151 – Ann Lowengart: Interiors Started on a Dare

Ann Lowengart: Interiors Started on a Dare Today in The Lounge Nick joins Ann Lowengart of Ann Lowengart Design to talk about how her interior design business started on a dare. Ann and Nick discuss the importance of having a great staff on your side and how it helps propels your business. Getting to Know Ann A career can really feed your soul. For Ann, it does just that. She loves client interactions, design, business, and operations. She says that understanding that a love for her career can be more than just a paycheck, is the biggest lesson she learned from her parents growing up. Her favorite vacation she took was when she brought her daughter, an equestrian, to ride in Ireland. When Ann is asked, "Beer, wine or cocktail?" she prefers an iced tea and a run. Before she started her career in interior design, Ann was in corporate sales and attended UC Berkeley. She received the classic sales job after college and worked for Procter and Gamble. She says it was a really great experience for her because she rose up the ranks from stocking shelves to managing a small group of people. It was a great way to learn the basics of business and how to sell effectively, manage a team, listen carefully to her customers, behave in the most ethical and honest way and win at what you are doing. I Dare You! After five years, Ann took a severance package from P&G, which she and her used husband to buy a building. Ann remodeled the units in the building and then sold them. It was in the first unit that she discovered her love for wood floors and molding. She also found that she had an eye for spatial relationships and detail. Ann’s friend noticed that she LOVED what she did with the remodel and dared her to put "Remodel Consultant" on her business card. Ann did and the next day at her open house she handed them out and received her first call. She booked her second project from a neighbor who also picked up one of her business cards and now, almost twenty years later, she has finished her fourth project for that family. The Business Today Ann has a team that consists of nine to fifteen people. At any given moment they might also have nine to twelve luxury residential projects going on at a time. Decorating a home from the ground up can take one to two years to complete, but allows Ann to get to know her clients really well. She prides herself on customer service. Projects at Ann’s company can vary greatly in price. A lot of customers are under the impression that remodels work like they do on HGTV. Some kind of magic wand is waved around and poof! The project is done. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works in real life. Ann had the opportunity to be interviewed by HGTV and one of the first things he did was apologize for the expectations HGTV sets... rarely anything can be finished super quickly for a reasonable price. For this reason, Ann’s company gives a lengthy questionnaire process to be sure a client fits within her company. They have walked away from clients if they can’t meet their budget and timeframe scenarios because they'd rather not do a disservice to the client or the company. If they do accept a brand new client, they first listen carefully to the client's design expectations and look at any Pinterest boards, design boards, or tear sheets they may have in order to stick as closely to what the client wants as possible. After the customer is taken on a shopping trip to see which levels of quality exist within their budget. A specific budget is developed to include everything from furniture, draperies, area rugs, accessories, art, and any extra costs associated with projects so the client knows where their money is going. They do not move forward unless the client is on the same page as them. Ann and Coupar PR Coupar PR is very strategic as well as ethical and honest. Krista’s staff is also excellent in getting Ann's name out there su...