We recently had the opportunity to talk to Kristin, owner of Kosy Kasa, one of Austin’s trendiest new interior design services. During the interview, Kristin gave us an insider’s view of a day in the life of a solo entrepreneur and interior designer.

Here’s a transcript of our conversation (edited for clarity):

ME: Can you tell me a little about what you do?

KRISTIN: I’m a solo designer. I run my own firm, which I’ve been doing for a couple of years on and off. But before I was always working for other design firms and did freelance projects on the side. Just this past couple months is when I’ve really gone full time, so I’m just getting started and diving into the Austin market.

ME: What would you say are some challenges with running your own business?

KRISTIN: It’s a lot of work. I have to do everything by myself, which I know how to do because I’ve been designing for so long. But it’s a lot of managing time and different clients all at once. Another challenge is figuring out more of the business end of things, whereas before I would only touch on it and the owner of the company or lead designer would handle that. So figuring out the best way to invoice, best forms of payment, what to charge, etc.

ME: Can you describe a typical work day for you?

KRISTIN: If I don’t have any meetings with clients, I like to block out a certain amount of hours per job per day. So this morning before our call, I was working on one of my clients. Super cool. She’s about my age, just a little bit younger. It’s her first house, and I’m calling it like her bachelorette pad. Right now, we’re putting together the living room. So I was pulling a couple items, like coffee tables and such, and putting them into a presentation for her to see how they all go together.

And then if I have design meetings, I’ll block out that time. And getting fabric samples or material samples as well before each meeting. It’s different every single day, honestly.

ME: How do you stay organized?

I organize in a way that works for me. If I had someone else working with me, though, it would be really confusing for them. One boss told me back in the day, “You need to make sure everything is organized in a way so that if you quit one day, the new person would be able to pick up right where you left off.” So I guess I should take that advice… But my current method works for my mind and my mind only.

ME: Where do you go to keep up with design trends?

KRISTIN: Instagram is probably the number one place. Designers are posting everything they’re doing there and tagging their sources, so I found a lot of cool furniture stores that way through Instagram. Number two would be design blogs. That used to be number one, but now with how big Instagram is – that’s just what people do.

To learn more about Kosy Kasa and Kristin, you can visit her website here: https://www.kozykasa.us/

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