Ali Budd on how she sets her firm apart in the competition for clients, what it takes to create a safe space for employees and finding the sweet spot where she can play a role in every project.

Kai Williamson on why hiring a senior designer first transformed her business, how she landed on a per-square-foot fee structure, and how she realized that doing good work and feeling good about the work aren’t always the same thing.

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.

Caren Rideau on using social media to attract clients and employees, the benefits of being a kitchen specialist in an industry filled with full service designers, and how combining design with her other passions has allowed an entirely new brand to emerge.

Matthew Tenzin on why the industry needs to pay attention to the health impact of design decisions and why what he calls “affluent consciousness” is so important in his client relationships.

Blair Moore on why her quest for excellence required launching her own receiving operation, how she’s striving to reduce waste in the design process and why maximizing profit isn’t her firm’s biggest focus.

Amy Kartheiser on the policy that helps her firm cultivate stellar client relationships, how she’s protecting her business in case of an industry slowdown.

Leslie Murchie Cascino on why she’s now offering consulting services for small-scale projects, and how she escaped burnout by focusing only on the projects she found most fulfilling.

Zoe Feldman on the surprising piece of advice that prompted her to rethink her firm’s team size, and why she insists that clients don’t really want full transparency.

Courtney McLeod on the nightmare client that overran her firm's processes in the early days of her design career, and how she learned to secure her clients' trust in order to unlock greater creative freedom.

Littleton, Colorado–based designer Miranda Cullen on creating a new kind of business model that converts small projects into big profits—in a system that benefits employees at every level of the firm.

Boston-based interior designer Dane Austin on constructing his firm around a client-centered approach.

San Francisco-based interior designer Regan Baker on the clients-turned-employees who each helped shape her firm's structure today.

As a young designer, Kevin Isbell reveled in the on-the-job portion of his design education, which he spent working for established firms and top designers. Now, he’s treating his current role of design principal the same way—and learning what leadership means as he lives it.

When San Francisco–based designer Noz Nozawa pivoted from a marketing career to running her own design firm, she intentionally kept her business lean. Now, she's spending to grow.