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Amy Storm on why she decided to forgo remodels and focus solely on new construction, and how she locks in a project’s FF&E budget before ever breaking ground.

Antonio DeLoatch on uprooting his firm and starting over in New York, the showhouse that changed everything for his business, and how he earns his clients’ trust with his frank money talk.

After nearly a decade at the helm of her own design firm, Amy Sklar came to a realization: if she wasn’t profiting from her business, it was simply a hobby. The epiphany led to a transformation in the way she structured her firm’s finances, and prompted her to build a new confidence when it came to communicating that process to clients.

When Clara Jung left her first career in law, she gave herself one year to get her design business off the ground, all on her own. Today, she’s infusing her firm with that same small and scrappy ethos, and attracting team members who share her all-hands-on-deck attitude.

Marieanne Khoury-Vogt on her experiences developing a town that sustains its residents over a lifetime and how she strengthens relationships within her firm, her community and the industry at large.

Caren Rideau on using social media to attract clients and employees, the benefits of being a kitchen specialist in an industry filled with full service designers, and how combining design with her other passions has allowed an entirely new brand to emerge.

Matthew Tenzin on why the industry needs to pay attention to the health impact of design decisions and why what he calls “affluent consciousness” is so important in his client relationships.

Blair Moore on why her quest for excellence required launching her own receiving operation, how she’s striving to reduce waste in the design process and why maximizing profit isn’t her firm’s biggest focus.

Amy Kartheiser on the policy that helps her firm cultivate stellar client relationships, how she’s protecting her business in case of an industry slowdown.

Leslie Murchie Cascino on why she’s now offering consulting services for small-scale projects, and how she escaped burnout by focusing only on the projects she found most fulfilling.

Zoe Feldman on the surprising piece of advice that prompted her to rethink her firm’s team size, and why she insists that clients don’t really want full transparency.

Courtney McLeod on the nightmare client that overran her firm's processes in the early days of her design career, and how she learned to secure her clients' trust in order to unlock greater creative freedom.