Interior Design Is A Luxury Business. Why Are Most Designers Struggling?

May 15

Interior design procurement is costing most designers money they don't know they're losing. Procurement specialist Timala Stewart, a former corporate furniture buyer with a decade of experience at companies including Ashley Furniture, audited a single finished project for one of her clients and found a $2,000 leak in freight and warehousing charges alone. That was one room. Eight rooms would have been $16,000. The designer was experienced. She simply didn't know what to account for.

This is the part of your business nobody taught you. Not design school. Not your first mentor. Not the software platforms you're paying for every month. Procurement, the sourcing, ordering, tracking, coordinating, and documenting that happens from the moment a design concept is approved to the day install is complete, is where the gap between what you think you're making and what you're actually keeping lives.

Timala spent ten years as a corporate furniture buyer before she started working directly with interior design firms. What she found when she got inside those businesses changed how she understood the industry. In this episode, she explains exactly what she saw, and what to do about it.

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What is procurement in interior design?

Procurement in interior design covers everything that happens after a design concept is approved: sourcing products, placing orders, managing vendor communications, tracking shipments, coordinating with receivers and installers, handling damages, and closing out invoices. It is not the same as project management. Project management is on-site and visible — coordinating trades, managing timelines, attending walkthroughs. Procurement is behind the scenes. Every designer does it. Most have never been taught to treat it as a distinct, billable discipline.

Why do interior designers lose money on projects?

Most designers lose money on projects because the costs of procurement — freight, warehousing, receiving, install coordination, and the time spent managing all of it — are either untracked, unaccounted for on client invoices, or absorbed silently into the designer's own margin. These aren't large single failures. They're small, compounding ones. A five-minute vendor call billed in a 15-minute increment, multiplied by five calls in a day, multiplied by four days a week, becomes close to $1,000 in unbilled time before the month is out. Most designers never see it happening.

What is the difference between procurement and project management?

Procurement and project management are not the same role, and treating them as interchangeable is one of the most expensive operational mistakes a design firm can make. Project management is on the scene — on-site, visible, coordinating trades and deliveries in real time. Procurement is behind the scenes — confirming orders, tracking shipments, managing vendor communications, and ensuring the financial documentation for every product is accurate and complete. In a well-run firm, the procurement person confirms with the project manager that an item has arrived and is in the right location. They are parallel functions, not the same function.

How much does procurement actually cost interior designers?

The cost of unmanaged procurement compounds across three areas: unbilled time, unaccounted expenses, and unresolved damages. Timala audited a single finished room for one client and found a $2,000 gap — freight and warehousing charges that were paid out but never invoiced to the client. That same designer, across an eight-room home, would have been $16,000 in the red. The time component adds another layer: designers who don't track procurement tasks in 15-minute billing increments routinely give away thousands of dollars per project in unlogged minutes that feel too small to charge for but compound into significant losses.

What are the most expensive procurement mistakes interior designers make?

The five most expensive procurement mistakes, in order of frequency: not creating purchase orders (leaving you with no internal financial documentation when vendor disputes arise); not tracking time on small procurement tasks (five-minute tasks in 15-minute billing blocks add up faster than most designers realise); not accounting for freight, warehousing, and install as client invoice line items; over-committing to inventory and ending up with aged product that depreciates in storage; and not responding quickly to damage claims, which have vendor response windows — miss the window, absorb the cost.

Should interior designers hire a procurement specialist?

A procurement specialist makes sense when a designer reaches the point where the operational load of managing vendors, orders, and logistics is pulling time and attention away from the design work itself. Timala works with clients two ways: hourly support, where she completes procurement tasks on behalf of the designer's firm as an extension of the team; and consulting, where she audits existing processes, identifies profit leaks, updates SOPs, and trains the designer's staff. Solo designers who aren't ready to hire can start by taking advantage of free software demos, using AI to understand procurement basics, and building vendor rep relationships they're currently underusing.

How do vendor relationships affect interior design profitability?

Most designers are significantly underusing their vendor rep relationships. Vendor reps work for the designer — their job is to present new products, answer sourcing questions, and help designers get the best pricing and lead times for their projects. Designers who share their design boards with reps, track their sales volume across vendors, and consistently build rapport will find their reps become a proactive resource: presenting curated product suggestions, flagging stock availability, and advocating for the designer when expediting is needed. Better vendor relationships also directly affect margin — tracking purchasing volume and negotiating for better discount tiers is something most designers never do.

Mar 26, 2026
Podcast Recording Sessions (Timala Stewart) - Transcript
00:00:00

Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: What's wrong? She's not Oops. Oh s***. Can we get on? Hello.
Timala Stewart: Hi, Timla.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: How are you?
Timala Stewart: I'm good. How are
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Good. Thank you for introducing yourself.
Timala Stewart: you?
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I wanted to I was gonna ask you to so I got the the pronunciation right. So I got it right anyway.
Timala Stewart: Okay, good.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. How are you doing
Timala Stewart: I'm pretty good. I'm pretty good.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: today?
Timala Stewart: I don't know why I just got like nervous jitters. I'm like, it's just me and you talking. I think because I know it's going online,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Oh,
Timala Stewart: um,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: no worries.

00:07:37

Timala Stewart: you know, being perceived is like a weird thing sometimes. But, um,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Have
Timala Stewart: I'm excited because it's the first time I'm having like an indepth conversation specifically about
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: you?
Timala Stewart: this topic. So, I have a lot to
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.
Timala Stewart: share.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Well, why don't we let's um I've got everything recording now, but like uh just it's easier for me just to get set up uh that way. But uh I won't put anything online before you've had a look at it and you're fine with everything. Um, but sometimes these little before we start official with the questions and everything, uh, is is good because we get little bits that we can use in like first short videos or or little things, right? But let's take a few minutes and just kind of you can get your your jitters out and when you feel calm,
Timala Stewart: Right.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: we'll we'll officially

00:08:27

Timala Stewart: Okay.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: start.
Timala Stewart: No, we can we can start. I'm ready. I'm just going to close my door really quick so there's
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay.
Timala Stewart: no background noise.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. No, I want to make sure you you're getting out of this what you want to get out of
Timala Stewart: Yeah,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: it.
Timala Stewart: absolutely. I appreciate that. Um,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.
Timala Stewart: yeah, we can we can get started. I'm ready.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. You sound good. Everything's good. Uh you can hear me on your end.
Timala Stewart: Yep, I can hear you clear. Loud and clear.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay, perfect. Um, I used to do uh the intro live and then I screwed it up a couple of times, so I've stopped doing that. And I'll I'll do everything in post-production and introduce you.

00:09:09

Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So, where we're going to start today, we'll we'll just start with that first question and it'll be like we've already been, you know, doing the intro and all that kind of stuff already.
Timala Stewart: Okay, that works for
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. All right.
Timala Stewart: me.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Um, here we go then. Um, before we get into your the procurement side, uh, hold on, let's try that again. Uh, before we get into the procurement side of your business, I I really want to dive into your background because, uh, it was actually genuinely interesting to me. Can you tell me what you were doing before you started Decorated Interiors?
Timala Stewart: Yes, my background is in furniture buying and merchandising. So, I'm corporate alumni. I worked for two corporate retail organizations for about 10 years. Um, I went to school for merchandising with the career path of being a buyer. Um, and even to take it a step back, I was introduced to merchandising actually in high school.

00:10:07

Timala Stewart: Um, I had a fashion merchandising elective. Had no clue what merchandising was, but I heard fashion and I love fashion. So, I knew of fashion design. So, I'm like, "Okay, this has to be, you know, related." And I'm so grateful for that exposure, you know, at such a young age because my teacher at that time, uh, Miss Finley, if you ever see this, she was a former corporate buyer, corporate retail buyer for a department store. Um, and I didn't know that that was a job. I didn't know that that was a career. I had always wondered like how does stuff get in stores? Who decides what a store is going to sell? Like who decided that Office Max would sell these different types of paper and all that all that jazz. Um so she went to the university that I was also thinking of going to, which was Virginia Commonwealth. So that just solidified my career path. um once I learned what the role was and how you know the buyer is essentially like the nucleus of a retail organization because they're deciding what to sell, when to sell it, how to sell it, where it's going in the store, what price it's going to be, and how often it's it's rotating um throughout the store's assortment.

00:11:21

Timala Stewart: So, um yeah, I went to school for merchandising and um worked in retail sales for a bit after college. Um, my at that time, um, the fashion buyer gigs were mostly in New York City. I really didn't have much of a desire to move there. I liked visiting, but I didn't want to live in New York City. Um, so that really limited my opportunities in Virginia, which is where I'm from. Um, if you know anything about Virginia is very military, it's very industrial. There's not a lot of opportunity for creative. So, I came across a job hosting on Indeed. back then, Indeed was the career site that you found opportunities on and there was an assistant buyer role for a furniture company. So, I applied, followed up the next day, and within a few days, I had a job offer to be an assistant buyer for a local company um based out of Virginia Beach. And I was in that role for about 5 years. So, that's where my framework for buying and merchandising started.

00:12:25

Timala Stewart: I learned the ins and outs, the behind the scenes of furniture merchandising from, of course, sourcing and procurement, but also product development, managing vendor relationships, um, visual merchandising, furniture styles, uh, pricing, um, the process of simply placing orders and the number of steps from, you know, getting a quote to the products actually being received at a warehouse. Um and I also attended High Point Market for the first time in 2014. So um I spent five years with that company. Then I moved on to a huge company. Um now I'm in Florida and that's what brought me to Florida and I was at that company for about 5 years and um I worked more on the home decor side of the furnishings business. So the previous company was more upholstery case goods and then this company was home decor. So I got a full circle um experience in terms of the home furnishings and that company is where I learned corporate retail from not just the buying and merchandising perspective but also the distribution perspective because that company is vertically integrated and it is either the largest furniture company in the world or the second largest behind IKEA and that's Ashley Furniture.

00:13:48

Timala Stewart: So um learning vertical integration meant that this company manufactures their own products. They also retail their own products and they distribute and part of our role within the merchandising and buying department was to set up the showroom um at High Point Market in Las Vegas. So that was my background. 2020 came around, we got furoughed and that's that's when I started my business. Um, we did eventually go back to the job, but I decided it had changed so much. The role had shifted so much post pandemic and um, I decided it was time for me to take a chance on myself and I had a lot of friends reaching out for assistance with building home offices in their their new spaces and they needed them quick. And uh, I shared my process online and I got clients and I built it out from there.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah, I don't I don't think that's altogether too unique. A whole bunch of people uh changed their lives completely coming out of
Timala Stewart: Yes. The great resignation.

00:14:50

Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: co Yeah.
Timala Stewart: I was one of the great resigners.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Well, I'm glad you I'm glad you mentioned High Point,
Timala Stewart: Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: too, because I think there's a a point of connection that that you and designers will have, but from a completely different point of view. Designers go to places like High Point and Las Vegas, uh, and they see it from their eyes, from the eyes of a of a retail designer. You were there as something completely different. Can you kind of explain that experience, what it was like being at the market, but as a professional buyer for
Timala Stewart: Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: retailers?
Timala Stewart: So my first I would say about six years of attending markets was as a retail buyer then also as a supplier a supplier representative. So, um, I experience more of the like logistics, the behind the scenes, the actual appointment setting to review products with your vendors to um, look through prototypes and and see if these concepts are actually things that you want to bring to market is what we call it, meaning you want to actually sell them to your um, customer base.

00:16:02

Timala Stewart: So from the design perspective, my first time experiencing market as a designer was in 2021 um when market open opened back up uh during the pandemic. And um I realized that designers uh a lot of designers, a lot of us work in silos. So we go to market to see our colleagues. Um which is great, right? You you network, you go to social events, you go to educational events and webinars. But um there is a lot of business happening. Business deals are being made at market, you know, in the meeting rooms. Um I always tell people the buyers for your favorite brands that you see online and the your furniture stores that are in your neighborhood, they're here too, but they're in the vendors, you know, meeting rooms talking about the trends that are that they're setting for the next six months, right? because they're going to be putting their products on their websites and kind of driving trends that way. Um, I would also say from the designer perspective, designers attending market should definitely be taking advantage of the fact that your sales reps are there and that is a great time to vet the vendor's procurement process.

00:17:19

Timala Stewart: Yes, it's busy. It's a lot of people, but if you are reaching out to your vendor beforehand or setting up a trade account beforehand, they will be happy to meet with you and answer questions that you may have. Um, I feel like sometimes later on in the design process and the buying and or I should say sourcing for designers, the sourcing process, a lot of the holes happen are because you didn't extract enough information upfront before you just started purchasing from this vendor. Um, so I would say from the designer perspective, like this is the time to vet those people. You're sourcing, you know, products, the best products for your projects, but also you want to make sure you're getting the best price. It's the the the best lead time. Um, another I guess I'm spilling the secret now, trade secret. Um, sometimes also when you go to market, you may notice similar products in different showrooms. So that's also something that designers should be paying attention to because some of the vendors purchase from the same suppliers.

00:18:22

Timala Stewart: So go higher up on the supply chain. Um some of the suppliers sell their same products to different vendors. So that's like a mental note designer should be making as well like oh I saw that ottoman in such and such showroom. Well you should be thinking which one's cheaper who has stock um and making mental notes of that for your business.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So, I'm guessing when you go to High Point, you've got a different agenda, a list of things that you want to do there than the average
Timala Stewart: I'm doing everything when I go to market.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: designer.
Timala Stewart: Yeah. So I I do you know socialize and and meet with my friends and my colleagues because I am a solo designer. So I no longer have that corporate team or um you know my co-workers. They are essentially my co-workers but I see them on the internet. So I do go to social events and and network because that's important too. That's that's just a part of what you do as a business owner.

00:19:18

Timala Stewart: But um I do have an understanding of how to source beyond this looks pretty, right? I'm looking at pricing. I'm looking at the tags, you know, for certain keywords and things that will help me decipher, okay, is this a good product for me? Or, you know, I'm talking to my rep and I'm asking them certain questions like, is this going to make sense for a project that I have coming up or even a client project um meaning a procurement client um that I may be working with? Um, so I'm I'm I'm vetting and kind of looking through it from both
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Right.
Timala Stewart: lenses.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And if we're if we're looking at like the things that make a business successful beyond your interior design skills and how you interact with clients, this kind of stuff makes a huge difference in the bottom line, right? If if you can get better pricing than I can get, you can deliver, you know, more or less same services, same pack, same uh products, but at a better price, right?

00:20:14

Timala Stewart: Yep.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: which is going to help your your design business for sure.
Timala Stewart: Yep. Absolutely.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. Um if we kind of switch a little bit and I get you to take off your designer hat and put on your what you're doing for designers in terms of uh procurement. I'm curious. I mean coming out of co so there was a bit of happen stance you got furoughed and you had to figure out what you were going to do with the rest of your life but at at some point something a light had to go off and say you know this experience that I have on in the procurement side was actually uh something that I could provide to other designers and will be a huge benefit to them. Can you explain how that kind of that light bulb moment
Timala Stewart: Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: was?
Timala Stewart: So I started my business doing um virtual design exclusively.

00:21:01

Timala Stewart: So eesign because at that time we weren't going into people's homes and in my background I had did sourcing and procurement. I didn't want to do it anymore but I I did want to have the creative aspect of interior design. So I decided to specialize in that and in building my network of design peers and colleagues and friends and listening to some of their pain points a lot of the friction was in the chaos of procurement and I the light bulb went off in 2023 um after talking to a few friends and I'm like I think I I did this work for you know 10 years this is something that I know how to do you know without someone having to train me on furnishings and and vendors. Like I I did this line of work and I would consider myself an expert at it. So I decided to freelance for a virtual assistant agency so that I could get a better idea of how full service interior designers work because I hadn't worked for a designer. I had only had design clients at that time of my own.

00:22:06

Timala Stewart: Um, so I wanted to kind of get a feel of, you know, the ways that designers work. And I'll say every single designer is completely different. There's no standardized process for procurement at all with any of the designers. Um, but it was eye opening. It was a very eye opening experience to see, you know, this person charges a flat fee for procurement. This person charges a percentage. um this person is using a spreadsheet and it's very manual and it's very antiquated but this person has the latest program or software um and they're using it in combination with other tools. So I learned a lot from that experience. I did that for about a year and a half um through the agency and then I decided to offer the services um directly through my own company and I started with um a design friend of mine, a good friend who needed some sourcing help um for a project. She needed a couple items. She didn't have time to source. And I created a process and she told me what she needed.

00:23:06

Timala Stewart: She told me what the budget was, you know, if she had preferred trade accounts. I kind of created a I guess an intake form on the fly. And um it it was my first successful, you know, sourcing uh procurement gig and I I grew it from there.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Now, I'm I'm guessing when you said like no no no design firm is the same and even if we're just talking specifically about procurement, that's one of the the parts of the business that they don't teach at design school. So to my mind, it's not surprising that if you're if you don't have a good base of understanding of what best practices could be or should be, you just kind of make stuff up as you go along. Um,
Timala Stewart: Exactly.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: without divulging any names or embarrassing anybody, can you give us a couple of stories of like crazy stuff you've seen where you're like, I can't believe they're running their business this way.
Timala Stewart: I had a client who um had a large project and um and when I say large, I mean whole home, multi-million dollar home and um she was managing everything herself.

00:24:14

Timala Stewart: She had a design program, but she wasn't using all of the features. So that doesn't sound crazy, but when you when you dig in and you realize, okay, you're paying for this software, this software, this software, when the main software you have does all of this, so you're dishing out, you know, extra funds because you haven't taken the time to actually watch the tutorials or, you know, send an email or read the FAQs to um learn what it is that how to best optimize this program that you're doing. Um, most of the experience that I've had with the designers is truly just disorganization. Um, there's so much documentation throughout the procurement process. So, if you think about it, I always say procurement starts after the design concept presentation, right? because you typically are starting with quotes and then it ends at the install and maybe maybe a little bit after that because you're having to wrap up, you know, invoices and lingering um receipts and things like that. But the amount of documentation that happens between all of those steps and there are just emails everywhere and something's in Dropbox and then this thing is in Google Drive and then this thing is in my DOMA or design files and it's it's it can be chaotic.

00:25:38

Timala Stewart: Um trying to like reel, excuse me, reel it all in. Um to help people streamline the process a bit better.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Uh you mentioned software. Um do you have favorites and does it really matter or can you kind of work with all of them? But like you said how people don't really understand how to use the software they have and they end up buying a bunch of other things thinking that's going to solve it. So are there ones that you would recommend or does it really matter? You can work with anything.
Timala Stewart: I can work with anything. Even if you have even if you're a spreadsheet designer, which I try to steer those designers to a digital program, but um I can work pretty much in any software. I can't say that I have a favorite cuz they're all so different. Um, I always say I wish someone would just come out and buy up all these programs and merge them together because they all have something the other is missing.

00:26:32

Timala Stewart: One is more advanced in the procurement and sourcing, but it doesn't have design features. The other has design features, but the procurement and sourcing is lagging. The other has client facing and trade facing communications, but the other one doesn't. Then the other one doesn't have bookkeep or financial integrations like Quickbooks and things like that or time tracker. So I I don't really have a favorite, but I have pretty much tested all of them with exceptions to um uh material I think it's called. That's one that I'm curious about. And um I think that's that's the only one top of mind that is like for interior design uh that type of trade. So I can I can work with pretty much any program. I'm a curious millennial. I YouTube everything. I Google everything. So, I'll figure out how to work
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Seriously,
Timala Stewart: it.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: you just got to put the time in. But then again, if you're running a busy interior design business, unless you've got an employee sitting around with nothing to do, right, that kind of stuff falls by the wayside all the time, right?

00:27:36

Timala Stewart: Yep, it does. And that's where someone like me comes in,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.
Timala Stewart: right, who is one just experienced in the in the type of work that sourcing and procurement is, but then like I said, I'm I'm a curious person. I'm keeping up with the latest um advancements in software and tech, even if I'm not subscribed to it personally. Maybe I did a free demo to get an understanding of what it offers and how it works. so that when I do get an inquiry for procurement services and I'm um we're onboarding together and I'm seeing
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.
Timala Stewart: what they're using, I can make suggestions, you know, based off of what I've experienced.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And in the last few months, I've talked to a bunch of different people's people who work for companies that do these platforms and they're also now trying to figure out how how to integrate AI into it, which which for me like I love that stuff,
Timala Stewart: Mhm.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: but you know, when I talk with them and and I think they're all still at kind of early stages, but they're talking about using, you know, open AI, most of them, And when I talk about you know well this is very important and powerful information that designers are inputting into your software are you ensuring that when you bring AI into it that it's not connected to AI that AI is not using that information to train on and

00:29:00

Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: and I I've gotten some blank looks which blows my mind but uh yeah I I mean, if I was listening to this and I work for one of those platforms, I would be, you know, shooting you an email right after watching this saying, you know, vet our program and tell me where I can improve upon this because if they're missing pieces, somebody else is going to come along, whether it's a Google or whether it's some other person who's already got an established platform and they're going to do that. They're going to they're going to find the holes and fix the holes for sure.
Timala Stewart: Yeah,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Um,
Timala Stewart: it's been interesting to see how these companies and even just AI platforms themselves like how quickly they evolve and how quickly the tech changes. It's almost like daytoday at this point like you feel like you mastered it and then two days later it's a whole new version of it that does something you know way more optimized. So um that's a great point around you know sensit sensitive data um that there's a lot of sensitive data within interior design process specifically with financials financial information you know credit cards and things like that.

00:30:08

Timala Stewart: So it is I think something that needs to be explored a a bit deeper with um companies that are onboarding AI features to their platforms to streamline
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. Uh,
Timala Stewart: processes.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: building on the financial side of it, um, I'm curious. So, when you started working with clients, I'm sure there's been moments where you've changed something and they've just been like, why was I doing it that way all along? Thank you so much for coming in and fixing this. Um, have there been obvious like financial things that designers do that are just completely boneheaded that you can't believe? Like big money mistakes?
Timala Stewart: Yeah. So, a lot of the holes in procurement are the small things that compound over time. So, a big one is when people don't track their time for small tasks. So, if you think about like um when you're in the thick of procurement and let's say you've placed all the orders and now it's time to start scheduling deliveries.

00:31:09

Timala Stewart: A lot of the vendors now will text you like a link, tap the link to schedule this delivery appointment, you know, to your receiver. You may get an automated phone call where you can just press press one to do whatever. Or you may get an email where you can just click the link and reply. And you're thinking, "Oh, it's just 5 minutes. That's that's that's not a lot of time. I won't I won't charge for that." But if you're billing in 15-minute increments, so that's a 15minute block. And then let's say you get five of those in one day, your hourly rate, let's say your hourly rate is $100. And you got that's that's a $400 fee that you didn't charge for for that one day, you know, and then you multiply that one day by four days that week. And before you know it, you know, at the end of the week, you haven't build close to $1,000 or over $1,000 for that time. Multiply that by the number of weeks in a month and you have a leak of a few thousand dollar and that's just for one project.

00:32:05

Timala Stewart: That could be, you know, one room in a home. Multiply that by multiple rooms in a home. You know, you're looking at tens of thousands of dollars of time that you didn't build for. So, I think that is the one that people don't realize. Like procurement is one of those things where it's time consuming and there are so many variables that you are not in control of because of the number of third parties involved in that process. During the design portion of um the process is more internal. So you have a lot more control because it's conceptual. You're working with your your team if you have a team and that's that. But once you bring in all of your reps, once you bring in your GCs and your trades, once you bring in shippers, once you bring in an installer, that's a lot of time. And you you if you're not tracking it, um you're definitely losing money and it's compounding. It may seem small, but it adds up.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.

00:33:04

Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And probably, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I would say if you're talking solo designers, this probably happens all the time. If you've got a firm where there's 20 people and you've got someone who is dedicated to procurement, right? They're tracking their time every day, what they're doing. But if if it's just a solo or a small firm and they say, "Okay, well, I'll just do this quickly. I'll just do this quickly." And they and all those little quicklys add up.
Timala Stewart: Yeah, they
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And exactly when you when you forecast that out over a week,
Timala Stewart: do
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: a month, a year, a decade, you just think of all the money that you've given
Timala Stewart: that. Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: away.
Timala Stewart: And that money could be money that you use to hire a virtual assistant or a freelance assistant or something like that. You know, you're thinking $3,000 a month. There are plenty of virtual assistants that charge way less than that and can, you know, assist you with um getting your task done.

00:33:54

Timala Stewart: So, you kind of have to look at it, you can't look at it as small. Oh, it's just a small thing. No, it's actually big. Like you said, when you forecast it,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. Uh, let's say I'm a designer who just listened to what you just said and I'm like, "Oh, okay. Maybe I could bring in somebody to help me with procurement." Uh, and obviously they're going to hire you. So, um, tell me what that would when you start working with them, what changes in their business daytoday, week to week, month to month.
Timala Stewart: Yeah. So I have two ways that I work with clients. So I have procurement specialist and procurement consultant. So procurement specialist is experienced hourly support. So that's where I'm I'm completing the task the procurement task for your company on behalf of your organization. So you onboard me as an extension of your team. So I get an email address that is atyourbusname.com and um I have a full intake form so I'm up to speed on which project or projects I'm going to be working on and and a lot of those um those like research type of questions that I know to so that when I come along I'm I can get

00:35:04

Timala Stewart: started pretty quickly. Um, and then I come in and if you need sourcing assistance, if that's what you reached out to me for, I source for you. Um, opening trade accounts is something that I do on um, designer's behalf as well. Placing orders, of course. Um, making sure all the documentation, you know, for these orders and quotes and things are stored where they need to be stored, whether it's a drive or in your design uh, software. I'm communicating with your vendors, you know, confirming things are correct. If there are delays, you know, I'm confirming internally what uh how you want to proceed. If items are out of stock, you need a replacement. I know how to do that as well. Um, of course, tracking shipments. I'm coordinating with your receiver. if you work with the receiver to make sure that they're getting the information that they need. Um, if any damages happen, which they do all the time, coordinating damages on your behalf, um, as well as the final coordination of deliveries from the receiver to the site for install.

00:36:06

Timala Stewart: So, it's more task oriented um, hourly support. And then consulting is more immersive. That's more of a deep dive. So, I'm not doing the task work for you. These clients typically have a team. So whether it's one person, you know, an assistant and then a procurement person, um I'm doing trainings where I'm teaching you within your software how to best optimize your process. Um you may have an SOP. Sometimes uh designers with teams, they have SOPs. I'm reviewing the procurement SOP and identifying gaps. I am doing an audit. So I did one recently um specifically for the freight and shipping component of procurement um and we audited what the designer charged the client versus what the designer actually paid out to the vendors. And of course it was in the red. It was in the red. They didn't they didn't account for um all of the expenses with warehousing, receiving, install damages, that sort of thing. Um, so auditing is a part of that process as well.

00:37:14

Timala Stewart: And then also your vendor strategy. Are you sourcing trade or are you sourcing retail? Are you keeping track of your sales volumes with your vendors so that you can negotiate the next discount tier or are you still in this discount tier that's not the most profitable? Um, are you over buying inventory? That happens a lot with with small businesses because you love this item so much and you think you're going to use four of that lamp. So, you buy four, but you only use one and now you have three lamps sitting in your garage at home or in your office just collecting dust. It's aged inventory, which is you don't want aged inventory, you know, at the end of at the end of your year. Um, especially during tax time. It's just a headache to deal with. Um, so vendor strategy, your vendor strategy, your product strategy, your pricing strategy, is your markup high enough? Is it well I won't say too high because I guess there's no limit but depending on your client um your ordering process do you have checks and balances in place to where if someone meant to order an LAF and an RAF sectional but they accidentally ordered two LAFs and now you're stuck with this incomplete sectional and an extra piece that you can't use.

00:38:33

Timala Stewart: So that type of thing is what we're vetting as well. And then we I update the SOPs if needed, create them. Sometimes they may not have them created. Um and then from there we implement. So there's follow-up process with the consulting where week to week, you know, you give me updates. I'm reaching out to see how things are going and troubleshooting, you know, answering any questions.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. Um, that is obviously a lot. And I'm curious, are there people who've become your clients or people who've run away from you that when they hear some of this, it's like it's almost too much like they because it is a lot, right? And I mean, the fact that you can keep all that organized and I mean, I see the benefit. I see what having somebody on board, whether we bring you in uh as the the specialist or as the consultant. Either way, there's tremendous value, but I'm wondering if it if it freaks people out when they really get an idea.

00:39:33

Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: They share a bit of your brain of the detail that's
Timala Stewart: Mhm.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: involved.
Timala Stewart: I haven't had that experience yet and I hope I don't. But the alternative is you just stay in the chaos. So why not confront it? You know, figure it out. Um, yes, it's going to be a lot in that moment, but then you're in for smoother roads, you know, going forward. Um, so no, I I have not had anyone inquire and then run away. For the most part,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.
Timala Stewart: it's like it's an eyeopening experience because you're already doing all of these steps. Let me help you optimize it. Let me help you streamline it so that even if you are a solo designer, you have a system in place. you have um a a process in place now to where you can save yourself a little bit of time and a little bit of headache and when it's time for you to bring someone on, you have clear processes.

00:40:27

Timala Stewart: Um you don't have to spend as much time, you know, gathering all your things and trying to pull from emails and drives and and everything like it'll exist in one place. So, I think that the benefit outweighs the long-term benefit outweighs like the immediate discomfort um of it. And I hope I don't get those,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.
Timala Stewart: you know, people that run away.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: No,
Timala Stewart: I think I do a good jobating it too on my
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I mean, yeah,
Timala Stewart: site.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: you probably couch it in a way that doesn't scare them, but um if I was to use like a design reference, how many of your clients or what percentage of your clients are like just a little bit of decorating and which are a full gut renovation where you come in there and say, "Okay, everything you've got is horrible. We are going to rip all of this out and we're starting from
Timala Stewart: Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: scratch.

00:41:12

Timala Stewart: So, the consulting part of my business is fairly new. I added that on last year. So, I was doing just the hourly support um first from 2023 through early 2025. So, I've only had one I've had two consulting clients and the first one was a furnishing and decorating. She had SOPs, she had a an admin assistant, and she had a new procurement person. So, with her, I was training and auditing. I haven't had the experience of, you know, going into someone's books essentially and just redoing it all. Um even on the hourly side um I had a client who you know needed the the task support and huge project lots of POS lots of purchase orders but I was able to show her the capabilities of the the existing design program that she was using. Like you can do all of this in here. Save yourself some money um and you know some time popping from software to software and streamline things within within here. So, I'm looking forward to the day that I do get the opportunity to just scrap someone's SOPs because I kind of like doing that work, too.

00:42:26

Timala Stewart: Um, it it challenges you and your thought process and, you know, having to piece things together for someone else's business. Um, I like doing that type of work. So, if you know anybody, send them my way.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: For sure. That's perfect.
Timala Stewart: Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: You're You're exactly my kind of nerd. That's what I like.
Timala Stewart: Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. Okay. Um let's say we've got uh a young designer or someone who's just gone out on their own and they're taking all of the clients that nobody else wants and they're struggling for cash, so they just can't hire you. So, we're looking at a at a DIY option. What are the maybe the singlemost things or the the the top things that they can put in place to get their procurement under control and help them move forward as they transition from that beginner kind of awkward

00:43:18

Timala Stewart: Yeah. So,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: stage?
Timala Stewart: you have to do your due diligence, right? No matter if you're a solo designer or you have a team, there are so many resources available to us as designers, whether they're paid or free, to help us streamline our process. So my first piece of advice would be to take advantage of things like product demos with these programs so that you can decide which program is going to be better for your business. And even then you won't know until you start doing work in the program like with a real project if it's going to be 100% suitable for your needs. But take advantage of things like that that are free where you don't have to um expend too much of your resources up front. Um the second thing I would say we touched on AI. Do your due diligence with AI. AI will give you some of the basics around procurement. You know what it means, what it cover, what steps of the process it covers.

00:44:12

Timala Stewart: So that that way when it's time for you to hire, you know what you're hiring for. I think sometimes designers, not all designers realize what procurement is and they tend to conflate it with project management and it's not it's not the same thing. Um I always say project management is on the scene. Procurement is behind the scenes. So I don't have to be visible as a procurement specialist. Everything I'm doing is coordination and you know all the touch points of getting this chair from vendor to home to client home. But your project manager is on the site, you know, and you are the procurement person is confirming with the PM like, hey, that chair is there. It's, you know, upstairs in such and such bedroom. Um, but, uh, I lost my point. But I saying all that to say, um, do your due diligence with AI because you have to be informed. you know, you can't expect someone to come in and just miraculously fix or do everything for you. Um, because in the end, it's your business and you are responsible for the outcomes.

00:45:18

Timala Stewart: You're you're directly responsible for that. No matter who you're who you're hiring. So, those would be my two pieces of advice for a solo designer. Take advantage of free. There's so much free information. Even YouTube, I mean, you have so many. Also, do your due diligence on who these people are. Look them up, research them, you know, like I I looked I looked up your website, had to make sure I was talking to an actual person.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. No, for sure.
Timala Stewart: Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: For sure.
Timala Stewart: But do your due diligence on the people who are um are subject matter experts in the space. Make sure they are who they say they are. Uh take advantage of free things, lowcost things, and and AI. Use AI to your advantage.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah, I mean I would be uh not giving AI like a complete like almost put like a like an
Timala Stewart: All
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: asterisk beside it because talking to you versus if I if I went on used my AI and and tried to have this same conversation.

00:46:15

Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I don't think I'm going to get the same depth of knowledge like it it's going to explain to me what procurement is and it'll point things out to someone who really doesn't understand. But if someone was to sit down with you,
Timala Stewart: right.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: they're going to pretty quickly realize that you know things that the AI just doesn't because it didn't have your brain as the training data,
Timala Stewart: Right. Exactly.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: right?
Timala Stewart: I always AI is human I mean I'm sorry business is human le and AI informed. So I agree with that where the asterisk of like it's still a human component experience you know hands-on real life things that AI can't duplicate um into into that point um use it as a way to just kind of learn the basic like the surface level you know what is procurement am I a procure person you know I had someone ask me that like do I do procurement I'm like yes you do you're a
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah,

00:47:08

Timala Stewart: designer you're placing orders you absolutely do procurement but it's just a word that you know people don't always hear.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: no, no. And we do it in in our regular lives,
Timala Stewart: Um,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: too, right? If you want to furnish your own home or you want to buy groceries, you're doing procurement, you and you've got a system,
Timala Stewart: exactly.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: right? Like I mean, I'll put in a standing order with Walmart to deliver me stuff every month. And I'm like, well, that's procurement for my life, right?
Timala Stewart: Yep.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: It may not be the most efficient way to do it, right?
Timala Stewart: Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And yeah,
Timala Stewart: Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: and it doesn't doesn't have doesn't have all the moving parts of an interior design project either,
Timala Stewart: That's a exactly
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: but
Timala Stewart: interior design is a very layered and complex business.

00:47:51

Timala Stewart: It's it's the the tasks itself aren't difficult, but just the sheer amount of coordination between all of the touch points because it's not just you and client. You know, if you're a full service designer, like I said, when you when you present that design concept and it gets approved, your client signs off on it. Once you get to quoting, that's when the chaos begins, you know, because you're following up with so many vendors. You are essentially, you know, chasing the orders, tracking everything. You're coordinating, your your PM or your principal designer is coordinating trades people and um making sure things are delivering in time, handling damages. So, it's a lot of moving parts.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. Um, you brought up vendors. I'm not looking how we discussed it earlier about being at High Point and talking to vendors there, but like the vendors they use in their business on on a daily weekly basis. Uh, they've got accounts with vendors. I'm curious about the vendor designer relationship.

00:48:53

Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Um, are designers taking the most advantage out of that relationship or is that something when you start working with designers, you're like, "No, we can we can fix this.
Timala Stewart: Yeah,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: We can improve this.
Timala Stewart: most of them are not taking advantage of those relationships. I always say your reps, your vendor reps work for you. That's their job. They're salespeople. They manage they manage the territory. So, they should be coming to you to your office or, you know, wherever you decide to meet to present the newest and the latest. You don't always have to go to High Point Market. They can come to meet you at a local coffee shop or a co-work space to present the latest. Share share your design boards with them. They'll pull things that you know they think makes sense. And over time, as you build that rapport and they learn your design style, maybe they follow you on Instagram, they see your work, they'll be like another set of hands for your business, um, so that when the newest chairs and and fabrics or wallpapers or whatever it is comes out, they can present you with a curated deck of suggestions.

00:49:55

Timala Stewart: Um, also I mentioned earlier keeping track of your sales volume with your trade accounts because you need to be negotiating better discounts as you are growing your business with them. Um, that's that is difficult to do as a new designer um meeting minimums and things. So, this kind of answers another question on the on the list, but um taking advantage of things like buying groups um are a great way to um not have to worry about those minimums and over buying inventory. But back to the point about your reps, they they're they're for you. They work for you. And if you build a great relationship with your rep, they will look out for you when you need an item expedited. Maybe you're hosting an event and you need sponsors. you can reach out to them like, "Hey, I'm hosting this charity thing and I'm looking for sponsors." That's how you get the reps to be on your side and kind of put you top of mind when it comes to things um like that. So, yeah, I would say take take more advantage of those vendor relationships.

00:51:00

Timala Stewart: Even if you're a a designer who prefers to buy everything online, there's typically someone managing like the online business, too, like their online reps.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. Um, from the vendor's point of view, is there anything other than just ordering more product from that vendor that a designer can do to improve that relationship? Um, the reason I asked, my wife's been in the business now for over 20 years, and I can tell when she we work from home, so I hear her talk, and when she's on the phone with a vendor who she has a relationship with, the conversation is completely different than if she's talking to somebody new or a new rep or whatever. Like, you know, she'll call up somebody, her her appliance guy, and she'll say, "Someone's coming in. This is what they're looking for. Okay, good." and she just drops it and she knows that they are going to pick up the ball and handle that the the next part, right?

00:51:55

Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So that relationship is
Timala Stewart: Yeah. Yeah. It's relationship building. It's not always transactional.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: huge.
Timala Stewart: I mean, the nature of the relationship being started is for transaction purposes, but maybe you know your your sales rep's birthday and you send them a happy birthday email, you know, that goes a long way um with that part of the business. It's the humanto human touch points that AI cannot replace, right? Um, so leaning into,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Sure.
Timala Stewart: you know, just having conversations with people, being kind, talking to people, um, asking questions to learn more about the business. And you're going to have some reps that aren't as great or maybe they're not receptive to it. You know, they're very much like, "No, this is a job. ABC, here you go." Um, but for the most part, people are open to just having that like humanto human connection, establishing a rapport, and building a relationship. um you know I have vendors who I don't do a lot of trade business just by nature of my business but just thinking about um my background and being in corporate you know Christmas time comes around and they would send uh gifts to the office like uh tea and coffee and and things like that like it goes a long way and vice versa you know we would send out thank you cards at the end of the year

00:53:09

Timala Stewart: um so maintaining that human component I think is important
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. Uh, another area where your vendors are important is when something goes wrong, whether it's something is damaged, something is late. Um, any advice on how designers could should handle damage claims or when anything else goes wrong?
Timala Stewart: Yeah, damages are going to happen. It's just a part of the process. And it's a very tricky process because there's a lot of fingerpointing, right? The the vendor is going to point at the shipper, the shipper is going to point back at the vendor, the receiver the and then, you know, if the receiver doesn't open and inspect it in time, they're going to point it to the shipper. So, it's so important to have a sense of urgency with damages. Um, and if you're working with a receiver, your receiver should be inspecting um, your products right away. Um, they shouldn't be, you know, storing inspecting a days after the delivery because some of these vendors do have windows, right?

00:54:14

Timala Stewart: So, the best thing you can do is when your receiver or if you yourself are receiving the items, take pictures, take videos, and immediately contact your rep. Um, some of these trade sites have online portals now where you can simply go in and file a claim, upload your your picture or your video, and it's an immediate resolution. You know, that may be a credit, that may be a refund, it may be a replacement, um, depending on the vendor and what the product is. Um, some vendors may push back, right? Because they may have I've had vendors that part of their process is they actually take pictures of the footage before the item was packed onto the truck and you know the condition of it and they approve it. Um, so in that case, you may have to be the middle person between the shipper and the vendor to say, "Look, one of y'all are responsible." It is a lot of it's a it's back and forth. There's just a component of that part that you can't automate. It just requires phone calls um and and conversation with with the people involved.

00:55:15

Timala Stewart: But the best thing you can do is respond quickly. Like if you see an email or text or whatever come through about a damaged item, get it on your to the top of your to-do list or a team member to try and get it reconciled.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Right. And that kind of ties back to how we were discussing SOPs and best practices. If procurement is not uh an important part of your business, right? Right? I mean, it is an important part of your business, but if you don't treat it like an important part of your business, then you can run into problems cuz suddenly something that could have been handled fairly efficiently and without any drama, it's like, well, you waited too long and now it's a problem.
Timala Stewart: Now you coming out of pocket to reorder the item.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.
Timala Stewart: Um, and who knows who says it's going to be the same price, right? So now you're you're you're in the red on that

00:56:05

Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Right. Right. Exactly. Um,
Timala Stewart: item.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: so yeah, so we're talking about money there, right? And, uh, if somebody hires you, we can look at it two ways financially. We can say, okay, here's a new expense item that I have to, you know, find a way to pay for this. But as I was going through your website and looking at testimonials, I saw, let me look it up, uh, a designer who said you helped them become more accurate, efficient, which I get from everything we've discussed so far, but the most important was, and profitable.
Timala Stewart: Mhm.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So I I have always been a big proponent in paying for expertise and because it generally
Timala Stewart: Mhm.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: ends up making you money in the end. Um, can we discuss that about how you actually make a business more

00:56:57

Timala Stewart: Yeah. So,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: profitable?
Timala Stewart: this is the designer where we did the audit on the freight audit. So, we went through I had her pull a finished project, a simple project, just one room, and she went through and broke out the cost. So, what she made on that project in markup, um, what she charged the client for shipping and freight and receiving, and then what she actually paid out, what the company paid out. So, we worked through the exercise of going through the whole process for that project. And that's where we uncovered the $2,000 leak just for that one room because she did not charge for I think it was the the receiver she uses also provided install uh services and she didn't charge for the the install. She didn't account for that. Um it was e either that or um the amount of days she was warehousing some of the items. She didn't properly account for that for that money. So, we did, you know, big picture, you lost $2,000.

00:58:01

Timala Stewart: And it doesn't seem like a lot, but that's just one room. What if you did the whole house, you know, and it's eight spaces that you did. That's $16,000 that you're in the red. You know, you could have been in the red. So that's what we meant by or that's what she meant by more profitable is because you you have to charge for you have to make sure you're charging for those things and making sure that those lines are accounted for on your client's invoices. And then the other layer that we didn't get to was um the procurement time. So I talked about earlier tracking the time. So this was a project that she hadn't tracked time for. So more than likely there was a leak there as well cuz you don't know how much time you spent, you know, tracking all these items and there was a damage. So there's a whole component that you didn't account for. So that 2K probably was 4K, you know, 5K um once we did it all.

00:58:59

Timala Stewart: So the resolution that we came up with for um her team was to confirm vendor freight rates. Confirm everyone's rates before you start purchasing. So that includes the vendors have freight rate programs. Especially these bigger vendors, these legacy vendors, they have established freight rates with their carriers. And they vary. It could be, you know, opening order if you're purchasing $5,000 rate. The freight is free. I I say free in quotations because nothing's ever free, but they may have a flat rate,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. Yeah.
Timala Stewart: they may have a percentage based program. Um they may it varies, but generally there's a freight rate program. So you need to have an understanding of what that is and have documentation of it. Um we also decided that uh so she would account for freight on the client's invoices. She would also account for warehousing, receiving, and install on the client's invoices as well. So, that should be a line item at the bottom of the invoice.

00:59:58

Timala Stewart: Um, or she could put it into the actual cost of the product.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Sure.
Timala Stewart: It just depends on where you live because the rules are different state to state here. Um, so you have to know legally whether or not you can bundle the numbers like that. But essentially, it was account for these numbers up front so you're not guessing. And if for some reason your vendor does not have a freight rate program, estimate 25% of the cost of the item to cover freight. if there's an overage, apply that to the client's later invoices for the the warehousing and install. So, that's how we um created a solution for her, updated her SOPs regarding that. And then we also mapped out visually these are the buckets where your revenue comes in. So, you have design fees, you have your product markups, and you have procurement fees. These are the buckets where the money is going out, right? So, you have your product purchases, including shipping and freight because you can't miss that.

01:00:55

Timala Stewart: Um, your trades, your warehousing, and your your install,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And
Timala Stewart: um, and any other ancillary fees. So, it was creating like a visual picture for her to see, you thought you were profitable, you know, you thought you were in the green. And I'm sure if we dug a lot deeper, had she tracked the time on those things, we probably would have uncovered more um ways for her to to just become more profitable in that part of her process.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: this was an experienced designer, correct?
Timala Stewart: Yeah, this was an experienced designer. Um I don't remember when she started her business,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So,
Timala Stewart: but it was her, her procurement person, and her assistant, design assistant.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: okay. Um, if you had to guess though, uh, what percentage of residential interior designers do you think understand procurement to the depth that you just explained?
Timala Stewart: um not many not many it and I said before it's such a layered process like everyone understands what placing an order means everyone understands what tracking an order means and signing up for a trade account but it's all of those things in tandem Um, so I would say I don't know 40% is that that seems kind of high.

01:02:14

Timala Stewart: Maybe 30%.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.
Timala Stewart: I don't
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And if and it and if and if they were all and if the the 60% who don't
Timala Stewart: know.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: know were watching this podcast and they now had an appreciation of how much money they're leaving on the table, what their what their personal bank accounts could be like, maybe they might want to uh educate themselves on
Timala Stewart: Yes.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: this.
Timala Stewart: Yes, please. Please. It's it's it's simple. The task, like I said, the tasks are simple, but it's so easy for these small things to compound over time. Um, and it's a it's a lot of coordination. It's a lot of touch points. So, put yourself in a position to um just be open to learning what it actually is and how it actually impacts your business and then set things up for yourself where you can hire whether it's a specialist like me or um a dedicated procurement, you know, manager for your team to manage this part of the

01:03:09

Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Right.
Timala Stewart: business.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay.
Timala Stewart: It's the most I think expensive part of the business.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Um, if if somebody wanted to do that, they wanted to bring somebody on who was local uh to do what you do or and to where would they go searching? Would they go on to Indeed and and try to find find a local
Timala Stewart: Probably not Indeed.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: you?
Timala Stewart: I don't think Indeed is the place to go anymore. Probably LinkedIn. Um maybe Instagram.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.
Timala Stewart: I I get a lot of increase from Instagram. Um I would say the type of person you're looking for
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Interesting.
Timala Stewart: though is someone who is good at customer service. I always say like a procurement manager should be someone who has customer service experience because it's it's it's customer service. You're calling reps or emailing or you know you're following through. Um sometimes procurement specialists communicate with clients.

01:04:07

Timala Stewart: It just depends on the designer's process. Um, I've had experience both ways where I communicated with the designers clients and some where I was just completely behind the scenes, which I don't mind either way. But, um, there's a lot of touch points, humanto human touch points and and following up and following through and customer service representatives have to be solution oriented um, before it, you know,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yep.
Timala Stewart: they have to be problem solvers. And um I think the the the furniture aspect of it all that can be taught, but being someone who is a serviceoriented person and you just know how to build relationships and talk to people, that's harder to teach. Having the attitude as well. So I would say look for someone who's specialized in customer service and you know you may have to teach them furniture terms and things. Um but that's that's learnable. Everything is figure outable.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah,
Timala Stewart: That's what I say. Everything is figurable.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: agreed.

01:05:04

Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. Um,
Timala Stewart: Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I've gone through my entire list of questions and I'm racking my brain. I'm really enjoying this conversation. Um, is there anything else I've missed? Do you think that designers need to
Timala Stewart: Yes. This question I've been waiting for you to ask.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: know?
Timala Stewart: Number six. What's the most expensive procurement mistake? You may have asked a version of it.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: H I think you Yeah. Well, let's do it now then. So, yeah.
Timala Stewart: Okay.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: What's the most expensive procurement mistake you see designers
Timala Stewart: Okay.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: making?
Timala Stewart: So, I have a whole list because it's not just one.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Do it.
Timala Stewart: So, the first one is one that I think people just don't think much of.

01:05:35

Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Go.
Timala Stewart: But an expensive mistake is not creating purchase orders. So, in corporate buying, nothing is purchased. Nothing happens without a PO. It just doesn't exist. If there was no PO for it, it didn't happen. And I think that designers need to adapt that mentality because the purchase orders are your internal financial documentation. So your accountant or CPA or whoever, they will thank you if you have purchase orders that are showing what you intended to buy for this project and it matches the quote, it matches the vendor invoice and it matches the sales order uh confirmation. So create purchase orders. Start creating it. It's an extra step. Um, you don't even have to send them to vendors at this point anymore because so many vendors have online portal online portals. You place the order, but if you notice when you get to the order processing screen, there's usually a box where it says purchase order inside mark. That's there for a reason, right? So, it all ties back on your end financially because when they send you their order confirmations, that's their internal documentation.

01:06:46

Timala Stewart: The invoice that you're getting is their internal invoice. It's not yours. So, in the event that something happens with the vendor, in the event that something happens with the client, you have a bonafide paper trail and it's not just, you know, emails and text messages.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Oh,
Timala Stewart: It's actual documents. So, create purchase orders would be, I would say, the most important. Um, the next most expensive mistake, how much time do we have? Because I have a lot of mistakes.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: you go.
Timala Stewart: Um,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Oh,
Timala Stewart: overcommitting to inventory is another one.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: go.
Timala Stewart: So, I mentioned being a new designer,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.
Timala Stewart: you may be you may be interested in purchasingQS or minimum order quantities, or you may want to meet that minimum opening order because you love the vendor so much. They have so many nice things, but you don't need $7,000 worth of product from this vendor. and you are ending up with a warehouse down the street, you know, a storage unit, your garage and your home office that just has stuff um that you haven't committed to products.

01:07:51

Timala Stewart: So, you're not selling it and it's aging and it's depreciating um as it sits. So, instead of overcommitting to products, find buying groups. There are lots of buying groups that exist now um to help just with that purpose of you know you not meeting minimums. Um, and in regards to minimums, confirming with your vendor if that minimum is a rolling calendar minimum or a calendar year minimum because if you open a trade account, markets coming up, high point markets coming up in April and you're thinking it's a rolling year, so you have to April 2027 when you really have until December 31st, 2026 to meet that minimum and then it starts over again. And then you're shocked when you're back at zero and it's not the following year. So confirming things like that with your vendors. Um having checks and balances in place in your ordering process so you're not accidentally ordering 10 of something when you meant to order one. That's also where you know relationship building with your rep. They may say, "Hey, did you mean to order 10 lamps? I see it's on there,

01:08:58

Timala Stewart: but I don't think that's right." You know, they know your buying patterns. Um we touched on not accounting for freight. Ask about the vendor freight programs. They exist. their thing. Um, your receiver should be giving you itemized rate sheets per the cost of the item and storage cost per day. Um, and you need to be reviewing those regularly. Um, I talked about com conflating procurement and project management. They're not the same. And then not tracking your time. So, that's probably the one that that everyone is guilty of. Um, a lot of the design programs now have time trackers on them. Um, you can also download an app on your phone. Um, it does take practice to remember to set it. Um, even if you just do it to establish a framework for different project types. So, if you have a project that is furnishing and decorating and it's just two rooms, track the time for that. Use it as a framework.

01:09:57

Timala Stewart: If you have a project that is renovation and it's the whole home, track the time for that. Use it as a framework. And then if you have a new construction ground up, track the time for that. Use that as a framework. But figure out a model so that you are not pulling a procurement flat fee just out of the air because what are you basing the the the feed off of if if you've never done the work?
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And to be fair, that's not that's not always a simple thing to do to track time because and and if we tie it back
Timala Stewart: Um
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: into like solo designers or very small firms where people wear many hats, you know, you could be working on your laptop working on on a on a layout and then you get a phone call and you take the phone call and it's about another project and it's about, you know, you're talking to a vendor. Well, then you hang up the phone.

01:10:45

Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Did you just account for that
Timala Stewart: Right.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: time?
Timala Stewart: It takes practice and it's something that I had to practice myself.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.
Timala Stewart: Even with the type of work that I do, my first clients,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.
Timala Stewart: um, I was tracking my time and I would forget things. But once I built the muscle, after I got off the call, I would go back into the tracker and say, "Okay, I did that phone call, 15 minutes, boom, got that in there." So, it it does it takes practice. It it just it does. Um, so it's one of those things where if you do it the first couple of times and like I said, build a framework that you can reference, that way you don't have to do it for every single project in the future. It kind of helps you establish a rate that is based on actual experience. Um, it's not just you working backwards and saying, "I'm going to charge $3,000 for my procurement fee." You don't know

01:11:38

Timala Stewart: what You don't know.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: based on
Timala Stewart: Yeah. You don't know what variables variables are going to happen.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.
Timala Stewart: What if the vendor switches fabric mills halfway through your project and they have to pause operations? you know, you have to extend, you have to resource some items. You just, you don't, you can't predict everything that's going to happen. There's too many variables with third
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. Well,
Timala Stewart: parties.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I can tell you right now, I know at least half a dozen designers off the top of my head that could use your service. I wonder how many of them will because it's almost that the the devil they know versus the devil they don't know. And their businesses are successful. They could be more successful.
Timala Stewart: Mhm.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And it it's you know like starting a diet or an exercise routine you don't you know you're all gung-ho at the start but then you realize there's a lot of work and um yeah so I mean personally I will I will talk to all of them once I'm done this and I'll say here's somebody

01:12:33

Timala Stewart: Mhm.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: that you need to talk to. I honestly think that that most of them just would let it drop and it's sad because they're leaving money on the table. Their businesses could be doing
Timala Stewart: Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: better.
Timala Stewart: I think what what happens is for the for the designers that I have worked with, there's a breaking point that happens. So, when I mentioned the designer who had the huge project, huge multi-million dollar home, um, 15 spaces, it was like, I need help and I need it quick. So, you know, she reached out to me and I believe within two months we were working together cuz she just had it was it was a lot of of things to coordinate. Um,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: That's
Timala Stewart: so I think it's that unfortunately it takes a moment, a breakthrough moment where people are like,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: it.
Timala Stewart: I can't I can't operate like this anymore. I have to figure this out.

01:13:30

Timala Stewart: Um, so it's okay if you know you tell your your designers that your design peers, hey, I know this person and they may not be ready. There might be one person who is. Um, and that's also where the difference in the difference in my two services comes into play, too. Um, so someone may be more looking for more task support, you know, because they have a big project coming up or, you know, maybe they have something else going on and they want to just completely hand off that portion of the business versus the the consulting work is for the people who are are at the breaking point of no, I need to improve this. I need to streamline this. And that just may be fewer clients for me on that side,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.
Timala Stewart: which is part of business.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay, fair enough. Um, I'm I'm really glad we did this. I uh I I've I've learned a lot and I think uh you know when designers get a chance to listen or watch this video they'll uh they should learn a lot from this as well.

01:14:27

Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Uh how can they get in contact with you? What's the best way to reach
Timala Stewart: Yeah. So,
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: you?
Timala Stewart: my email is timalcorated interiors.com. That's my first name, t i ma. Also, info@decorated.com. I'm on Instagram, decorated interiors. And um of course my website I have a contact form. So if you're interested in a procurement um I have decorated interiors.com/procurement and you can submit an inquiry
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay,
Timala Stewart: form.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I'll include all that data in the show notes and all that kind of stuff. Uh, Timla, this has been fantastic. I really appreciate you coming
Timala Stewart: Thank you for inviting me. I enjoyed it.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: on.
Timala Stewart: Like I said I've never had this conversation in depth before. I feel like it could go on for another hour the amount of information.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Oh, yeah, for sure.

Transcription ended after 01:15:35
This editable transcript was computer generated and might contain errors. People can also change the text after it was created.

Key Takeaways

Procurement and project management are not the same thing. Project management is on the scene — on-site, visible, coordinating trades. Procurement is behind the scenes — sourcing, ordering, tracking, coordinating vendors and logistics. Conflating the two is one of the most common and costly operational mistakes designers make.
Five-minute tasks are not free. When you're billing in 15-minute increments, five five-minute tasks in a day is a full billable block. At $100/hour, that's $400 in a single day — unbilled. Multiply across a week, a month, a full project, and you're looking at thousands of dollars of time given away for free.
Freight, warehousing, and install must appear on client invoices. These are not absorbed costs — they are legitimate project expenses. If you're not accounting for them as line items, you're funding them out of your own margin. Confirm vendor freight programs before purchasing, not after.
Create purchase orders. In corporate buying, nothing moves without a PO. Designers who skip this step have no internal financial documentation — only vendor invoices and email threads. When something goes wrong with a vendor or a client, a paper trail built on POs is the only protection you have.
Your vendor reps work for you. Share your design boards, build the relationship, track your sales volume, and negotiate better discount tiers as your purchasing grows. A rep who knows your style and your business is another set of hands — and they're free.
Damages require immediate action. Most vendors have response windows. If you wait to report a damaged item, you may lose your claim entirely — and replace the item out of pocket, at whatever the current price happens to be.

Conclusions

The Strategic Case for Knowing Your Numbers

Procurement is the part of your business where the gap between what you think you're making and what you're actually keeping lives. The work itself isn't complicated — sourcing, ordering, tracking, coordinating. But the sheer number of moving parts, vendors, timelines, and third parties means that every untracked hour, every unaccounted freight charge, and every missing purchase order quietly drains the margin you worked to build. Designers who treat procurement as an operational afterthought aren't bad at business. They're running a business with a slow leak they can't see.

What You Can Do This Week

Start with one project — a finished project you can pull up now. List what you charged the client for freight, warehousing, and install. Then list what you actually paid out. If those numbers don't match, you've found the leak. From there: start creating purchase orders on your next project, confirm freight rate programs with your three most-used vendors before you place your next order, and set a timer the next time you do a "five-minute task" to see how many you do in a day. You don't need to overhaul everything at once. You need to see the problem clearly before you can fix it.

The Business You're Building

A design business that runs on accurate procurement isn't just more profitable — it's less exhausting. When your documentation is clean, your vendor relationships are intentional, and your invoices account for every cost, you stop subsidising your clients' projects with your own margin. The creative work — the part you came to this for — gets the space it deserves when the operational side stops bleeding.

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Douglas Robb https://www.interiordesign.to