62. Growing an Upholstery Business Through Intentional Entrepreneurship https://i0.wp.com/nachesnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/S78062-pin.jpg?fit=740%2C900&ssl=1 740 900 Nache’ Snow - Speaker, Author, Productivity Junkie, and Host of the Studio 78 Podcast Nache’ Snow - Speaker, Author, Productivity Junkie, and Host of the Studio 78 Podcast https://i0.wp.com/nachesnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/S78062-pin.jpg?fit=740%2C900&ssl=1 August 26, 2018 October 19, 2019

62. Growing an Upholstery Business Through Intentional Entrepreneurship

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Growing an Upholstery Business Through Intentional Entrepreneurship | Studio 78 Podcast nachesnow.com/62

Nicole Crowder is the independent furniture designer and upholsterer behind Nicole Crowder Upholstery based in Washington D.C. She has been upholstering furniture for clients since 2013. Previously Nicole was a Photo Editor for The Washington Post and Netflix.

In this episode, we discuss Nicole’s journey to launching her upholstery business, how she made a deliberate attempt to be more intentional about her lifestyle, and how she manages her business.

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Show Notes

In college, she was involved in art and design and she ended up doing an internship with Essence Magazine which introduced her to the world of photo editing
That started her 10-year career in photo editing and she moved from NY to DC to work for AARP; She also worked for the Washington Post for a bit before moving to Cali to work with Netflix
Throughout this period she grew a love for upholstery which ultimately led her to move back to DC
She loved thrifting and antique markets and she loved decorating her space with found objects
In 2011-12 she worked with Apartment Therapy doing house tours and she noticed she was drawn to chairs while photographing spaces
After being told about a store in Baltimore she bought some chairs and never looked back; an interior designer interested in her upholstered chairs told Nicole this isn’t a hobby it’s a niche
2016 she left her full-time position at Netflix and made the decision to do this full time; She started 31 January 2017

I wanted to just be more intentional about the lifestyle and the work I wanted to do for myself
Nicole

7:40 She decided to relaunch her upholstery business in a way that she would thrive; That meant creating structure around what kind of work she wanted to do, price point, where she wanted to live, how she wanted to work
Nicole discusses how she originally tried to open her upholstery business in 2013 and lessons learned
We discuss insurance and accounting [links below]
Main streams of income goals: sell on her website, have a studio, and work with hotels
Majority of her work is residential, but she wants to do more commercial so she can produce her own work
We discuss offering high-end furniture to those with disposable income, but offering classes for those who want something more affordable
Through her workshops, she’s been able to create a community
We discuss how to be intentional with the money you want to make so you can maintain financially as a small business owner
To stay motivated Nicole meditates, journals and sketches; also creating work that’s not already out there