Procurement is one of the most essential activities of any interior design business. But it is time-consuming and fraught with frustrations and headaches. Up to now, designers have not had many options if they wanted to delegate procurement to someone else. Thanks to a new service created by interior designers for interior designers, that is now easier than ever.

In this episode, Gail welcomes back to the podcast interior designer Christi Barbour, founder and partner, Barbour Spangle, in High Point, North Carolina. A few years ago, Christi and her partner realized that their team was spending a lot of time on procurement and procurement-related issues. They decided to hire a procurement manager part-time. They were so pleased with the result that they converted that person to full-time. When they saw how that allowed their designers to focus more on what they do best—designing—they got the idea to develop a procurement service for other designers as well. That service is now available in a membership subscription.

Many designers, especially sole practitioners and those with smaller firms, have difficulty meeting minimum orders or opening accounts with some vendors. Because their firm is located in High Point, Christi explained, they have developed exceptional relationships with many local and national vendors. By using their procurement service, designers can take advantage of those relationships and of the many years Christi and her partner have spent learning how to improve and streamline their procurement process.

“I have a genuine desire to support and uplift our fellow designers,” Christi said. She realized she could leverage her firm’s experience and serve as a partner and catalyst for growth for other firms. It is a win/win/win for designers, vendors and her firm, she said.

Christi said that what makes her firm’s service different from others is that as designers they know what designers need and the challenges they face with procurement. Also, designers don’t need to worry about outlays of cash. Her firm handles all the arrangements with the vendors. Plus, the designer gets more favorable designer net pricing, and they handle warehousing and claims issues.

“Designers spend over 50 percent of their day dedicated to procurement,” Christi said. Her service can help them save valuable time and money. “It’s for anybody who is seeking their highest return on investment for outsourcing their procurement,” she said.

During their conversation, Christi explained how her firm spent over a year streamlining the procurement process to just a handful of touch points. She also explained how the service works and why for most designers it is a better option than hiring a procurement manager for their firm.

For all that and more, listen to the entire podcast.

If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s11e3-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

If you would like to learn more about Barbour Spangle's procurement service, visit https://www.bsdgprocure.com.

Listen to the previous episode with Christi, on nurturing productive partnership, here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TQEhYdDeb0&pp=ygUQcGVhcmwgY29sbGVjdGl2ZQ%3D%3D

Episode Transcript

Note: Transcript is created automatically and may contain errors.

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Welcome to the Creative Genius podcast, Kristi. It's great to have you back on and I am so excited to have you. Thank you, Gail. It is always a pleasure and a delight to be part of your podcast and to get to see you. So thank you for inviting me to be with you today. Thank you. Well, you've gone through a lot of changes in the years that you've been in business and

And frankly, you're one of our big success stories. And I'd love for you to share some of the things you've gone through in the last several years. Well, thank you. We first of all, thank you very much for saying that.