My guest for today’s amazing show is Candy Scott, the Principal of MOOD Design + Build, based in Chicago. She gives practical advice on launching, growing, and sustaining an interior design business. Candy has 15 years’ experience in both commercial and residential design. She graduated from Meredith College in Raleigh, NC, with a BS in Interior Design. You’ll hear her describe how her early experience working with a large developer and with large corporate clients, outfitting high-rise condominiums, lobbies, model homes, and showrooms all contributed to some of the principles and lessons she brings to her own business. She founded MOOD Design + Build in 2014, and continues to work with residential clients and small business owners with their homes, offices, and small-scale commercial interiors.

Show highlights:

• Candy’s background and experience after design school
• Benefits to working at a furniture store, learning customer service and different segments of the business
• Making mistakes in the early years: “falling down and getting back up again”
• The consciousness it takes to “get out of the drama”
• Finding the place of relating to clients, vendors, and contractors with a sense of mutuality
• Meeting clients where they are: hearing their frustrations and fear
• The range of services offered by MOOD Design + Build
• How the design phase and the build phase differ
• Breaking down a project into smaller increments and tracking the data
• How to be the go-to for referrals for the business that larger firms don’t want
• Why you must attend networking events
• Weekly sales activity: why you can’t let this part of your business go
• Developing relationships with realtors
• Candy’s blog post with 7 Initial Questions for Developing a Beautiful Space and 5 Steps to Making a Beautiful Space (check out her website!)

Resources:

Candy’s website and blog:

www.modddesignbuild.com

Her Twitter: https://twitter.com/CandyScott_

Her Social: https://www.instagram.com/mooddesignbuild/ https://www.facebook.com/candy.scott.754 https://www.linkedin.com/in/candy-scott-049b1ba/