46. Budgeting, Pricing your services and attracting the right trades with Maia Roffey

Interview with Maia Roffey

In this episode, I interviewed Maia Roffey, Principal Designer, Founder, and Owner of Black Sheep Interior Design.  I've known Maia for years and we've had many frank conversations about our businesses, our struggles, and our processes. So I brought Maia on the podcast to talk about all things money and how to find and work with the right trades. 

Maia’s formative years were spent in a home built by famed Canadian architect Ron Thom. Visits to properties in Toronto’s Forest Hill and Rosedale neighbourhoods, and trips further afield to the Laurentians and Barbados cemented her appreciation for elegant architecture and beautifully executed spaces.

She graduated from McMasters' multi-disciplinary Arts & Science program in Hamilton Ontario, Maia took a brief detour into law school on the west coast before finding her niche in design. She graduated with honours from Ryerson’s School of Interior Design and completed her BCIN, LEED AP, and NCIDQ designations before founding Black Sheep Interior Design. She is also a dedicated volunteer and proudly combines her love of design and philanthropy as Chair of the annual Home for Life fundraiser for Eva’s Initiatives, a charity fighting youth homelessness in the GTA.

One of the many things I love about Maia is how open she is about her business and the way she does things. She is all about collaboration and community! Through the podcast, we chat about how important it is to keep sharing our sources with each other in order for our own businesses to grow. Maia also shares how she creates budgets for projects, how she bills for a project, and the specific wording she uses to ensure clients don't push her around. 

Lastly, Maia and I chat about the one thing that often keeps designers up at night - TRADES! She tells us what she's done over the years to find and align herself with the right trades, and provides great tips on how you can build and foster good trade relationships. (The Unicorn Contractor may actually exist out there!)

You can find Maia Roffey at www.blacksheepinteriordesign.com and on Instagram @blacksheepid.

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