022: Diving Into the Deep End of Business

with Lindsey Cheek

Lindsey Cheek is the owner, principal designer, and creative director for Gathered Group located in Wilmington, North Carolina. Lindsey’s work has been featured in Southern Living, HGTV magazine, Martha Stewart Magazine, The Huffington Post and many more. Lindsey shares with us how her business took off quickly after using photos of her personal home renovation and how this meant diving into the deep end of business quickly!

Topics Mentioned:

• Quick growth
• Business not hobby
• Staffing and Leadership
• Planning

Thoughts from Lindsey:

• There was grace in the mistakes of the first project because it was large and the family was flexible and encouraging.  Also with the family living in China, they were hands off and didn’t care about the details in between; they just wanted a beautiful home when they moved to California.
• My business is a “gathered collection of professionals”.
• My biggest challenge with the company was realizing it was a business and not a hobby.  I was challenged as a leader and learned to be decisive in what I wanted for my firm and my clients.
• I want the space I own to be where my team feels inspired and cared for and where they can do their best work.
• Being unclear is being unkind.
• Some great advice I was given from the Vice President of Ballard Designs is don’t name your business with your own name because you’ll struggle to be able to grow it or sell it and there might be resentment from employees.
• The quality of the design work from anyone on the team should be the same no matter what name is on the door.
• I look to hire staff that have the strengths that I don’t have. We should complement each other.

 

Socials:

• Website: https://gatheredgroup.com
• Facebook: Gathered
• Instagram: @gatheredgroup, @fificheek