SCID - Twenty Years in Business!
Twenty Years…. how is that even possible?
Twenty years ago I decided to work for myself, not go back to my job at an architecture firm and decide if I really wanted to stay working as an Interior Designer. You see, I was mainly designing large office spaces… and I wasn’t loving it. I thought that I didn’t love interior design and that I needed to figure out another career path. But then my mom and dad hired me to help them with the renovation of their home and I.FELL.IN.LOVE with residential design! After that, a number of referrals led me to more residential design projects and I never looked back or questioned my path.
Which is saying a lot seeing as I applied to the Interior Design program only because I had run out of other ideas! I knew I wanted to do something creative and art based… and I had originally intended to become an art teacher. Or maybe an art therapist. At one point I thought I’d own an art gallery. I had many ideas, but no direction … I just knew it needed to be creative. So when a girl in one of my fine arts classes said she was applying to Interior Design at U of M, I said “Cool. I will too.” I got in.. and she didn’t. So off I went to Winnipeg. Fast forward to graduation after a four year degree, a five month stint in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at a design firm, a wedding and a baby. You are now in 2002.
The first ten years of being an “entrepreneur” felt more like a side hustle as I raised my kids. My first year in business I was focused on my one year old daughter and work was something I enjoyed but it truly felt more like a part time thing than a full fledged career at the time. Over that first ten years, I had two more kids and all three were my main focus as they should have been. I loved being a designer and was always grateful to have kept those skills up, but I didn’t really think about or pay attention to running a business. I didn’t even photograph my work or have a website!
Headshots over the years
And then…
I hit forty! I call it my mid-life crisis… because I really was in crisis mode. I was tiring of the headaches that came with working for yourself and I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep going. I actually sent out resumes, interviewed with two top interior designers in Calgary and was offered a job. But something wasn’t sitting right… I had this niggly feeling that I shouldn’t give up. It occurred to me that I had never really focused on creating an actual business, had never taken any business classes and hadn’t truly seen myself as a legit business owner. And really, no one else did either. I can’t count the number of times I had friends offer a cup of coffee for free design advice or refer to my job as nothing more than a hobby.
My kids were in school full time and it was finally time for me to make something of this. After three different names for the “business” over the first ten years (do not ask what they were… I’m not sure i even recall them), I officially registered “Stephanie Charest Interior Design”, hired a professional photographer to take photos and hired someone to create a website. I giggle at my initial days of styling a home for a shoot! I was like a fish out of water… my first ten years I did only renovations, space planning, hard finishes and the like. Now I can’t imagine not offering styling as one of our services, as it is one of my most favourite parts.
I also flew to Vancouver for a three day course called “Business of Design” with Kimberley Seldon.
IT WAS LIFE CHANGING.
Truly. It changed the trajectory of my business. I was making so many mistakes as a “business owner” that I shake my head at (um… allowing clients to phone me on my home phone at 11 pm at night is one of them!) and her books, classes and resources were a Godsend. I certainly didn’t start doing everything perfectly after that first course, but it definitely had me revising and implementing some good and necessary changes afterwards.
Another major thing I did for my business was hire a business coach. To say that this investment has been the most significant and life altering, would not be a lie. My coach (who happened to be Kimberley Seldon’s coach when I began the transformation of my business … ahem) revolutionized my business, my confidence and my life. Why? Because when we started, I was low on confidence, didn’t set goals and was flailing in my processes and communication. She patiently worked with me (with zero judgement) and changed my thinking and systems to get me where I am today. I get a little teary eyed thinking of the person I was when we started. Marysia, my business coach, saw a butterfly when I was acting and thinking like a caterpillar.
Fast forward to 2023 as we now celebrate TWENTY years in business! We are now a small boutique design firm of four. In 2021 we bought and renovated a house specifically for our office to run out of …which was a thousand times more nerve wracking than when I finally moved out of my basement home office and in to a rented space. Fun fact - I shared my first office space with another designer that I met at that first Business of Design course in Vancouver. When I chatted with her at that time I informed her that she would in fact be my friend whether she liked it or not. Haha! (If you know me at all, you know this is what I tell client’s as well. You will be my friend AND you will be happy about it!)
To say it’s all been rainbows and puppies would be a lie. It’s been a grind, it’s been a lot of stress and it’s been a lot of falling down and picking myself back up. Owning and running a business is NOT for the faint of heart. Which makes me wonder why I am doing this when I feel so very faint of heart!
BUT…
I love it. I love homes and people and seeing the look on someone’s face when they see their design on presentation day and when they see their completed home after we’ve styled it. I love hearing how it’s better than they imagined and I love caring about our clients so much that I lose sleep over what they’ll think and how they’ll react. I love that I get to be creative and help people.
And for a girl who didn’t find her way until she took that first art class in high school and applied to get her Bachelor of Interior Design on a whim … it means the world. I’ve actually done it. I’ve successfully kept this business going for twenty years! I didn’t throw in the towel, or mess up so badly that we had to close our doors. I’m not here to say that I’ve made it and that I’ve arrived. I’m just here to say I kept going and I’m pretty proud of that.
So cheers to twenty years! I’m virtually clinking a glass of prosecco with you!
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