The Power of a Process Map—and Other Young Huh-isms

A few years shy of her firm’s 20-year anniversary, interior designer Young Huh admits her path to success (see: multiple Kips Bay Decorator Show House appearances, product lines with AKDO, Modern Matter, and Fromental, AD100 status, and more) has always been straight-forward. Not in the sense of ease, but rather, that there was no going around obstacles—there was only going through them.

“There’s really no cheat sheet,” says the Detroit-bred, New York City–based designer, who earned a law degree before pivoting to a career in interiors. Perhaps that’s so, but a certain level of documentation has proven to be a difference-maker within her growing practice. Here, she shares the systems that have made the biggest impact on her business, from process mapping to outsourcing and more.

Mel Studach: Let’s rewind to 2007: You’d pivoted from a career in law and enrolled at Parsons School of Design. As you launched your own firm, what was that first big challenge?

Young Huh: I always say starting your own business is the most expensive business school you will ever attend. It was really overwhelming. I remember lying on the floor of my office, consumed with anxiety, and not being able to get up. I thought, What have I done? How am I going to do all of this? But you learn how to run a business step by step. You have to go through the process of creating systems, managing the accounting, figuring out how to be an effective communicator and how to control logistics and operations—and all of those things take time.

In other words, for a lean firm, outsourcing tasks can be a means of education.

Absolutely. They say you need to hire the best accountant, the best attorney, and then you can run a business—and I would say that you need a really good tracking system in addition to that. You have to outsource and learn from people who know how to navigate these things.