We recently had the privilege of interviewing Amos and Priya Antin, Co-founders of the aCross designs, a boutique residential interior designing, contracting, and consulting firm. With a passion for offering the best services in the industry. Amos launched the aCross designs along with his Co-founder and wife, Priya, who is also the Principal Architect and Head of Design at the company.
With top-notch quality services and professionalism, they are here to become the most valued interior design and home renovation brand. In this insightful session, both the founders share the vision of their company, the services offered by them, and offer valuable suggestions for beginners in this field.
Educational Background And Career Path
We started the interview by asking, “Could you start by telling us about your professional career path?”
Amos shared, “After completing of Bachelor in Computer Science Engineering and Master in Business Information Technology I started my career in Business Development and Sales of technology solutions in Dubai when I landed here in 2010. In November 2017, I lost my job, and in January 2018, I along with my wife Priya who has a degree in Interior Designing and Architectural Engineering, launched an interior designing and home renovation contracting business.”
Overcoming Adversities
Every business faces certain inevitable challenges. To learn how Amos and Priya overcame these challenges, we asked, “What have been the most significant barriers you’ve overcome, and how have these challenges influenced your leadership philosophy?”
They shared, “Firstly, as we are in the industry of home renovation, clients are emotionally involved, and managing that is the most challenging part of our business. But over the years we have found ways to manage this better by understanding ways to better communicate and choosing to work with the right set of clients who we know will work better with us.
Secondly, communicating values and vision to the bottom most layer of the organization and making sure they are ingrained and applied daily is another challenging part. When employees see value in what the leadership is communicating and feel valued within the organization they adapt and apply what is being communicated to them. And when leaders lead by example, teams find it easier to apply and listen to what is being communicated by the leaders.”
Embracing A Growth Mindset
We further asked, “How do you foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation within your organization?”
“By creating a culture of learning and adding value to each other we are fostering constant improvement. We are looking for ways to enhance efficiency, streamline processes, and constantly innovate to offer premium customer experience and support to our clients.
On the other hand, creating an environment within the organization where employees are not afraid and are given the freedom to take calculated risks and try new and creative things in design and well as in execution.” They added.
Transforming For Tomorrow
We were intrigued to learn how Amos and Priya ensure their business stays ahead of the curve. So, we asked, “In the context of global competition, how has your company adapted its strategies to maintain a competitive edge?”
They replied, “When we launched our business we looked at the top 3 challenges our industry faces – projects do not get delivered on time, lack of effective and efficient communication with clients and within the teams, and the ability to give top quality finishes that quality clients expect.
In the last 7 years of starting our business, we have been trying to tackle the above gaps and so far we can say we have been quite successful and that has given us a competitive edge in the market, compared to most of our competitors.”
Incorporating Client Feedback
Eager to learn how Priya and Amos include client insights into their business operations, we inquired, “What role has customer feedback played in shaping the direction of your products or services?”
“It has enabled us to fine-tune certain aspects of the business where we felt we were doing something right and with customer feedback, we were able to do it better than what we were already doing. We also have a culture of providing feedback within the teams so that has enabled our employees to constantly better themselves to offer excellent services to our clients.” They replied.
Embedding Ethics Into Business
We asked, “How do you approach corporate responsibility and ethical business practices in your operations?”
They shared, “We have always believed as a business that having, applying and constantly reminding the team’s of good ethical values within is key for long term success and sustenance of any business. We are a value-driven business making sure we have good conduct and take good care of our employees, clients, business partners, and subcontractors.”
Customer-Centric Solutions
To learn more about the current offerings at the aCross designs, we asked, “Could you tell us more about your services/products and if you have any upcoming plans regarding them?”
They shared, “At the aCross designs we mainly have 3 divisions.
- Interior Designing Services (Residential)
- Construction and Contracting (Residential Renovation, HVAC, Landscaping)
- Joinery (Carpentry).
As a business, we plan to launch a separate Kitchens division in the short term and as a long-term plan we want to establish ourselves as a one-stop shop where we have an in-house property development, property management, real estate brokerage along with the existing divisions so we manage in-house most aspects of any residential and real estate needs of our clients.”
Words Of Wisdom For Beginners
Lastly, seeking guidance for beginners, we asked, “Would you like to give beginners in the same industry some advice?”
Amos and Priya shared, “Start with seeing gaps in the market and having a genuine desire to fill them. And building a strong name and success takes time, so do not be in a rush. Try to avoid as much as possible to not borrow funds to build your business. Bootstrapping your business is the best way to reduce unnecessary stress on yourself so you can focus on the real growth of the business.
Understanding the uniqueness of your business and industry and tailor-making your positioning in the market is very important to stand out amongst your competitors. There should be no disconnect between what you are promoting on social media and what you are actually delivering to the clients. I would always say under market and over deliver and when your clients start to sell your services you know you are doing something right.”
Follow Amos Antin on LinkedIn.
Follow Priya Antin on LinkedIn.
Find the aCross designs on LinkedIn and visit their website http://www.acrossdesigns.com
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