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From Home Furnishing Business
Doby & Weir Celebrate 15 Years in Coaching & Consulting Business
March 26,
2023 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Designer Weekly, Industry 
After nearly 20 years of experience running her own Denver-based design firm (plus a BSBA in Finance and Banking), Gail Doby along with Erin Weir saw a shift in the marketplace where their talented and creative peers were struggling with running the business aspect of their design firms.
To help them achieve success Doby and Weir started a coaching and consulting business which has evolved into Pearl Collective, a highly regarded group of business experts and coaches for professional designers and firms. The Doby and Weir team make up one of the longest standing coaching and consulting businesses in the home furnishings industry.
2023 marks the 15th anniversary for the organization. Here is a link to a video that captures the essence of Pearl Collective and how they transform the lives of their clients.
“Gail knew that she wanted to help other designers with her financial background and lessons learned in her own interior design business and we loved working together, so we decided to build a business around our strengths,” recalls Erin Weir, co-founder of Pearl Collective.
“We started with no clients and after our first tele summit in 2008 we had 700 designers on our list. Over the past 15 years we have helped almost 20,000 design industry entrepreneurs in at least 82 countries overcome the occupational roadblocks, challenges, and the detours that creative people face when building a successful business. Some have increased their profitability as much as 512 percent with our help.”
“We have enjoyed empowering not only interior designers but architects and other creatives to differentiate themselves, drive measurable results, achieve business projections, and create personal satisfaction through game-changing strategies and business practices,” Gail Doby, co-founder of Pearl Collective shares.
“Our team at Pearl Collective is always listening, pivoting and growing to fit the changing direction of the market.”
The original company name, Design Success University, became Gail Doby Coaching & Consulting in 2014 and evolved into Pearl Collective in 2022. Several of their milestones are:
- 2008: Hosted their first tele summit and started their first membership program for Interior Designers for $37/month. Some of those clients are still with them today.
- 2009: Launched first Fee & Salary Survey for our industry.
- 2010: Created first signature program to teach designers how to charge what they are worth.
- 2011: Hosted first live Interior Design Summit with designers around the country.
- 2012: Started working one-on-one with interior designers as their Co-CEO. This was the foundation of their signature VIP Experience.
- 2016: Hosted their first Boardroom Retreat with twelve designers. Launched their Alliance Coaching Program.
- 2017: Partnered with Luxe Interiors + Design, High Point Market Authority and 25 sponsors to bring their Interior Design Summit to High Point Market.
- 2020: Launched Operation Ignite for the interior design industry – a series of ten free webinars to navigate the pandemic’s challenges.
- 2021: Doby published her first book, Business Breakthrough, which achieved best seller status. Launched their Circle Program for rising design business leaders.
- 2022: Published the Fee & Salary Survey, an intense study of the state of the interior design industry.
As for future plans, Doby and Weir plan to scale their business and continue to improve and evolve their services for the industry through their three signature programs: Boardroom, Alliance and Circle. Weir says that they are so “grateful and appreciative of their clients and partnerships with so many wonderful people and brands in our industry.”