05/22/2026
I recently had to fire a client.
I’ve never had to do this before, but sometimes in business, things just don’t work out.
What I’ve learned is that not everyone is right for what we do.
We have a finely-tuned design process that we’ve tweaked and changed after every single project over the past 7 years.
There are hard and fast rules that I have baked into this process, such as:
- We don’t shop with clients. Its overwhelming, and often, as they’re only looking at one piece of the puzzle, causes a ripple effect.
- We don’t source until we have an approved line-by-line budget in place. That way, we won’t show you things that you can't have later.
- We won’t roll back to a previous phase of the project once it’s been approved. For example, after we do your layout and move on to budgeting, we don’t revisit the layout and start changing it.
- We ask clients not to be on Pinterest or looking at ideas past the initial concept phase because there is always going to be something new and shiny that, although it seems great at the time, throws so many other things off balance.
What I’ve learned is that there are people who are absolutely just not a good fit for what we do. These are people who:
- Are obsessed with interior design and want to be heavily involved in the process. That’s amazing and you should be! It’s just probably not a fit for us and you’re better off going at it alone or working with an hourly rate designer who will go shopping with you to your hearts desire.
- Have a difficult time making decisions. We get it - this is a huge investment and by no means do we want you to rush things. But if you need to see every single available option out there in order to choose something, that’s not going to fit in with our process. I narrow things down to one or two choices in order to eliminate the overwhelm and, if you don’t like either, then we show you one or two more.
- Need validation from all of your friends and family. I design homes for the people who live in them, not for external endorsements. If you’re hiring me as an expert, it’s important that you trust in my expertise, my team, and my trades.
People who are a great fit are those who:
- Want a beautiful home, but don’t have the time or interest to do it themselves. They want to outsource it completely.
- Put trust into those they hire. When I hire a lawyer, I don’t try to argue the law with them. I didn’t try to operate on my spine when seeing my neurologist. And I don’t try to highlight my hair at home between appointments with my stylist because I know she’ll wind up having to fix things.
- Either knows what they want, or doesn’t. My job is to figure out what your style is - not everyone has that ability and that’s okay. That said, if you have a clear vision and are looking for someone to bring it to life, that also works out great within our process.
If you feel like our process might be right for you, the first step is to fill out an inquiry form below and we’ll hop on a call together.
https://www.comfortabledwelling.com/inquire/
