Only in South Florida

One of the contractor's sub-contractors arranged a meeting with the clients directly behind the designer's and contractor's backs and tried to pursuede the clients changing the designs. That was a fundamental business portoco screwed-up, and that just happened to me this week.

Students or competitors?

Some people suggested designers taking some interns and mentoring some interior design major students. Personally I think it is not to my business' interests at all. Why should I train my future competitors?! Those people who suggested people hiring interns are asking designers to commit career suicide. They have no idea nowadays where those students come from. A lot of them are from privileged families who have a lot of connections. Those so called "students" can simply open their own design firms without any interior design knowledge, education background, or related working experience by using their parents' money and taking advantage of their rich parents' social connections and generating unlimited client source. Those juniors can easily out-compete any designer out there who is like me who has many years of work experiences, holding an interior designer license, NCIDQ certified, LEED certified, interior design majored in college, and extremely creative. So, mentoring those "students" is like they already can kill me with bare hands and now I'm giving them pistols. It is April 1st, but I'm no fool.