Automate Your Workflow to Save Time, Energy, and Money

Welcome to the Department of Redundancy Department, where a small business owner repeats the same administrative tasks daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. From turning the lights on to start your day to turning them off at day’s end – and everything in between – it’s trying to be the boss. This is especially true if you’re a hands-on and/or a micro-manager type of boss.

This begs the question of whether you should automate your workflow to reduce all that redundancy.

Automated Task Management

Thanks to the folks at BusinessOfHome.com, we’ve discovered an exciting way to slough off those mundane, time- and energy-sucking administrative business tasks that can make you wonder why you ever started your own business. This magical task management tool is called Airtable and it's shaking things up in the industry.

“There are a million moving parts to any design project. From presentations to procurement to payment, there is plenty of room for tasks to slip through the cracks. We asked designers to share their favorite tools for keeping all their ducks in a row.”

“Airtable is a programmable database that manages both projects and customer relationships. The platform allows designers to track client information – potential clients, active clients, and even the profitability of each client – as well as purchases for individual projects.”

Can you imagine?

“For Philadelphia-based designer Lucy O’Brien, Airtable is the ‘brain behind her firm, with an administrative hub for internal documents as well as client-facing workspaces for each project, with separate tabs for each room, construction documents, and paint schedules. ‘This platform has the clarity of Excel spreadsheets but enables you to upload pictures, documents, links and so much more into the cells,’ says O’Brien.

“’ That feature was one of the main reasons I finally stuck with Airtable – so many of the other systems I tried did not give the overall organization and document storage I wanted in a visual way that felt clean and organized.’”

Simplify Your Workday

According to the Airtable website: “From sending notifications to orchestrating cross-functional work, Airtable automations are a powerful rules engine that can help you and your team stay connected.”

From the simplest to the most complex, the platform offers simplified steps to help you manage workflow seamlessly and efficiently:

• Quickly and easily create Airtable automations using a simple, drag-and-drop builder.

• See how automations can help save you time by eliminating redundant tasks and streamlining your work.

• Connect automations to your most important tools to create a seamless, cohesive workflow.

And, amazingly, “A free plan is available to start but increases to $45 per month for the most sophisticated plan, which offers perks like storage of 100 gigabytes of attachments.”

Ted remains available for business consulting to the trade and as a potential guide for the use of AI business support platforms for designers and furniture dealers. If you’d like to chat with him about your design business needs, simply… Contact TD Fall today.

Your Future – How to Know What’s Next for Your Business

In all probability, the sun will rise tomorrow; just as it will also set, and night will replace day. We believe in the certainty of this taking place based on experience, history, the current state of affairs, and sciencey stuff that is beyond us yet in which we have faith. So, there is a fairly inevitable part of your future but, there are many areas where we believe we can never know what’s next.

For example, what the heck will your teenage daughter or son be doing with their friends after the Big Game Saturday night? What color and fabric will her prom dress be? When will he (if ever) start taking his curfew seriously?

Teenagers aside, predicting the future is not only difficult, but it can also be dangerous. For example, while certain luxury furnishings may have a great track record for dealer sales, trends change, shapes become overdone or obsolete, and colors of the year will shift, well – yearly. And yet… And yet… a good buyer is an informed buyer, using experience, history, trends, and market research to avoid over- and under-buying product that is likely to be in demand next season.

What Will Tomorrow Bring?

“Challenging the belief that the future is unknowable,” futurist Rebecca Costa believes in a “series of [what she identifies as] ‘knowables’ that can be possessed about most any given situation based on history, current circumstances, and myriad other algorithms that allow for reasonably accurate predictive outcomes.” (FurnitureToday.com)

“To help companies systemize their efforts to confront complex change, she outlined six steps: identifying the challenge or need; categorizing opportunities into market-driven (incremental) change or ‘moonshots’ (higher risk, higher reward) opportunities; developing separate processes for each of those two categories; realigning talent around personality predispositions; evangelizing from the top-down; and systematizing and institutionalizing [what she describes as] a ‘predaptive’ culture.”

“The most notable change from more traditional business practices is the development of separate processes for market-driven opportunities and so-called moonshots, and the corresponding alignment of talent accordingly.”

“Costa outlined two personality types common to professional organizations which she termed ‘racers’ and ‘climbers’. Racers are expert multi-taskers, highly verbal, high energy, performance-oriented, and are easily frustrated by process and protocol. Conversely, climbers are persistent, analytical, evidence-driven, process-driven, and prefer written communication.”

“Companies that use a single process for market-driven and moonshot initiatives often have these types of individuals working together, which often frustrates each and stifles development. Costa’s advice is to separate the processes and the individuals with racers focused on market-driven developments and climbers focusing on moonshots.”

Keeping It Simple

If that doesn’t make your head spin...

From our perspective as mere forecasters and experienced business prognosticators based on current trends and experience (We certainly do not claim to be futurists), we will try to simplify a predictive model that works for us:

• Be objective and uncompromising as you evaluate your business.

• Pay attention to local market forces as well as trends you see in the trade.

• Be conservative in your vision of the future of the market and your place in it.

• Take things to their logical, inevitable conclusion.

• Prepare yourself for anything.

And never forget – interior design is a local business!

Ted remains available for his impressions of issues like these and for business consulting to the trade. All you have to do is… Contact TD Fall today.

AI in Interior Design – From the Common to the Uncommon

Artificial intelligence in interior design has become a fact of life. In other words, AI applications are a common tool for designing and creating virtual and augmented reality experiences for clients, allowing them to visualize their space before any physical work is done.

Less common is the use of AI among designers to tackle the day-to-day minutiae of running their business. Despite the broad use of such applications among the business community at large, it is uncommon for designers and dealers to employ AI-based solutions for more mundane tasks that devour so much time and effort from a business owner.

From payroll to client follow-up and even from client acquisition to forecasting to help plan for the future, artificial intelligence administration applications enable a designer to spend more time working with clients, and even more time to… design beautiful spaces.

How AI can Help Small Business Owners

A September article at FurnitureToday.com states, “The furniture industry has gotten on board with A.I. and its content-creating subset, generative A.I.”

Further, they declare, “Whether retailers are deploying virtual reality technology to show how home furnishings will look within a room, adding chatbots to their online customer service applications, using A.I. for business forecasting and data analysis, or using it to write copy for press releases or product descriptions on their websites, interest has been growing.”

And, clever people that they are, they inquired of the free-to-use AI-generated chatbot ChatGPT itself to explain to them what the future of AI will look like for the furniture and design industries:

• Advanced AR/VR experiences: Future applications could include more immersive AR/VR experiences, allowing customers to virtually rearrange furniture in their spaces or explore entire room designs.

• AI-powered design assistance: Retailers could offer A.I. tools that help customers design their spaces by suggesting furniture layouts, color schemes, and complementary items.

• Sentiment analysis: A.I. could analyze customer reviews and feedback to gauge sentiment and identify areas for product improvement or customer service enhancement.

• Smart showrooms: Physical stores could incorporate A.I. to create smart showrooms, where A.I.-powered devices interact with customers, provide information, and even simulate different lighting conditions.

• Sustainability and material sourcing: AI could be used to trace the origin of materials, assess their sustainability, and provide customers with detailed information about the environmental impact of products.

• Emotional A.I.: A.I. could be used to understand customers’ emotional responses to different designs, helping retailers create emotionally resonant marketing and product strategies.

• Predictive maintenance for furniture: A.I. could be used to predict when furniture items might need maintenance or replacement based on usage patterns and material degradation.

• Collaborative design platforms: AI-driven platforms could facilitate collaboration between customers, designers, and retailers, enabling real-time design modifications and adjustments.

• Automated personal shopping assistants: A.I.-powered virtual assistants could help customers navigate through the purchasing process, offering personalized recommendations and facilitating the buying journey.

• Interactive in-store experiences: Physical stores could use A.I. to create interactive displays and experiences that engage and educate customers about furniture features, materials, and design options.

Does anyone else think that list is a little intimidating?

Using AI is Inevitable

Granted, We may have seen a few too many sci-fi movies but, asking an AI-generated app what the future looks like for AI-generated apps sounds a bit creepy to us. Seems like they’re just asking the darned bot to take control of things from them. (Have these folks never seen 2001 A Space Odyssey?)

Seriously, the burdens that can be lifted from a business owner’s shoulders are almost too numerous to count. And, it’s only going to grow: “Few segments [of the economy and business] are growing at the rate of the artificial intelligence market. What was estimated to be a $140 billion industry in 2022 is expected to grow to nearly $2 trillion by 2030, according to Next Move Strategy Consulting.”

(After reading this, you may want to watch something like “White Christmas” before bed tonight so you can avoid dreams of various artificial intelligences attacking you.)

Ted remains available for business consulting to the trade and as a potential guide for the use of AI in design as well as for furniture dealers. (Unfortunately, he has yet to learn dream therapy.) But, if you’d like to chat with him about your design business nightmares, simply… Contact TD Fall today.

Artificial Intelligence – Will it Hurt or Help the Furnishings Industry?

Artificial Intelligence… The very words can frighten us after seeing or reading countless movies and books where the friendly helper becomes a deadly foe. And now, we see it making an impact in the home furnishings industry – an impact that will affect all of us eventually (if it hasn’t gotten to you already).

So, what is AI? “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is machine-displayed intelligence that simulates human behavior or thinking and can be trained to solve specific problems.” (SimpliLearn.com)

Further, AI is already impacting all of our lives on a daily basis.

• As per Gartner, 37% of organizations have implemented AI in some form. The percentage of enterprises employing AI grew 270% over the past four years.

• According to Servion Global Solutions, by 2025, 95% of customer interactions will be powered by AI.

• A recent 2020 report from Statista reveals that the global AI software market is expected to grow approximately 54% year-on-year.

Technology is Changing How We do Business

OK, so why should we worry about using Artificial Intelligence for interior design or in retail furnishings? Well, according to Ashley Furniture CEO Todd Wanek, “By the end of this decade, there will be two types of companies. One, that’s in business using A.I., and the second one that’s out of business. I think it’s going to be that impactful.” (FurnitureToday.com)

Admittedly, that is a pretty bold claim. Then again, it’s not like a smartphone, tablet, or laptop is NOT being used to help interior designers reimagine a homeowner’s space. Or, to help a furnishings dealer show a client exactly how a new piece of furniture will look when placed in their home.

Apps like these are the very definition of Artificial Intelligence and they’ve been available for quite a few years.

“Home furnishings retailers are deploying [AI] with virtual reality technology to show how home furnishings will look within a room. They’re adding chatbots to their online customer service applications. They’re using it with business forecasting and data analysis, as well as to write copy for press releases or product descriptions on their websites.”

AI Will Boost Productivity

Clearly, AI can make our lives easier – when used effectively. The fear of AI comes from imagining what the logical implications of employing such a powerful technology might be moving forward.

Could AI be developed in a way that it could design custom furniture on its own? Could it take over for interior designers and reimagine a client’s space without the designers’ input? Just how far will we go?

Mr. Wanek explains, “There’s a tool called Midjourney right now that we’re using. We’re using it for creative service. Our design team is using it to help design product[s]. It’s unbelievable what it can do in five minutes, which would have taken hours before. In our product knowledge team, what would have taken them three weeks, they got done in three days just through ChatGPT.”

Additionally, he shared, “We’ve deployed it already in some cases, like in transportation and accounts payable. We’ve also deployed it in human resources. It goes through resumes and helps identify whether the person applying is capable of working for our company.”

Whether we like it or not, new technologies – including Artificial Intelligence – are having and will continue to have a meaningful impact on our industry. To quote our hero and mentor:

“I have an idea that AI needs to be humanized for designers. It's already having an impact on our industry and the early adopters will own the largest market share.” (Ted Fall)

We’ll be examining this issue in future posts about how and whether Artificial Intelligence will hurt or help the furnishings industry.

For now, Ted remains available for his impressions of issues like these and for business consulting to the trade. All you have to do is… Contact TD Fall today.