We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Colleen Simonds a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Colleen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

This is a big one. Like a lot of other creative entrepreneurs/business owners, I didn’t get started doing design thinking about how I was going to run a small business and make money. I mean, I assumed I would make money as I charged clients for my services, but it’s just SO much more complicated than that. I love this work because I love the actual WORK and I love design. Having to assign value to the work and to ME as a creative is the absolute worst part – and then you also have to discuss this value with your clients, and basically sell them on it. I don’t really want to be a salesperson, again, I just want to do the design – but unfortunately, these things go hand in hand. And this is true for a sample size of one; when you’re trying to grow and make more money and ‘scale’, it gets even trickier. You need a constant cash flow, you need good projects in the pipeline, you need to be cultivating new clients – all while doing the work right in front of you – in order to be and to stay profitable. You need to charge high enough fees to ensure you’re paying yourself enough – and again, this gets more complex if and when you have employees who need to be paid, too. Design is expensive, this is a luxury industry and a luxury service – and that also makes being profitable very challenging. You need clients who can afford YOU, the designer, and also the furnishings and everything they’re buying. You’re trying to thread a small needle. And back to assigning value to your creativity and what you bring to the client – that is really hard to do. It’s much easier when you work within a corporate structure and your salary is assigned to you based on some kind of hierarchy – that doesn’t exist here when I work for myself. And you need clients who value you and are willing to pay your fees because they have decided you and it are ‘worth it’. That’s not going to be everybody, and that’s ok, but you’re on a constant hamster wheel looking for the people who will. Being profitable is also hard when you want to stay very small, like I do. I’m not willing to give up the work and/or the quality of the work and just hire more people to pump out more lower quality projects. But there are only 24 hours in a day, and I have a life…..so I really need the best quality projects and clients I can get – and these will only be a few. They have to be the right few to make enough money. It is hard.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

When I finished college, I moved to San Francisco to work for Gap, Inc. in their corporate training program. I ended up working in Merchandising there for 5 years, then moved to NYC to do the same job at J Crew. So my first career was in fashion/retail/merchandising and I absolutely loved it.

Ready for a change and more work flexibility, I left J Crew and did the Associate’s program in Interior Design at Parsons, also in NYC. This is a 2 year program for older, sort of second career people. I finished the program, somehow got this great first client through a referral, and then just started my business.

There is SO much crossover between fashion and interiors and so much of what I learned in my first career applies now. Merchandising clothing and an outfit and a store is much the same as designing a room – you’re considering color, pattern, scale, structure – and ultimately – figuring out what looks good. I think of my job now as an editor, which is what it was before – you are choosing from all the things out there and putting the best pieces together to create something beautiful.

Now – I am an editor for my clients. They hire me to create beautiful rooms and spaces, and I want to exceed their expectations every time. My job is to give them a space or a home they could never imagine on their own – and could never execute on their own. I do tend to use a lot of color and pattern but I don’t have to; I just want the space to be a ‘wow’, whatever it looks like, and be a room that doesn’t look like so many you’ve seen before. I am relentless in my sourcing, I have very high standards for the quality and taste level of my work, and my creative wheels never stop turning.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Getting to spend time every day working with things I love. My language is color and pattern and fabrics and beauty, and I absolutely love the process of transforming a space using all of it. To visualize something in my mind – and then see it all the way through, when it comes to life in front of your eyes – there is nothing like it.

I am incredibly lucky to have a job I love so much – I would not be as passionate if I were here selling lawnmowers or something, no offense to lawnmowers! But it’s very rewarding to be able to spend all my time surrounded by things I love and that bring me joy and a creative outlet.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I have a very small following so I’m by no means an expert here – and I’m also very late to IG – I only joined in late 2019 I think. I am a MAJOR introvert, truly, and I’m older – I didn’t grow up with this stuff and it’s just not in my nature to put myself out there so publicly. I still don’t.

But, I do find that a lot of people tell me they like following my IG because I show them the process behind the design – I explain everything I’m doing and WHY – I’m just showing the work. Before I was a designer, I absolutely loved reading interviews with designers in magazines (remember those?) when they’d break down the room and explain WHY they chose what they did, etc. This is not just pulling a rabbit out of a hat. It’s great to see gorgeous finished photos but people are tired of perfection, and most people can’t afford to hire designers anyway – so I think they’re looking for tips and ideas and insight on things they might take away for themselves.

So – I show a lot of the work and process because I like sharing that piece, it comes naturally to me, and I think I’m trying to not make the work so invisible. It does take a LOT to get to even one finished photo; I’m trying to be real about that. I don’t have a team of 100 people doing this for me while I’m off doing something glamorous – that is not how this goes. I guess the point is – do what comes naturally to you, and sharing this part of the work feels natural to me, and I think it does provide some value.

What does not come naturally to me is talking to the camera about all of my feelings, doing my makeup routine, talking too much about my personal life – so I don’t! Even if that’s what ‘works’ – I can’t do it, and I don’t. Just make choices that feel right to you and whoever finds you, finds you.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.colleensimonds.com
• Instagram: @colleensimondsdesign

Image Credits
All photo credits to Emily Gilbert Photography.