620: Melissa Leclair: Figuring It Out As You Grow Your Modern Interior Design Business

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business Podcast

LuAnn Nigara

Business, Design, Arts

4.8 • 786 Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2020

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today with Melissa Leclair: In five years, self-taught interior designer Melissa Leclair and husband Sacha have created Leclair Decor, an Ottawa-based full-service design firm with a 10,000sf showroom and an expansive e-commerce store. Melissa shares how they built their business and their team of 45 in a heavily digital environment and how important going with your gut and having a commitment to communication and constant improvement really is in the design industry. Pick it apart: [11:40] Melissa reviews her design team makeup [19:27] Melissa shares how her business started as a side hustle [32:09] Melissa and LuAnn review the business roles of Melissa and husband, Sacha [38:00] Melissa reveals her design project onboarding process [49:49] Melissa talks about how her team does virtual presentations LuAnn and Melissa Leclair’s Ah-Ha moments: "Every time you think you have lots of space, it quickly gets eaten up—always plan for more." - Melissa Leclair "You can never be too heavy on communication." - Melissa Leclair "If you want to have market share, you’ve got to get out there and get it." - Melissa Leclair “The Pretty” More About Melissa Leclair: Leclair Decor is an Ottawa-based full service residential design firm founded and co-owned by husband and wife team Sacha and Melissa Leclair. The business (just a side hustle at first) began in 2011, after we bought and revamped our first home and started receiving inquiries from friends and family about decorating services for their spaces. Since then, the company has evolved into a full-fledged residential design firm, with a principal focus on high end remodels and new builds. Though we are based in Ottawa, Canada our talented design team now serves clients across North America, using industry-leading software and embracing all modern means of digital communication to work seamlessly with homeowners throughout Canada and the US. LD Shoppe is the retail store of Leclair Decor, a husband and wife owned residential design firm based out of Ottawa, Canada. Our decorating & design business has been rapidly growing over the past few years and to better serve our clients we decided to open a store to showcase our favourite products from our favourite manufacturers. In September 2017 we opened our first brick and mortar showroom to compliment our online offerings. In December 2018 we opened a new 4200 sq ft location at the Ottawa Trainyards. 2019 saw us expand our showroom to just under 10000 sq ft. Why shop with us? Think of us as your local mom and pop shop, of the internet. We're a small family owned business and we strive to provide personalized customer service. We're passionate about well designed, stylish and practical long lasting furniture, rugs, art, lighting, and decor. We use the products we showcase on this site ourselves and recommend them to clients. We're confident you'll love them too! Connect with Melissa LeClair Website Instagram Facebook Pinterest YouTube What's new with LuAnn Nigara Luannlive.com luannnigara.com/launch www.luannnigara.com/cob Get The Goodies! For checklists, resources, and extra goodies from A Well-Designed Business sign up for free here. To Get on LuAnn’s Email List, text the word designbiz to 444999! Purchase LuAnn’s Books Here: Book 1: The Making of A Well - Designed Business: Turn Inspiration into Action Book 2: A Well-Designed Business - The Power Talk Friday Experts Connect with LuAnn Nigara LuAnn’s Website LuAnn’s Blog Power Talk Friday Like Us: Facebook | Tweet Us: Twitter | Follow Us: Instagram | Listen Here: Podcast A Big THANK YOU to Today’s Podcast Sponsor: Revel Woods runs their wood flooring business with a commitment to continual improvement and problem solving. They’ve created a system that serves to provide designers with a 24/7 digital flooring expert. If you need advice on what woods are right for your client’s climate, lifestyle, and budget, just go do revelwoods.com/revel-wood-selector, enter your specs and they’ll provide you with filtered options that will work perfectly for your project. You’ll also want to set up your design account at revelwoods.com/pro-account to receive benefits reserved for the trade.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, are you getting ready for Thanksgiving? Maybe you're hosting and you're busy getting all of your dishware organized and your menu organized. Or maybe you're like me. You're at the season where you just get to ring the doorbell with a pie in your hand, right? Either way, I hope you are planning to spend some quality time with friends and family, whether that means it's a big,
0:21.1	raucous crowd and lots of carrying on or downtime. Either way, I'm wishing you a happy
0:26.5	holiday season. And, you know, what happens after Thanksgiving, we have Black Friday.
0:31.6	And on Black Friday, Luann University is officially opening registration. And here's the thing. Because it's Black Friday,
0:39.2	we got some Black Friday deals for you. All right, first of all, let me explain this. Early Bird for
0:44.0	Luann University is open from November 29th through December 31st, 2024. So that is the entire early bird
0:52.4	period. And during the early bird period, you get two bonuses.
0:57.2	Number one, you get the early bird pricing.
0:58.8	But you also get, if you buy, whether you buy a five-week course or a three-hour intensive,
1:05.2	if you purchase and register during the early bird period, you are going to be enrolled in the workshop that
1:13.4	Amber DeLegarza and I are hosting together live. It's called Success by Design. Strategic
1:20.6	Goal Setting meets Time Mastery. Okay. So this is going to be a live workshop. It is going to happen in real time on january second
1:30.4	twenty twenty five and we're going to spend part of the time mapping out how do you set your goals
1:37.1	what do you do how do you decide if it's a legitimate goal if it's a reach goal if it's a too easy
1:43.2	of a goal what should your goals be?
1:45.5	And then Amber will take over and she will help us figure out how to carve that time in our
1:52.9	work life to work on our business. Okay. So it's managing the expectations of the hours
1:59.6	you have available so that you can get it all done.
2:02.3	So this is going to be a fantastic class that you are going to take real time and ask us real questions.
2:08.5	Okay, so those are two bonuses that you get if you sign up any time during the early bird period,
2:14.3	November 29th to December 31st.
2:16.4	But there is an extra bonus if you sign up during
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from LuAnn Nigara, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of LuAnn Nigara and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.