Welcome to episode 9 of design. Curious podcast, I'm your host
and Mentor Rebecca Ward today we are talking about the anatomy of
an interior design firm, whether you are thinking about applying
for a job there, interning or even starting your own business.
It is critical to understand all the hats that an interior
designer needs to wear especially if they are a
solopreneur like most of them are.
But if you're thinking you might want to Grow your firm into a
larger company. This is a great way to show you
all the areas. You can expand to who you need
to hire. And so let's get into it.
You're now listening to design, curious a place where you
creative one are here to learn about what it really is.
Like, to be an interior designer and I'm your host and Mentor
Rebecca, Ward, if you're worried about how to succeed in a
career, Career, if you're ready to learn your next steps to
become an Interior Designer. And if you want the satisfaction
of doing something you love every day, you are in the right
place, grab a coffee, a notebook, and let's dig into
today's episode. All right, let's get into the
anatomy of an interior design firm.
So interior design, firms and architecture firms are set up.
I would say very similarly to some law firms.
All of them do likely billable hours.
The hierarchy of designers is similar to the hierarchy of
lawyers within a firm so it's not dissimilar and all of them
are professionals. So it Sense.
But let's look at it from the top down.
So at the very top obviously is the CEO or the owner often the
principal designer. So this person is the one who
started the from the Visionary for the firm often the one
calling the shots on how the clients design projects are
going to run. They could also be known as the
design director sometimes in larger firms.
They They are not actually doing any of the sourcing or drawings
themselves, they're only dictating where the design goes
for that. Client setting the vision and
then letting the rest of the team take care of the details.
So that is the owner principal designer and design director
under that you'll have probably the senior designer or lead
designer might have an associate designer or an intermediate.
Designer then a junior designer so sometimes smaller residential
firms. Might just have a principal and
then they'll hire a junior who might Elevate to a lead designer
later on. And then under the junior
designer, you might also have a design assistant and that person
might not have as much education or experience as a junior
designer or the one that designers above them, but they
might have some education or some experience and so therefore
they are qualified. I lied to, you know, do a little
bit of research or do some drawings.
You may also even have a draftsperson at the firm who
only does the drawings, because that's kind of a big job in
itself. So just depends on the size of
the firm. You might have all of these.
Are you might just have one or two, or it could just be, like I
said, the principal designer at the firm.
So, even if there is just one person, what we call a
solopreneur, they're still going to wear all the other hats that
the business needs, Them to wear.
So, if the firm is larger, there's obviously going to be
other people that can wear these hats, but besides just the fun
part of Designing and making selections and doing the
drawings and creating a beautiful product for the
client, then we get into the business and the execution part.
So, adjacent to the design team would probably be the production
team. So this is after the, Design is
presented the client loves it. Then it goes into production.
So you might have a project manager who is going to oversee
the contractors, make sure that the design gets implemented
correctly. They could also be called a
director of production. You might have a construction
manager, so if you're offering design-build, you might have
someone who specializes in construction details and has a
lot of construction knowledge. So they might be Construction
manager, underneath the project manager.
They could also be the same person.
And then if necessary, you could also have a junior project
manager, a project coordinator, who could assist those upper
levels in the production team. And then in that team, I would
also put the expediter or the procurement coordinator.
Now, some firms might call this the design assistant, but this
person will be placing and tracking all the orders.
That get placed for, especially the furniture and any finishes
and accessories, and things like that.
So any purchase orders that get made sent to the vendor
payments, all that stuff gets tracked by the expediter.
Then we'll go over to the operations team.
So the person in charge of operations could be called the
director of operations or the co o, the chief operations officer.
And Under the operation team. The also have what I call the
client relations manager, so this could be the person who is
doing your intake calls your client onboarding, or we called
Discovery calls as well. So, having a person dedicated to
that filtering out the clients asking all the questions and
then setting up the consultations in the calendar.
That would be the client relations manager.
Now, I have one of these who is a contractor Works remotely.
A couple hours a week and she also takes care of other things
for the client like gifting throughout the project under
operations. You might also find the HR
manager to be the person in charge of ensuring that
Healthcare and all those things get set up.
Also the employee handbook and anything employee-related would
be under HR manager. They might have a process and
performance manager kind of like T control to make sure that
every project is running correctly.
That the clients are happy, and my also be called a compliance
manager. And then you would also probably
put the office administrator under here.
So it's admin things that just for the day-to-day business.
Maybe not client related, but that would be under the
operations of the business. Then we go over to the finance
team. So the finance team, if you are
starting out as your own business, Maybe your new
designer or you have experience in, you're starting out just
you, I would say you definitely have to get a bookkeeper.
Next, that's going to be your first Tire because that's so
important to keeping your books straight, keeping them organized
and ready for taxes at the end of the year.
So under the finance team, you'll have your bookkeeper.
The the person in charge of the finance team might be called the
Director of Finance and might be a CFO Chief Financial Officer
and Then under this part of the team, you'll include your CPA
certified public accountant. And any other financial advisors
could also be under this part, they might not work directly for
you. They may not be employees of the
company, but they are definitely a part of your business and an
integral part of the design firm.
Okay. And then we'll go over to sales
and marketing. Also a very important part of
the design Confirm because without sales and marketing, you
can't get new clients coming in. You can't get those pretty
projects to work on. So the person in charge here
might be director of sales and marketing, then you might also
have a marketing manager person in charge of promotional
advertising. The messaging that's being said
on your website all those things and then you might also have a
sales manager. So a person who is Is educated
in sales who might be there to help secure and close sales with
clients and advise on. That might have a public
relations manager and a branding manager, someone to manage the
website and digital or social media manager.
So all those parts of the marketing and sales team, really
critical to even getting new business.
Through the door. So if you are a solopreneur you
are the one that's wearing all of these hats.
I didn't count it out but there's probably like 20 here.
And so so that is quite the job. So you might not know what
you're signing up for when you decide to open your own firm.
I certainly didn't think of it this way and you know, only this
year did I kind of set up an org chart for my own company?
But I had it so enlightening because well, I have two
employees. I know that my firm will Paul be
growing a little bit. And so I was looking at the
places where my name gets put in there and then maybe I want to
hire a couple people to join the team and I can easily see which
areas we had a need in. So that is the anatomy of a
design firm. Hopefully that is explain to you
clearly and you might be surprised to find that all those
Positions are needed within one firm.
If you are looking to go work for another firm.
Now, you can kind of understand all the parts that are needed or
if you're even just going to work for one designer.
Now, you can understand why their time is so important and
that they are being pulled in so many different directions.
That as an employee of that Designer, you might have to also
wear several different hats whether you like it or not.
But, to be honest, this is the kind of information.
I actually wish I had when I was starting out.
So now you've got it, and you can use this to help you as
you're starting out in your career.
So did you find that overwhelming all the different
hats that Interiors iron does where?
You know it's not exclusive to Interior Design.
Really, some of these hats that any business owner.
Any entrepreneur might have to wear all these has for marketing
and finance and all those things.
So some of those just come along with owning your own business
and then a lot of it, like the design portion and some Other
aspects are pertaining specifically to Interior Design,
but hopefully this is helpful for you.
If you're thinking about going on your own, I certainly wasn't
aware of all the positions. I needed to be in to be a
entrepreneur. So when I finally did create an
org chart as like dang this is a lot.
So I'm hoping that you gained some insight a lot earlier in
the game before I did. And if you find that helpful,
Full and you can find a sample organizational chart.
Like I said in the show notes, go to our war design.com for /
podcast and you'll find all the information there, I'd love for
you to reach out to me with any information.
You'd love for me to discuss on the podcast.
You can email me podcast at our award design.com, and if you
would love to work with me a little more on getting some
insight, as to what the career of interior design really is.
Is then why don't you join me in my design Mentor my membership
program? Where each month, we have a
different subject. We are discussing on the live
call and you can ask me, personally, your questions and
struggles that you're facing as you are starting your career in
interior design. So if that's interests you, you
can also find that on my website.
Stay tuned, creative one. And we'll be back next week with
another great episode on design. Curious podcast.
Thanks for listening. If you loved this episode,
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