Business View Magazine September 2018

140 141 NU LOOK HOME DESIGN for the future. Business View Magazine first profiled Nu Look Design in August 2017 and recently reconnected with the owners for updates. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation. BVM: Last year, Nu Look Home Design was undergoing a game-changing search for a branding model that would set you apart. How is that progressing? Fingles: “We started on our journey at the end of 2016 and spent most of last year try- ing to identify who we were, who we are, and who we wanted to be. Making that transition while trying to keep your business function- ing is challenging. Lots of layers of the brand have made it through and others, like finaliz- ing a name change, are still in the future. The impact to our business was mostly positive, but there were repercussions. “2017 was a real growing year for us, not in revenue or sales, per se, but more so in clar- ity. Through this branding process you end up with some deliverables that we’ve been able to initiate. Others have yet to be initiated when the time is right.We haven’t changed our business model, but we have changed our go-to-market strategy. It was a lot of internal change.We had a successful business, but we were just going through the motions.We were functioning, profitable, climbing the ladders, making money, increasing employees –growing in size but not in development. “In 2016, believe it or not, as a $30 million business with 200 employees, we didn’t have a formalized budget.We didn’t have estab- lished targets, we were working in a circular pat- tern to do the best we could every month– show up, generate as many as leads as you can, sell as many of those customers as you can, and make as much money as you can. Hire people with little thought to their future growth and candidate profiles.” BVM: What kind of operational changes have you made? Fingles: “We needed to get ourselves together and strong in the foundational cornerstones of HR, accounting, operations, standardized devel- opment training, declaring hierarchies; stepping back and creating sectors where people have spe- cific responsibilities, as opposed to the business owners doing everything.We had a lot of success, but we knew in order to hit our future growth targets that there was something missing. It showed through our messaging, brand continuity, standardizing processes, and leadership develop- ment. So, we went back and looked at our hierar- chies, brought our sales compensation plans up to speed, switched our salespeople to different classifications, changed our marketing strategy, our advertising messaging. “It was a tremendous amount to do in a year. And it cost us.We actually lost about 30 percent of our revenue, year over year, from 2016 to 2017, and that’s not something we’re ashamed of be-