You can be “so busy”… and still not be moving forward.
If that line hits a little too close to home, you are not alone.
In today’s episode, we do something we have never done on Design Dash before. Instead of a polished, hindsight-style interview with someone who already has it all figured out, we pull back the curtain and do a real-time coaching session with Houston-based designer Alexandra “Sandy” Hartley of Alexandra Hartley Interiors.
Sandy is talented, thoughtful, client-focused, and right at the crossroads so many solo designers know too well. Do I hire? Do I stay solo? Where should I invest my money so I’m not just busy, but actually growing? And how do I scale without blowing up the parts of the business I genuinely love?
What we dig into in this episode
We get honest about the “in-between” season of business growth, including:
- Sandy realizing her calendar is full but she is still the bottleneck.
- The uncomfortable math of tracking time and seeing what she is really paying herself.
- Where her hours actually go (spoiler: client communication, admin, invoicing, order tracking… and not nearly as much design as you would think).
- The mindset shift around hiring when your systems are not perfect yet, and why that can actually be the best time to bring in operational support.
- The real question behind “I need better processes” and what Sandy is actually avoiding.
- A practical hiring path: admin and bookkeeping support first to buy back time, then marketing support later so the pipeline feels less unpredictable.
- A memorable moment where Sandy shows a potential client the messy behind-the-scenes work on her phone and the client basically says, “You’re hired.”
- A specific timeline to stop overthinking and start moving: committing to an end-of-Q1 hire for behind-the-scenes support.
If you are a solo designer who is drowning in admin, stuck in evenings of invoicing, and quietly thinking, “I can’t stay here forever, but I don’t know what next looks like,” this conversation will give you something you can actually use.
Not inspiration. Not theory. Clarity. Language for what you are feeling. And a decision framework for what to do next.
And maybe the biggest takeaway: growth is not linear, and being at the crossroads does not mean you’re failing. It means you are right on time.
