Trade Tales

Brian Paquette on why aesthetics alone won’t make him say yes to a project, what he learned from downsizing his team, and how a focus on simplicity inspired his approach to billing.

Michael Hilal on why he’s not afraid to hire a team with more experience than himself, why he’s rethinking his approach to media after a whirlwind of early press attention, and the fine line between inspiration and copycats in the design industry.

Georgia Zikas on why her whole team is involved in the hiring process; how she manages offices across two cities, and why she hired a CFO to keep her firm’s goals in sight.

Christine Lin on the process of finding projects that are more closely aligned with her firm’s aesthetic, why she would never equate her business with a retail store to defend a product markup, and how she established professional development paths within her firm to help her team grow.

Wesley Moon on the realization that expanding his team was the key to boosting revenue, why understanding his employees’ strengths and weaknesses guides his approach to building a team; and the changes he made as he reckoned with the fact that his firm’s success had come at the cost of his social life.

Amy Storm on why she decided to forgo remodels and focus solely on new construction, and how she locks in a project’s FF&E budget before ever breaking ground.

Antonio DeLoatch on uprooting his firm and starting over in New York, the showhouse that changed everything for his business, and how he earns his clients’ trust with his frank money talk.

After nearly a decade at the helm of her own design firm, Amy Sklar came to a realization: if she wasn’t profiting from her business, it was simply a hobby. The epiphany led to a transformation in the way she structured her firm’s finances, and prompted her to build a new confidence when it came to communicating that process to clients.

When Clara Jung left her first career in law, she gave herself one year to get her design business off the ground, all on her own. Today, she’s infusing her firm with that same small and scrappy ethos, and attracting team members who share her all-hands-on-deck attitude.

Marieanne Khoury-Vogt on her experiences developing a town that sustains its residents over a lifetime and how she strengthens relationships within her firm, her community and the industry at large.