Monetize Every Project: Turning Small Jobs Into Big Business with a Franchise Model

What if you could make every project profitable, even the “too small” ones you usually turn away? In this episode, Rebecca sits down with international award-winning interior designer and entrepreneur Miranda Cullen to talk about how she built Inside Stories, a first-of-its-kind interior design franchise.

Miranda shares how her business model turns micro-design services, paint consults, room refreshes, and small-scale projects into a consistent revenue stream. You’ll learn how franchising gives designers two paths: bolt the model onto an existing firm or launch under a nationally recognized brand. With 30 years of experience, Miranda explains why systems and processes protect profit margins, how to set fixed fees confidently, and why franchising may be the next evolution in our industry.

 

 

episode highlights

  1. Why turning away “small” projects leaves money on the table

  2. How micro-design services can be structured to stay profitable

  3. The difference between launching a franchise vs. starting from scratch

  4. What it costs to buy into a franchise—and what’s included

  5. Why systems and data are the backbone of scalable design businesses

  6. How national marketing support + proven processes give franchisees a head start

  7. Miranda’s advice for designers who undervalue their services

 

 

Episode Resources

Read the Full Transcript ⬇️

 

00;00;00;00 – 00;00;11;25
Miranda Cullen
You bring something to the table that other people don’t. So don’t undervalue what you bring. You know, you as a person might like a deal, but you are not a deal. Don’t put that energy out there.

00;00;11;27 – 00;00;43;27
Rebecca Hay
All right. I’m Rebecca Hay, and I’ve built a successful interior design business by trial and error. Podcasts, online courses, and so many breaking books. Over the last decade, I’ve grown from an insecure student to having false starts to careers. And now I’m finally in the place where I want to be. Throughout my journeys, it’s been pretty obvious that I’m passionate about business and helping other entrepreneurs do the same.

00;00;43;29 – 00;01;10;00
Rebecca Hay
Each week, I’ll share tangible takeaways from my own experience and the experiences of other badass women to help you build your confidence and change your business. Hey hey hey, it’s Rebecca and you are listening to Resilient by Design. Today’s episode is totally different. I’ve never had a conversation like this on the podcast. I am speaking to Miranda Cullen about a franchise.

00;01;10;00 – 00;01;37;09
Rebecca Hay
She has developed, a franchise model that interior designers can step into. Like a business in a box and hit the ground running with their business. Whether you have been in business for a few years and you’re struggling or you’ve been working under another designer, we talk about the INS and outs of what this looks like, how she came up with this idea to franchise her business, and I think you’ll find it really interesting.

00;01;37;09 – 00;01;59;18
Rebecca Hay
I ask some hard questions. I ask, what does it cost? I ask about pricing, your design fees, all the things. Is it location specific? So you guys are going to like this one? It is with Miranda Cullen, who also happens to be an international award winning interior designer and decorator. She’s a very energetic entrepreneur, a mom, a wife, a CEO, and she calls a rainmaker.

00;01;59;21 – 00;02;20;09
Rebecca Hay
And there’s a reason that she fears no project that comes through our doors. I think that’s really interesting. I recently recorded an episode about how designers often get nervous when a new project comes their way. And you’ll see in this episode why she’s not afraid of it because she has a system set up. She’s 30 years of experience.

00;02;20;09 – 00;02;47;05
Rebecca Hay
She’s a valuable mentor in our industry, and she has an incredible interior design team. That’s the driving force behind the growth of her interior design company, Inside Stories, as she continues to build its legacy through franchising. You are going to learn all about that in today’s episode. Enjoy. Welcome to Resilient by Design, Miranda. I’m excited to have this conversation with you here.

00;02;47;10 – 00;02;49;21
Miranda Cullen
Thank you for having me. I’m excited as well.

00;02;49;23 – 00;02;59;22
Rebecca Hay
It’s fun. We actually chatted on the Wingnut Social Design by doing that social podcast last year when I was a guest host for Darla Powell, which is so funny. We’re kind of coming full circle.

00;02;59;22 – 00;03;03;08
Miranda Cullen
Yes, indeed. It was very fun. So I’m looking forward to today as well.

00;03;03;08 – 00;03;07;10
Rebecca Hay
So maybe just give everyone a little bit of a glimpse into who you are.

00;03;07;18 – 00;03;36;23
Miranda Cullen
My name is Miranda Cullen. I am the owner and founder of Insights Stories. We are a large interior design firm here in Denver, a suburb of Denver, Colorado. We service all different types of project sizes, scopes, etc. here at Inside Stories. For me personally, I have been designing now for officially 30 years, so many birthdays equals many years of designing.

00;03;36;25 – 00;03;37;22
Rebecca Hay
Congratulations!

00;03;37;22 – 00;03;53;16
Miranda Cullen
I have run the gamut as far as the types of design projects and things that I’ve done, but this is by far the most rewarding part of my career, which I’m very excited to share with you about what we are doing here at Inside Stories.

00;03;53;22 – 00;04;13;18
Rebecca Hay
Yeah, I love this conversation. For those of you listening, this is going to be a very different kind of conversation, so pay attention. When I chatted with Miranda, on Darla’s podcast, I learned that you have built a franchise model. That was a year ago, so I can’t wait to explore how how that has developed since we chatted last.

00;04;13;25 – 00;04;33;20
Rebecca Hay
But I also love this conversation because it is something that when I was in the early years of my business, I thought to myself like, oh, why is no one doing this? Why are there no interior design franchises? I actually had that thought and and I thought maybe I should do it. And then I was like, yeah, no, that’s like a lot of work indeed.

00;04;33;25 – 00;04;41;01
Rebecca Hay
So tell me a little bit about the model that you have. And then I want to talk about sort of like how did you come up with this idea?

00;04;41;03 – 00;05;05;09
Miranda Cullen
So I have always been in high end interiors from the get go. Essentially what occurs as you, I’m sure know, and many of us know, is you get into this marketplace and you make a name for yourself. People start calling, you know, it’s really great, right? Your phone starts to ring. You’ve made it. Folks are calling in and I want you to design my home.

00;05;05;09 – 00;05;28;04
Miranda Cullen
And you get to the point, as an interior designer, that you’re hiring staff to support you and designers to support you and executive staff to to support your business as you’re sort of growing, if that is indeed your goal. Although it wasn’t my goal in the beginning, it just sort of happened. So I’m not really sure. You know, as I circle back to that kind of crazy time, I didn’t set out to create the firm that I created.

00;05;28;04 – 00;05;50;22
Miranda Cullen
But here we are today. So when we have this sort of momentum going, it’s project after project. What occurs is you start sort of pricing yourself out of the smaller design projects, and that need does not go away. Folks will call up and they’re like, I love your designs. I really want you to do my living room.

00;05;50;22 – 00;06;17;20
Miranda Cullen
And the unfortunate part about when you’re in that sort of upper echelon of projects, you don’t know how to scope down to be able to still make a profit on a project that is smaller. And so a lot of us prefer those out to those that are starting their businesses are do smaller projects, that sort of thing. So ultimately, what ended up happening in this spire and scale of our business, one of our referral designers called and was like, please do not send me anymore.

00;06;17;20 – 00;06;40;22
Miranda Cullen
Like, I can’t handle this work. And it was sort of an eye opening experience for me because I was like, how much have we sent you? And she was like, too much. And so ultimately, as a business owner, which I very quickly realized I was, I said, we cannot be turning away warm leads. So people that call in and are seeking your services, you’re not going out and seeking them.

00;06;40;22 – 00;07;23;01
Miranda Cullen
They are seeking you. We cannot turn those people away. We have to figure out how we can services clientele and service them well. And so the idea of sort of our Inside Stories micro design service offering was founded based on that made and essentially what we’ve done is created a business model that starts at a three hour block of time for us to come in and do a paint consultation or a small like judging of your accessories and moving things around and creating a shopping list for you all the way up to multi-million dollar custom homes and everything in between and what that has done for our company is it’s given us a wide breadth

00;07;23;01 – 00;07;48;29
Miranda Cullen
of work, which sometimes is a little bit scary for folks because when you get a little too diversified, you’re not good at one thing, right? You’re sort of a jack of all trades, but master of none. And we didn’t want that for ourselves either. So we wanted to create this business model that allowed us to service that full breadth of work and bring on talented designers and, you know, staff that can support that piece of it.

00;07;49;02 – 00;07;57;23
Miranda Cullen
That is how we develop the business model and then by refinement. So Inside Stories is officially ten years old next month. Wow.

00;07;57;23 – 00;08;04;00
Rebecca Hay
This is not a new business. Like this is not stablished. I don’t know if I realize that this is cool.

00;08;04;01 – 00;08;41;11
Miranda Cullen
Yeah, and it has been ten years of trial and error. You know, I mentioned on the last podcast we started this piece of the business as a business in a box, and I do not recommend that. And we’ve taken it all the way to what it is. And so through this trial and tribulations, we recognized about four ish years ago that we had, business magic going on over here and wanted to figure out how we could support design businesses that were in the same situation as us so that they could have the opportunity to capitalize on a business they’ve built, as well as additional service offerings.

00;08;41;11 – 00;09;04;04
Miranda Cullen
So that was how the franchise model was born. And it takes a minute to get your sea legs. When it comes to setting up a franchise, it’s very costly as their franchise or to set the business up and get it set up correctly with the trainings and all the tools and what the offering is, and figuring out what the franchise fee needs to be and all the legal documents.

00;09;04;04 – 00;09;28;04
Miranda Cullen
And then once you’ve got that all laid out, which we had when we last spoke last year, then you have to have your go to market strategy. So there is just a lot that goes into it for me personally, I wanted to make sure that we were 100% vetted before we hit the market, because the last thing I wanted to do is bring people on board and do trial and error on their time and their time, like, that is just not who I am.

00;09;28;05 – 00;09;44;01
Miranda Cullen
Wow. We are ready. We have soft launched, we are go to market strategy. We’re going to be in a a franchise expo in Austin next month I believe. Now October is next month. October almost. I don’t even.

00;09;44;01 – 00;09;48;13
Rebecca Hay
Know. No we’re recording. It’s still August, but that’s okay. It feels like September already.

00;09;48;13 – 00;10;02;15
Miranda Cullen
Yeah, we’re just in. I call it September. So we. Yes. And we’ve identified a couple of really sort of hot markets that we want to go into right now just to kind of test the waters and see. But yeah we are we’re ready to go okay.

00;10;02;15 – 00;10;19;04
Rebecca Hay
Well okay. We this is so amazing. There’s so much there I want to go I want to take a step back. Sure. I think a lot of designers can relate to this because I and I can relate to this, this idea of like, you start to build a name for yourself. So you’re starting to uplevel your projects. You’re doing bigger projects.

00;10;19;04 – 00;10;39;23
Rebecca Hay
You start to bring on team members. And for those designers who are listening, who are a little bit more established, you’ve been in this situation where it’s like, I don’t want small projects anymore. It’s funny, I literally had this conversation with a coaching client this morning where I was talking to her about, okay, as you scale your team, you need to ensure you’re bringing in projects that will cover your expenses.

00;10;39;23 – 00;11;01;17
Rebecca Hay
And at some point, the smaller projects don’t make sense, and at some point, just to do a bathroom remodel or a living room or whatever it might be. Those projects, though, they could be great projects. They actually they drain your focus and you can’t do it as well. It’s hard to do big projects well while also managing the small projects.

00;11;01;17 – 00;11;20;16
Rebecca Hay
So I completely can relate to that. And there’s designers listening who are like, oh my God, all I get our small projects, I’d love a big one. Or some people are like, I wish I could service everyone, like, how do you do it? So I love that you recognize because you do. You did well. Most of us do what I tell designers to do refer it out, you know, send it to a friend.

00;11;20;16 – 00;11;39;20
Rebecca Hay
If you don’t have the capacity and you don’t want to scale, which I think is the key ingredient there, because not everybody wants to scale the way that you have. You can refer it out, but you saw an opportunity. And for everyone listening, I want you to consider, like where in your business is there an opportunity that you are not paying attention to?

00;11;39;23 – 00;11;59;04
Rebecca Hay
Where is there like money on the table? And for designers listening, it could be, why are we giving away all of our discounts? Why are we specifying all this furniture and not making money on it for you? It was wait a minute, people are coming to us to hire us and we’re like, bye, no, no, thank you. Like, wait a minute, this is not how business works.

00;11;59;04 – 00;12;18;10
Rebecca Hay
Like they have to hire us. Let’s figure this out. And it wasn’t easy. It sounds like there was a lot that went into it. So if I’m understanding correctly, like you didn’t start it as a franchise, you first started as here is, a second revenue source, almost like a separate business that is attached to ours, where we will just serve a small project.

00;12;18;10 – 00;12;18;27
Rebecca Hay
Is that right?

00;12;19;03 – 00;12;20;12
Miranda Cullen
That is correct.

00;12;20;14 – 00;12;24;14
Rebecca Hay
Okay. So you had a special team and it was like, almost like you started a second business.

00;12;24;14 – 00;12;46;04
Miranda Cullen
We did. We started a different arm of our business. At the time it was a completely separate set of books. It’s a completely different LLC and all of that because it operates very differently. And so it’s a complementing sort of business. That is something that is an option for those that want to participate in the franchise, or it doesn’t have to be.

00;12;46;04 – 00;12;48;08
Miranda Cullen
You can just bring it all in.

00;12;48;10 – 00;13;08;16
Rebecca Hay
So is the the franchise that you are now establishing? I want to talk about that in a minute, but what was the secret sauce, do you think, to making that business tick to the point where you’re like, oh, we could franchise this wasn’t the size of projects that it was like, boom. Each project is kind of similar. Was it your systems?

00;13;08;21 – 00;13;20;07
Rebecca Hay
Was it your branding? Like, what do you think were the elements that really made that business click that made you realize we have something here? I think you said business magic. What was it that got you to that point?

00;13;20;10 – 00;13;23;29
Miranda Cullen
Processes and systems got us 80% away there.

00;13;23;29 – 00;13;30;13
Rebecca Hay
Hello everyone. Are you listening? I do this all the freaking time. Process is everything.

00;13;30;13 – 00;13;56;09
Miranda Cullen
It is. As designers, we by far are creative in nature. There is very few that are like split down in the middle of business brain and creative brain. We have to lean in to whatever we are at at our core, and we lean into that. Wherever our deficits are, we have to make sure that we are bringing support and to help us fill those voids in order to run a successful business.

00;13;56;09 – 00;14;16;28
Miranda Cullen
And not everybody thinks that way. We’re trying to help, as it sounds like what you do with your coaching is you have a talent as a designer that most people don’t have. It’s why we’re hired, but we’re also very undervalued. We do fun things and we shop for people and we create spaces and, you know, and it’s all very fun.

00;14;16;28 – 00;14;39;17
Miranda Cullen
And it is, however, our we are also a business people. It’s important to me that we change the narrative of our industry and that we’re also business people. I know I don’t do this just for the fun of it. I love what I do and our staff loves, you know, one of our core values is fun. Like, this is fun, but it’s not easy.

00;14;39;17 – 00;15;00;28
Miranda Cullen
It’s very hard. And to be, you know, the best self that you can be and also run a business and be now a profitable business that is a whole different ballgame. And that is what we’re trying to help people do. Additionally, I’m at the point in my career where what happens next? You know, I am not a young chicken anymore.

00;15;00;28 – 00;15;29;07
Miranda Cullen
You know, spring chicken that right out of the gate has all this fury and fire for, you know, pounding the pavement and figuring out where that next deal is going to come. Like, I’m now tired and I’ve been doing it for a second. And so what does that look like for me? And I think for myself, I’m finding great value in off ring this as a position to help the folks that are at the stage in their career where they’re like, what am I going to do?

00;15;29;12 – 00;15;46;21
Miranda Cullen
Am I ever going to be able to retire? Or I don’t want to turn work away? But to your point, I don’t have any time and my bandwidth to service a living room. I want to help them. I want to create a living room space for them, but I do not personally have the band what to do. That and that is what this business proposition is.

00;15;46;21 – 00;16;08;08
Miranda Cullen
It’s a handful of things. It’s being able to service those leads that you’re bringing and based on your branding, based on what you that this business that you’ve created, that also is giving you an opportunity to make money while it’s not taxing your time. And I think for me that is the biggest sort of place. I have the most amazing team here.

00;16;08;09 – 00;16;17;27
Miranda Cullen
We have the most amazing projects that we’re doing. I sat down with a designer to help her space on the other day, and I was like, wait, I’ve been in this house before, who’s this client?

00;16;17;29 – 00;16;18;27
Rebecca Hay
So the client had sold the.

00;16;18;27 – 00;16;40;04
Miranda Cullen
House and I didn’t even know. And, you know, it’s it’s projects that are going on and, you know, and it really gives also very talented designers that don’t want to start their own business, creative autonomy. They’re under our umbrella of business. And we have a systems and processes in place. And they come in as these sort of entrepreneurial spirit that are not risk takers.

00;16;40;04 – 00;17;03;16
Miranda Cullen
They are risk adverse. You know, those of us that like, want to just leap off the cliff, we’re like, okay, you know, if it doesn’t go right, it’s really fine. We’ll just pick ourselves up and go the other direction. Some people are not like that. And so this business model gives people an opportunity that have a little bit of that entrepreneurial spirit that don’t want to be under maybe the thumb of a designer telling them, you know, I own the company, so you do what I say.

00;17;03;18 – 00;17;14;03
Miranda Cullen
It gives them the ability to interact with the client and build their portfolio while under the safety of processes, procedures, you know, all of that sort of thing.

00;17;14;05 – 00;17;36;05
Rebecca Hay
It’s almost like if you are a franchisee. So like if a designer listening, which by the way, there are a lot of designers listening, I know, I know, you guys are there who haven’t started their business yet or who are still working full time and are dreaming about this entrepreneurial dream, or they’ve been doing a bit for friends and family.

00;17;36;05 – 00;17;54;10
Rebecca Hay
But holy heck, going out on your own is so frickin scary. Which is why they’re listening to the podcast and they’re soaking up all the info. It’s almost like what you’re offering and the correct me if I’m wrong, but I see it as sort of like this happy middle ground. You could either on one extreme, you could just go work for a design firm, right?

00;17;54;10 – 00;18;12;07
Rebecca Hay
You could be a designer for hire. You can work under the thumb, as you say, of another designer doing their style, their way. You can learn, you get to be creative. You could do that. Or on the opposite end, you could do what you and I have done, which is go out on a limb, go out on your own, hang your shingle if you will.

00;18;12;07 – 00;18;18;03
Rebecca Hay
Put your name on the business. If you want to start from scratch, obviously take my course and use my processes.

00;18;18;05 – 00;18;18;19
Miranda Cullen
100.

00;18;18;19 – 00;18;41;15
Rebecca Hay
Percent, but you are out on your own doing it. Yeah. Or what? I think your offering is somewhere in the middle where it’s like you get to have autonomy in the sense that you don’t have a boss, but you can just use our systems, our name and our brand, and you can go out and get clients in your area, and it’ll make the business side easier.

00;18;41;15 – 00;18;43;00
Rebecca Hay
Is that what I’m understanding?

00;18;43;02 – 00;18;43;18
Miranda Cullen
Yes.

00;18;43;23 – 00;18;46;22
Rebecca Hay
Sort of. Okay. So let’s break it down then.

00;18;46;28 – 00;19;08;03
Miranda Cullen
Yes. And there are there are a couple of different caveats. And we know we’re not a we’re not a one size fits all, but we do have some optional programs that folks can go into. So the biggest rule based on our franchise model and the way we have it set up, is that you have to have two years experience in the business, so it doesn’t mean you have to have your own business.

00;19;08;03 – 00;19;12;00
Miranda Cullen
You can be a designer for two years. That is the only real qualification.

00;19;12;01 – 00;19;22;01
Rebecca Hay
Okay, so you can’t be someone who’s working corporate right now and you’re like, this is the answer. I’m just going to leave. I’m going to give my two weeks notice and I’m going to go to Miranda and boom, I got business in a box.

00;19;22;01 – 00;19;24;03
Miranda Cullen
Right? We’re not that right now.

00;19;24;06 – 00;19;28;15
Rebecca Hay
I misspoke. Sorry, guys. You guys can still come to me. That’s right, that’s right.

00;19;28;17 – 00;19;55;24
Miranda Cullen
But if you have been a designer designing under somebody else or even, you know, you, you did sort of go out on the limb, but you’re still just, like, not quite figuring it out and what have you to own an Inside Story franchise. You just have to be in the industry for two years. So, you know, originally when we started this concept and going forward with the business model, it was more conducive to folks that, you know, have really established themselves.

00;19;55;24 – 00;20;14;10
Miranda Cullen
Maybe they’re in business three to 5 to 6 years. They’re on that swing of that boom, they’re making it and they’re about to make it. And so what do I do once I’ve made it to here with all of the filler that I’ve been working on, I don’t want to turn that away. So Rebecca Hayes Designs brings on an Inside Story franchise.

00;20;14;10 – 00;20;33;27
Miranda Cullen
So it’s Inside Stories by Rebecca Hayes Designs. You hire that staff, they work on those smaller projects and are creating constant monthly revenue under your brand. And you have somebody that’s managing them, or you want to manage them whatever you want to do and it’s running. So that’s one way of doing it.

00;20;33;29 – 00;20;39;06
Rebecca Hay
Okay. So you could it could be tagged on to your business the way that you initially started it.

00;20;39;06 – 00;20;39;29
Miranda Cullen
That’s correct. Yeah.

00;20;40;00 – 00;20;51;14
Rebecca Hay
So if you were an established designer listening, you don’t have to give up that established name. If you are whoever design, you can just add this on. Cool. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

00;20;51;17 – 00;21;14;07
Miranda Cullen
So that’s one avenue. The second avenue is what you are talking about. So I’m a designer. I’ve been working under somebody for five, six, seven years to whatever it is, a minimum of two and I’m over it. I want to start my own business. I’ve been doing side jobs. What have you and I want to go under an established sort of brand.

00;21;14;10 – 00;21;38;02
Miranda Cullen
You can do that as well. So Inside Stories by X, Y, Z designer, that’s really what your business is. We put our systems and processes into place. We help you get all kind of set up and drive in that direction. We do national marketing and branding. And so this is a national it’s a nationally recognized brand. And so you can help build your book of business based on that as well.

00;21;38;07 – 00;22;02;02
Miranda Cullen
So it’s kind of two ends of the spectrum. The one that we just talked about where maybe you’re not as established, you know, there’s a lot more training and coaching that goes into it, as you know, with, you know, the coaching that you do for your designers, but nonetheless the systems, the processes, the way that it’s approach, the way people are paid, all of that still translates in.

00;22;02;05 – 00;22;21;15
Rebecca Hay
Okay. That’s really great. I didn’t realize that there were those two avenues if you will. And I think that’s I think that’s really helpful to understand because you don’t have to sort of throw away what you’ve established. You can sort of add it on. But I do actually think the appeal for someone who’s just like struggling is thinking, this is like, oh my God, I don’t want my name on the door.

00;22;21;15 – 00;22;38;17
Rebecca Hay
I’m still trying to figure this out, and it’s just not for me. But I want to have my own shop. Like, this is a great way to go. Yes, a couple of questions. Is this specific to the US? Could somebody outside of the US franchise or. No not yet.

00;22;38;17 – 00;23;11;03
Miranda Cullen
So that’s a very great question. So in short, the way we’re set up right now is us. There are opportunities and it just comes down to money. So the way that the disclosure documents and everything is set up just has to change depending on if we go into a different region of the world. You know, right now, originally my goal, you know, back when we were talking a year ago, was I was going to go after some venture capitalist money and I opted to not I’m self-funding it.

00;23;11;03 – 00;23;30;03
Miranda Cullen
So, right now we’re a little bit more sort of bare bones basics, getting our sea legs just because those next levels they just and attorneys fees and business set up just is exponentially more and cost. But it doesn’t mean that if you know, somebody from Canada was like, hey, I’m interested, what do we got to do to make this happen?

00;23;30;03 – 00;23;31;12
Miranda Cullen
We will make it happen.

00;23;31;17 – 00;23;31;28
Rebecca Hay

00;23;32;04 – 00;23;42;10
Miranda Cullen
And I don’t want to say, you know, the term kind of low hanging fruit. It’s just I know this piece of it and so we can get it going really fast. Whereas the other just has just a little bit more okay.

00;23;42;12 – 00;23;53;11
Rebecca Hay
Case by case basis on, you know, Prosecco if you’re in England or if you’re in Canada and you’re like, this sounds amazing. Hey, maybe you could like, negotiate the rights and that person sets it up in the UK. I don’t know, I’m just throwing out ideas. Right?

00;23;53;12 – 00;24;02;11
Miranda Cullen
100%. I mean, I am a true business spirited person, so there’s got to be a way to make anything work.

00;24;02;13 – 00;24;22;09
Rebecca Hay
Someone I know just bought the rights to a franchise, not in the design industry. For like the lower half of like Alberta in Canada. It’s an American company. And they were just coming into Canada. And so they’ve purchased the rights to have franchises in the whole. So there’s like a whole there’s so many opportunities and avenues. I think you could go.

00;24;22;11 – 00;24;26;06
Rebecca Hay
This is so exciting. Okay. My other question is what does it cost.

00;24;26;11 – 00;24;28;02
Miranda Cullen
That’s a great question because.

00;24;28;02 – 00;24;29;03
Rebecca Hay
There’s not free.

00;24;29;05 – 00;24;30;03
Miranda Cullen
It is not getting.

00;24;30;03 – 00;24;30;28
Rebecca Hay
It all for free.

00;24;31;01 – 00;24;59;18
Miranda Cullen
That’s right. So there’s a few ways that this goes about it. But the initial franchise fee is 49,500. And that is for all of the rights to become a franchisee of Inside Stories. It covers all of the training, the implementation. We do onsite training. We bring folks in for training. We help and distribute all of our brand manuals and processes.

00;24;59;19 – 00;25;25;03
Miranda Cullen
We implement its website. It’s all of the things. So once we’re sort of done, it’s like from start to finish, once you sign on the dotted line to your set up, turning your business is about four weeks time. So we get you going really, really quickly. That’s fast. Yeah, it’s really fast. You know, depending on if you’re established and you have designers that will translate over into the inside stories design sort of part of your business.

00;25;25;06 – 00;25;46;21
Miranda Cullen
There is a rapid fire training as far as being an inside story designer. We’re not training you to design. You already have to know that. But we’re training you on the methods and procedures of presentation style and how you go about it. It’s all about creating those efficiencies and the design process, because as designers, we know we can head down that rabbit hole and then we’re not efficient and then we blow our budgets.

00;25;46;21 – 00;26;10;00
Miranda Cullen
And, you know, it’s like, so that piece of it is all there. And we have it kind of set up that within a six month period of time, if you allow us to help you do it right, the revenue makes back your initial investment within six months. So it’s a pretty quick way of getting out there. And earning your money back.

00;26;10;00 – 00;26;35;04
Miranda Cullen
And then, you know, you’re on the way to earning whatever it is that you want. And that’s another thing we do. We sit down with each of the franchisees to identify what it is that their goals are. We kind of back into it always. What do you want your net profit to be? What’s the extra that you want to, you know, take away at the end of the month, at the end of the year, and then we build a business plan of revenue and projections and all that based on what their goals are.

00;26;35;04 – 00;26;37;26
Miranda Cullen
So not not every company is going to be the same.

00;26;37;28 – 00;26;54;10
Rebecca Hay
I love that, I love that, right? Because some people want to be small, so people want to grow in scale. And then so just to be clear, so it sounds like you’re not it’s not just a fee to have the name. You’re paying that to get all of that support, obviously to get all the processes, the coaching.

00;26;54;10 – 00;26;56;27
Rebecca Hay
And do you set up the website for them?

00;26;57;02 – 00;26;57;22
Miranda Cullen
We do.

00;26;57;24 – 00;26;59;18
Rebecca Hay
That’s included in the cost.

00;26;59;21 – 00;26;59;25
Miranda Cullen
To.

00;27;00;04 – 00;27;05;10
Rebecca Hay
Get. Well, that’s a that’s extreme value. As someone who’s spent a lot of money on websites, website design is.

00;27;05;13 – 00;27;07;12
Miranda Cullen
So expensive.

00;27;07;18 – 00;27;08;04
Rebecca Hay
So.

00;27;08;04 – 00;27;26;00
Miranda Cullen
Expensive. So yeah, we have a really great network of folks here that are our business support. And so we have sat down and worked with them like, you know, this is our goal. These are how many franchises we’re going to have over this year, next year, the year. And we want your best pricing and we want to we’re bringing you business.

00;27;26;00 – 00;27;46;04
Miranda Cullen
And so we’ve negotiated all of that within there. And then additionally we will have monthly coaching that we will be providing to the owners. And or you know, if they’ve hired somebody design wise to, you know, run their, their, their staff or what have you, we’ll have monthly coaching and all of that available as well towards that process.

00;27;46;06 – 00;27;55;27
Rebecca Hay
I love this. It’s also, if you think about it too, I mean, you’re getting all this business in a box and the support that’s ongoing. Do you need to have a bricks and mortar.

00;27;56;03 – 00;27;56;18
Miranda Cullen
No.

00;27;56;18 – 00;28;02;23
Rebecca Hay
Okay. So you don’t need bricks and mortar. Do you need to have a studio space outside of your home. Like is any of that a requirement?

00;28;02;23 – 00;28;04;01
Miranda Cullen
None of that’s a requirement.

00;28;04;01 – 00;28;09;03
Rebecca Hay
So anyone who’s working out of the spare their guest bedroom could start this business.

00;28;09;05 – 00;28;24;11
Miranda Cullen
100%. But they need to be prepared that it will grow. So, you know, building the brick and mortar, the rent for a space or a we work will be important to contemplate because inevitably the service is going to explode in whatever area.

00;28;24;18 – 00;28;35;13
Rebecca Hay
Let’s talk about the marketing. So you’re guaranteeing that you are going to make their money back in six months. I’m going to call you on that. How do you help these designers who buy into your franchise find clients?

00;28;35;19 – 00;29;07;21
Miranda Cullen
So we have a national brand fund that we we create for marketing efforts. In addition, we we do require our franchisees to do the isolated and specific marketing in their area as well. But we also will be helping drive those marketing efforts through SEO, CRM, and, you know, ads in magazines and online publications and all of that. So we will be doing that in those specific areas as well to help drive that business.

00;29;07;21 – 00;29;37;22
Miranda Cullen
And as we all know, the analytics behind it is, while it’s a perfectly imperfect sort of venture into marketing because you could spend very little and get a huge return or you could spend a lot. And so we’ve worked really hard with our digital marketing team on vetting the areas that were, you know, targeting and getting prepared and set up to start running those ads in those spaces so that people are starting to see these add on services and micro design.

00;29;37;22 – 00;29;49;21
Miranda Cullen
And, you know, that’s really where we’re plugging is the micro design, because we feel like that is an area that is very underserved right now, with some of these established firms. But yeah, we participate in that as well.

00;29;49;25 – 00;30;11;08
Rebecca Hay
I love that there’s a company here in Toronto, and I think their name is T.K. Collective or Design, and she is not a franchise like you, but she recognized the need for designers to do small spaces because she found the same thing that she was turning away. Designers? Sorry. Not designers. Clients for all these small spaces. She’s like, there’s an opportunity in the city of Toronto.

00;30;11;08 – 00;30;26;18
Rebecca Hay
It’s actually in Toronto for the odd jobs for the for the client. It’s like, can you just do my powder room, or I need someone to help with this, or can you help me pick paint colors? And so she created a separate firm that where it’s a stand alone to her design firm. And a friend, a friend of mine is one of is one of the investors.

00;30;26;25 – 00;30;46;19
Rebecca Hay
And they basically are like, designers can go and work for them and get experience and do the small jobs. Yeah, under their umbrella. And then those designers can go out onto their own if they want, but it’s like she’s bringing in the clients. And so it’s like, if you want to be a designer and you get pretty much total autonomy, right?

00;30;46;19 – 00;31;03;19
Rebecca Hay
We just need designers to tackle all these small jobs that people in Toronto need help with. And all the Toronto designers are so snobby, they’re turning up their noses to it. They’re like, yeah, I can’t get that in a magazine, right? Yeah. And as she’s noticed that opportunity. And then there’s another company out west in Canada as well.

00;31;03;20 – 00;31;33;10
Rebecca Hay
Trisha is a B who’s a friend of mine is a B interiors. And she has a totally different model to you. But she’s also recognized a way to bring designers into her realm where they have more autonomy. And it’s like running their business under her umbrella. So they get her resources, they get access to her marketing spend. And I’m starting to see this pop up because the thing is, there are so many people now who want designers who can’t afford high end luxury design.

00;31;33;12 – 00;31;55;26
Rebecca Hay
It’s not like the 1990s, right? Right. It’s not like, Martin Short and Father of the bride, like it’s not. And so there are a lot of clients who want designers for smaller jobs and, and a lot of designers turn their noses up at it because they don’t think they can make money. It’s what I’m hearing is that you found a way for them to actually make money, and to not churn is the wrong word, but to churn out the designs.

00;31;55;26 – 00;32;00;24
Rebecca Hay
Right? Probably in a more timely manner so that you can make money off of it.

00;32;00;26 – 00;32;16;09
Miranda Cullen
That’s right. Yes. I mean, the business model is definitely more quantity based because, you know, if you’re doing a living room there, there’s only so much you can do in that space, and there’s not going to take you a ton of time to pull it together, you know? So the design fees tend to be a little bit smaller.

00;32;16;09 – 00;32;43;24
Miranda Cullen
So within our firm here we dub a micro design project anywhere from that hundred 50 to like 5000 ish as far as design fees goes. And we do everything price on a fixed design fees. We’ll also train the franchisees on how to hit those marks for these fixed design fees. And then from like 20 K up, that’s more of like the higher end and kind of exponential spends on that luxury.

00;32;43;24 – 00;33;07;27
Miranda Cullen
And then anywhere between the five and the 20 is more of those moderately ranged residential projects. And that might be three rooms in a house and it might be or a first floor just furniture, or it might be a kitchen master bath remodel with living room furnishings. So something that’s a little bit more involved. And we still have our what we call our micro residential designers.

00;33;07;29 – 00;33;30;12
Miranda Cullen
They service all of those projects. So from the micro design all the way up to where it hits our sort of luxury, where, where we have our kind of residential X team, everything in between that. So it gives them also an opportunity. And we’ve kind of figured out the secret sauce to identifying what these designers, you know, because we also there’s a minimum, which these designers have to work because they are all employees.

00;33;30;12 – 00;33;54;04
Miranda Cullen
So these are not contractors. These are employees of our company, and we help you set them up that way. But we have a specific minimum of revenue that they must drive that’s based in their contract. And then based on that minimum, we say, you know, you can go up from there. So what do you want to hit? And so then we help coach those designers to hit the numbers that they want to hit, which is what the basics of the business is for their revenue.

00;33;54;11 – 00;34;12;25
Miranda Cullen
By identifying that we say, okay, you know, you need two micro designs and more of a residential project and a working session, which is a three hour block of time. If you hit those every single month, you’re going to hit your hours and you’re going to hit your goals. You know, a lot of what we’re targeting is very numbers driven.

00;34;12;25 – 00;34;38;14
Miranda Cullen
So it’s black and white. It’s not design driven, it’s numbers driven. And then we put the creativity to it. While you’re approaching it as a design business, it is a business. And having all of everybody, you know, weigh in to their piece of that and the parts that they can control. Because that’s the other thing, too. As a creative, when you feel like you’re under the thumb and you’re doing it somebody else’s way, all of the time, you know, you’re like, well, what about me?

00;34;38;15 – 00;34;39;08
Rebecca Hay
It’s frustrating.

00;34;39;14 – 00;35;06;15
Miranda Cullen
Yeah, it’s frustrating. I don’t, you know, I don’t have any control over it. You’re just telling me. You’re telling me I have to work here at 11:00 at night. You’re telling me I have to be here from 9 to 5, whatever it is. But when you are allowing them to be a part of that process and you get this big buy in, you get people in that never want to leave, which is really great, because now you’ve got recidivism in your business and they’re participating in the success of your business, and they’re making money on selling goods.

00;35;06;15 – 00;35;35;10
Miranda Cullen
So there’s commissions and all of these things which fuel people, and then they don’t have to go out and set up all the vendor accounts and start their own business and hire an attorney and create their own contracts. It’s like that part of it. As we all know, it’s a nightmare and it’s not fun. And so they can come in under the structure and do that, much like what you’re talking about, that you’re the people that you know in Canada that have done, you know, be are participating really like they’re they’re a needle shifter.

00;35;35;10 – 00;35;43;03
Miranda Cullen
I mean, they are a part of the success of the company and everybody here really feels that. So that is what we’re trying to breed.

00;35;43;05 – 00;35;57;21
Rebecca Hay
So when you say they and you talk about designers, are you talking about the franchisees? Are you talking about like Rebecca hey designs. If I decide to to purchase a franchise. Yep. Am I an employee or the people that work for me have to be employees?

00;35;57;21 – 00;36;12;04
Miranda Cullen
That’s a great question. So as I’m talking about sort of the business model and the structure, and I say they I’m talking about my employees that are my sort of micro residential designers under inside stories sort of our mothership Denver office.

00;36;12;09 – 00;36;17;05
Rebecca Hay
Not the business owner, not like the Rebecca who then owns inside inside stores.

00;36;17;05 – 00;36;19;12
Miranda Cullen
You are. Yeah. You are a franchisee.

00;36;19;13 – 00;36;21;15
Rebecca Hay
I just want to clarify that that’s correct.

00;36;21;15 – 00;36;43;27
Miranda Cullen
You’re a franchisee, not an employee of Insight Stories. And then as you are bringing people in to support the Mike residential part of your business, those folks, you know, you can set it up any way you want. If you want them to be an independent contractor, that’s fine. But just know that they won’t be a forever independent contractor.

00;36;44;00 – 00;37;02;18
Miranda Cullen
You know, it’s more enticing to become an employee of somebody’s company, to get the benefits and to be, you know, really brought in as part of the family. And so, yeah, we recommend that piece of it. You know, you will then hire those employees to operate the systems under, you know, Rebecca Hayes and they’re running the Inside Stories business model.

00;37;02;22 – 00;37;25;20
Rebecca Hay
Got it. So I just want to go back to something you, you were talking about a little earlier because I know there’s designers listening because I know my listeners so well and they’re like, you charge how much for what? So I want to talk about the between the 5000 to the $15,000. When you mention that scope of work, I just want to circle back to that, because, designers, if you are listening, you are probably under charging.

00;37;25;20 – 00;37;39;07
Rebecca Hay
Yes. Full stop. If you are charging less than $5,000 for any of the things that Miranda just talked about, three rooms. I’m just saying it because when I started, I charge like $4,500 to design an entire freaking house.

00;37;39;10 – 00;37;55;08
Miranda Cullen
Yeah, we all made that mistake. Yeah. The thing is, you know, you got to. You got to take your lumps. You got to be like, oh, my God, I definitely did not charge enough for that. And what’s really great about this business model is that we set it up so you don’t you don’t do that right off the bat.

00;37;55;08 – 00;37;59;24
Rebecca Hay
You’re not going to lose money right off the bat. We’re good right off the bat. Don’t under charge I love it.

00;37;59;26 – 00;38;24;18
Miranda Cullen
That’s right. It’s a business proposition. We sometimes we very undervalue what we can bring. And I you know I found myself I’m sort of coaching some of these younger entrepreneurs that even aren’t in the design world. And I, I said to somebody the other day, I make you bring something to the table that other people don’t. So don’t undervalue what you bring.

00;38;24;18 – 00;38;27;22
Miranda Cullen
You know, you as a person might like a deal, but you are not a deal.

00;38;27;22 – 00;38;28;24
Rebecca Hay
So don’t put.

00;38;28;24 – 00;38;58;17
Miranda Cullen
That out there. Don’t put that energy out there. You have a service and a talent that other people don’t, so don’t undervalue what you bring to the table. And I would say that to any business owner and be really strong with your convictions. And the thing as to as with the inside story is business. Now we have ten years of data to prove why this room should cost this mess to design, and why this should yield this and all of the things like we have all the data, so you can speak to that.

00;38;58;17 – 00;39;16;17
Miranda Cullen
And when you put that in front of somebody, when they ask you, how did you come up with that design fee? And you’re like, well, I just kind of think it’ll be this that gives you no clout. But if you can say, well, we have ten years of data that says that if you do a project of this square footage of this type of room, that it takes this many hours, they’re like, whoa, okay, there you have it.

00;39;16;17 – 00;39;32;13
Miranda Cullen
Yeah. Okay, I’ll pay you. And sometimes we get pushback. You know, those that push back even for an hour and $50 is a lot of money when you’re, you know, when you’re trying to make it and, you know, you’re you’re thrashing your spends and stuff, you know, when you can come to the table and say, listen, I’ll be your partner in this.

00;39;32;15 – 00;39;58;28
Miranda Cullen
As you’re growing in your career and as your, you know, you bought your first house, great. You don’t have money to do it. Let’s just create one time of year, one time every six months, or when you get your bonus. Let’s go back in and let’s design that living room and you become their partner in this. Then what happens is once they’re established and they buy their next house and then their friend and all of the things and so much of what we do is word of mouth because we can offer what is it that you need?

00;39;59;04 – 00;40;07;11
Miranda Cullen
And we will put together a very thoughtful design fee and sort of design plan that works with your structure.

00;40;07;13 – 00;40;29;07
Rebecca Hay
I love that, and it’s funny, you know, there’s there’s a designer in our community. The other day we had a call and she said she was so excited. I was like, let’s share our wins. She said a win that she had was her client referred her kids to her. So her kids had just bought their first house. And the mom is like, I’m going to pay for you to have this designer to help you settle into your new home.

00;40;29;07 – 00;40;29;23
Miranda Cullen
Amazing.

00;40;29;24 – 00;40;47;09
Rebecca Hay
Like there’s a referral you she could never see coming. And the project is smaller in scope and it isn’t at the level that the original client. But if you have something like what you offer, it’s going to be easy to just share. No problem. This is a lower lower ticket or this is a smaller scale project. We can handle it.

00;40;47;09 – 00;41;04;16
Rebecca Hay
This is how we do it. So I love it. Okay, this is such an interesting model. I’m so excited for you and I cannot wait to support and watch as this franchise explodes, because I think you’re going to a lot of designers who are very interested in this concept. How many franchises do you have as of our recording today?

00;41;04;22 – 00;41;35;13
Miranda Cullen
So as of now, we do not have any. We are in talks with two, so fingers crossed. There is definitely a cooling off period. So we did our soft launch about four weeks ago. So there is by law, like an eight week cooling off period. Once we go through kind of our initial discovery calls and our information, and once we pass our disclosure document over to the potential franchisee, they have to review it with their attorneys, a two week sort of simmer down and make sure you want to do this.

00;41;35;13 – 00;41;46;26
Miranda Cullen
And then right once it’s signed and then we go, so our goal is one sign before the end of the year. And two more kind of in the works is what we’re gearing towards.

00;41;47;00 – 00;42;03;21
Rebecca Hay
I love it. So if you are listening here today, you could be one of the very first could franchise owner of Inside Stories like this is a great opportunity because as your business grows, it’s not going to be 49,000. I can tell you. It’s like anything. Get it now when it’s 49 because next year it could be 100.

00;42;03;27 – 00;42;11;27
Rebecca Hay
Like think about this people. This is a great idea. All right. I’m so excited. What last nugget of wisdom do you have for our listeners today?

00;42;11;27 – 00;42;21;14
Miranda Cullen
Miranda, as a entrepreneur, as a business owner, as a human, don’t let the know knock you to your knees.

00;42;21;16 – 00;42;22;21
Rebecca Hay
Yes.

00;42;22;29 – 00;42;41;13
Miranda Cullen
For me know is just another way to figure out how to get you to say yes, turn that into a positive. If you take that on any aspect of your life. I was that way since I was three. My mom would say, no, you can’t have those shoes. And I’m like, you want to bet I’m having those shoes?

00;42;41;13 – 00;42;52;09
Miranda Cullen
So let’s figure out how we’re going to do it. You know, so any aspect of your life, those no’s are just another way for you to turn it around and figure out how to get your.

00;42;52;09 – 00;43;08;06
Rebecca Hay
Yes. I feel like you’re talking to me right now because I can tell you, I’ve had a lot of no’s in the last couple of months, to be honest. Like in business, it can be disheartening. It feels like a rejection, even though it does. If I didn’t ask, I wouldn’t have had the I wouldn’t have had the no.

00;43;08;09 – 00;43;21;06
Rebecca Hay
That’s why I love this. Thank you for saying this, because it does. It does sometimes get you at the knees and it’s like, don’t let it. It’s just a no. And whether or not that particular no turns into a yes for that particular thing, it could just be the universe redirecting you.

00;43;21;13 – 00;43;22;03
Miranda Cullen
That’s correct.

00;43;22;03 – 00;43;24;27
Rebecca Hay
It could be a better offer to a better opportunity.

00;43;24;27 – 00;43;25;22
Miranda Cullen
That’s right.

00;43;25;24 – 00;43;38;06
Rebecca Hay
I love this message. The first time I’ve heard this nugget on the podcast. Oh, we have recorded now 300 plus episodes, so oh my goodness that’s great. That’s pretty amazing I love that. Thank you. Yes of.

00;43;38;06 – 00;43;39;21
Miranda Cullen
Course. Thank you.

00;43;39;23 – 00;43;47;28
Rebecca Hay
So before we wrap up, can you please let everybody who’s listening know where they can find and follow you and where they can get more information about Inside Stories.

00;43;48;01 – 00;44;11;04
Miranda Cullen
100%. So we have a specific page on our website, Inside stories.com, that you can go at the top, click franchise. It’s got some tidbit Q&A kind of questions. And then there’s also a field that you can kind of fill out submission form. And once that form goes through, I personally I’m the one that reaches out and sets up the initial discovery call so we can hop on in and chat.

00;44;11;04 – 00;44;29;17
Miranda Cullen
But there’s a bunch of information on that page. You can follow us on Instagram. I am Miranda Scullin. Our Inside Stories underscore design is for our Inside Stories Denver office. And then we have Inside Stories franchise, also on Instagram. So any of those avenues amazing.

00;44;29;23 – 00;44;34;11
Rebecca Hay
Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today. I can’t wait to have you back.

00;44;34;11 – 00;44;36;26
Miranda Cullen
I know you’re so kind. Thank you so much.

00;44;36;28 – 00;44;39;29
Rebecca Hay
So when we chat next year, how many franchises will you have.

00;44;40;00 – 00;44;42;12
Miranda Cullen
While the goal is five.

00;44;42;14 – 00;44;44;11
Rebecca Hay
Okay. So we’re going to circle back.

00;44;44;17 – 00;44;45;27
Miranda Cullen
I’m going to keep you up to date.

00;44;45;27 – 00;44;48;05
Rebecca Hay
Yes. Please do. Thank you Miranda.

00;44;48;05 – 00;44;51;16
Miranda Cullen
Rebecca. Thank you.

00;44;51;19 – 00;45;14;26
Rebecca Hay
That was so interesting. Honestly, I’m not going to lie, a part of me is like, maybe I need a franchise. I’ve got a lot of pokers in the fire, though, so I’m going to. I’m going to stay put. But holy heck, what a fascinating business model. And guys, just so you know, developing a franchise like a company that is a franchise is so much work and so much money.

00;45;14;26 – 00;45;32;25
Rebecca Hay
In fact, I think Miranda kind of underplayed how much it is because I know other women who have started franchises that are very successful. It is a very time consuming endeavor. You, when you get to be one of her franchisees, get to benefit from all her hard work putting it together. I’m very excited to follow the journey and see how it goes.

00;45;32;25 – 00;45;51;26
Rebecca Hay
If you guys are interested in all, please contact Miranda. Let me know. I’d love to find out if anyone listened to this episode and decided to pursue this avenue for their design business, because ultimately, you guys know I say here all the time. It is all about process and having that support. It can be lonely running your business.

00;45;51;26 – 00;46;10;04
Rebecca Hay
It can be lonely as an entrepreneur. And if you don’t have a community, if you don’t have the support of a mentor to help you navigate the bumps in the road, it makes it really frustrating and really challenging. And I love that Miranda has come up with her solution to that for designers. So thanks again to Miranda for being on the episode.

00;46;10;04 – 00;46;35;07
Rebecca Hay
I would love it for anyone listening here today. If you haven’t yet left us a review of the podcast, could you please just take 30s? Go on over, click the five stars. Leave a sentence. I would love for you to do that. The more reviews we get, the higher we get ranked inside of Apple and Spotify, and then more people and designers can see our podcast and see that there’s a lot of value to be had.

00;46;35;07 – 00;46;48;09
Rebecca Hay
So if you get a chance to review it, it would mean so much to me. That’s it for today. I’ll see you soon.

September 25, 2025

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *