I can’t open any social platform without seeing a post on how to decorate your home office. These are hard times people, and even as an interior designer who is by all accounts snobby about design and space planning, I can’t muster the energy to market to people on the “top ten thing you need to buy to create a perfect home office”.
In general, even before the pandemic, I had issues with any company trying to scale/sell without listening intently, with compassion and empathy, to their customers’ needs.
In this crazy time, I ask you — Are you listening to your customers? Like really listening? Here is my unsolicited advice. Don’t sell things right now….. tell things. Teach things, offer your knowledge. Change your business to a consulting format and let people schedule with you and give them advice for an hour. Do this for your peers, competitors, customers, neighbors. I promise it will build a foundation for your company that will allow your business to not only survive this economic downturn, it will give it super powers later on.
What I am hearing from my customers right now is this: anxiety about income/jobs, confusion about the state of their construction/design project, stress about homeschooling their children, constant messy kitchens, frustration about video conferencing, loneliness, grief, and a searching for meaning that is bringing about big life changes for everyone in their families.
I often change my business model to reflect the time we are in. My business survived the last downturn in this way- I modified my services to fit the customer needs. Need a shopping list for online home decor stores?, sure! Need me to stop by for 2hrs and validate your ideas for your remodel?, no problem. Need me to go to thrift shops and find you the perfect lamp base that we can add that cool shade to? Absolutely. Need a list of questions to ask your contractor in that next meeting so you don’t feel taken advantage of? You got it.
All of that ^^ above was to justify this blog post I have been dying to write.
Top 5 Ways to Create a Healthy, Fun and Productive Home Office Space You Can WFH in, Without Buying Anything New.
- You need a cozy chair, a blanket and a candle. Asap. I know you have these items in your home somewhere. Go get them and put all of those together in a corner where you can look out at the sky. Seriously- do it now. Spend an hour each morning in said chair while gazing at the aforementioned sky. Add a dog or cat and repeat daily.
- You need a work station that doesn’t hurt your neck & cause headaches. If you are looking at your laptop on a table, desk or chair , and you are all hunched forward,GO NOW, and get some books to raise your laptop to eye height, or make a standing desk area.
- Stealing this one from my friend Rebecca…. Make a little “get ready for camera” pile of goodies next to your computer, a mirror, brush, chapstick etc for those quick zoom meetings that you need to pop into. I don’t mean to say you are not beautiful how you are, but it will make you feel good to do a quick check for things in your teeth and for that bedhead look you got goin on.
- Take some post-it notes and write all of the things you accomplished yesterday and put them on the wall under a note that says “ I rock “. Self love is a radical act.
- And finally, arguably the most important one, snacks. Put a cute bowl/box in your office area and fill it with trail mix, oranges, and whatever else you like to snack on that doesn’t make you feel awful.
In summary, home design right now is about creating healthy spaces that work well for our current needs and for making ourselves feel safe and loved.
Wait a minute…….( insert pause to look at the sky) shouldn’t it be that way all the time?
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