Ann McGuire Studio
Northeast Pennsylvania
Ann specializes in creating a mood a client wants to live inside and has been known to hand draw a map onto a wall when asked.
We started working together because demand was piling up for her work and Ann felt like the only one that could get it done. The tasks of building systems that could grow the studio and create a legacy were getting lost in the day-to-day deadlines of delivery work.
Worked with:
Louis Vuitton, Victoria Hagan, William Soffield, and numerous celebrity and commercial clients.
Engagement:
Fractional COO for founders with ADHD traits
Delivered by:
Unconventional Organization co-founders Skye and Robert Waterson
My methods are already breaking at the seams.
I have a fear that I will just expand the chaos as opposed to building this amazing thing built on really strong building blocks.
Identifying The Gaps
We started by mapping the studio end to end from acquisition to referrals to identify the bottlenecks.
We love creating these maps because they create a shared language. And for Ann underneath the beautiful work, there was a missing operational spine.
Nothing here is unusual for clients who start working with us. It’s exactly what happens when the person doing the work is also the person holding the process, with no time to stabilize.
Here’s how it showed up:
No sample inventory. Stock levels lived in Ann's head and on her shelves.
Designer contacts spread across spreadsheets, Instagram chats and a personal Notion space.
Custom color work quoted from scratch every time.
Only 70 percent of the collection live on the website.
No systems written out to hand to an assistant
I have a friend of mine, she and I are going to be accountability partners which I'm very excited about. But I feel like, I kind of need more than that, and I do need a bird's eye view of the business.
Ann McGuire Studio
Building Clarity
What Unconventional Organisation Project Managed in The First Four Months.
Built the sample system in Notion
Built the designer pipeline in Notion
Saved time with a personalized Excel estimate calculator
Managing hiring Studio Assistant
Managed brand development
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I'm not just making beautiful things anymore. I'm now making a growing company that needs to make sense not only to me but to others who I will rely on to expand.
Ann McGuire Studio
The Journey So Far:
June:
Feeling overwhelmed. Five designers waiting on samples, a map project eating five-plus days, saying yes to custom work in the moment and then losing whole days to it.
Early July:
Sharing systems surfaces limits. Ann said the previous two weeks were confronting as she recognised how complicated her workflows were as her new team had to depend on them as well. She starts to recognise internal perfectionism and describes working with Unconventional Organisation as feeling supercharged internally.
Mid July:
Turning point. Ann says she’s felt less overwhelmed and the systems are starting to feel manageable, with about three days of setup work left. She has sent a full sample package following the process end to end.
August (now):
Ann is able to start looking forward. She’s working with Skye to map a 25-year vision for Ann McGuire Studio’s and the Buck Hill collection structure rather than firefighting. We’ve hired a new designer who’s highly skilled and easy to onboard. Ann has gone from never connecting on Instagram to confidently connecting with designers and receiving positive replies for samples.
There's like a weight lifted from my shoulders. I don't really understand yet what it is. But it's allowing me the freedom to do my business the way I want to do it, not the way I'm feeling like I'm always underwater.
I think clients are going to look at me now and be like, wow, she's really got it together.
Ann McGuire Studio
Ann McGuire is an Unconventional Organization Client and appears here with her permission.