they know exactly what they’re going to ask and what I should be putting out in front of them.
They’re sometimes they’re looking at that from a very small scope. Um, not understanding how it might apply to a large vision. And um, so But there are also very, very sharp clients, for example, who have just spent years, uh, understanding acoustics and knowing how they might want that in their house. How they want to listen, you know, we have several, uh, music aficionados who want, uh, they know exactly where they want their speakers located.
Their music system has to have this much contact with the floor. And, uh, when we get into that situation, I’m, I have no problem saying, listen, you know more about this than I’m ever going to. So let’s talk about what you want there to be. And then if we have an audio video person that is guiding us, we’ll meet with them as well.
And then we will talk about how, how’s the best, how do we apply that in the best way? Um, there’s, this field is so broad that no one person can know everything. So, we build teams, we build people who are doing an analysis of the structure, uh, the HVAC, the plumbing, the, uh, you know, down to what is the audio, uh, capability, how do the lights, are they, how does that affect you if you’re doing different activities?
Um, if you, if you want to be an expert in everything, you’re limiting your scope of your projects. I mean, we’ve even built teams so far as to say, what can the site handle any more people? Because what is the sewer capability? What is the drainage can, you know, uh, if we build on what, what can the roof hold if we’ve got.
You know, um, uh, solar panels on it, you know, that kind of thing, but we’re going pretty deep. And and we don’t do it on every project, but we can, because we have such good relationships with other professionals.
Dennis Oz: Right. Great. And also it’s a part of it, having your own team and also having great relationship with the other professionals, right?
Let’s dive into this team management then. How do you structure your team?
Lori Wiles: Internally within my office? So we have, um, So I’m actually, you know, the owner. I’ve done this for so long. I primarily just oversee, uh, projects from a higher level now. So I might look at, I might go with another designer that is going to actually run the project and I would, um, become very familiar with what does, what is the structure?
What are the clients want? And then we have a lead designer. Um, and then we have an assistant designer, and then we have a backup staff that manages things like procurement, um, pricing, things like that. But, uh, we might have really five people in our company touch your project at any time.
Dennis Oz: You have the lead designer and assistant designer and this team structure can fulfill all the client requests, right?
You, of course, our companies, like many companies cannot really perform every single task out there, every single project may not be a good fit for you. You may disqualify the client or you might be disqualified just because it’s not a type of job that you may even interested in.
Right. Let’s talk about this qualification then. Qualification is really easy, but saying no to the actual client is also like a little bit of an offensive moment because, you know what, we are not a good fit for your job. Sometimes people really offend with that. I see a lot of examples in the past. Also, I got a lot of stories here. What’s your approach when you’re not really qualified but you have to tell the customer that you are not a good fit for the project. How do you handle that?
Lori Wiles: Well, one of the things that I find is, um, uh, there are some qualifying things, questions and, um, attitudes about whether they’re a good fit.
You know, that part of make it a good fit. One is we have a very set way of, uh, being compensated. And that’s discussed at the very beginning of our meetings, and it can be a couple of different ways. It can be hourly. It can be, uh, hourly is typically what we do. And then, uh, we have sometimes with commercial, just because of how they budget, we might do a cost per square foot, or we might do a percentage of the build cost.
So we’ve done all of those. When we’re talking about the not being a good fit, If someone says, well, I think you should rewrite your contract. I don’t like that. And they start X ing things out of our contract. For me, that’s an immediate no, because we’ve had, we’ve had this contract. We’ve functioned with this contract.
We have an attorneys that are contract specialists write it. Um, and we’ve had many, many clients work under this. So when they start questioning our contract, that’s. Not questioning, but wanting to change it and thinking it’s their special. Um, that’s a, that’s kind of a sign for me that that’s not going to be a good fit.
So
Dennis Oz: You have a clear way of understanding and explaining it to the client when they have and you’re not a good fit. So that’s folks, it’s good to say yes to everyone, but you see how our podcast is working in wonders when you’re trying to learn every ins and outs in our business.
So look, we are just learning from a great source how to say no, because look, you cannot be the jack of all trades. You have to be selective about your projects in order to grow your businesses. And that’s a great way of this disqualification. Of course, qualification will follow it. Once you say no to some projects, since you have your unique ability and skills that you will also get the projects that you’re looking for when you say no to the projects that you don’t want.
Thank you so much for like really making this clear explanation about that, Lori. This is great to hear.
Lori Wiles: Would love to say this. It’s really okay to say I’m not a good fit for you. I’m not the person for you. I’m not the company for you. Because I’m not saying you’re not good. I’m not saying you’re not worthy.
I’m saying this is not, we’re just not a good fit. And the other thing is philosophically, I believe in the abundance theory. I must turn away some things that are not right for me to accept things that are right for me. So when you’re starting out as a designer, really I’ve been to designers all the time and they get your business in order because no matter how talented you are, if you do not have structure, you have, you have nothing.
There’s a million talented people and the ones that stay in business are the ones that have a structure. Now you can change your structure, but you must have it. You must decide what you provide. You must decide how you’re going to charge. You must decide how you’re going to get paid. And that has been That that gives you some freedom to say you’re not a good fit for me.
Dennis Oz: That’s it. That’s it. Thanks so much for sharing this. I would like to dive a little more deep in the team organization. Then we’re going to talk a little more about marketing, too. But let’s continue about the team. What do you do when you’re hiring or what’s your strategy? Do you use word of mouth strategies when you’re hiring or do you use listings or anything when you need someone when you’re growing your business and you need talent. What’s your approach?
Lori Wiles: You know, it’s, I feel like I’m learning that all the time because I’ve tried a lot of different things. What I have the most success with is, um, working with a colleges and having intern at that start in the summer and then work through the year.
It just gives you the potential. It’s like a year long interview. And then at the end of that, if I want to offer them, which typically by January, I’ll know, and then I want them to come on. I have a very, um, calm work environment. So, everybody is a team player, but they’re very autonomous. They love having their own control of their own time.
Um, but they’re working within the structure that I’ve provided. Um, I don’t, um, I don’t think you can train away things like ethics. You know, they either have those ethics and need to know how to best apply those. Um, what is, what is, you know, what is ethically the right thing to do in any situation? But if they have no knowledge of ethics, you can’t really teach that.
You also can’t, I feel like I can’t anyway, um, I can’t overcome, uh, poor speech as far as If you’re, let’s say you’re raised somewhere where you have a certain colloquial speech and it’s incorrect grammar, if that person is interested in learning correct grammar and is dedicated to it, then that’s a good hire.
But if that person doesn’t care about that and can’t see why they should care about it, then that’s not a good hire. I mean, we are absolutely, um, know our clients intimately. So we must have. Uh, the things that make them feel our competency. So the, and so I don’t care for people that have two or three different personalities or um, if their speech, let’s say their voice is, uh, not modulated well.
And that’s an inherent quality, really.
Dennis Oz: You can’t train most of the things, but this is so fundamental, right?
Lori Wiles: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so I look at things, um, as far as hiring is, and I’ve made some mistakes. You know, I, I have, uh, thinking that person was someone that they weren’t and they’re good people, but they’re not a good fit for me.
They, for me, they have to be very self motivated, very, um, uh, interested in everything being as perfect as possible. So very driven, very autonomous, very Uh, timely, um, all of those things have to, have to be there for me.
Dennis Oz: Sometimes you have a pain of growing, we talk about that before. Hiring the wrong person may cost you thousands of dollars. So this is why Lori is just emphasizing the importance of the real fundamentals here. Also, the something that you cannot really train.
So, yeah, you have a company culture. People may adapt to this company culture, there are some fundamental things you cannot really train people. That’s what we are talking, let’s say putting the more emphasis on, thanks so much for this one, Lori, this is such an eye opener and also really good breakdown of things when we are hiring,
Lori Wiles: So I’d love to talk about like, what is something I’ve learned about hiring is that hiring quickly.
Is not a good idea. And so in my business, rather than hiring someone quickly to fill a need, what I try to do is we have a very long pipeline of jobs. We have several months people are waiting um for us to, we might meet with them, but we like right now we can’t even do an in person meeting for eight weeks from now.
So that is, um, I would rather do something later and do it very well than do it now and poorly.
Dennis Oz: That’s a very important aspect of it. Thank you so much for giving us that information. Thank you so much for sharing. And let’s take the conversation to the marketing, Lori. I’m sure that you have decades of experience with a massive word of mouth power.
We know that. But, I’m going to tell you something that not all our listeners have 30 years, 40 years of experience in the field. So let’s put this information, right? Let’s put this information aside. Just want to ask you, how would you try to market your business? If you start from the beginning, excluding that massive word of mouth. Right now this is a big convenience because people know you, that person over there, they have several word of mouth channels are bringing you the leads. But how do you do that if you don’t have this power?
Lori Wiles: Um, you know, social media is amazing and it’s deceptive.
So you can create an entire persona on social media that can get people to contact you. What’s really difficult is to be true to that persona that you’ve created. So for me, it’s very hard for me to do anything except just be what I’m like. It takes a lot of Emotional effort. It takes a lot of brain effort.
So what I really do is and we do do a lot of social media, um, promoting, but we’re looking at typically free things. Um, you know, like, we have really good, uh, responses from LinkedIn. I think people, uh, ignore LinkedIn and shouldn’t. Because that’s where you’re going to get your professional higher earners, um, are looking there, but you really have to create kind of a spider web of media that comes back to, uh, your website.
So anyone can create a website. It can be fake. It can be real, whatever. But when you see, can see someone in multiple places and multiple ways, um, it’s you, they’re building a picture of you. So, um, I know a designer that created a whole entire business off of one project. Photos from one project, but I, I can’t do that.
We, that doesn’t represent what we do. And I don’t really need to do that because we have many, many, many photos that are just of our project. So we only use photos of our work. So original photos, uh,
Dennis Oz: No stock photos, nothing, no like other people that you have your own pictures. Do you have a professional photographer that you photograph every single project or are you just do it yourself?
Lori Wiles: Uh, both. Um, we may we might have, uh, someone follow, uh, when we’re doing an install, you know, someone from the staff just follow and take some photos. And then those are great for our social media. We have professional photographers come in for different different photographers have different skill sets.
And we have them, uh, photograph our projects, but we do projects all over the country. So we might have to find every new market, a photographer within a hundred miles to try to get there. But we really have worked with some amazing photographers. And, and that’s an expense that is really just a business expense that you need to know has to happen.
It doesn’t have to happen right away, but it does need to be part of your consideration for your cost of doing your business. Um, I think that there’s, I don’t think I’m really that great at marketing 1 thing. I think that we have, um, uh, we’ve hired a professional. Not because we’re, we don’t, we want them to show something we’re not, but because we want to have a, a greater reach and a certain clientele.
So, um, so, for example, we do historic homes. in different cities. And if you don’t know the person that has that house, you don’t know how to reach me, you know, but you might go in, they might host 100 people in that house. And then how do they reach me? And they think because I’m 200 miles away, I can’t do their project.
But in reality, we can we work remotely all the time. But the marketing part of it, I think is always changing, but I would say one is consistency. So all of your materials need to have your look, whatever that is. And there’s print materials are still valuable. Um, I have never found print ads to be valuable.
Um, I could be wrong. They’ve not for me. I don’t see a return.
Dennis Oz: No, no. It’s, there’s no right or wrong we are also collecting all this information. Some other person, speaker just show up and say, I’m having great success with print ads. This is your experience, but we’re just learning from it.
Lori Wiles: It’s been a great thing to have a script. So when someone calls into the office, um, we talk to them, we make the same points and we gather their information the same way. That’s marketing, whether you believe it or not. If you’re starting out, you must have a, who am I? Your elevator speech. People often say, you have to have that.
Because people lose interest quickly. Um, but for us, we found social media to be very good, but word of mouth is always better.
Dennis Oz: That’s why I would like to keep word of mouth a little bit. Because I know that you’re going to go with that route. I said, no really, no.
But, yeah.
Lori Wiles: Part of that is community involvement.
Dennis Oz: Yes, let’s talk about this.
Lori Wiles: So I, um, I work with, uh, economic development for our city and I am on, have been on state boards and, uh, for licensure for our, my profession. I’ve been, I’m on a board for, uh, program at a college. I, um, oh gosh, I’m on a bank board. Um, I’m on a, uh, Gosh, I’ve just worked with so many different groups, but essentially contribute to your community and your community will give back to you.
And you don’t ever know how that’s going to happen, but it’s, you know, try to learn as much as you can try to try to help your community as much as you can, and eventually you’ll benefit people some way. And I really believe that when you’re worried about it, benefiting other people, then they then have some concern for you.
Dennis Oz: This is good to hear because, we also have, the chapters, it’s not the community involvement, but, I’ve always would like to mention our association chapters that we have available locally. This is not going to give you actual clients, but, , folks, you will have a chance to meet with your peers, with the same people.
Maybe they are just experiencing the same problem just like you. And also, just like what Lori said, I can just, add it to it. Just saying by like going to your local chapter is going to be another thing. Being active in networking events and also like a community envolvement will bring you the new business, new contacts that’s how you grow your business.
This is a great approach, to take your business to the next level. So thanks so much for sharing.
Lori Wiles: Have to have some level of commitment, not only to the client, but to, for me, it’s the commitment to the, the, you know, the area, the, um, am I committed to, you know, are there things I’m passionate about, but even the profession, how do I do, how do I help the profession?
One of those is to be, work with my interior design education program. Um, and I think that there are so many people that need help and you never know how that word of mouth is going to to expand. But meanwhile, if you’re if you have a skill or you want to just be the labor in something, go and do it for the better of others.
Dennis Oz: Right, this is also a big portion of it and thank you so much for sharing, this eye opening, you know, dropping your knowledge here. That was a great show. You know, we’re going to wrap up, but I have a couple of more questions still for you. Maybe the last question would be, with the years of experience in the field. Now let’s say you’re talking to an, entrepreneur that they have some sort of like a structure with their business, but they cannot really grow.
They’re struggling at some revenue points there. Let’s say they couldn’t still make the first hire or they still struggling to generate more leads, maybe hiring among all these different things. If you just give a piece of advice to these people among our audience who would like to grow their businesses and create their own team, right?
And then create more revenue and even increase the profitability eventually, what would be your piece of advice? Maybe one or two most important things that you can mention today?
Lori Wiles: The first would be, uh, to be bold, faster to stop, stop worrying too much about it. So you might try Several different things related to what you want to do and everything might not be perfect.
But that helps you, uh, increase your reach and it helps you figure out really where’s your niche and it, uh, it’s exciting. So, so you can’t be afraid of failing. You have to, you have to go out there and do it. Um, and you’re going to meet interesting people along the way and figure it out, you’ll figure it out.
Um, I think the other would be to truly understand your cost of doing business. So I. I’m a big proponent of this book that Mike Michalowicz wrote called Profit First.
Dennis Oz: Yes, I have a copy of it somewhere over here. Oh my God. It’s always one of my like, series. I really like that book.
Lori Wiles: Yeah. So when you, when you know what things cost you, and then you, you actually understand where, what money’s coming in, then you, now you know where to put the money coming in.
So that book was really life changing for me to understand that I could then, you know, start dividing up what was coming in and which, so that has given me a tremendous amount of security. In expanding the business, because I know that I’m always going to put, I always put 5 percent of the business revenue away for, for essentially business savings to say, can I afford to hire this new person?
Can I afford to improve the office? Can I take my team on, uh, to a market, um, that has a bigger expense. And so I. When you stop avoiding the finances because you’re not good at math, which every designer will tell you, you know, they don’t love math. And I’m like, well, you’re going to be doing math every day, all day, um, as a business owner.
And I know a ton of business owners that want to ignore the finances. And the sooner you face that, the better.
Dennis Oz: Great. Thank you. Well, this is another eye opener. We got moments throughout this broadcast today. Folks, that was amazing to host Lori. I just genuinely would like to thank you one more time for being here, sharing all this information with us, one last question. If someone has a follow up question or, this is what happens in our industry that once we publish your episode, Remodeler Success Podcast is one of the most popular podcasts in the podcast world.
You will receive other podcast requests. So just wanted to make my peers let’s say easier. Have do they kind of reach you. What’s the best way?
Lori Wiles: Uh, my email. Uh, okay. Yeah, it’s just my
Dennis Oz: Can you just mention your email here so we can put that on the transcript?
Lori Wiles: It’s laurie at wilesdesigngroup. com.
Dennis Oz: So sometimes we put that in several different ways. Sometimes Lori, we just hit some home owners, you don’t know really where the opportunity is going to come. So thank you so much, so it’s the email that we know right now.
And you can also go to the website Wiles Design Group website and have a look at what the actual company that offers and how they structure the website is another thing, right? This is a lot of golden nuggets here. Lori, thank you so much. One more time. And, folks, that was another episode of Remodeler Success Podcast, and we’re gonna see you next time. Goodbye.



