Ep 218: The Client Red Flags Costing Designers Thousands (And How to Catch Them Early)

The Client Red Flags Costing Designers Thousands (And How to Catch Them Early)
Designed for the Creative Mind Podcast


You can have incredible talent, a full calendar, and stunning projects—and still feel like your business is harder than it should be.

In this episode ofDesign for the Creative Mind, we’re diving into one of the most overlooked reasons interior designers struggle with profitability and burnout: saying yes to the wrong clients.

Because the truth is, not every client is an opportunity. Some are a liability.

And the real problem? Most designers don’t realize it until they’re already deep into the project.

Michelle shares real client stories and hard-earned lessons from her own firm to help you recognize red flags earlier, protect your time and energy, and build a design business that actually works for you—not against you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why being a talented designer doesn’t automatically make you a profitable business owner

• The hidden costs of the “wrong” client (that don’t show up on an invoice)

• How early-stage client decisions impact your entire project—and your capacity

• The difference between trusting your gut vs. relying on a structured sales process

• Why your client selection process is just as important as your pricing or marketing

Key Takeaways

1. Not every client is the right client
Early in your business, every project feels like a win. But as you grow, discernment becomes critical. Some clients will cost you more in time, energy, and stress than they’re worth financially.

2. Misalignment shows up early—if you know where to look
From budget disconnects to decision-making habits, your sales process should help you identify red flags before the contract is signed.

3. Budget vs. vision misalignment is not a sourcing problem—it’s a clarity problem
Trying to “make it work” for a client with champagne taste and a beer budget only creates friction, revisions, and distrust later.

4. Decision paralysis slows everything down
A client who struggles to make decisions early in the process will continue that pattern throughout the project—impacting timelines, team capacity, and overall momentum.

5. Procurement needs clear boundaries
When clients are involved in sourcing and purchasing, it creates confusion, delays, and lack of accountability—ultimately affecting your ability to deliver results.

6. Boundaries must be process-driven, not personality-driven
Being “always available” doesn’t make you a better designer—it creates unsustainable expectations. Clear communication standards should be built into your process.

7. Process creates predictability
When you rely on emotion, your business feels inconsistent. When you rely on process, your business becomes stable, scalable, and easier to manage.

Red Flags to Watch for During Your Sales Process

• Clients whose budget doesn’t align with their expectations

• Indecisiveness or hesitation in early conversations

• Resistance to your guidance or expertise

• Desire to self-source or “price check” everything

• Early boundary testing (frequent texts, off-hours communication, etc.)

Action Steps

• Review your current sales process—do you actually have one?

• Identify where you can better screen for client fit before signing

• Define clear boundaries around communication and procurement

• Pay attention to early behaviors—they rarely change later

• Start treating client selection as a core business skill

Resources Mentioned

Design Revenue Audit
A diagnostic deep dive into the financial structure of your design firm, including pricing, procurement, and operational profitability.

90-Day Advisory
Private strategic advisory focused on restructuring the revenue side of your design business.

VIP Intensive
A focused strategy session designed to map out the most efficient path toward a more profitable firm.

Learn more at:
TheDesignBakehouse.com

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Transcript:

Michelle Lynne (00:01.646)

Hello my friends and welcome back to Design for the Creative Mind. This is the podcast where we talk about the business side of interior design. Not just the pretty side, not just the reveal photos, but the real mechanics behind running a design firm. Because the truth is, running a design firm and being a designer are two completely different things. I learned this when I first started my business. Like you can be incredibly talented, you can have an amazing eye.

You can create beautiful spaces and still struggle to build a business that is actually profitable, sustainable, and structured. Which keeps you sane trying to run a business. So last week we talked about why so many designers feel busy but not profitable. And that conversation was really about how the business is built. Pricing, revenue flow.

where things break down behind the scenes. But today I want to talk about something that happens even earlier than that. Something that can quietly undermine a project before it even begins. Okay, so before the contract is signed, before the design is presented, before, I mean, even before a single item is ordered. And that is saying yes to the wrong client

Now, this is one of those things that over time it becomes like this is so obvious in hindsight, right? But in the moment, you're blinded to it. It's not obvious because the project looks great on paper. Okay, the inquiry sounds promising. There's potential. You're thinking about your portfolio. You're thinking about maybe the margin. Who knows what you're thinking about?

we all come into these things a little bit differently

Michelle Lynne (02:03.074)

but we're moving forward. Okay, so what I wanna do today is to really help you start to recognize those patterns earlier. Because one of the biggest shifts that happens as you grow your design firm is realizing that not every client is meant to come through your door. It's kinda like dating. Okay, but more importantly, it's your responsibility to decide who does come through that door

So again, it's like dating. Okay, we've all been there. You don't have to say yes to everybody.

Michelle Lynne (02:41.772)

So let's step back a little bit. Most designers, we start our business believing that something feels very true in the beginning. And it's not even in the beginning of our business. It's just that excitement that every client is an opportunity. Okay, every project is beautiful. I mean, just being able to take something from and create it from nothing. And we're building our portfolio.

I mean, seriously, just stop and think about it. Just the beauty that we create, okay? So every yes moves the business forward. And I will say, in the early days, that's not entirely wrong. We have to learn, okay? We need experience, we need momentum. We need to see how projects really actually work in real life.

And I'm not kidding there. I have a little bit of PTSD when I was writing this writing the outline for this for this episode because there were projects in the early days of ML interiors group that Lord knows I learned. I learned a lot from them, but I would not take them today. OK, at the time. They felt like wins. Absolutely 100%

But what I've learned is that in those early stages...

What you don't see yet is the full cost of a project. Because not every cost shows up on an invoice.
Michelle Lynne (04:17.262)

Some costs show up in your time, your energy, your mental load. Hell, the amount of money I've spent to cover over my gray hairs. So some of what that project takes away from, it takes away from the rest of your business, but it also takes away from your life. Right. So let me tell you a story. There was a time that my business where things were growing. I can still picture

the studio that I was in at the time, the team that I had at the time. And we were all so excited because the projects were getting bigger, the homes were getting more interesting, the budgets were getting bigger. So I always say that as you get more sophisticated, your clients get more sophisticated, your projects are more sophisticated, and you continue to level up, okay? So from the outside, everything looked like it was working.

But internally, there are a few projects that felt heavy.

think that's how I would describe it. Not all of them, but just a few, okay? And so it was fairly easy to ignore that those projects felt a little bit heavy because you'd have these other projects that were smooth and they were collaborative and they were just moving forward really nicely. And then there was the other ones where it just felt, I don't know, harder than it needed to be.

It was like every email required more thought and more effort. Every decision. Dear Lord, we had to, like the explanations that we had to give for decisions. And then the phases felt like they just took longer than it should because these other ones were just ticking along. And I remember thinking, okay, well, this will probably smooth out once we get going. Like this is just a part of growing, okay? And sometimes it did.

Michelle Lynne (06:20.632)

Sometimes we would get that momentum and we would be rolling and then sometimes it didn't. Okay? Those are the projects that quietly cost the most.

Michelle Lynne (06:33.452)

So, like, there have been times where I'm sitting, sitting at the, well, let me go back.

At the time, I would be sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner with my husband, okay? And I'm physically there. Okay, but mentally, I was still in this client situation. You guys do that? Like you're replaying a conversation or you're trying to solve something, carrying something that shouldn't really be that heavy. I mean, seriously, y'all, this is interior design. It's not like we are curing.

cancer or nobody's gonna die on the operating table. We're not in the emergency room. So then it's kind of like, isn't just about the project. Okay?

Michelle Lynne (07:26.668)

So what I've learned and what I love to point out to designers who've got a little bit of experience, you're brand new, then just take this as a moment of, file it in the back of your head. If you've been in business, you understand that not every client is an opportunity. Like y'all, some clients are a liability.

The tricky part is being able to recognize that before they're inside your business.

Michelle Lynne (07:59.424)

not halfway through a project, okay, not when you're already committed, because that is a whole diff, I mean, like that's a whole different level of stress. But let's talk about before they sign the contract and you're basically in bed with them, okay? Let's go back to the dating example, okay? You've said yes, you've gone out a couple of times and then things are moving along, okay? So this is where most designers get it wrong.

because they're relying on instinct alone. Okay. How something feels in the moment. And sometimes we just ignore that feeling. Okay. But instinct alone, y'all it's inconsistent.

What changes the game and one of my love languages is having this process. It's a structured way of moving a client from that very initial inquiry all the way through to the signing of the contract. This is not a fast process. You need a sales process that allows you to evaluate, not just react, because here's the thing, y'all. You're interviewing the client just as much as they're interviewing you.

Okay, so when you have that in place.

you're going to know whether the project is gonna work instead of just hoping it will work. I just got off of an interview actually as I'm recording this, sitting in front of my computer, I just got off of an interview with a potential designer and here's the thing, it's like I'm interviewing her but she should be interviewing me as well. It's the same thing when you're talking to a client. Do you wanna work with them? You have the ability to decline.

Michelle Lynne (09:47.052)

So you should be looking for these red flags, okay? Again, I've got a little PTSD after outlining this episode because I've gone through all of these. I pulled clients out of my memory where I had buried them deeply. Let's talk about it. Budget versus vision misalignment. I don't remember the client's name, but I can tell you exactly where he lives. I can walk through the house. I know what the project was, okay? This client...

wanted a luxury outcome. Okay, we were gonna do custom details, this beautiful layer design, a finished product that felt elevated and complete. He specifically said, I want one of those ranges with the red knobs. Okay, you guys know what I'm talking about, right? Okay, but then the investment conversation happened and the numbers don't support that vision. y'all, he was so pissed off at us. my.

Gosh, he was pissed off at us. And it was just because I didn't catch this to begin with. Didn't have these investment conversations early enough in the sales process to tell him that his numbers do not support his vision. Okay, but I was still so new in this process that I stepped in and I tried to fix it. I tried to make the math work. Okay?

Does that sound familiar? Right? We adjust, we source differently, we look for ways to stretch the budget.

my gosh, this was just so uncomfortable. Okay, right? We're trained to solve problems.

Michelle Lynne (11:32.536)

But this is one of those situations where solving too early creates a bigger problem later. Because it's not a sourcing issue. He could not afford the red knobs. He could not afford the custom built-ins that he wanted on either side of the fireplace. So it's not a sourcing issue, it's an alignment issue.

Michelle Lynne (11:57.184)

my gosh. So again, this project where he had this expectation, he had pictures, he was very clear, he knew what he wanted, but his investment level just, he did not have the money.

afford what he wanted. It was the champagne taste on a beer budget. And I just, I remember how awkward it was, how heavy this project became. We had to do more revisions. There was more back and forth. There was more explaining. And then because he wasn't trusting us, every selection turned into this conversation and the conversation turned into a negotiation.

and what should have been a fairly clean process becomes slow and complicated. And y'all eventually, he fired us. He fired us. He took his money back on the credit card. I mean, that was a hard lesson, but it was a lesson that I wanna share with you so that you don't have to go through that because this is where your sales process matters.

Okay, this is not something that you fix in the design project. This is something that you identify early. How does a client talk about money? How do they respond to the investment ranges? Because you bring this up even before.

Maybe on the first date, maybe before the first date. Okay? Do you have a sales process?

Michelle Lynne (13:36.172)

because in your sales process, you're looking for these signals. When you have this process in place, you can see them clearly because you're setting yourself up to see how they respond. So you're doing this early so you're not trying to work around them later.

Michelle Lynne (13:55.03)

Okay, it's the same thing. So we talked about the alignment. Let's talk about making decisions. Okay, here's another client. This one was not as long ago as I wish it was, okay?

So that first one, was pretty early on. He was way pre-pandemic. This other client that I'm referring to is still fairly fresh, okay? And they had decision paralysis, okay? You know design is a series of decisions. Like hundreds, sometimes thousands of decisions. It's exhausting, okay? Now granted, we're making most of those decisions, but when a client struggles to make the decisions,

everything slows down, right? Because there's a difference between a thoughtful client, somebody who weighs their options, and a stuck client, right? A thoughtful client asks questions. They just need a little bit of clarification sometimes and then they move forward. A stuck client reopens those decisions. They circle around, they need more options, and they hesitated every step.

lord. lord, this is painful.

Inside my firm, ML Interiors Group, this is something that we have built structure around. Okay, I thought I had enough structure and then this client came along, I guess it was maybe three or four years ago. The client cannot move forward. It doesn't just affect the one decision. Okay, it affects the timelines, the install dates, the team capacity. If you don't have a team, it's your capacity.

Michelle Lynne (15:44.982)

and one project starts impacting everything else.

Michelle Lynne (15:51.822)

Okay, and again, this is where the process comes in. because

What you want to do is you don't want to wait until a project is stalled to address it. You want to catch this early. How quickly does the client decide in the beginning? How quickly do they decide when you're going through your sales process? Do they respond to guidance? Are they letting you take the lead? You are the professional. They're hiring the professional. You are like the Sherpa leading them up the Mount Everest of interior design.

If you tell them to walk, are they moving forward with clarity or are they moving forward with hesitation? If you're at the base of Mount Everest and you're telling them pack, you know, dress in layers, pack this, pack that, don't walk to the right because you're going to fall down and die, don't move to the left because you're going to cause an avalanche, what are they doing?

Are they following your directions? Because if they're not early in this process, patterns aren't going to change later. If anything, they're going to expand.

Michelle Lynne (17:06.67)

Okay.

So let's see, so that was Gary and what was his wife's name? I can't remember his wife's name. The other one I don't remember his name, but let's talk about my client Leanne, okay? Procurement interference. This is another big one.

This is the client who wants to purchase items themselves or price check everything or both. Resource alternatives. Okay. I see this a lot in a lot of different Facebook forums and things along that line. And I firmly believe that it doesn't come from a bad place. Like your client is not an asshole. Okay. They just haven't been trained properly. Okay.

But what it does is it creates a structural issue because procurement is not just purchasing. Okay, it's coordination, it's accountability, it's control over the outcome, but it's also, it's profitability in your firm.

So let's talk about Leanne. This was early in my trying to figure out how in the hell an interior design business runs. so don't do this. This is just an example that maybe you still do, but this is not a good practice because what we had is we had a project where items were coming from everywhere, okay? This is not how we do it now. This is just the story. Some items were coming through us.

Michelle Lynne (18:36.556)

Some were coming from the client, some were coming from online vendors. Okay, and then when we had installation, it was just a hot mess. We had missing pieces, we had damaged items, we had things that didn't fit because Leanne went off the reservation, okay, and ordered other things. There was no clear line of responsibility. But because we were the designers hired, the fingers pointed at us.
Michelle Lynne (19:08.864)

So this is why your design process and your procurement needs very clear guidelines. They're clear, they're defined, they're controlled. So it's either one or the other. Either I'm gonna create a list of things for you to go order, you order everything, you receive everything and you put it all together, or I do it all. Okay, so there's two different types of services. You want full service concierge, I'm doing it all.

I'm not telling you you go order this, that, and the other and I'm going to order all the other things. No. Okay? Because you don't just lose efficiency. You lose the ability to deliver a consistent result.

Michelle Lynne (19:54.208)

Okay, so we talked about the guy can't remember but he wanted the red knobs. We talked about Gary and I cannot remember her last name. I can tell you their last name but I'm going to protect the innocent or not so innocent. What was her name? Okay, and then we talked about Leanne.

And then I wanna talk about boundaries. Boundary erosion.

Let's this one was Alan, okay?

And this one started small and Alan was one of my very first clients that actually I felt like he was paying me a lot. So I gave up a lot of my own personal boundaries. It was like a quick text, a late message, a small ask. Okay, this is a lot about last week as well. It felt harmless. Okay, so it wasn't necessarily scope creep, but it was boundary erosion. And so

I'd get a text at 630 in the morning. And that was the norm. He would wake up and have these questions. And where it really pissed me off is when I was traveling and I was in California, it was 430 in the morning and he woke me up. Okay, that was way back before we had the do not disturbs on our phones and stuff like that. But what happened was is that I was always available and I was always responding and I was always on.

Michelle Lynne (21:22.478)

So I thought being highly responsive meant better customer service, better designer. But here's what it actually does. It creates an expectation that's not sustainable.

So now what I teach when I'm working with designers is that boundaries are not personality based, they are process based.

It's how clients communicate with you, when they hear from you, what access looks like. All of this should be defined and not decided in the moment.

So what changes over time is not just your experience, it's your discernment. When you have standard operating procedures, when you have processes, let's just say through your sales process, you start to notice patterns. How clients communicate, how they talk about money, how they make decisions.

Michelle Lynne (22:27.328)

This sales process becomes the place where all of that gets evaluated. It's not judged, it's evaluated.

Because remember, they're not just interviewing you. You're not just being hired. You're also choosing. You're interviewing the client through this process.

Michelle Lynne (22:49.782)

And this is where everything connects because a well-run design firm is built on processes. Your sales process, your pricing process, your design has a process, your procurement has a process, your communication has a process. Your client selection has this process.

Because when everything relies on emotion, you get inconsistency.

When everything relies on process, you get predictability. So let me repeat that for the people in the back, okay? When everything relies on emotion, you get inconsistency. When everything relies on process, you get predictability.

Pfft! Boom!

Michelle Lynne (23:42.412)

This is actually one of the areas that we focus on inside my VIP intensives or my 90 day advisories because when designers come to me, they often think the issue is pricing or marketing or lead flow. And sometimes it is, but often it's who they're saying yes to, how they're structuring these projects from the very beginning.

because the right clients make everything easier. The wrong clients make everything heavier. So it is the sales process, but let's go back a step or two. Do you even know who the right client is? Do you know how to get the messaging out to them and then screen them?

Because not every client is the right client.

and learning to recognize that earlier is one of the most valuable skills that you can develop as a business owner.

Y'all, I have some delightful clients. We've had Jennifer and we've had, yes, Karen, her name's Karen. And Rajvi, no, was Rashmi. Rajvi was a nightmare. Rajvi was also boundaries back in the day. Okay, we have Elizabeth and the other Elizabeth. Like these right clients, they allow you to do your best work. And they allow my team.

Michelle Lynne (25:09.666)

to operate so well. Okay. The right clients allow your business to function the way it's meant to. And the wrong ones, my God, they will cost you more than you think. And it's not just financial. I know I talk about money a lot on the podcast. It's not just financial though. It's the time, it's the energy, it's the attention.

when they make you question yourself. Okay.

So next week, we're gonna talk about another major factor in profitability. And that is why so many interior designers are still underpricing their services. And we're gonna talk about how to start correcting that.

So in the meantime, think about your sales process, put a process in place. If you need help, I'm here for ya.

Next week, we're going to start talking about how to correct your pricing. I'll see you then.