86: Andrea Schumacher - Strategies for Client Management

Welcome back! Our guest today has been in the interior design business for 17 years! Andrea Schumacher started her own eight-person firm, Andrea Schumacher Interior Design, including herself in Colorado in 1999. Andrea has experience in commercial and residential spaces and she has set design for television at Days of Our Lives and Columbia Pictures! She has a BA in interior design from the F.I.D.E.R. accredited Colorado State University and a certificate in Universal Design from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Today she is going to share with us how she does things at Andrea Schumacher Interior Design and how she makes everything more efficient and successful and how you can too. Show Notes: She can have how many projects in the pipeline at one time? How are the positions broken down at Andrea Schumacher Interior Design? Did she work for anyone before she started her own firm? How was Andrea Schumacher Interior Design started? Explain how everything is broken down up front! What about the customers that can’t be pleased? When does the “process” go into the project manager’s hands? Why doesn’t she like to hear a budget before the design project begins? What was her aha moment that there needed to be a change with her accountant to get her books straightened out for her design firm? Who is Chandra and what is her role in Andrea’s firm? What are some ways that Chandra has increased profitability for Andrea’s firm? How much has her profitability increased since Chandra has started working at Andrea Schumacher Interior Design? Keep yourself as humble as possible and own up to your mistakes! What is the next big thing for Andrea Schumacher Interior Design? What is Design Leadership Network? For the rest of the show notes, please visit our resource center: Window Works