159: The Beef and the Bear — are you incorporating luxury hospitality practices into your design business?

Shaun and Rebecca explore how interior designers can borrow luxury‑hospitality practices (think boutique hotels, high‑end resorts) and apply them to their own design businesses. They dig into the idea that service isn’t just about furniture or finishes–it’s about how you make your clients feel, and how you structure your process, your purchasing, your hiring, and your client‑experience to reflect that elevated standard. Along the way they share candid business talk about shifting models, hiring help, market tiers, and positioning.

In this conversation they discuss:

• The recent Facebook designer‑group debate about trade discounts vs deep pricing and what that means for profitability.
• How going up‑market and leveraging stocking dealer accounts can open room for margin (and why that old‑school model still has relevance).
• The concept of hospitality—drawn from the book Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara—and how it applies to interior‑design business beyond restaurants. (Unreasonable Hospitality)
• Practical low‑starts for elevating client experience (handwritten notes, snack trays at presentations, anticipating needs) and the hard part: sustaining it over a full project.
• Shaun’s and Rebecca’s personal experiences: one signing a new project at a ‘lowest point,’ website copy finally working for leads, and the bravery of hiring operations/ procurement help.
• The shift from being “just a furniture order‑taker” to being a concierge, experience architect, and partner—and how that reframes your value proposition.
• The emotional and operational reality of hiring: knowing when you’re doing too much, needing to delegate, whether you’re ready to manage people (or handlers), and the fear of burning out or falling behind.
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Mentioned:

• Design Biz Survival Guide Retreat
• House of Savoy Instagram post example
• Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara

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