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

Hi William, thanks for joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

No matter how you approach it, starting a small business is a risk. Financially you need to be prepared for anything that may happen and all the variables that come with business. But more than that, is the risk of finally doing what you want to do and believing in yourself enough to make that leap. Even if you are starting out small, you are putting yourself and ideas out into the public and that takes great courage in itself. There were things going into the creation of the business that you prepare for and think though, the courage to put yourself out there and to keep going is the one that snuck up on me and continues to be something that could have the potential of building walls for you. But being confident and not letting imposter syndrome take over will lead you to success.

William, 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 had a very successful career in visual merchandising with globally known brands. Loved my time working for these companies and of course learned so much. But there was always something inside telling my to open my own store. I think the downtime of lockdown gave me time to look inside and grow the courage to do just that, open my own lifestyle store. I am coming up on one year of being the owner of a small lifestyle brand, Terrazzo Archives. I wanted to put a new spin on a traditional import store. I curate a selection of home decor and accessories that are sourced from around the world but have application and style for modern living. The store has influences of design from artisan across the globe as well as pillows and bags that I make myself. I also offer design consult as well as custom pillow designs for any clients that may be interested.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

A couple things came to mind when I saw this prompt. First, that imposter syndrome is very much a real thing. I had many years of retail experience under my belt and really felt confident in my skills, but even that was not enough to fight back the feelings to at are associated with imposter syndrome. Feeling like you may have made a mistake has to be dealt with consistently and I would assume every person deals with it differently but what helps me is really listening to my customers when the say that they love the store and it’s such a beautiful space.
Then there is the idea that each day you get to start anew. Cherish the ability to look at each day in a new light. Yesterday is in the past and today might bring more than you wished for.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

Using this prompt I wanted to shed light on how much work goes into a small business in regards to advertising and keeping your clientele up to date with your business. You have to juggle your time allotted but, all avenues of communication have to be explored. Direct calling, email and social media all play different roles of maintaining and growing your customer base. And I will say through this process you will truly come to understand who your customer is. It might not always be exactly who you think it will be when starting out, and it’s important to evolve with your customer base.

Contact Info:

• Website: terrazzoarchives.square.site
• Instagram: terrazzo_archives
• Facebook: Terrazzo_archives

Image Credits
All images are my own.