137: 5 Mistakes to Avoid when Scaling Your Interior Design Firm with Courtney DeRonde

With me on the podcast today is Courtney DeRonde. Courtney is a CPA and Managing Partner of TDT CPAs and Advisors in Iowa. Courtney and her team provide boutique advisory services for small businesses that are in a growth mode. Today, she shares with us the 5 blindspots of a growing and scaling company. If we ignore these blindspots issues can certainly arise. Courtney offers actionable ways we can recognize the blindspots and do something about them in advance. Enjoy the podcast.

Topics Mentioned:

• Scenario planning

• Stress testing

• Financial data

• Blindspots

Key Thoughts:

• One of the things that we found when we started to really focus more on being proactive, is that a foundation of being proactive is having accurate, timely financial information. Courtney (03:25) 

• I really love the idea of teaching and creating frameworks, because we can pick them up and move them around to solve other problems. Michele (21:02) 

• It is not just accurate and timely, that's foundational, but it also needs to be relevant. Courtney (31:45) 

• As a coach that focuses on financials, what I do is use those financials, to determine what decision making has been happening. Michele (33:55) 

• If we like the numbers, keep making the same decisions. If those are not the numbers that we want, or that we need, or that are going to carry us forward, we have to go back and determine which activities need to change. Michele (34:20) 

• Cash flow problems are just a symptom, they're not the underlying problem. Courtney (37:18)  

Contact Michele:

• Email: [email protected]

• Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting

• Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL

Contact Courtney:

• Website: tdtpc.com

• LinkedIn: Courtney DeRonde

• LinkedIn: TDT CPAs and Advisors

• Facebook: TDT CPAs and Advisors

• Email: [email protected]

References and Resources:

• The Designers' Inner Circle - Become a Member Today

• 5 Keys to Success that Exceptional Leaders do that Spur Growth and Profitability - Ep 27 with Eileen Hahn

• How to Easily Understand Your Interior Design Businesses’ Finances - Ep 136 with Jack Tomkins

• The E-Myth Revisited - by Michael E. Gerber

• 5 Blind Spots as Companies Grow & Scale E-Book by Courtney DeRonde

• Text “blindspot” to 33777 - to the free E-Book via text message