Just in case you’re not at the International Builders Show (IBS) this year or you’re just busy with, oh, life and work, it was announced today that IBS and KBIS will co-locate in 2014. Pretty cool, huh?

Following is the text for the announcement made today by NAHB 2013 Chairman of the Board Barry Rutenberg and NKBA 2013 President John Morgan during the opening session of the International Builders Show 2013 in the Las Vegas Convention Center:

Rutenberg: Along with NAHB, the National Kitchen and Bath Association works hard to bring Americans beautiful spaces to call home.

Our missions to help members succeed, promote industry professionalism and provide industry leadership are similar. Both organizations are owners of important industry events that help our members learn about new products, attend world class education and network with peers.

The International Builders’ Show and the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show are the two most important industry events for design and construction professionals and the suppliers who bring us new ideas and technology to build and remodel the American home.

It is my great pleasure to announce that beginning in 2014, right here in Las Vegas, the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show and the International Builders’ Show will take place together at the same time here in the Las Vegas Convention Center.

To market these co-located shows, we will jointly promote the week as “Design and Construction Week.”

It’s now my pleasure to introduce to you my counterpart, the 2013 President of the National Kitchen and Bath Association, John Morgan. John, would you like to say a few words …

Morgan: Barry, thank you. I can’t tell you how excited we are at NKBA about this great collaboration and the co-location of our two shows.

It’s quite a birthday present for us, because NKBA is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year! 50 years ago Leon Rader, a manufacturer’s rep, sent a letter to the magazine that would eventually become K+BB.

In that letter, he called for an association that -and I quote- “could be established only through the cooperative efforts of many.”

Thus, NKBA was born and through the “cooperative efforts of many,” has grown to an organization of 60,000 members championing excellence in the heart and soul of the home: the kitchen and the bathroom.

K+BB has been our long-time sponsor of KBIS.

Now the “cooperative efforts of many” bring us together with all of you.

Our common ground is that we create the most important spaces in North America: the places that families call home.

Our co-located shows will advance our collective knowledge to serve these consumers, while helping us all succeed and prosper in our businesses.

Two shows.

Two associations.

And ONE place to see and connect with every angle of residential design construction and remodeling.

On behalf of the NKBA, I couldn’t be more excited for our industry.

I look forward to spending time with you at this show and being together with you in 2014.

Our common ground is that we create the most important spaces in North America: the places that families call home.

Our co-located shows will advance our collective knowledge to serve these consumers, while helping us all succeed and prosper in our businesses.

Two shows. Two associations. And one place to see and connect with every angle of residential construction and remodeling.

On behalf of the NKBA, I couldn’t be more excited for our industry.

 

Want to learn more? Read the news piece

And here’s more about the mega-event

Do you wear one or more (or most likely 25+) hats? Between our business, personal, family and other interests and obligations, the number of details that pass through any given day would probably be surprising, much less, countable. Distractions pop up constantly, yet we assume that we can remember to follow through with the important issues of the day. Some days we do better than others in terms of being focused and sticking to our responsibilities. Add a creative and/or entrepreneurial personality to this everyday challenge and chaos, disorganization and procrastination can be unwelcome companions. Add a busy schedule to that combination? Paralysis can come along for the ride.

All of these details and responsibilities, big and small, take up space in our heads. The best way I know of to de-stress from all that information is to do what many productivity experts call a “brain dump”—deposit to-do items into a trusted system, preferably one that has multiple ways to access it in the office as well as on the road. I’m always on the lookout for new apps that will tweak my productivity in a small but meaningful way. Here are some of my favorite apps as we look forward to a super-productive (and busy) 2013.

Project Management
There are so many project management apps, but primarily they are grouped into apps for one or apps for teams. Some team apps can be used effectively by one person. In the past two years, I’ve moved toward a GTD philosophy (Getting Things Done, a book by David Allen) but have made some adjustments to best meet my work needs. Here are some excellent apps:

Todoist (http://todoist.com/): Looks simple, but this is one powerful app. Email and web urls are captured quickly to turn into tasks and achieve “inbox zero.”
Nirvanahq (https://www.nirvanahq.com/): A simple, elegant project management system for GTD.
Producteev (http://www.producteev.com/): Great for one or a team and integrates with gmail.
Wrike (http://www.wrike.com/): A convenient hierarchical folder system good for one or a team.
Basecamp (http://basecamp.com/): A good app to work with clients remotely.
If you want to get obsessive, visit Priacta (http://www.priacta.com/Articles/Comparison_of_GTD_Software.php).

Phone to Text (http://www.phonetag.com/): PhoneTag is a great service which transcribes voicemail messages into text and then emails the transcription to you immediately. This service is invaluable to me personally, first, if my cell phone is not nearby and a call comes in and second, to bypass listening to long phone messages.

Evernote (http://evernote.com/): Most of you are surely aware of Evernote. It’s the perfect reference app and its web clipper feature instantly captures and files websites for client projects or for any purpose, which can be tagged at the time it is captured. Evernote also just came out with a collaboration with Moleskine—a physical notebook where you take manual notes, take a picture of it with the Evernote app, and the notes are then searchable! Evernote’s mobile app has all your information accessible.

Post-It Notes (http://www.post-it.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Post_It/Global/Products/Product-Catalog/?N=6406323&rt=rud):
I’m currently comparing Post-It Notes and Notezilla, two apps that create sticky notes which can serve as reminders on your monitor. I like reminders in different forms and I need them!

Gmail Mobile App (http://www.google.com/mobile/mail) /Google Maps:
If you have not downloaded these apps on your smart phone, do it! They are smart, visually beautiful, have many options the built in phone email client does not have and a delight to use.

Sanebox (https://www.sanebox.com/home): I think it was 15 minutes after I downloaded Sanebox, I felt that I’d use it forever. It does an inexplicably near-perfect job of separating emails into appropriate categories. It places the most important emails in the inbox and all others in categories you specify. Any email can be deferred to the next day, to 2 hours, 15 minutes, to any time span desired and the email will pop back up in the inbox at the designated time.

Email This Page (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/email-this-page-by-google/dbeoemfhkdniadbojeencpkgmobndpai?hl=en): I use this app quite frequently, as it sits in my Chrome toolbar, ready to email a link to myself, a client, a friend or family member. So useful and it saves several steps.

Find My iphone (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/find-my-iphone/id376101648?mt=8): A must-have app which tracks your phone’s location and allows information to be deleted or otherwise protect your data.

Snagit (http://www.techsmith.com/snagit.html): Snagit is awesome—It captures any part of a web page, your own pages or images from your hard drive. It files away your captures for future reference but most importantly, it allows notes, arrows and other notations to be placed on the captured page in a professional style. I keep it active as a one click bar at the top of my monitor and use it frequently.

Hootsuite (http://hootsuite.com/):
The best app to manage your multiple social accounts. It makes engaging in social media easy and efficient.

Productivity is where it’s at, especially with all the responsibilities we have. A diverse selection of tools can make the work day better and more efficient. What are your favorite apps? For endless tips on apps, sign up for updates from web appstorm (http://web.appstorm.net/).

—Susan Serra

We’ve all been there before. You spend a lot of time with a prospective client and just know you’re the right interior designer for them, but then they say, “I want to think about it.” Your heart sinks and you wonder what went wrong. You were so sure you were a good fit.

Why did they say that? Listen up, because this is really important. They want to think about it because you didn’t give them a good way to place a value on the benefits of your services. In other words, they don’t know why they should hire you. They’re confused. Always remember this: “The confused buyer says no.”

Think about the times you were in the market to buy something and you didn’t. If you were not clear about why you should buy something—what will it do for you? How will it solve your problem?—Then you won’t buy. You’ll do nothing.

It’s no different with your prospective clients. You need to maximize the value they see in your services so not only do they select you over other designers, but they pay more for your services, too. You’ll hear me say this a lot because it’s so important: “The more value your client sees in your solution, the more they’ll pay for it—period.”

So strive to build as much value as possible in your client’s eyes. One way to do this is to show how you can solve their problem better than anyone else. What do you do that will help your client achieve their goal better/faster/more easily than anyone else? The more you articulate this, the more value you’re building in your client’s eyes. And when you build value, instead of hearing, “I want to think about it,” you’ll hear, “When can we start?”

Want to learn more? If you missed last week’s groundbreaking complimentary training, you still have a chance to listen to the recording full of immediately applicable tools to transform your ability to close design clients now! Click here to sign up now.

I show interior designers how to take charge of their clients and make more money without being sales-y.

Read what fellow designers around the world are saying…

“…I have completely revamped our Sales/Proposal process and incorporated many of Maria’s techniques. Right out of the gate I am 5 for 5 in terms of closing my last five proposals, which is amazing! These processes work!” – Jamie H-B

“Because of a few simple strategies Maria taught me about being authentic and building rapport, I’ve since built my business on referrals vs. paying for advertising.” – Heather D.

“I was able to win back a client I had lost because of one simple step from your program.” – Jenn G.

“I got exactly what I needed and everything that was missing from my school experience.” – Sarah B.

“Your design solution was the most amazing formula I have ever heard!” – Mary

—Maria Bayer is Design Success University‘s Authentic Sales Coach.

Here’s a bit of good news: Last week, the Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI) released its September 2012 forecast for the home improvement market. The organization is seeing a growth of 4.9 percent in 2012 and 4.0 percent in 2013, bringing the market size to $284.8 billion next year.

Based on a variety of macroeconomic factors known to be industry drivers, home improvement sales should outpace GDP growth, as consumers ease back to “normal” in relation to the maintenance, repair and improvement of their homes, according to Fred Miller, managing director of HIRI. He noted, “Some of the newest data on housing should help maintain the positive momentum the industry started experiencing last year.”

While growth in purchases by contractors is expected to lag behind those made by consumers this year, the outlook is reverse for 2013 as  housing turnover improves. Next year, HIRI sees contractor sales growing by 4.4 percent vs 3.9 percent for consumer sales.

HIRI’s forecast also includes revisions to history that take into consideration new data released by the Census Bureau. Retail sales by building material dealers, for example, experienced slower growth in 2010 and 2011 than previously thought. Moreover, total home improvement product sales now show no growth in 2010 and only a 3.1 percent increase in 2011; both are much less than the 2.3 percent and 3.8 percent growth rates previously estimated for these two years.

As employment growth accelerates  and the housing market improves,  home improvement sales are expected to grow more dramatically, averaging 5.9 percent in 2014 to 2015. This will taper off, however, when  the housing market cycle runs its course, resulting in a slight deceleration in 2016 and 2017.

Interested in learning more? HIRI is hosting “Retailing in Home Improvement—2013 and Beyond,” a one-day conference taking place on October 17 in Chicago that will provide information on the status of and trends in the industry.