We recently connected with Sally Steponkus and have shared our conversation below.

Sally , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of our favorite things to brainstorm about with friends who’ve built something entrepreneurial is what they would do differently if they were to start over today. Surely, there are things you’ve learned that would allow you to do it over faster, more efficiently. We’d love to hear how you would go about setting things up if you were starting over today, knowing everything that you already know.

If I were starting over today, I wouldn’t have jumped to a huge office and larger staff. I had a core group of team members (a Director of Operations and two junior designers) who had been with me for quite a while but when when we got super duper busy, I decided to move us to a large office with a second floor for a fabric and wallpaper sample library, parking spaces for everyone, and a bigger kitchen and lunch area. Instead of pacing projects and creating a waiting list, I hired two design assistants at once, who were great and we were able to tackle all the work fast, but I also increased my payroll a lot and had more people to oversee. I felt like I had to manage personalities and temperaments and didn’t get to enjoy the normal pace of design work. We have since moved to a smaller, more affordable space and no longer have such a big staff. We realized that we weren’t sourcing from our in-office library as we still source each project at design showrooms and didn’t need the space to keep so much at our fingertips. The interior design business goes up and down all the time so finding yourself with too much overhead is stressful and unnecessary.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a native Washingtonian (DC) and have had my own interior design firm, Sally Steponkus Interiors, since 2020. My background is in Classical Languages, Art & Architecture and after living abroad in Italy in college and interning with different fabric houses and working for a busy local designer for a few years, I opened my business at age 24. We are now a team of six and do high end residential interior decorating in the Washington, DC area (but will travel for design!) Our style is a fresh, updated traditional; we love beautiful and bright colors and patterns and bring a very personalized, custom touch to all our projects. We work closely with our clients, helping them to achieve homes that feel like them but are also practical, functional yet lovely and express who they are, whether the client is a bachelor in a downtown condo or a family in a custom home in the suburbs.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

While I often think the interior design profession gets a bad wrap for being flighty, overpriced, and beyond extravagant, I think I have a reputation for being more down to earth, easy to work with and more approachable than that. I certainly love high end goods and sell tons, but sometimes it’s a balance where client’s money should be spent- not everything has to be the fanciest of the fancy- knowing what to splurge on and what to save on is the secret to a successful, in-budget and beautiful project.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Honestly, our wonderful clients refer us alllll the time! I would say at least 50% of my current projects are for returning clients at the moment. We’re doing second and third homes for folks and are often referred throughout a family-about ten years ago I had two sisters and their mother at the same time, all very different houses. It’s fun though because those homes do not look similar – I make sure to customize our interiors to truly reflect a client’s personality and while you might recognize my clean, simple style, you’d never think those three jobs looked alike.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.steponkus.com
• Instagram: @sallysteponkusinteriors
• Linkedin: Sally Steponkus

Image Credits

Robert Radifera

Angie Seckinger