​For those familiar with flow charts and critical path planning in their everyday work, the meaning will jump right out! 
 
However, not everyone is involved with very close and precisely timed junctures in their ordinary work patterns.
 
Achieving your desired project completion date hinges on a series of activities, availabilities, choices, decisions and actions that must converge appropriately.   They are the functional elements that exist within each phase and aspect of your project, and are strategized by your design team at the front end of the project.  Also built into the plan are allowances for flexibility in situations not entirely predictable at the start.

​You are excited about your project and you are ready to get started!  All the important decisions have been made and you have decided to work with a Professional Designer.
 
It’s now time to focus on that relationship, clarify your financial intentions, define the scope, translate those understandings into the appropriate paper work, get it under signature, and begin.
 
What is the “appropriate paper work” for a design project?  What does the operational package look like that will help your project move efficiently, stay on track, adhere to budgeting projections, guard against misunderstandings, avoid mistakes, and insure a good working relationship?
 
To begin, it is necessary to avoid verbal commitments, directives, and decisions.  In the brainstorming function, anything goes!  Talk about possibilities, pros and cons, and “druthers”; but the serious action plan must be agreed upon in writing.

​When a commercial or residential project begins to take shape in your mind, and your vision of the finished environment seems clear, inevitable questions come up:  How to begin?  How much will it cost?
 
Of course, those are not the only questions, but they are pivotal, interdependent and paramount to realizing your vision.  If you can get the foundation of a desired project off on the right foot, the process that follows can move smoothly, affordably and efficiently.
 
To help a good beginning get better, first do your homework.   Spend some time thinking about your likes and dislikes in very specific ways.  Are there styles and features you have seen or read about that have appealed to you?  Are there environments where you have felt comfortable or perhaps where the colors and lighting were especially appealing?

It’s amazing how resistant many small businesses are to documentation!  Not the B-I-G stuff, the small stuff!   Most businesspersons are quite comfortable with the “paperwork” of Contracts, Permits, Licensing, Insurance and the likes.  It’s those small pieces of business communication (that keep the project’s ongoing, daily path clean and accountable) that seem to get under the skin, and feel like someone is pushing the envelope too far.
 
We have once or twice previously discussed “hard copy document communication” and its importance, in general.   However, with the progress and escalation in speed-lane innovations of electronic communication, some negative patterns have come along, too.  Some simple “cover-your-butt” procedures are perceived (by some) to be expendable, unnecessary and a waste of time; and, some are.  That is, right up until someone insists they got an email or a text or a voice mail that will prove their argument...if only they could remember if and where they filed it.    (Or, accidentally deleted?)

​The most important reason you decided to develop your project with a professional designer was your confidence in their experience, expertise, and track record.  You needed to know that your vision and your money would be treated with equal respect, and that you could trust their judgment, at times over your own.
 
For that belief system to prove worthy of your confidence, it is very important to also understand the reasons and rationales for how your designer will prioritize each step on the project path.
 
Every aspect of the project has a specific place and role.  At times it may seem that something is being considered and prioritized in an odd sequence.  For instance, what you may think can wait until a later point, your designer may bring into focus right now.

​Correctly handling all documentation that secures the integrity of your project is more important than hurrying through the details just to get things going.  Hurry-up can be an expensive enemy of accuracy and efficiency.
 
You have all heard about the fine print, those phrases and stipulations in contracts that contain all the details, and that sometimes seem endless and tedious.  In your design services contract that fine print is really your friend; it’s there to make sure you and your professional designer are in agreement, have asked and answered all questions on both sides of the matter, and are clear and confident about the end result.

​You are excited about your project and you are ready to get started!  All the important decisions have been made and you have decided to work with a Professional Designer.
 
It’s now time to focus on that relationship, clarify your financial intentions, define the scope, translate those understandings into the appropriate paper work, get it under signature, and begin.
 
What is the “appropriate paper work” for a design project?  What does the operational package look like that will help your project move efficiently, stay on track, adhere to budgeting projections, guard against misunderstandings, avoid mistakes, and insure a good working relationship?
 

​They always seem like a good idea, short cuts, but more often than not, there is a price to pay.   Sometimes that price is dear; and, concerning the complexity of detail management for an Interior Design project, some short cuts are just plain bad news.
 
Let’s take a look at where a project can be seriously delayed, prolonged, compromised or sabotaged by the lure of short cuts that seem smart, but just aren’t.   Who hasn’t been in a hurry at the super market, changed check-out lanes because the one “over there” seemed to be moving faster, and wound up where the register tape ran out?   That simple, mundane lure to save a few minutes doesn’t have many ripple affects, and the ones it does have only affect you and your impatience!