We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amy Switzer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amy below.

Hi Amy, thanks for joining us today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?

As a business owner there is a lot of behind the scenes that client’s dont know about that you have to deal with day to day. I work out of my home office so majority of the deliveries go to my receiving warehouse but smaller packages may come to my home. I had ordered a bolt of fabric for a client that I was having some upholstery done for their home. When I tracked the package it said it was delivered but there was no site of the fabric. Typically if a package is missing you go to who you purchased it from and/or the carrier but when I reviewed the ring camera I saw a man wearing an Amazon vest come and steal the package right off my doorstep! This was a tricky situation as I did not order the product from Amazon and who knows if the person who took the package actually worked for Amazon but either way I needed the product for my client that they already paid for it. It was quite the process to work through this but no matter what I went ahead and ordered the product again to complete the project. I will always run my business with integrity and that might mean eating the cost for someone else’s wrong doing. I never told my client this story because I do not want a client to feel bad about the situation and many times they do not want to hear the saga stories, they just want their product!

Amy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I like to say it’s not the destination but it’s the journey and I am definitely enjoying the ride! I have been a creative soul my entire life, it’s just in my blood. I knew I wanted my career path to be a creative one but I had no idea my path was going to look like this. I born and raised in St. Louis, MO and then went off to college at the University of Kansas. I started off in the interior design program but I didnt love the drafting technical part of the program (I know I am aging myself but we did it all by hand and was not using computers yet for drafting). My professor suggested I look into the Textile Design program. My first question was, what are textiles? After my first screen printing class I fell in love. I graduated with a BFA in Textile Design and then moved straight to NYC after I graduated and landed my first industry job. I was designing window curtains for a manufacturer who sold the curtains to the mass market-large retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, etc. I fell in love with the home textile industry and had a few different jobs at various manufacturers where I gained so much experience through product design, licensing, selling and distribution. In 2013 I was approached by a colleague to take a leap of faith and open our own manufacturer. I was 28 years old, I thought what do I have to lose? We opened a bedding showroom on 5th avenue and partnered with a Chinese manufacturer to sell bedding direct to retailers. After a couple of years the investor decided to go in a different direction so we all decided to part ways. After that I decided I needed a change out of NYC and start something new. I landed in Dallas and I worked for nearly a decade for another home textiles manufacturer that was based in NYC but had a satellite office in Dallas. Over the years at the bedding manufacturer I was going through the motions but didnt have my heart in the game anymore. I knew I needed to find something else that I could truly be creative and excite me again. After I had my second child I knew it was now or never to take a leap of faith and once again become an entrepreneur. I opened my interior design business-Amy Switzer Design and simultaneously went back to school to get a certificate to be a Registered Interior Designer. Coming up on my 2 year anniversary for the business all I can say it’s been the wildest journey of my whole career. I can finally say I found my creative outlet that continues to motivate me and inspire me in design. All of my experience has given me so many tools to be successful in this business. I am now not only designing spaces for clients but launching home textile products under my brand!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Integrity. I think if I stick to my core values no matter the situation I will always stand on top. All of my business has been through referrals and I treat my clients how I would want to be treated. Being in a service industry it’s the businesses that provide a great service gets people coming back to you.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I think it’s diversifying my service offerings and using my textile background to bring a different point of view to design. I think also showing on social media the behind the scenes of my day to day keeps people interested. There are many interior designers that only show the beautiful polished professional photoshoots but in reality that is such a small percentage of our job.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.amyswitzerdesign.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amyswitzerdesign/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amyswitzerdesign/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-switzer-rid-345b0b6/

Image Credits

Michael Hunter Photography
Pixel Sold Photography