Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Schneider.
Amanda, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We are obsessed with the world of contract furniture, and we want to make it better.
Here’s where it all began: I was introduced to the world of contract office furniture straight out of school. I started in 2001 as a product designer for Allsteel, a division of HNI and one of the largest companies in our industry. At that time, just post “dot-bomb” you can imagine it was a pretty tumultuous time to be in furniture as not many companies were expanding office space. We went from a model of internal industrial design to outsourcing. About a year in, my boss asked if I wanted to stay in design or move toward marketing. I thought, “Well… designers get fired and marketers get promoted, I’ll go marketing!” And thus, I became a designer with an MBA.
As I began my studies, I helped start up the first market research group at Allsteel, then moved around a bit in a variety of product development/launch roles. By the ripe age of 25, I was managing their showrooms with 9 facilities, 8 direct reports and was responsible for managing about half of the company’s marketing budget. It was a great growth role, but with a new spouse just returning from two consecutive deployments to Iraq, I took a sales job calling on A&D in the Chicago (less travel) and absolutely loved being on the front lines with clients.
After several years in this role for Allsteel, I was recruited away by a small, but well-known company called Izzy+, where I held a sales title, but simultaneously worked on many “special marketing projects.” At Izzy+, I was encouraged to (of course) do my job, but also follow my passion, which hearkened back to a combined world of design and research. Leadership would give me key questions they had about product development projects or marketing direction, and I would test concepts and theories with my friends and industry constituents, then come back with strategic recommendations for the management team.
When a family move took us to Atlanta in 2011, Chuck Saylor, industry legend and founder of Izzy+ said, “Well, we don’t have a job for you in Atlanta, but I’ll hire you as a consultant!” It took me a while to hear the second half of the sentence, but once I did I launched as an independent consultant focused on design research projects similar to those I was doing at Izzy+. I would leverage my knowledge of the market to help furniture manufacturers write new business plans, explore new product concepts, and study the latest trends and how they might influence product development. From that work (boosted by a great client with a powerful PR firm), I was invited to begin blogging for the Huffington Post. There I write about the future of work and how it affects those who design and furnish the spaces where we work.
Between blogging, word of mouth, and a move back to the Midwest, business grew. I began hiring other industry friends to support the work that was coming in, and in 2015 incorporated as Contract Consulting Group (CCG). Nearly 100% by word of mouth referrals, we doubled revenues year over year for three consecutive years. In 2017 we launched our first website to give additional information to support a very public project for the contract interiors market, The CBRE Furniture Forum. This forum tackled not just improving furniture PRODUCT but exploring the PROCESS of purchasing furniture from a broad industry perspective bringing together Architecture/Design firms, Corporate Real Estate, Furniture Manufacturers and Furniture Dealers.
We are jokingly calling 2018 the year of “me too we” as the CCG team has grown in depth and breadth of expertise as well. Our team is now a team of 12 at its core. We are a conglomerate of independent consultants who have combined our backgrounds in industrial and interior design with extensive industry experience to create a complimentary and comprehensive viewpoint of the contract interiors market. Dubbing ourselves life-long students of the industry, each project, blog post, and conversation fuels our insatiable curiosity to learn more and feeds our unique perspective on leading trends. From manufacturers to dealers to designers and corporate real estate, we understand the complexities of the contract interiors market and are incredibly passionate about making meaningful connections that elevate the industry as a whole.
What we do is apply a process of innate curiosity and design research to everything we do. We are obsessed with finding problems, because to us, that means opportunity, and opportunity is what will grow your business.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
One of my biggest challenges has been finding work-life balance as I have simultaneously grown my business and my family. I started this business as we were moving cross country with a newborn (my second son) thinking that I was taking a side-step in my career to focus on my family. My fundamental goal was to have our young sons with us more than they were in daycare. But business kept growing, and so did my family. I now have three boys, the youngest of whom is four and still not school-age. My husband has actually taken a step back at work to support our family goals enabling me to focus more hours on the fascinating work and opportunities CCG has brought professionally.
Work-life balance and creating new opportunities for working mothers has become a core passion of mine, and is outlined in this article: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-schneider/gigamom-how-the-gig-econo_b_9691588.html
From that article, I was actually invited to be a speaker at the 2016 Global Women’s Forum in France. We are making progress, but we have a long way to go even in American culture and society.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Contract Consulting Group – what should we know?
This whole contract interiors industry is in a very key period of change. In fact, we believe this industry has seen more change in the past five years than in the past thirty, and more change is to come. Many companies are looking for a lighthouse to help them navigate these uncharted waters and figure out their next move.
We are a research-led strategy firm serving the contract interiors market. Market research is at the core of what we do. Our research focuses not on historical data, but the here and now and looks for subtle tells that help us figure out the future and where we are headed. Our personalized, grass-roots approach goes beyond typical market research analytics by leveraging our extensive knowledge of the contract interiors industry. What makes us different is our creative approach in gathering information; capturing the feedback of industry professionals and employees, then translating that feedback into actionable data. We provide our clients with a high-level view of themselves through the eyes of their constituents by conducting focus groups, surveys, in-depth interviews and exploration sessions. We see research as the key step before any strategy, which is why we call ourselves a research-led strategy firm. We help you gather information and feedback that allows you to make better business decisions. We keep a pulse on industry trends and help translate those to relevant messages for your business, or perhaps more importantly help make your business increasingly relevant to the industry. We specialize in helping to identify and create growth strategies & tools that make sense in this complex marketplace.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Listening.
Contact Info:
- Website: contractconsultinggroup.com
- Phone: 3128608020
- Email: amanda@contractconsultinggroup.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CCG2015
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccgtweeted
- Other: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/amandajeanschneider-348
Image Credit:
http://www.michelebrautnick.com/
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