238: Diversifying Your Business
Michele 00:00
Hello, my name is Michele, and you're listening to Profit is a Choice. With us today is Anastasia Harrison of AHD&CO as well as with AHD Trade. Anastasia is a licensed architect and an interior designer with a primary location in New Jersey. Her business has grown and changed since she first started and we're going to be talking about how it has diversified with a trade-only showroom. Join us and listen in. I hope there are some great takeaways for you. Every day, empowered entrepreneurs are taking ownership of their company financial health and enjoying the rewards of reduced stress and more creativity. With my background as a financial software developer, owner of multiple businesses, and the interior design, industry, educator, and speaker, I coach women in the interior design industry to increase their profits, regain ownership of their bottom line, and to have fun again in their business. Welcome to Profit is a Choice. Hey, Anastasia, welcome to the podcast.
Anastasia 01:14
Good morning, Michele.
Michele 01:15
I'm excited to talk to you. We've been on one time before I think didn’t we do another podcast?
Anastasia 01:20
Yes, a couple of years ago.
Michele 01:22
Yes, I'll find it, link it in the show notes so people be able to follow your journey. But one of the things I'd love to we're going to talk about today is diversifying our business. We've heard about diversifying, and diversification and all the terms in a couple of different ways. But you've taken a little bit different tack than maybe some others have and so I want to make sure that we have an opportunity to explore that. But let's go back to the beginning and kind of set the stage for when you went out on your own to start your own business, tell us what it looked like upon inception.
Anastasia 01:56
So, when I went out to start my own business, it was clear to me that there were two houses of design. There were architects and their interior designers, and then none of the two shall meet during the design process, right? Architects came in and they designed what they designed, and then interior designers came in and then they undid what the architects did, and they never spoke kindly of each other. My first project was actually a very small family room addition for a friend. As you know, going out on your own is really scary, and you don't know where to start or what to do first. So, starting with friends is always really comfortable. And I started with this family room, and she needed everything she needed the wall color, she needed the furniture, she needed the window treatments, the rug, all of the things. But more important was the space planning, it was just a 20 by 20 addition off the back of her house. How did we design it so that all the furniture fit her needs? So we had that conversation? How big is the TV? What kind of sofa sitting? Are we looking at? Is it football sitting? Is it serving tea sitting like what is the purpose of this room? And through that, I realized that when you look back at the master architects that we all know in our time, like Frank Lloyd Wright or Le Corbusier they all did their own interiors. It was really about how the space is one cohesive, beautiful space, so it's architecture and interiors. You're designing the spaces to fit the need, as opposed to just building a building and then figuring out with the room is, it's not just a living room. It's a living room with a purpose.
Michele 03:40
I love that. You have a background in architecture yourself, don't you?
Anastasia 03:47
I'm a licensed architect. Yes, I'm licensed in two states, I'm licensed in New Jersey and Florida. I've been practicing architecture for 30 years.
Michele 03:56
So, then you had this perfect opportunity to merge the two, not everybody that has an interior design degree also has the architecture and vice versa. You had this, this already a combined ability to see a space from both directions, like you're saying both the architecture and from the direction of the interiors. I'm curious, we'll call it anecdotally, just like what you have experienced, why do you think there has been such a divide or disconnect between those two modalities?
Anastasia 04:35
I think architecture, residential architecture, the homes became very commercialized from the 90s to the early 2000s. There were these factories of houses that just had to be pumped out. So you had developers that were building a spec house that had that open floor plan that I personally do not like, and then you built it to a standard spec Today, we would know that as gray walls, white kitchen, Blue Island, natural hardwood floors like the standard stuff builders build. And then design became important again. Interior designers have always been needed and very important when it comes to putting all those components together in a home, but the two just sort of fell apart and became different. When you are working with an interior designer, they do a lot more programming than an architect does. I can talk from both sides of that because I do both. If I'm just doing architecture, I still ask all the questions an interior designer asks, but I also work on projects where other architects have done the building, and it's my responsibility to then do the interiors for that. But I do it in such a way where I really start to ask questions and involve the architect, I really like to be involved with interior design, if another architect is working on the project, at the planning stages of its schematic design, not when it's all done. If it's all done, I'll still work with that, but it's really helpful when the two minds are in the same place.
Michele 06:15
When you started your own firm, did you do it with the idea that you were going to do both to go ahead and marry both from the very beginning?
Anastasia 06:28
Yes, that was sort of our difference and what we brought to a project was the fact that we're going to do the outside and the inside, and we're going to pay attention to the details.
Michele 06:45
When you started, were you the only architect on your team? Or did you immediately hire another architect to join?
Anastasia 06:55
It was me, myself, and I. The architect, the interior designer, the draftsman, the procurement manager, the marketing, it was all me.
Michele 07:05
You probably also stocked the coffee in the bathrooms and did all those things do?
Anastasia 07:09
And made the beds.
Michele 07:11
Yes, right, right! I mean, we all do that. You've owned your own firm for what, nine years? 10 years, something like that?
Anastasia 07:21
Eleven. It’s coming up on eleven.
Michele 07:23
So, how long did that before you decided to hire because you now have another architect on your team?
Anastasia 07:32
Yes, we currently have five interior designers. We have one architect. We have an intern; we have a procurement manager and an office operations person and a part-time bookkeeper.
Michele 07:45
Let me ask you this, I am curious, I don't even know that I remember the answer to this. Do you all offer architectural services for other firms or other companies that do not use your interior design? Or is your architecture kind of arm of your business to support only your interior design clients?
Anastasia 08:10
No, we do all aspects of design. So, if a client comes in, and they only want architecture, we will only do architecture, but like I tell them, I don't shut off my interior design brain. I'm going to ask them more questions than a regular architect does just to ensure that the space is going to function as they intended. We do furniture design, like space planning furniture layouts in schematic design for architecture, but then that's where we leave it. And then it's up to them to pick colors, finishes, and all the final bits and pieces. Our sweet spot is really where it's a project that needs an architect but didn't need a full-blown architecture project, so maybe it's a small bump out, or it's completely reconfiguring the ground floor and moving the kitchen to the other side of the house where you need an architect and the structure and moving the walls but you really needed the brain of an interior designer. So that's really how we sit well with that kind of project.
Michele 09:18
You have looked at architecture being part of what you've done and the services that you've offered from the very beginning. I know there are a lot of designers that struggle, they either have because they don't have it as part of what they do as part of their initial offer, so they're either having to work with a third-party architectural firm, or they're trying to outsource to get it in to be able to get those things done. Have you found that it's been a lot more seamless for you to have that full time not just you being the architect but also having another full-time architect on your staff? Have you found that it just allows for a smoother process for those that you serve?
Anastasia 10:03
Oh, Yes. But that's the case with anything, right? Like, if you're just doing interior design, and you don't, you try to do everything yourself, you got to buy back your time to do what you're best at, and having another architect on staff is invaluable because that person is also an that can help and lead the interior designers when they have questions if I'm not available. So between the two of us, we can help shape and mold those projects to be what they eventually become. Which is sometimes not the way people envision their projects, like somebody says, Okay, I want to renovate my kitchen. And this is what I'd like to do. And this is what I think and then I'll walk in, and, you know, I'll turn it upside its head and I'll move the kitchen across the house or close it and open foyer, you know, I'll do some crazy things because I know how I can push and pull the structure. And she has that same ability. So it's very helpful to have other people to support my crazy ideas.
Michele 11:04
So when you started building the firm, I know that initially, your idea was we would be able to offer let's say, I'm just going to call it and you can correct me if I identified incorrectly, but kind of small architecture. Like you're saying not full-blown, we're not building houses from scratch architecture, but more of smaller architecture, and with the design is kind of the sweet spot. So you had already kind of planned for that being the two, I'm going to say together offerings but also separate to some degree as needed. Did you kind of anticipate at the very beginning of starting that that would be the extent of kind of what your business with you?
Anastasia 11:49
I thought that that was the one magic sweet spot and that's what I was going to do and that's all. Not really understanding what else I could do with the business. But then the interior's side of the business really grew fourfold of architecture. So there's a higher value placed by clients on interior design rather than architecture and, sort of working my way leapfrogging between the two, our interior design business is four times the size of our architecture business currently.
Michele 12:21
So when you started seeing kind of that growth, right on one side that, as you mentioned, was leapfrogging it's really starting to grow quickly. What did you start doing and putting in place for your own company, just to meet that demand that growth demand and to stay on top? I know you've hired but there comes a certain point where you're looking for a scale here. So what did you do internally to meet the demand that was coming with massive purchasing that went along with the interior?
Anastasia 12:56
Yes. We really looked at all of the different tasks, how do we create standard operating procedures to automate that and then did it make sense for us to put it in one person's hands. We had a project manager here on the team, who was doing a little bit of everything she was she was the person that was fixing projects that just couldn't get finished, like that last handle that wasn't in stock, or just all the little things that make us all so crazy. And then she became this procurement genius. She started to run the procurement department, created SOPs, and used the software that we are using to commandeer that process and understand what is where in the world. When you're selling a couple of million dollars a year of goods, you've got to track it down, and through COVID, that was pretty torturous. The fact is that it was one person that could manage all those things. She knew where everything was, or why it was delayed, or because it's one brain, one human managing everything for our entire team and it was pretty evident to us that she had a greater capacity and a greater calling. So through that, we created a whole other business called AHD Trade, which is where we sell furniture, case goods, and all the things, fabrics, and finishes, to other interior design professionals at a level where they can still mark it up and make profit for themselves and still be a profitable business as opposed to buying retail.
Michele 14:43
You know what was interesting through that process because I've journeyed with you on a good portion of that, I remember being at one of the Elite retreats that I host here. And we had been talking, I think you had just started to centralize all of that ordering back, that was probably around 2020, maybe, and you would centralize all of that and I remember when she started getting her arms around it. Because she even came back to you and made a comment, oh my gosh, look how much we're buying with this vendor, let's go see if we can do better, or This is how much we bought from this vendor and if we can reach this next level, we're going to get another set of discounts. And I'm going to call it, she kind of started hound-dogging it a little bit and we're cheering for her. She was like, Okay, wait. And I think, and you would probably agree with this, Anastasia, that is because she was able to have the full picture. Let's say that you had a design firm that had five designers like you do, and all five ordered all their own things. Sometimes you're not even seeing the full picture of any work with any vendor, because five, there are five different touch points within your own firm. There is that ability to scale by putting things together and getting better buying power because you're centralizing it. I'm not saying that decentralizing doesn't work and that you can't do that, somebody's got to oversee all five of those, and collectively pull it together to start having that conversation. But for your team, it almost jumped off the page, because it was so centralized so that when she started thinking that way and looking that way, it just became self-evident that Oh, wow, we have some opportunity here to do better. Do you remember that? I remember you talking and sharing.
Anastasia 16:44
Yes, it was fabulous. It was so exciting because you don't know what you don't know until you know it, right? Like, you think, Oh, I'm saving 50% of a retail how wonderful, I'm so excited. But there's another level, there's another level that you don't even know exists, and you're still going to sell said coffee table at, I don't know, $800, whatever it may be but now I'm not buying it for four, maybe I'm buying it for three or 325. So it's just pure profit because you are already paying what you're paying to design, you're paying to manage and you're paying to purchase. So if that delta just gets better, it's just that much more rewarding at the end. And she also manages those accounts, and she has personal relationships with every one of those vendors. So what that does is it sets us in really good standing with them. If something's wrong, or we need something faster, or something's broken for the third time in a row, she's kind of a real person that she has a good relationship with that she could just make a telephone call and get it repaired or fixed or replaced in no time. So that part of the business is invaluable. I will say that it's primarily all her doing all of this, which was fabulous to have somebody come to you and your business and say, here's a plan. Here's what I think we could do. Here are some ideas. What do you think, can we brainstorm, and that's when you said to me, okay, sit down every two weeks and do it. And we did and we built a business out of that, which is very exciting. We're in the beginning stages of it but we have this full showroom, where designers come on a regular basis, and they sit on stuff and they can bring clients, they can look at all the fabrics we have and it's just, it's just a nice diversity to the business. It takes all the pressure off.
Michele 18:40
So I want to I've got a couple of different thoughts on this one. I want to really commend you and I know that you've worked hard towards this, Anastasia, because we've been coaching together for probably three or four years now, and one of the things that I think is so amazing, this is one of the parts that drew me to you even at the beginning and I don't know if I ever shared this with you, but it was that you really cared about the people that you were hiring like you. We hear this all the time, they're family, and I know that they're not like deep, deep family like let's not get too twisted about it since you have to keep some boundaries, some healthy boundaries, but I also think that you care about each of your employees individually. You care about their growth, you care about being a good leader for them. You care about them, and really discovering who they want to be in their job and in their role and then I know that you work very hard on making sure they feel seen and heard and expanding their roles to meet their growing skill set because you don't hire them in expecting them to be happy with the status quo and to stay there. And so to even provide the environment that your team member could come to you and say, Hey, I found a part of the business now that I've collected the pieces that I really love and I think that there is a way that we can make this bigger and more and I would like to do this on a bigger scale than what AHD can offer me with the buying. So how can we explore this and expand this, and then you having an openness instead of being like, oh my gosh, I don't want to do something else, you're sitting back and going, Okay, bring me a plan, let's talk through it, let's walk through it. And so she almost has the equivalent of her own, I'm going to say mini business, her own little revenue stream that she helps manage within AHD as the umbrella and it's turned out to be something really beautiful. How does it feel for you to have coached her in that process of growth? Because I remember that we've done a couple of group calls all of us together and when we would start explaining some of the business things you can see, she is like, oh, because it's different when you go from being an employee with an idea that now is its own kind of business model within the others. But how does it feel for you to have coached her and supported her and then also had an employee that was willing to grow and bring such a great business idea to you?
Anastasia 21:17
It's so fulfilling because to grow a business, we all look at the big hitters of the world right now, like, who's popular, I'm not even going to go into who because we all know who is popular right now, and they didn't get there by themselves, they didn't do it all by themselves. I'm the spinning top in this firm, they all know that I am the one that's constantly making a twirl, to come up with some idea, or some grand new plan or something. But I can't execute them all. Nobody can execute them all. So, to inspire an employee of yours to have their own inspirations, I want to support that, I want to build that, I want to do that for every one of them because together will be more successful than I would ever be alone. I don't want an employee for two to three years; I want an employee for life. So how do I do that? How do I make a role that they're satisfied with for the rest of their career basically, or at least the rest of my career? And then how do you legacy that business out? You know, there has to be an exit plan and a strategy and can that be part of that plan as well? And if they built it, why can't we come up with a strategy for when I do exit, and that would become part of that plan as well, which just makes it sweeter for everybody.
Michele 22:46
When we talk about the Fix This Next book, and it talks about the business hierarchy of needs, it starts off with sales, then profit, and then order. And most companies only get those three, they get their sales locked down, they get profitability locked down, and order, those SOPs, that repeatable, very few businesses take the next two steps, which are the two steps that I believe that you are looking to take in your business and are already setting the groundwork for, and that's Impact and Legacy. And that impact is having an impact outside of just you, Anastasia, is having an impact in the local community and an extended community and in the lives of the people that are there, having management turns, so that people are growing. It's not just the business of doing the same thing. It's really making an impact outside of just your business. And then that legacy piece is, how does this go on even when Anastasia is not the one twirling? What if somebody else was doing the twirl and you were off doing something else? How do we build that? So it's really neat to see. They say that 80% of businesses only get to order, and there are only about 20% that take the next two steps. Those are the ones that we see like your Home Depot's or the ones that you can see where they've replaced the CEO from the person who started the company and somebody else's there. It can happen on a smaller scale and more micro businesses and small businesses, but it's really nice to see you thinking and planning ahead for that. Let me ask you this. This wasn't a fast, quick thing. Some people I think may assume that because you've been doing procurement for a while, that when your employee came to you and said, Hey, I think we should do this, that you're like, Okay, fine, let's just go do it. Give me the plan and let's just go do it. But that is not what happened here. From my standpoint and working with you on this, this has been a thought-out process it's been well over a year in the creation.
Anastasia 24:54
Two years.
Michele 24:56
Two years. Lots of conversations not only just internally, but conversations with vendors let's don't miss the point that to build a true trade company, this isn't just your company deciding it is your company deciding and having conversations with your partners and the vendors because they've got to know what's happening and what's coming. And some vendors don't want these types of relationships and some do. So you really did the work, and I say that because not everybody who says I'll go order for you or order on my account, is really set up properly, to have a trade relationship that is honored by both the designer ordering and the vendor on the other side. So it takes some due diligence, in a lot of ways to make this work. Tell a little bit about what that journey is to make this more than just I'm a buying person for other people. That's not what we're talking about here.
Anastasia 25:57
So it was a huge undertaking because our offices were 600 square feet. That's what seven people worked in, for the better part of our time as a firm, and everybody was on top of everybody. We had one chair when this all started, I still have that chair, and I'm never going to get rid of that chair, we have one CR Laine chair. That was our sit test and it had three different questions. And we knew that if we were going to embark on this journey, that I had to really look at investing some serious money into this design idea. We were going to do an addition at the back of the building and then it just turned out that a lifelong friend of mine who's an architect said, Hey, there's a space downtown, I'm going to take half of it, you take the other half. and let's build this out together instead of you just putting an addition on the back of your building. So he's got the front suite, and I've got the back suite of the office and it's a true furniture showroom. It took a year of planning, and it took a year of construction. I had to build it, I had to buy it, I had to put it in place. and now we're just starting to really market it. And you can't just throw everything out there to the world of Instagram and say, This is what I've got, I've got this furniture showroom because then you'll be overwhelmed and you couldn't provide the quality that's necessary. We took the time that we were building this space out to have strategic meetings with all of our vendors. A lot of them insisted on walking the space, seeing how many square feet we had, interviewing us on our current sales or projected sales, and looking at our business plan, they wanted to ensure that we weren't just a buyers group or not a bunch of designers putting together their trade accounts.
Michele 27:41
Or a scammer, because we've seen lots of scammers in this in the last few years, who were taking money, their businesses weren't solid, they were taking people's money, not putting in the orders, taking the money and running. We've seen some crazy stuff over the last two to three years. So I really appreciate that the vendors did their own due diligence with you, not just, hey, you've been buying from us for years, and your accounts are all great that you're looking to go to the next step and we need to do the next step as well.
Anastasia 28:11
And they've come in here subsequent to, to check how we're displaying their things. If it's if it's prime enough for them, if we have enough fabric samples or finishes, or, and it turned into a different relationship. Now they're servicing us a little more regularly, making sure we're comfortable and good, and then that, in turn, helps us even with our own private clients, we just turned things over faster for our own clients, it's like a positive that I didn't even know would happen.
Michele 28:45
So as you have diversified from I'm going to say, this interior design, you've added in from the very beginning, some amount which probably could grow or shrink for architecture, based on what the need is at the time. So now we've up-leveled, you have a full architect on staff in addition to yourself, and now you've added in the trade. This is a very different business model than what you thought you were starting when you began, like you've got multiple income streams here. But how does that? How does that help your business? To know that you have multiple ways for money income to come in and flow through the company?
Anastasia 29:31
Well, it takes the pressure off, right? Sometimes you have to do sales constantly, and you never stop selling, otherwise, you can't feed the beast, but sometimes I have to sort of come down off of that sales ledge just to be the creative and pull the design ideas or the marketing ideas or whatever's next because I have to go into another twirl about creating something new and it just takes that pressure off. Because you know that other business is going to help support, it supports all the things. It supports keeping our accounts at that minimum level that we discussed with our vendors and where we wanted to sell at per year, it helps us get more in tune to their products and we know a little more than nuance as a team, so we can sell more confidently. It's just yet another business stream that helps not be all about me. It's just nice to have something that's going on its own.
Michele 30:36
Your team also really loves to support the client, you're very client-focused and so now you have other designers, who are your clients. on the trade side. How do you feel about your relationship and supporting their businesses and really building that out? Because when one focus is on the end user, the family that's going to be in the home we're in and now some of that same energy is turned towards back to the industry back to the design community. How do we really support them? I know that you've taken some of the same value set that you have as a company and you've turned that to love on these designers and the care for their businesses to support them well. What did that look like as you were thinking of how do we add a second or third, if you will leg to the business, but also carry on the values? Because we went back all the way to the what is your why, what is your mission, vision, values. How do we take all the things that we build AHD on and turn that towards AHD Trade? Did you find that to be a simple process, a difficult process, or just the same? Pick it up and look at it, or did you see a difference there?
Anastasia 31:56
There's not a difference. The one thing that I can point to is we want to be the person telling you the status is something way before you ask. So we have that in our SOPs and in the way we run our business. We do Friday updates to every client, even if I have nothing to say, other than it's going to be a great weekend, hope you got your bathing suit ready like nothing. We run AHD Trade the same way. You've ordered a product from us, I don't want you wondering where it is, when it's coming in, you're going to get an update, you're going to get a status report, you're going to get an explanation if that status has changed. And that's part of our SOPs is to bring that to you, at least every two weeks, if not sooner. We're also working on a program that we would have where we could log into a portal, and then the updates would be on that portal and you would know exactly what they are, but that won't take away from the personal email that will be sent, because that would be sent as well. I don't like it when clients say hey, what's the status of? I want to be able to say to them, here are all the things we worked on this week. Here are two things that we need decisions from you, I look forward to next week and whatever it may be. And ADH Trade is the same way, or working with it that way.
Michele 33:23
So very proactive instead of very reactive. What I love about that is when you have been on the side of the fence that you've been on, as the designer placing the orders, wondering when they're coming in all of that, it gives you an insight when you now are on the trade side of it to say, this is how I wish I had information so, this is how I want to give information. I know it's so much easier when people tell us than when we have to remember to ask because that becomes our mental load again. What I hear you saying is when you place the order, we want to carry some of that mental load so that you don't have to carry it. We're going to update you so that you don't have to chase us to get the answer.
Anastasia 34:08
Yes, exactly. I don't want to ever have clients wondering, and I think of everybody has a client. The person building a brand new house, the woman buying a sofa for her client, they're all the same to me. They're all clients, and they deserve the same mission, vision, and values that we have as a firm. So the other thing I'd like to talk about is the world of interior design has changed. I don't know if it's because of the circles that I'm in or if it's just changing for the better. It's changed for the better. It used to be very guarded, very secretive. You didn't know how much something cost or you didn't know where you've got something or the source of it. Now, I'm on a bunch of different chat groups with local interior designers that we all call on each other for help, different Facebook groups, different Mastermind groups where nobody's afraid to share how they do something because I feel like for so many years, interior designers didn't want anybody else to know how they ran their business, what they did, or, or to whom they did it with. They wanted to keep everything secret. And by sharing this knowledge base with these different groups, I mean, I have one of my dearest colleague friends in California and call her at eight o'clock in the morning, it's five o'clock in the morning her time that she's up, and we'll talk about different things. And we'll strategize and I'll get her strategy, she gives me strategy because we could step outside of our own drama that we're sitting in and look at it from a designer's perspective. And that's the way it is with AHD Trade. It's a resource run by designers, for designers. So you never have to worry, you don't have to be afraid. Like, if you pick a fabric sofa, that's terrible for a kid that wipes chocolate on the sofa, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to protect you, I'm going to help you through that. And my team is going to help you through that. So it's more than just somebody that's on the internet that you're just buying a sofa from because there are a lot of buying groups on the internet. This is real people to help you.
Michele 36:14
I love that. You know what's also interesting, I remember the day and you remember it too, I can remember being with a group of designers and the designer showed a picture. And another designer, they were in a Mastermind group, and the second designer asked the first designer. Oh my goodness, I love you know, whatever this element is, where did you source that? And the first designer looked at her and said, I prefer not to share where I source things. This was in a closed designer group. This wasn't like with a homeowner, this was a close to. And the whole group at that point just kind of shut down. Because everybody was like, they didn't know what to say like, why are we here, Masterminding? I mean, did it really matter where they bought that, let's say loud, did it really matter that another designer could go find that lamp and buy that lamp, but they were so protective of that one source as if they were the only one that could sell it, it really shut down, kind of that collective feeling of sharing and being in it together with that particular group. And, that person wasn't invited in anymore, because they just they were taking and not giving it was so weird. Now that's not what we see, we see a lot more into the sharing, and that there's enough work. My goodness, things may be changing, but people are still pretty busy. And they still have work to do. There's still a lot out there and sharing is caring as they say.
Anastasia 37:53
Yes, you know the intellectual property is how you pull it all together, it's not necessarily the components, because, with AI and your cell phone, you can figure out 90% of what something is. There's not that much that's hidden anymore. So what's the big secret? Unless you created it and had it custom-made, and it doesn't exist anywhere else? Somebody will find it.
Michele 38:20
And then it won't be long, you're going to copy it anyway.
Anastasia 38:23
Right, and I don't take that as a copy, it's a compliment. You love something so much that I put into a space so you're going to use it completely differently. Why not give it to you? I'll give it to you and I'll sell it to you too if you want it.
Michele 38:38
Love it. I love it. Alright, so let me ask you this, as we wrap up, do you have any thoughts for the next diversification? Or you're going to sit still with this one for a little bit?
Anastasia 38:49
No, I have to sit still. The last two years have been a ladder climb and you know, I want to enjoy where we are. This Furniture Showroom is, it's fabulous. It feels so good to walk in every day. I'll share some pictures with you. I just want to be. We've grown year over year. I don't know the percentage, it is a crazy number, you know, 800% since we started or something, so I think it might be nice to just be for this year. I'm not saying that is it, sure, I have some other ideas in my head. I mean, I have a bunch of noodling ideas, but I'm just going to grow these two beautifully. I mean, we also do architecture full, full construction homes now. So that's a lot. That's three full businesses.
Michele 39:44
I wasn't looking for you to have another, just know that. And if you do, it may be one of your team members who comes to you with another great idea and I love that as well. So Anastasia as we wrap up, where can people find out more about your design firm and the trade program?
Anastasia 40:00
So everything can be found on our primary website, which is AHDandCo.com. On the upper right-hand corner, there's a button if you want to go to trade or if you want to go through our website, it's all in one central location. The trade is a member-only program, but it is not a paid-for membership, all you do is sign up just so that we can vet who we're selling to and to ensure that they have the proper credentials and resell certificates. Like I said, we're licensed and we have Resale Certificates in New York, Florida in New Jersey, and I am licensed in architecture for New York and New Jersey, and Florida. But we sell all around the country we sell to California and Louisiana, everywhere. So whatever anybody needs, we can get them.
Michele 40:50
That sounds amazing. Well, thank you, again for sharing some of your journey, how to diversify, also lessons in how to support our team members when they come up with a really great idea. I love that this was somebody on your team, who by kind of restructuring their role in the company, saw an opportunity, and was willing, not just saw the opportunity when to dump it on you, but created a plan and said, you know, will you support me? And can we do this, and I love that you did that. I don't see that happen all the time and I know it wasn't easy for you either. It still took a lot of your resources to support that team member, but I love that it's out there and that it's growing and flourishing. Thank you for sharing that journey with our listeners.
Anastasia 41:37
Thank you.
Michele 41:39
Thank you so much, Anastasia for sharing your journey, sharing how your business has evolved and changed. What's so exciting to me even in this conversation is just knowing and understanding that the way we start our business doesn't have to be the way that it remains or the way that it continues to grow. It can change and evolve. And that's exciting for me. If you want to talk about maybe some ways to diversify your own business, please go to the Work with Me page at ScarletThreadConsulting.com and fill out a discovery form and let's chat. Being intentional with your income streams will lead to profit and profit doesn't happen by accident. Profit is a Choice is proud to be part of the designnetwork.org where you can discover more design media reaching creative listeners. Thanks for listening, and stay creative and business minded.