On the Ask Us Anything podcast, BOH editor in chief Kaitlin Petersen taps former Trade Tales guests to answer real, confidential designer questions, offering a safe space to discuss business challenges. Have a question of your own to ask? Send an email to start the conversation.
This week, Alex Kaehler, the founder of Chicago-area interiors firm Alexandra Kaehler Design, joins the show to answer a question from a designer who has stayed busy as a team of one, but wonders what growth might look like for her small firm. She isn’t necessarily opposed to expanding her team, but past experience at other firms has shown her the pitfalls of too much expansion. As she contemplates her next move, she knows that what she doesn’t want is to lose her connection to the creative work or her relationships with her clients.
Kaehler jumps in with advice on how to grow a design business without losing your grip on the parts of the work you love the most, using social media as a lower-lift lead generator, and why firm size doesn’t always equate to success.
Crucial insight: For solo entrepreneurs, staying small can present a challenge when it comes to looking toward the future: If the firm’s principal is constantly entrenched in the demands of day-to-day design work, who is thinking two steps ahead about where the next project will come from? For Kaehler, however, there’s one simple promotional strategy that designers can execute on their own time: social media. “I just felt like if I was consistently putting new work out there and speaking about my process and sharing behind the scenes, that that was the ultimate way to bring new clients in,” she says. “There were always a few minutes of the day that I dedicated to it.”
Key quote: “The first step to scaling is realizing that you’re not always the best person for every single thing. If you can play up your strengths and then delegate your weaknesses to someone who has those as strengths, your business will be so much better off for it.”
This episode was sponsored by Four Hands and Crypton. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
