Introducing ... CanCan Interiors!
Lessons Learned in My First Year of Running My Own Design Business
I can’t believe it’s already been over a year since I ventured out and started my own interior design business, after 10 years of working for other design firms. The time has flown by in a flash, but not without me learning a few valuable lessons along the way.
Who’s Cathy? What’s CanCan? Where’s Wendy?
I guess I should start with a brief recap of my interior design career. While many of you reading this have worked with me previously in my role as lead designer for Albee Interior Design, I’m sure most of you don’t know my whole story.
I graduated with a BAA in Interior Design from Bellevue College in 2015, embarking on a new career after decades as a journalist and a stay-at-home mom. On the recommendation of a mutual friend, I took a part-time job with Wendy Albee of Albee Interior Design. It was supposed to be temporary, while I looked for a “real” job in commercial design, but Wendy and I hit it off and quickly realized that our different design styles, skills, and temperaments combined to make us the perfect team. Before the summer was out, my little temporary job became a full-time gig, and I fell in love with residential design and the unique and varied clients that come with it.
Flash forward to the spring of 2023, when Wendy retired and sold her business to a long-time collaborator, Ivan Turchik of NW Finishing and General Construction. I agreed to continue my job as lead designer to help with the transition, but after a year (with a little nudging) I realized that I just couldn’t give up my true dream of operating my own business. And thus came the advent of CanCan Interiors.
Now, onto those lessons learned:
1. It’s okay to try new ways of doing things.
Wendy Albee was and always will be my mentor and source of inspiration, and as I embarked on my new business I fully intended to do things pretty much exactly as I had done them with her. We had our design routine down to a science, working with each client on a weekly schedule to select cabinets, countertops, tile and flooring, plumbing fixtures, and any other needed items and materials, all through long-time business partners.
However, right from the start my projects and clients under CanCan didn’t exactly fit into any neat little design boxes, and I found myself needing to take a more flexible approach to the design process. Fortunately, Wendy and I had always avoided creating any cookie-cutter designs, tailoring our projects to the unique needs and styles of each individual client. It wasn’t a stretch to approach my new projects in even more personal ways.
2. It’s also okay to forge new relationships.
I also quickly found that I couldn’t rely on the same old vendors and suppliers that we’d been using for years. Several of those long-time collaborators started to become less than reliable, for various reasons. Others backed off on providing CanCan Interiors with the same deals and services that they had provided to Albee Interior Design. A few had the audacity to retire. So right off the bat I needed to seek out new relationships. It’s an ongoing process, but I’m continuing to ask for recommendations and test out new people and places to work with, hoping to forge new long-term relationships of my own. It’s all about finding the absolute best people for my clients!
3. Know your strengths and weaknesses.
Wendy and I had a clear division of labor. Now I need to do everything myself, and there are things I love about running a design business and things I definitely do not love. Not to mention things I’ve had to basically learn from scratch because Wendy always took care of them before.
Before she retired, Wendy advised me to do what she had done and seek out an employee to help share the work of running the business. “You need to find your own Cathy,” was how she put it. The only problem with that is, if I find a “Cathy,” that means I need to become the “Wendy,” and that means giving up the parts of the job that I love best and spending more time on the parts that I love least. Before I hire someone, I’ll need to define new roles to play to our personal strengths.
For now, I’m keeping the business small and doing most of the work myself, just parceling out a few small tasks here and there. So far, it’s working.
And after all, Wendy was in business for 14 years before she finally hired me as a full-time employee. I expect to be retired sooner than that, so we’ll see how it goes!
4. Have fun with it!
As I was struggling with the decision to leave Albee Interior Design, I sought out advice from a design school friend who had started her own business right after graduating. I told her I was thinking of venturing out on my own, and her aghast reaction was, “Why would you want to do that?”
So I guess I ignored her advice. Sometimes you’ve just got to follow your heart, and my heart is definitely full with my new business baby. I’m loving what I’m doing and hoping to continue finding new clients who love what I can do for them as well!
