Want to be entrepreneur? Take these five lessons to heart.
How an accidental entrepreneur hit rock bottom, and survived. Learn from her journey, so you don’t have to learn the hard way.
A few days ago, I had the pleasure of talking with successful entrepreneur and interior designer, Crispin Butterfield. She told me about her business journey and what she’s learned along the way. I’m sharing her advice with the hope that it will help you on your own entrepreneurial adventures.
Creative beginnings
Crispin has always been the artsy-fartsy type and, growing up in Brandon, Manitoba, her passion was ballet. As a kid and a teenager, she spent hours and hours every week practising ballet and taking classes. She danced in lots of competitions and performances, and looked forward to a future as a professional ballet dancer.
Until she didn’t.
The high pressure was grinding her down:
“Even when you’re perfect, you’re never good enough.”
Around age 17, Crispin finally broke down from the stress and — in the middle of a big ballet competition she was winning — decided to quit ballet completely.
She began to channel her artistic talents in a different direction, eventually leading her to study interior design at Mount Royal University in Calgary.
An accidental entrepreneur
Crispin says that the standard expectation is that newly qualified interior designers join design firms in junior positions and gradually work their way up.
After graduating, she moved back to her hometown to figure out her plan. While she thought about what to do, she worked with a family friend who owned a flooring store and helped out part-time by advising the flooring customers on other aspects of their interior design.
She was doing this so often that they eventually became fully-fledged interior design clients. So, after about a year, Crispin ‘accidentally’ became an entrepreneur and started officially running her own interior design business, Urban Theory Design. She says,
“With the popularity of HGTV and design shows, people were realizing that interior design was more mainstream and not just for the super-rich or people who are building mansions... The demand was crazy.”
It was easy for her to build a solid business network through word of mouth simply by doing quality work for her clients.
(By the way, I like this test for whether or not you should become an entrepreneur because, by my understanding, entrepreneurship isn’t necessarily risky: Should You Be An Entrepreneur? Take This Test. I do consider myself to be an entrepreneur and I answered ‘yes’ to 17 out of 20 of the questions.)
Early success… and early failure
Part of Crispin’s early success was due to being a part of the community. She had grown up in Brandon and it didn’t take her long to build a network of loyal clients who would happily refer her to new clients. Her business grew and was successful, despite her doing almost no marketing.
Then she made her first major business mistake. She decided that, in addition to her interior design business, she would also open a furniture store, and she borrowed $100,000 to do so.
“I didn’t have any marketing experience, I was just throwing money at radio advertisements, newspaper ads. There was no plan. It was just this beautiful concept. I have clients, I’m busy, they need furniture, they’re going elsewhere to buy their stuff. Why don’t they buy through me? In the beginning it seemed like a good idea.”
But the furniture store bled money, while Crispin was putting on a brave face and pretending everything was fine.
“I hid everything from everyone. I didn’t want anyone to know I was struggling. I didn’t want anyone to know I was failing.”
Things tanked so badly that, at age 26, after the furniture store had been open for a year and a half, she had to declare bankruptcy.
The lesson learned from failure
What Crispin learned from this rock bottom experience is,
“GET A MENTOR! You need help. You need people who are more experienced than you, who have insight into these things, to help guide you. You can’t do this by yourself. You don’t know it all.”
She also says that part of the problem was that she didn’t know enough about her market. She borrowed money and spent money without a solid plan.
“Learn from other people. Realize that even though you may have the independent spirit that’s a good thing when you’re an entrepreneur, you need other people. Find mentors. Learn from them. Tell people when you have problems you could use help with — before you reach a crisis!”
But she recovered — because she was part of a community and had built a network. She still had all her design clients and they were forgiving and supportive and continued to refer new business to her. She was able to recover from bankruptcy and continue to grow her interior design business.
“My design business didn’t take a hit at all, thankfully.”
Crispin’s recovery from bankruptcy illustrates the power of belonging to a supportive business network and having satisfied past clients so much that they were willing to overlook even a bankruptcy.
How to start from scratch
The importance of networking was emphasized again when, after 11 years of successfully running her interior design business in Brandon, Crispin moved and expanded her business into Kelowna, BC. In contrast with Brandon, she had no connections and no support in Kelowna’s more competitive interior design market. Crispin says that moving to Kelowna was like starting a new business from scratch.
For the first two years, Crispin admits that she didn’t have a single client in Kelowna. Luckily, she had work back in Brandon that was able to keep her afloat financially, but it was still tough.
But she did manage to survive, thrive and grow her business in Kelowna. Here’s how she did it.
Build a network
Appreciating how important a business network was back in Brandon, she knew she had to work hard to build a new network in Kelowna.
“Making those connections and becoming as local as possible is so important. You’ve got to really put yourself out there, to be doing something different — so you can stand out from your peers.”
She volunteered on the board of Kelowna Women in Business (KWIB), and eventually became the president. This non-profit organization provides “personal development, mentorship, networking and collaboration opportunities” for its members.
(An aside: I’m also a member of KWIB, which is how I met Crispin. It’s a fantastic organization and I’ve met tons of lovely people through it.)
It’s through meeting people, and making friends with people, and helping them, that the all-important ‘know, like, trust’ factors are built. Crispin says she “puts herself out there” by speaking at KWIB events, even though it’s outside her comfort zone. She’s done this enough that she gets recognized around town and even if a KWIB member doesn’t need her services, they’re more likely to recommend her to a friend or relative who does need an interior designer.
“I wouldn’t say that it’s given me a ton of clients, but it’s given me the community platform to get my name out there. I meet people and they ask my name and they say, ‘I’ve heard of you!’ That has worked.”
Now, after five years in Kelowna, Crispin says,
“It’s still a challenge to be constantly making new connections and finding ways to fill that pipeline. In Brandon, everything was handed to me. Here, you have to be hungry for it, and go after it.”
Crispin recommends that you:
“Join an organization or a board, not just to gain connections, but also because you’re passionate about it and it aligns with your values… Joining a board gave me a platform and also more access to other professionals in the city that I might not have experienced otherwise.”
(For further reading, here’s an article on the importance of networking: What is Business Networking and What Are the Benefits?)
When you have no clients, work on yourself
During the client dry spell, Crispin turned to her mentors, she hired business coaches, she took a 10-week course on mindset. She listened to podcasts and read books on mindset and attitude. She practiced being patient. These things helped her get through the client drought and accompanying anxiety.
Crispin says she used to be “super competitive, super judgemental” and paid too much attention to what everyone else was doing.
“If you’re comparing yourself to everyone else, you’re missing out and not acknowledging the amazing things you have to offer because you just never think you’re good enough. You’re robbing yourself of enjoying the things you have and the things you’ve accomplished.”
So she made the best use of that clientless period by working on herself — improving her attitude and mindset, and learning new things. She says it was time well spent because by working on herself, she was also working on her business.
Take your marketing seriously
In Brandon, Crispin didn’t need to market her interior design business at all, but starting again in Kelowna she had to.
She says that she’s seen results from both Instagram marketing and Google ads. She typically doesn’t advertise in print:
“There’s no ROI for me in print advertising. It’s all digital.”
(ROI = return on investment.)
On Instagram, she recommends not just posting beautiful pictures. She says she gets better results from telling the story behind a photo of a beautiful interior: What was the client’s problem and how was she able to help them solve it?
“If you can point out the client’s pain points, and show and tell how you solve those, you connect those dots for the consumer and you bring them closer to that ‘know, like, trust’ factor. And they’re more likely to reach out and call you instead of someone who’s just posting pretty photos on Instagram.”
She also uses Google AdWords to market her business in the competitive Kelowna area, so she shows up higher in online searches.
Finally, she’s learned marketing tips from other volunteers and developed her skills by helping out with marketing for Kelowna Women in Business. This is another way in which building connections can be helpful — you can learn from one another.
To sum up the importance of taking marketing seriously, Crispin says that your customers are out there, and they need someone who does what you do — but you can’t serve them if they can’t find you:
“Can your clients find you? Because they’re already looking for you. And if you don’t show up, they’re going to find the people who are showing up.”
(For more info about online marketing, here’s The Beginners’ Guide to Online Marketing by Quick Sprout.)
Supporting new designers
For all entrepreneurs, there are highs and lows. Crispin has experienced the rock bottom low of bankruptcy, and the frustration of not having enough clients, but also the highs of making clients happy, being featured in Style at Home magazine and other design publications, and being interviewed on various podcasts, such as Real Talk Design with Michelle Binette.
She’s proud that, despite obstacles, her business is still alive and well after 16 years and she’s still driven to work hard and to grow her business.
She’s growing it in a way she didn’t originally anticipate, though. Her original dream was to have interior design offices across Canada and the US. But she’s ended up growing it in a completely different direction.
Given her first-hand knowledge of the importance of networking and mentorship for helping entrepreneurs and business owners survive and thrive, she’s shifting towards providing those things for other designers.
She now has enough experience that she can offer sound advice to people starting in the world of design. As well as offering private, one-on-one mentoring, she also runs a Facebook group offering mentoring and support for interior designers, decorators, stylists, architects, and design students.
You can find the Facebook group here: Creative Human – Mentorship + Business Insight for Design Professionals. And here on Instagram: Creative Human — Design Mentorship.
“My purpose is to inspire and mentor other designers on how to run their businesses. I mentor newbie designers on how to start up, how to work with clients, how to run projects, and the importance of working on the mindset around handling failure.”
In particular, Crispin says it’s important to shed the need to be perfect. She grew up with that single-minded focus on achieving perfection when she participated in competitive ballet, but she says,
“It’s not sustainable – especially in business. If you’re constantly focused on trying to achieve ‘perfect’, you’ll burn out and always be let down. Keep the bar high, but be sure you’re working on other things in your life to maintain some kind of balance between achievement and gratitude for where you’re at.”
The lessons to take to heart
If you are a new entrepreneur or business owner — or thinking of becoming one — here are the five key things to learn from this interview with Crispin:
1. The importance of networking: You need to put yourself out there, build connections, and get your name known.
2. Mentorship is essential: You can’t run and grow a successful business by yourself. Learn from others who have been there before you.
3. Work on yourself: Your mindset and attitude affect your business. Try not to compare yourself to others too much.
4. Marketing matters: Figure out what kind of marketing works for your business and commit to it.
5. Reject perfectionism: Strive for high standards — not perfection — in your work, and balance that with gratitude for what you’ve already accomplished.
If you know someone who might benefit from these lessons, please share this post with them.
And visit Crispin Butterfield’s business, Urban Theory Interior Design, online and tell her that you appreciated her sharing her experiences and her advice:
Facebook: Urban Theory Interior Design
Website: Urban Theory Interior Design
Instagram: Urban Theory Interior Design
Many thanks to my writing group colleagues, Simone Blais and Donna Nelson, who gave me valuable suggestions on an earlier draft of this post.