10/12/2026
I wish someone would have told me this 20 years ago…
That starting a business isn’t a decision you make once. It’s one you make every single morning.
No one told me how much I’d give up in the early years. The steady paycheck. The weekends. The vacations I said “next year” to, over and over. There were seasons when a “normal job” would have been so much easier, and I thought about it more than I’ll admit.
No one told me that one day 14 families would depend on the choices I make. That when I lie awake at night, it’s not about a paint color. It’s about the people who trusted me with their livelihoods. That responsibility is heavy, and it is also the greatest honor of my life.
No one told me my clients would become my friends. That I’d be in their homes for the big moments: new babies, empty nests, fresh starts after loss, the house they finally saved up for. You don’t just design a room. You design the backdrop to someone’s life, and somehow they let you into it.
No one told me about the lows. The projects that go sideways. The delays you can’t control. The days you carry everyone else’s stress and have nowhere to set your own down.
And no one told me about the joy. The moment a client walks into a finished space and goes quiet. The text that says “we haven’t left this room all weekend.” The team celebrating a win like it’s their own, because it is.
Almost 20 years in, here’s what I know: it cost more than I expected, and it gave me more than I ever imagined.
If you’re in the hard early years right now, keep going. The sacrifice is building something.
Business owners, what do you wish someone had told you? 👇
InteriorDesigner
