Starting a business young has been exciting, uncomfortable, rewarding, and, at times, incredibly uncertain.
I did not begin my career with the expectation that I would immediately start my own company. Like many designers, I spent time working for other businesses, learning how projects move from concept to completion, understanding clients, gaining experience with cabinetry and construction, and seeing firsthand how much goes into creating a successful design practice.
Those experiences were important.
They also helped me realize that I wanted to build something of my own.
Learning From Every Role
Early in my career, I worked in different environments within the design and construction industry.
Each role taught me something different.
I learned about cabinetry, project coordination, client communication, construction, sourcing, and the day-to-day realities of working in design. I also learned more about the type of designer I wanted to become and the type of experience I wanted to create for my own clients.
There is a lot that school can teach you about design, but there are certain things you only begin to understand once you are working on real projects with real budgets, deadlines, contractors, vendors, and clients.
Those experiences gave me a foundation that I continue to build on every day.
Realizing I Wanted Something Different
At a certain point, I began to realize that the traditional path I thought I was supposed to follow was not necessarily the path that felt right for me.
I loved design, but I also loved the business side of it.
I loved communicating directly with clients, building relationships with vendors, sourcing pieces, creating presentations, solving construction problems, and watching an idea become something tangible.
More than anything, I wanted the freedom to shape the entire client experience.
I wanted to decide what kind of projects I took on, how I presented my work, which vendors I sourced from, how involved I was during construction, and what kind of company I wanted to build.
Eventually, the pull to create that became stronger than the comfort of staying where I was.
Leaving a Company Is Not the Same as Leaving the Lessons Behind
One of the biggest things I have learned is that moving on from a company does not mean the experience was unsuccessful.
Sometimes a job teaches you exactly what you needed to learn before you are ready for the next chapter.
I am grateful for the people who gave me opportunities early in my career and for the experience I gained working alongside people who knew far more than I did.
Leaving was never about believing I had learned everything.
If anything, starting my own business made me realize how much there still is to learn.
The difference is that now I am responsible for seeking out those lessons myself.
Starting Before I Felt Completely Ready
There is a strange expectation that you should reach a certain age or level of experience before you are allowed to start something of your own.
I do not think I ever reached a moment when I suddenly felt completely ready.
There was no point where I knew every answer, understood every business decision, or felt like there was nothing left to learn.
I simply reached a point where I knew I would learn more by doing it.
So I started.
I began taking on projects, building vendor relationships, learning the business side of design, developing systems, creating contracts, managing purchasing, communicating with contractors, and figuring things out one decision at a time.
Some things came naturally.
Others absolutely did not.
Being Young in an Industry Built on Experience
Being a young business owner comes with an interesting combination of confidence and self-doubt.
There are moments when I walk into meetings knowing exactly what I want to recommend, and there are other moments when I am very aware that I am still at the beginning of my career.
I have learned not to pretend that experience does not matter.
It does.
But experience is also something you build.
Every project, site visit, vendor meeting, construction issue, client presentation, mistake, and successful decision adds another layer.
Being young does not mean I need to know everything.
It means I need to be willing to ask questions, research relentlessly, listen to people who know more than I do, and continue getting better.
Building the Kind of Company I Wanted to Work For
One of the most exciting parts of building Morgan Mason Interiors has been having the ability to create the type of company I always imagined working for.
I want the design process to feel personal.
I want clients to understand why decisions are being made instead of simply being handed a finished concept.
I want projects to feel thoughtful, detailed, and specific to the people living in the home.
I also want the company itself to continue evolving.
Interior design may be the foundation, but I see opportunities in sourcing, retail, product, partnerships, and other areas that can grow naturally alongside the design studio.
That ability to build beyond a predefined job description is one of the things I value most about entrepreneurship.
The Parts People Do Not Always See
Owning a creative business can look glamorous from the outside.
The finished photography, material samples, beautiful furniture, and presentations are the visible part.
There is also invoicing, accounting, taxes, contracts, shipping issues, damaged products, pricing, vendor communication, late nights, construction questions, scheduling, and dozens of small decisions happening behind the scenes.
For every beautiful room, there is usually a spreadsheet somewhere.
Learning to enjoy both sides of the business has been important.
I am a designer, but I am also building a company.
Learning to Trust My Own Direction
Leaving established companies and choosing to work for myself required a level of trust that I had not needed before.
When you work for someone else, there is usually a structure already in place.
When you own the business, you are creating the structure while operating inside of it.
There are decisions I would make differently now than I did when I first started, and I know there will be decisions I make today that I will eventually outgrow.
I think that is part of building anything.
The goal is not to get every decision right from the beginning.
The goal is to keep learning quickly enough that the business grows with you.
There Is No Perfect Time to Start
I could have waited.
I could have spent several more years working for other companies, gaining experience, and eventually deciding that I was finally qualified enough to begin.
There would have been nothing wrong with that path.
But it was not the one I wanted.
Starting young means I have had to learn certain lessons earlier and sometimes more publicly than I might have otherwise.
It has also given me the opportunity to start building something that can grow alongside me for years.
Morgan Mason Interiors is still evolving, and so am I.
That may be the part I am most excited about.
I do not know exactly what this company will look like five or ten years from now.
But I know I am glad I started building it now.