Amanda Smith: Lessons on the Power of Systems, Boundaries, and Collaboration

Episode 299 of Window Treatments for Profit

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299: Amanda Smith: Lessons on the Power of Systems, Boundaries, and Collaboration

Today With Amanda Smith:

Hi, welcome to Window Treatments for Profit! In this episode, we’re sitting down with Amanda Smith, a leader in the window treatment industry and co-founder of Seamless Workroom. From her start as a teacher to becoming a sought-after partner for interior designers, Amanda’s story is a testament to the power of systems, efficiency, and a commitment to quality.

More About Amanda Smith

Like many others in this business, I did not start out as a fabricator of window treatments. I attended college at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte earning a bachelor’s degree in Middle Grades Education. After teaching English and Social Studies for seven years, I attended graduate school earning a master’s degree in library science at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and worked as a high school media specialist for three years until my twin boys were born in 1998. At which time I became a stay-at-home Mom.

When my boys turned three, I knew I wanted to work but did not want to return to teaching full time. While visiting a friend one afternoon, I noticed she had new window treatments in her family room. It was an “ah ha” moment. I thought, “If I can make cocktail dresses, I can surely learn to make window treatments!” I come from a family that sews. My mother, an accomplished sewer and quilter, taught me the art at age 12. My father owned a successful auto upholstery business for 25 years. Both of my grandmothers and all of my aunts sewed. With my family’s support, I set up a small workroom in an extra bedroom and completed my first job in July 2001.

What started out as a small, retail business has grown into a full-service to the trade workroom offering fabrication of panels, valances, roman shades, bedding and decorative accessories as well as several lines of fabrics, hardware, shutters, blinds, roller shades, solar shades, and natural woven shades for those associated with the interior design industry.

In July 2017 I, along with Rose Mary LeBlanc, launched a second business. Seamless Workroom is a workroom management system which helps to improve efficiency and productivity within the workroom for fabricators and designers in the industry.