Business Of Design

Letter To My Children by Raji Radhakrishnan

1997 Silhouette of my daughter and I at Disneyland

1997 Silhouette of my daughter and I at Disneyland

A decade ago my husband and I both decided to pursue our dreams. He quit his job to start his software consulting firm and I quit mine to start my design firm. Like most businesses, we have both faced so many trials and tribulations and thank god for having each other to talk to. As parents watching our children grow has been our greatest pleasure and we both make it a point to share with our children as much as we can the most important life and business lessons we've learned. Even when we thought they were not listening, time and again they have surprised us with their actions and observations showing us perhaps they did listen. My husband teases our son that he was born with a surround sound system and picks up every little thing happening around him!

These days, with our daughter (also a designer) in New York, my "advisory" communications tend to be via text and email. BTW, Parents - texting to children works wonders! I can say what I really want her to hear without a major retort! I guess it gives them the time to process what we are saying and actually see how much sense it makes. When I come across good articles I would email her and today I thought I'd share some of those right here. I adore the loving, happy, independent and wonderful person our daughter has become. And as she navigates a new chapter in life I want to share this article - 10 habits of people who follow their dreams. I thought this was very nicely put together both for life and business and a wonderful reminder to just keep at it and follow your dreams.

If you have children, don't forget to tell them everyday how proud you are of them and how much you love them. They actually enjoy hearing it especially from you.

- xo Raji

A Better Understanding Of Your Design Business Online by Raji Radhakrishnan

As my business has grown and as I witness the design industry evolve through one of the most important decades, I've met some very talented folks, learned about some great companies and web sites that are a wealth of knowledge and support to our industry. I love design and I love designers who are passionate about their work and in an industry where so much is changing, it really helps to keep track and get a better understanding of what's going on in our industry and how it can positively affect your business. I recently found a wonderful resource and I wanted to share it with you - Content Marketing Institute (I stumbled on the site while reading CJ Dellatore's blog - also a terrific resource).

The web site has a ton of very informative articles with actionable tips on content marketing, social media and other related efforts that help with your business' online strategy - from a holistic picture about what your online strategy should be, down to the details of what you need to know to make that big picture or goal broken down to more achievable efforts. Today our business is also quite different from what we as designers originally set out to do - simply design beautiful spaces for real life, wonderful people. Navigating the virtual world can sometimes feel like a business unto itself and if you try to do it without a proper guide or plan it can definitely give you that rabbit-down-the-hole feeling. Even if you have hired a company or a social media expert to handle all of this for you, this web site can still help you understand the strategies at work and the undercurrents at play.

I'm not saying it's a quick study or that it's going to change your business overnight but it will give you a very good understanding and the tools to create a solid plan and work on it over time. If nothing else, you can read the articles like you are a time traveler - it's very telling of the age we live in!

Raji RM & Associates | Interior Designer & Decorator

Washington DC | New York

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