Spend a few minutes talking with Jessica Cook and Vicki Lopahs and you’ll quickly realize why they make such great business partners. They both share an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for great design. They’re quick to compliment one another’s skills and strengths. And with their natural rapport and genuine friendship, you could easily see them hosting an HGTV show someday.
But let’s back up a bit here and talk about how Cook and Lopahs got to where they are today because it wasn’t exactly a linear path. You might even say there was a touch of divine intervention!
“Jessica and I came from two very different backgrounds,” Lopahs said. “She went to school for interior design and really focused on construction and remodels and I went to school for apparel design.”
When Cook graduated from college in 2009, she found herself in a difficult spot.
“I was attempting to find a job and there were no jobs to be had,” she said, referring to the recession that was going on at the time. “Everyone kept telling me ‘oh yeah, we had designers in-house but now we just have the architect’ or ‘oh yeah, we used to provide design options to our clients but we don’t anymore.’”
With her options seemingly limited, Cook “kind of naively” came up with a business plan where her goal was to be “the” designer for a few different contractors. Then, two weeks before her wedding, her fiance – who was facing the same employment struggles she was – came to her with an idea.
“He said ‘hey, I can’t find a job. Let’s start a business,’” Cook said with a laugh. “We were young and dumb and thought it was a good idea.”
In 2010, Waconia-based JLC Interior Design was born and Cook immediately began doing everything she could to ensure her new company was successful.
“I did so many part-time jobs,” Cook recalled. “I was kind of faking it until I made it and leveraging networking groups like BNI to grow my portfolio and expand my products and project knowledge.”
JLC Interior Design continued to grow organically but steadily and a few years before the pandemic, Cook was starting to feel stretched very thin. In some ways, it was a good problem to have, but it was a problem nonetheless and she began seeking ways to solve it.
“I kind of played around with hiring some virtual assistants and things like that, but it became very clear to me that after being on my own for so long, I wasn’t going to be very good at managing someone else,” she said. “And so I just kind of let that go.”
Remember that ‘divine intervention’ we touched on earlier? Here’s where it really comes into play, but before we get to that, let’s rewind and talk about Lopahs.
After graduating from Iowa State University in 2003, she was recruited by Target to work in design and moved to Minnesota. However, she soon discovered that her true strengths lay in problem solving, production and manufacturing.
“I then bounced around doing all types of product development for Target but during that time, I really felt like I was missing the creative aspect of my job,” Lopahs said. “That’s when I decided I was going to try doing a side hustle.”
Lopahs mentioned her idea to a friend who also knew Cook and that friend suggested that they get together for a cup of coffee.
“My friend told me ‘I think you’ll really enjoy her,’” Cook said. “And he was right!”
But even though Lopahs had a strong desire to tap back into her creative side, her main goal for the meetup, which took place in 2013, wasn’t to talk about that.
“I had no desire whatsoever to do interior design,” Lopahs said. “I was more interested in picking her brain about starting a business.”
Cook’s first piece of advice?
“She told me to start an LLC so I went out and got my LLC,” Lopahs said. “Then I quickly realized that where I wanted to go or what I thought I wanted to do was never going to pay the bills and so I stayed and kept doing my corporate America gig.”
OK, so that seems like the ‘divine intervention’ moment that we’ve mentioned a few times, right? Well, it was and it wasn’t.
After the meeting, the two women didn’t talk again for eight or nine years. Both were continuing on their career paths just as they had before when out of nowhere, the pandemic hit. And like many people who were suddenly trapped in their homes with their spouse and children, Lopahs decided it was time to remodel her kitchen.
“I reached out to Jessica to see if she was still doing interior design and she said she was,” Lopahs said. “She thanked me for calling and told me she could be over whenever I needed.”
While the pandemic was a nightmare for construction projects due to delays and supply chain issues, it allowed Lopahs and Cook to get to know each other on a deeper level because the work went on much longer than it would have under normal circumstances.
“As a product developer, I was really curious about the whole process,” Lopahs said. “By the end of the project, I was sending her a recap of what was still outstanding, who had been there and that kind of thing.”
“I knew I wasn’t as organized as she was,” Cook interjected. “Vicky was definitely shining a light on opportunities and I told her to let me know if she ever wanted to come work with me”
Lopahs’s response?
“I’ll hand in my resignation tomorrow,” she recalled. “Jessica said that she couldn’t afford me and I told her ‘try me’ because at that point, I had been sitting in my basement all the time and I was miserable.”
Lopahs sat down with her husband and began crunching the numbers. She had more conversations with Cook about the logistics of running a business together and what her responsibilities would look like. And because Lopahs’s husband had randomly kept paying the fees for the LLC Cook had advised her to start back in 2013 (here’s where that divine intervention piece comes in!), she was able to start working for JLC Interior Design on a contract basis.
After a four-month test drive, the women realized that they made a great team and that their strengths complemented each other perfectly. With a secure business plan in place, Lopahs handed in her resignation letter and in 2021, they officially joined forces.
Going from being a solopreneur to having a partner was a bit of an adjustment for Cook, but it was one she knew she needed to make for the sake of her company.
“Our analogy early on was like ‘I recognize I’m drowning in a hole that’s filling up, but if I stop bailing out the water to build a ladder, I’ll drown,’” Cook said. “And Vicki said ‘well you bail the water, I’ll build the ladder and we’ll get out of the hole together.’”
Now that they’re well on the other side of the storm, Cook and Lopahs are able to focus on what they do best – taking excellent care of their clients and providing them with high-quality design solutions that are tailored to their individual needs.
Contrary to what many people envision when they think about interior design, Cook and Lopahs don’t specialize in “making homes look pretty.” Instead, their business is construction oriented and focused on creating spaces and layouts that flow and function well while taking into account the structural components of the home.
The process works like this: clients get connected with JLC Interior design by finding them online or being referred by a general contractor or a previous client. Then they’ll have Cook and Lopahs visit their homes for a consultation, discuss their wants and needs and talk about what’s working for them, as well as what isn’t. From there, Cook and Lopahs will make recommendations and go over design possibilities, construction constraints, projected costs and the overall viability of the project. Based on the conversation and the things that they’ve observed in the home, the women will come up with several design options and drawings for the client to review. If the client wants to move forward, Cook and Lopahs will meet with contractors and drill down on the specifics of the project to make sure it’s feasible. Then, once work begins, they’ll serve as a liaison between the client and the contractor throughout the project to ensure that expectations are met – or better yet, exceeded.
“We don’t actually build out the projects that we design,” Lopahs said, noting that residential remodels make up the bulk of their business, though they will work on a few new builds each year. “We’re an independent designer that partners with other contractors, but we don’t just pass out the plans and say ‘good luck.’ We’re present throughout the project because we know that the devil’s in the details.”
As we enter a new year, many of us may be thinking about making some changes to our homes to make them more liveable. If you’re considering taking this step, here are a few of Cook and Lopahs’s recommendations.
- Seek the advice of a professional: One of the mantras at JLC Interior Design is “decisions from a place of information.” By talking with experts like Cook and Lopahs, homeowners can explore and prioritize their ideas, get a clearer picture of their needs (both current and future) and learn what’s possible and what makes sense from a design perspective. “We’re really big proponents of helping people understand what needs to be done and what their options are,” Cook said. “That way, as you make investments of your time and money, you’ll know that what you’re doing is moving you forward and you’re never going to have to pay to do things twice.”
- Don’t rely on paint alone: If you’ve ever watched a home makeover show, you’ve seen designers use paint to seemingly “transform” a space. However, Cook notes that painting isn’t always the “silver bullet” that people think it is. “It’s the very last thing that we select in the process because it’s the most variable,” she said. “While it does provide a relatively low-cost transformation, there’s a lot more to it than most people realize.” For example, if you’re going to have it done professionally, it’s not exactly cheap. And if you’re going the DIY route, there’s a lot of time and effort involved in prepping the space correctly before painting even begins. Plus, because people tend to have high expectations about what a new paint color will do, they’re often disappointed when they don’t see the results they were envisioning. “Sometimes we’ll get calls from people who’ve painted their walls and they say ‘it didn’t give me the change I wanted,’” Cook said. “Well, it’s because they didn’t change anything else. The paint wasn’t going to do much for them or live up to the HGTV promise of ‘throw a coat of paint on it and you’ll be so much happier.’”
- Constantly assess how you’re using your space: Having an organizational system set up with cubbies for shoes and hooks for backpacks is great when your children are young. But as they get older, that system may no longer serve you well and it might even be taking up room that could be used in a more practical way. That’s why it’s important to regularly do an inventory of your home and ask yourself “how am I using this space and is it still functional for me?” From there, you can make decisions about what might work better for your current needs.
- Go shopping inside your home: Want to freshen up your home without having to buy a bunch of new stuff? Consider moving a painting you have in your bedroom to the living room or swapping out some furniture. “Just be intentional with really looking at your spaces and developing a plan,” Cook said. “Doing even a few small things can drum up a new feeling or make things feel more fresh.”
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