Heather McManus, founder of The Designers Collaborative and author of Love Where You Live, offers real-world strategies and industry expertise on buying and sourcing.
As a speaker, she gives designers specific strategies to simplify sourcing, refine pricing, and navigate the complexities of vendor relationships—all while driving measurable results. Her approach to sourcing and selling to-the-trade has created some of the most compelling success stories in the industry.
Or request a custom presentation! Heather delivers insights on profitable purchasing, strategic collaboration, and sourcing challenges. She tailors each talk to address your audience’s unique challenges, offering practical tools and under-the-hood knowledge of the furniture industry.
Discover how joining a buying group can revolutionize your design business. Heather breaks down the mechanics, advantages, and game-changing opportunities these groups offer, empowering designers to compete with online pricing and achieve better profit margins.
Who this is for: Interior designers tired of losing clients to online pricing wars.
Learn Heather’s proven strategies for identifying and partnering with vendors who align with your client’s style and budget while ensuring healthy margins. Discover how to streamline sourcing and make confident, profitable choices for every project.
Who this is for: Interior designers struggling to find reliable, high-quality vendors that meet both client expectations and business goals.
Purchase order skills are one of the most underrated aspects of a healthy design business—and the structure of those orders can make or break your bottom line. Heather will guide you through the essentials of creating accurate, professional POs—immediately leveraging her systems to avoid costly errors and maximize profitability.
Who this is for: Interior designers ready to source directly from vendors and improve their systems for better bottom-line numbers and efficiency.
The outdated cost-plus model isn’t cutting it anymore. Heather shares innovative pricing strategies that keep clients happy while ensuring your profit margins thrive. Learn how to price with confidence and create a more sustainable, successful design business—in record time.
Who this is for: Interior designers looking to redefine their pricing structure for greater profitability.
You don’t need a showroom to sell furniture confidently. Heather will teach you psychological and practical techniques to win clients over without a sit-and-feel experience. When you can sell better furniture without a showroom, your revenue will rise with ease.
Who this is for: Interior designers who want to grow their furniture sales but feel held back by the lack of a brick-and-mortar space.
Heather’s topics can cover interior design perspectives on pricing projects and products, working with vendors to get the best price tiers, best practices for handling freight and delivery, what to look for with quality construction, selling furniture for interior designers, building confidence for success, and more.
Absolutely, let us know what you are thinking and we can tailor something for your event. Please use the inquiry form below.
Heather is happy to do either remote or in-person events.
Please fill out the form below and Heather and her team will be in touch.
Heather has over 25 years of experience in the interior design industry. Having worked at high-end window treatment and upholstery workrooms, furniture stores, and run her own interior design firm she has a wealth of knowledge spanning many facets of the industry. Heather has won awards, been featured on three episodes of House Smarts and in local and national magazines and newspapers, and is the author of Love Where You Live: Dream Homes Made Real.
Heather created The Designers Collaborative which offers interior designers the best pricing on over 300 vendors, an amazing community, tools and templates to totally uplevel their design business.
Heather is happy to moderate a panel, be a panelist, or hold a workshop.
Heather has over 25 years in the design industry and created The Designers Collaborative in order to compete with the internet. Heather created a proven system for interior designers to work collaboratively that offers over 300 vendors at the best price points in the industry. Her unique approach to solving a problem for interior designers has empowered over 500 interior designers. Heather understands the challenges of being an interior designer in a world where clients can out price them with the touch of a button.