About Terri L. Maurer

“I am passionate about helping small business owners strategically build  business models on a rock solid foundation instead of on unstable base of sand.  A solid foundation based on clear strategy and process standardization is the preparation needed for a successful growth journey.”

A bachelor’s degree in Interior Design from Kent State University put Terri on the road to a 30+ year career as an interior design professional building and operating her own businesses. She practiced in the commercial design arena creating successful business environments.  Just like you, business strategist, author, speaker, trainer, and small business management and marketing consultant, Terri Maurer has been down there in the small business trenches.  She accumulated real life business experience and skills operating in a number of business models: retail furniture store, small residential design studio, and an office furniture dealership.

In 1980, she launched a design partnership, serving as VP of Operations, in addition to working with clients. The firm designed branded, efficient and productive corporate office environments, nursing homes and entertainment facilities.  In 1982, Maurer set off on her own, opening Maurer Design Group to serve commercial design customers under her own terms.

Terri grew up in the Rust Belt city, Youngstown, Ohio, back when steel production was a booming industry. Hard work, discipline, ethics and personal responsibility were the norms ingrained in her personality.

Her sales and business principles started at an early age.  Business experiences came from selling babysitting expertise and shoveling snow during Ohio’s cold winter storms.  As years went by, sales experience came selling magazines, cards and candy for school and youth organization fundraisers. Manufacturing and sales experience came from creating and selling handcrafted pot holders. By the time she graduated high school, Terri had learned to create a business, develop, manufacture and sell products through two years of involvement in Junior Achievement.

Volunteerism in a professional organization provides an enormous bounty of learning and experience for solo-practitioners in any industry.  Maurer’s years as a Professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), expanded her level of knowledge about leadership and strategic business operations. Over ten years she served in various leadership positions in her local chapter until elected Chapter President.  That one change moved her to a higher leadership track at the national level.  Terri served in positions to help local ASID chapters succeed.  She served on the national board of directors and as Director with Financial Oversight.  Her final volunteer position was a three-year commitment serving as national President-elect,  the Society’s National President, then Past President.

From that lofty industry position, Maurer gained a broad view of Interior Design, as a profession and a business.  The need for more educational opportunities for designers, focused on business success, became apparent to her.  Maurer developed a series of Small Business Success Seminars to help interior design firms succeed.  The majority of design firms fall into the micro- business category with 9 or less employees.  Many have even fewer employees.  Terri has been delivering seminars and keynotes at business and trade events across the US and Canada for nearly two decades.

In 2010, ‘Interior Design in Practice: Case Studies of Successful Business Models’, co-authored with Katie Weeks, then editor at ‘Contract’ magazine, was released by Wiley and Sons, Inc. The book included interviews and case studies of 50 design and industry firms.  She now researches, writes, edits and publishes the ‘Designing Strategies’ newsletter and blog.

Maurer has written business articles for design and business publications and contributed to design and business-related books by other authors.  Offering solutions to commonly faced situations that hold designers back from growth and success, Maurer moved from designing  commercial interior environments to designing successful small business operations for designers and others in the small business sector.  Based on over fifteen years of personal experience, Terri  teaches small business owners how to grow their businesses.

“I work with the small business owner ready to grow their company.  They want to regain self-confidence and retain control over their business and its operations. We can help refocus efforts and resources toward steady growth on a redirected, clear strategic track toward success.”