Found yourself wondering how to scale your interior design business to 7-figures? Maybe you’re even a touch scared to check out those business financials? I’ve been there! And I’ve also seen how beautiful business and life can be once you move beyond that fear and begin to embrace that leadership role.

Whether you run a 6-figure interior design firm and are wanting to reach that magical 7-figure mark, or you’re just beginning to think about starting a design business—you’re not going to want to miss this conversation as we discuss those very questions! If you are running a six-figure design business but can't crack the nut on 7-figures… stick around for the Coaching Corner as I share how we shattered the 6-figure ceiling and accelerated to multiple 7-figures!

In this episode, we cover:

• Why it’s important (especially as women) to become ok with all things business finances

• How Katie got over her fear of money

• Which 4 business financial reports you need to review and how often

• Why your why is so important to the success of your interior design business

• What 2 things must be in place in order for you to take your 6-figure business to 7-figures

• What next step to take if you’re ready to scale your business to 7-figures

If after hearing today’s episode you’re feeling like you need logistical support, get a coach involved in your life! Call someone in who can deep dive how to make you profitable and give you back your life—and get your business working for you! Please say hi and share any questions you have—you can always find us on LinkedIn!

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More about Success by Design: Mastering the business of interior design

As an interior designer, do you struggle with balancing your passion for creativity with the practical demands and hopes of running a successful business? Whether starting a new venture or scaling an existing firm, the complexities can be overwhelming. Welcome to “Success by Design: Mastering the Business of Interior Design,” a podcast designed to bridge the gap between creativity and entrepreneurship. 

This masterclass is hosted by the dynamic Katie Decker-Erickson, a seasoned expert with nearly 20 years of experience in interior design, a Master's degree in Business Administration, and creator and owner of a multimillion-dollar interior design firm. 

Each episode offers innovative and actionable business strategies, engaging conversations, and practical guidance to help you build and grow a successful design business. Tune in every other Friday on YouTube or any of your favorite podcast platforms to ignite your creative spark and sharpen your entrepreneurial skills. (Topics and language are kid/family friendly.)

This post may contain affiliate links, so I may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on my site at no additional cost to you. 

This episode of Success by Design: Mastering the Business of Interior Design is brought to you in partnership with Leah Bryant Co.

The unedited podcast transcript for this episode of the Success by Design: Mastering the business of interior design follows

Katie Decker-Erickson (00:00.066)

Whether you run a six figure interior design firm and are wanting to get those magical seven figures or are just thinking about launching your own firm and petrified, you will not want to miss this. As we tackle questions like what are the key skills and habits that business owners need to break through and reach that magical seven figure number? Finances in general are a scary thing. Finances in your business, well, they can be even scarier. So how do you get over that?

Katie Decker-Erickson (00:30.264)

Do you love interior design but can't make the business side work? You've come to the right place. Welcome to Success by Design, mastering the business of interior design. Whether you want to elevate in your current interior design firm, start your own firm, or move the needle when it comes to your existing firm's trajectory, this is your masterclass and I'm your host, Katie Erickson. Learn from my mistakes as I built a coast -to -coast, multi -million dollar interior design firm.

I share nearly 20 years of serving as a university professor of undergraduate and graduate business courses with you. And best of all, I bring in experts in all things business and interior design. Class starts now. So excited to have this conversation because we know as creatives, we love to create, we love to design beautiful things. But sometimes we don't think about our business that way specifically. And today we're doing the masterclass on all things business and growing your business.

I think especially as women were hesitant to use those words, profit, sales, absolutely, unapologetically, unabashedly, it is fine that you are in business to make money. It is fine that you do sales. In fact, go get it. And it is totally okay to take a passion you love and turn it into a moneymaker for you. And in fact, that's what you should be doing. That's what I hope I can help my daughters do someday. I want them to figure out what they love and go make money doing it so you can do what you love. In fact, it was funny, we had a potential coaching client who said,

I love design, I love to create, but admittedly, I've been doing it as a hobby for far too long and now I'm serious about making money. It can be intimidating, you know it's out there, you think I can do this, I could set my own hours, I could run the show I want to, but I'm scared. I'm over here petrified and I don't know business and yes, I am my MBA, that made it a lot easier.

when it came to starting my business. I firmly believe that just because it was a basic business understanding. However, this comes with a big caveat. If you're sitting here and you don't have your MBA, which most designers don't, I don't want that to scare you. So much of life isn't about knowing everything. It's about knowing the people who do know what you don't know. And so don't be afraid to admit, I may not be an ace at business or businesses in my forte, or I don't love accounting or marketing. That isn't where I want to hang out. That is A -OK.

Katie Decker-Erickson (02:53.612)

Let's get you the people or find the people that do plug them into your firm and watch it grow. It's a lot like birthing a child. was thinking about how becoming a business owner is a lot like becoming a parent. Once you have a kid, you're not really given another option, right? You've got to figure it out. And I called it sprouting my mommy wings, but it was figuring out how to draw boundaries, when to give the rules, how to tell family members, no, we're not showing up for that because it's during nap time unapologetically.

I was forced to do all these things, which is someone who had a lot of flexibility in their schedule before, no longer had. And you just learn like, no, we're not gonna go to that play date, that kid destroys my house. You figure it out, right? And when you're a parent, you're forced to. I think it's tougher sometimes in business, because we can avoid. It's like, well, I have the bookkeeper, they'll tell me if something's wrong. I'm like, no, nobody cares about your books like you do. You need to be having a weekly meeting with your bookkeeper. Every week, you should be getting your accounts payable.

your accounts receivable, your cashflow and your P &L. If you're not getting those four reports every week to know where your business is at, if you're seriously in business, then you're gonna miss something. I guarantee you, you're gonna miss something and you're either gonna come up typically low in your profits, you're gonna overestimate, underestimate and you're not gonna know what your profit generators even are or what you have going in and out of your business. And that may sound daunting to you, but...

If you literally are only looking at four accounting reports a week in your business, you're doing more than I would say 90 % of people out there running any type of business. And all it takes is four reports. And if you don't understand them, sit with your bookkeeper or your accountant until you do, cause it's not that intimidating. I feel like for women, especially finances in general are a scary thing. Finances in your business are scarier. How do we get over that? If you're an individual where

Finances are typically scary. I totally feel you, if you're saying and listening to this episode and going, but Katie, it's even way scarier in my business because I potentially have people that are dependent upon me that are looking for a paycheck and then I have to provide for them too and hope that works out. Yes, it should be more than a hope. And this is where it really comes down to making sure that you have a pipeline, you have marketing channels, you have processes in place.

Katie Decker-Erickson (05:14.05)

so that you don't have to worry about that and you can sleep at night, I will tell you that if you don't have those, you probably aren't sleeping well at night and that is not okay. We gotta get you back on track with that. The key to that is making sure, like I said, that you actually have these systems and these processes so that you have a pipeline. I don't know about you.

But emotionally, we can say lots of things to ourselves in life. Like, I feel this way, I feel that way. But when I can provide tactile and meaningful ways to address those feelings, it really calms them down. And finances, especially when it pertains to your business, are absolutely no different. Figure out where you're comfortable, because that's where you're going to succeed. Don't do what everybody else tells you. Go figure out what you do that makes you content, happy, and feel at peace, because that's where you're going to be sustainable, and that's where you're going to be profitable.

I think so often times when we start a business, we think, gosh, how am going to do this? The overwhelm hits, like I get the creative, but I don't get the business side. It's the idea of scaffolding. How much do you want to make? What do you love doing? What comes easy to you? Let's go. And when you start at those points and you know, cause those are also, I like to add the one, what's your why? Why are you doing this? Are you doing it because it's a passion?

Are you doing it because you're recently divorced and you're like, I need to pay for kids. I need to feed a family. I've got things to do. Everyone has a reason why. Crack the nut of your why. Because when the going gets tough and you maybe don't want to review those four accounting reports that came in, I like mine to come in on Monday. So I know where I'm positioned for the week and what decisions I can afford to make. Or if I don't make them, what it's going to cost me.

When you know your why, then it makes it a lot easier to tackle all the things.

Katie Decker-Erickson (07:05.358)

Are you listening along with us and thinking, man, I'm ready to take my interior design firm to the next level with actionable steps that drive success? Then that means it's time to book your strategy session with me. It's tailored advice and discussion to meet your unique needs. My focus is on providing practical solutions that will help you problem solve, generate profit, and ensure your business works for you rather than you working for it.

Also, I'm super excited to announce that we've created a dedicated space called The Studio for interior designers who are looking to elevate their craft. Here, collaboration triumphs over competition. And together we can achieve remarkable growth. Think of this as all you need for your operations. Forms, documents, discounts on strategy sessions with me. This is your one stop shop. Whether you're interested in our strategy sessions or joining our community of like -minded designers in The Studio,

Visit colorworks .coach to learn more about how we can support your journey. It is time to level up.

Katie Decker-Erickson (08:09.09)

we are gonna have folks who are listening today and I love our audience, who are saying, I'm running a great six figure business, but I can't crack the nut of seven fingers. Why can I not crack the nut of seven figures? There's usually a really good reason why you're not getting to the seven figure mark and it has to do once again with processes and marketing. Those two things alone are a lot of times the tipping point.

If you internally don't have the processes that you need to be able to sustain the clients, the projects, the whatnot, you're not gonna be able to take on more. Even if they come to you, it's going to feel very overwhelming. The client can read that or potential client could read that in a discovery call, right? And they're gonna be less inclined to go with you because they're not gonna feel that confidence and security that you've got them. So that's a huge thing when we're talking about the internal side of not cracking the seven figure nut. Externally,

and I've coached to this a number of times, I will have coaching clients come to me and say, Katie, like, I am all word of mouth. And it's interesting because I feel like they think that's a very positive thing. Like, I just operate based on word of mouth. And I don't know where that comes from. It's always kind of fascinating to me because I want to say, I hear that you're all word of mouth and that sounds really bougie and fabulous and elite, but is that actually working out for you? Do you want to crack that seven figure mark? Because if you do,

you're gonna have to put yourself out there in a meaningful way, especially when it comes to marketing. So where are you at when it comes to your social media presence, especially on LinkedIn? Or where's your website at? And do you know what SEO is? I even had a client just last week who said, what does SEO stand for? And I said, well, you can build a website, but if you haven't search engine optimized, SEO'd it, no one's gonna find you. And so these types of conversations are really important and that's your external portion.

of building and cracking that seven figure nut. So there's both the internal portion of making sure you have your processes shored up and that you can actually carry the workload of a seven figure business, but then turning it outside too, letting people know that you're actually open for business and not viewing word of mouth as being the penultimate, especially if you're trying to crack that seven figure nut. When we move from six to seven figures,

Katie Decker-Erickson (10:19.264)

it never syncs up perfectly, right? And there was a time where I was driving too much of the ship and it was breathtakingly painful. And until we got the right people in the right seats on the bus, but I knew we had to continue to march, the clients had the knees, we had the clients, I didn't want them to feel it. So I felt it. That was like a year to remember or not, but it was super duper intense until we got the right people on the bus. Because if I hadn't been willing to let go,

and bring the right people on and give them their jobs and trust them to do their jobs, we would have never been able to grow. Because you're gonna burn out, you're gonna get tired, you're gonna get insomnia, you're gonna stop sleeping, you're gonna forget more. mean, it's like that classic penny spiral in the mall when I was a kid, right? Like you drop the penny and it's, before you know it, you're at the bottom of the drain clanking. Your mental health will end up there, right? Like that's so important in the letting go. And I feel like there's two types of leaders.

There's the leaders that let go too much, especially when it comes to finances and maybe things that aren't as fun and engaging as picking and designing and doing what we love to do. And consequently it spins out of control, right? But there's also the micromanagers that suck the joy out of what they have hired people to do, which is their job, which you thought they could do.

how do you talk to each of those managers and pull them back into the center where there's oversight and direction, but the way I like to describe it is like the bowling alley lanes where you've got the bumpers on the side. I'm the bumper lady, like the bumper and speed bump lady. I tell this to my team, if you have a speed bump, I'm here to clear it for you. Let's get it out of the way, call me in, let me call the vendor, let's figure out what's going on if it's a dumpster fire, why can't they perform, whatever. But internally too,

It's being the bully yelling bumper lady. We got to keep the ball rolling toward the pins and out of the ditch, right? So you have a big girth, but if we're headed straight into the dumpster over here or into the ditch, I'm here to bump you back into center. How do you do that practically? A lot of it, this is going to sound a little bit cheesy. It's intuition. Where's my greatest need to start with, but then it's also knowing yourself and what is my greatest weakness. In case you haven't figured out by now, my happy place is not in accounting, but every week,

Katie Decker-Erickson (12:33.582)

I spend an hour with our accountant and we go through all the things and I get my reports and I make myself sit down and read them. Because back when I was about 21 years old, I was terrified to ever look at my checking account. I think it was because of how I grew up as the daughter of a single mom, trying to scrape it out, make it work. And I always felt like it was gonna be doom and gloom every time I logged in, right? To my digital checking. And one day I said to myself, Katie, you've gotta figure this out.

So every time you feel that fear, no matter how many times a day it is, you're gonna log into your checking account and you're gonna go look at it. And that was the game changer. Like literally just head on diving into that fear and confronting it and saying, that's what I'm gonna do. And that's how I got over my fear of money and why I have no problem making it unapologetically now. Because it took the fear out. You can only do that so many times before you get desensitized, right? And that's exactly what I needed to do. So yes, intuition, knowing the people are going...

Who do I feel like I really need in this? What is the next person I need and what am I sucking at? Because if you're a leader and you think you can do everything, you can't, you just can't do it. Figure out what you don't like, what you're not good at, and then hire people who are better, smarter, more capable and who that is their happy place and let them do it for you. And that became the game changer. Cause arguably the most neglected area of your business is gonna be the area you like the least.

So go find somebody else because that's gonna be their mountain top and go stand on their mountain. And so that's kind of how we did it. We started with operations. I started with whiteboards and I was writing client information. I didn't have a project management software and all the things that we have now. I literally was sitting there with whiteboards scribbling and I was joking with our team actually. was like, I would wake up sometimes in the middle of the night and be like, I don't think that item is shipped for that client. I wasn't tracking packages. I was like, gosh.

We're short an umbrella, who knew? You know? But I think it's also really knowing your business and knowing your numbers again to make the decisions about hiring and we personality and we aptitude test anyone before we put them on our team. Cause we know what we need. We know that we are really fast moving. We know we're really communicative. That's why we had to start a podcast. But these are things we pride ourselves on. And so if someone's last point is communication, it's probably not going to work with our team.

Katie Decker-Erickson (14:55.746)

because we are highly communicative. We love each other. We want to hang out with each other. We live life together. We know about each other's kids when their dogs die, when kids are out of school. How do we make all that work? Takes me all the way back to my undergrad chemistry class with a lovely doctor whose name I will refrain from saying, utterly brilliant man. He was so kind and knew chemistry like the back of his hand. He could not communicate. I sat in that class and like literally

I know that water is H2O because that's about my extent of my chemical knowledge, because he couldn't communicate the concept. Everyone was so frustrated in that class. And I'm sure he was utterly brilliant. But this is a man who should have been in a laboratory figuring out the cure for cancer because it was all in his head. He was an analytic mastermind who just needed to be left alone to pursue his craft, right? He had no business teaching Chem 132 or any of the rest of us. We were miserable, he was miserable.

Nobody was winning, praise God, that semester ended is what I think all universally felt him and us like as students. Yeah, it's just interesting when people don't end up pursuing what they love and when they are not in the correct cultural fit to. I mean, the man wasn't designed to fit into the culture of a classroom. He was designed to fit into the culture of a laboratory. And putting him there would have made everybody happier. Don't get stuck there.

And I think it's fine to hang out in that space for a hot minute because I will say as you scale and you grow and you evolve from even that six figure business into a seven figure business, you have to know how to read your books. You may not be doing your books anymore, but you better know how to read them. You may not be doing your marketing anymore, but you have to know what your brand image is and what you want your messaging to be and what resonates with your target market and target persona, right? Like all of these things matter. And I don't know if it's quite the correct term, but I always feel like

I know just enough to be deadly but not effective, right? So that's when you call on people and you're like, I'm thinking about doing this, is that a bad idea? But it's because you know enough to do what you need to do and then you can get busy shining at what you love to do. For me, that's running the business side of it. I mean, are there days I miss picking out? Yes. And sourcing? Yes. There are days that I miss it and I would just love to sit with a cup of coffee and create a beautiful space. But nine times out of 10, I know that because of the people on my team, honestly,

Katie Decker-Erickson (17:16.942)

They're gonna even do it even better than I am. They've gotten so efficient at it. They have such good processes and they understand our clients so well that I would just muddle up the whole process. But I also know that I love running my business and those are people I get to feed because I'm out making the connections, educating, giving back to the industry, finding the new client that's the right fit, not just as the new client and having the luxury and privilege of doing that. That is my happy spot.

Go find what makes you happy and get busy doing it and scaffold out of that dream. I think instead of trying to scaffold into it, figure out what you wanna do, how much you wanna make, what makes you happy. I mean, that's what we coach too. Then let's get you there. Let's figure out how, the actual how. fact, just a random little ditty came into my head, but like, as you grow, let it go. It doesn't mean you still don't have oversight of it, but as you grow, you gotta let it go because eventually,

It's like those square watermelons that you can buy in the supermarket now as they grow, they're pressed into the shape of a square because they stack more. So they grow them in boxes, right? They ship better, they stack better, they whatever. That's going to happen to you. You're going to be the square watermelon because you're hanging out in a box and you got to let it go if you're going to continue to grow. And that's hard, but it is finding the right people and then trusting them to do their job. And then also knowing when someone isn't a good fit and being willing to let them go.

That can be, think, as a woman, that is a really hard thing to do because we're naturally nurturers. We want to see people succeed. We want to foster. We want to whatever. There is a time you think you've made the perfect hire and I've done this and you think this person is going to be amazing. And you're like, after three months, you're like, nope, that wasn't what I expected it to be. And giving yourself the permission to say that's not a failure on your part, it's a bad cultural fit. Back to the chemistry teacher, right?

And not only that, you're releasing them to find what they're meant to do because odds are they're probably not happy either. I think there's a big difference between love and respect because there are times when you're like, maybe I wouldn't be a perfect personality fit with them. Like we wouldn't hang out and go to happy hour, right? But they're utterly brilliant in what they do. And I might not click with them personality wise in my business. I don't have to because I deeply respect. They show up, they do their job. They love what they're doing.

Katie Decker-Erickson (19:33.462)

They're great at it. And that is more than enough, especially as you scale, because you cannot have your fingers in every pie. You can't know every person and every detail all the time. But I can respect and deeply appreciate those teammates who we might not be a perfect personality click, but my gosh, they care about our business. They want to see it succeed and they continually give their heart and soul to it. That's a beautiful thing. Like what more can I ask for? You know, and being okay with that and that

I don't wanna say we're running a sorority, but we don't have to like everybody. We don't have to get along with them necessarily as managers. There needs to be respect, acknowledgement, and a good culture fit. And so many people are neurodivergent. They're all in their own separate way. All of us are somewhat neurodivergent, I would venture to say. And so sometimes it just doesn't click. But if they're doing what they love and they're doing it well, that checks the boxes and that gives me respect for them and immense amount of respect. When it's a B2B business,

I feel like it's especially like that. It's a lot about respect. Can you do what you said you're gonna do? Can you do it on time? Can you communicate to me that it's happening? Those things matter. If you're sitting here listening to this and you're going, but how, Katie, I need logistical help. Get a coach involved in your life. Let's deep dive how to make you profitable and give you back your life. I love to say it, get your business working for you, stop working for it and build the life that you want.

Hey there, Katie here. Welcome to The Coaching Corner. Okay, I wanna talk about how we went from those six figures to seven figures. Yes, I'm not gonna lie. We had market demand, huge thing. Our largest client came to us and said, hey, we want you to turn on interiors. Please do interiors. Because we were just doing exterior design at that time. I remember being completely petrified about that. I'm not gonna lie. But I said, yes. The power, everyone talks about the power of saying no. Let's talk about the power of saying yes. I knew we were gonna figure it out. But here's the thing.

I also knew that we had our processes. We had the ability to let go or I was ready to as a leader because I was starting to hit the burnout stage, right? And we had the right people on the bus. Was it a perfect situation? No, there was no utopia. But the reality is we were positioned because we finally had processes. Those whiteboards I was talking about in today's episode, we got rid of the whiteboards. We got project management software. We got incredible accounting software. mean,

Katie Decker-Erickson (21:57.036)

If you remember the old show, Pimp My Ride, we pimped our software and that made a huge difference because systems work when people fail. Systems don't go on vacation, systems and processes don't get sick, they don't need vacation days, and so we put as much into a process and a system as we could, which made us ripe for that year where we broke through and cracked those seven figures. We also had spent the time to get the right people in the right positions. It takes a minute. And if you don't have them all there, don't worry, neither do we.

I'm 80 -20 when it comes to getting the right people on the bus. There will always be a few that you're like, I don't know. But the reality is, give them a chance to prove themselves. You may be surprised. If not, then you have a reason to let them go and build a better bus, right? The last one is really being introspective with yourself. Do you have the ability to let go? Okay, I know you have to sit here with yourself for a minute, and that's never really fun. I know, at least I don't enjoy it. Maybe you do. But you have to sit in that space to say, what can I let go of today that's gonna make my life better?

What can I let go of that somebody else can do better? What can I let go of that will free up my emotional space, my mental space, my creative space, and allow me to take my business to the next level? Sit with that for a moment, be honest with yourself, and watch what happens in your business as you start creating those profitable spaces.

I hope you've gathered valuable insight from our conversation today, equipping you to thrive in your interior design business. Don't forget to hit that follow button to never miss an episode. And if you have burning questions or specific topics you're curious about, explore our episode library or better yet book a strategy session directly with me at colorworks .coach. Until next time, see you in the studio. It's our virtual community and the link is below.