When I first met Chelsea, owner of The Kingsway Co., she was juggling something most designers would consider a dream and a nightmare all at once: a thriving bi-coastal design business split between Los Angeles and Manhattan.
But behind the polished portfolio and beautifully executed spaces, her backend looked like most designers’ do before they get support; PDF contracts, templates saved in iCloud, versions saved in multiple folders, Adobe, Checks and a constant fear that she might be working off the wrong document.
Chelsea had the talent, the referrals, and the reputation.
What she didn’t have yet was a system.
This is her story; before and after.
Before: A Thriving Business Held Together by PDFs and Good Intentions
When Chelsea described her former backend, she laughed, but it was the kind of laugh every designer recognizes deep down.
“I used to send editable PDFs, track everything manually, and just hope my clients downloaded the right version.”
Every project meant:
• Updating the contract manually
• Saving a new PDF
• Emailing it out
• Hoping clients knew how to sign it
• Downloading the signed copy
• Re-uploading it into folders
• Manually tracking invoices
• Waiting for checks or ACH transfers
• Wondering who read what and when
For a designer working on multiple full-scale renovations in two different time zones, this wasn’t sustainable.
Chelsea wasn’t disorganized.
She was doing what every designer does before they have a system that supports them.
And New York?
New York amplified everything.
The paperwork.
The approvals.
The timelines.
The contractors.
The logistics.
The stakes.
“Every mistake in construction is expensive,” she said.
“And the communication trail matters more than people realize.”
Yet in the middle of all this… Chelsea’s business was about to grow in a completely unexpected direction.
The Expansion That Wasn’t Planned (But Became a Turning Point)
Chelsea’s first NYC project began as a family favor; renovating her sister’s apartment.
It was supposed to be a one-off.
It turned into a two-year ordeal of co-op paperwork, approvals, serial numbers for tools (yes, really), and navigating the kind of red-tape nightmares only Manhattan can provide.
She swore she’d never work in New York again.
But then… her sister’s real estate agent hosted an event in the finished space.
Chelsea flew in, expecting a handful of people to wander through.
Instead, three hours later, she realized she had unintentionally launched a second branch of her business.
“We got multiple leads that day. And they all lived in the same building. Suddenly this ‘never again’ market became half my clients.”
But the backend wasn’t built to sustain this kind of growth; especially remotely.
That’s when she reached out for a Dubsado setup.
After: A Business That Runs With Ease (and Gets Paid Faster Than Ever)
Chelsea’s transformation began with one decision:
to stop building her business on PDFs.
Once her custom Dubsado system was in place, everything changed.
1. Faster, seamless payments
“Clients just click and pay now. My invoices get paid so much faster.”
Stripe + Dubsado replaced mailed checks, manual ACH transfers, and payment friction.
2. Contracts that don’t require a scavenger hunt
Every contract, proposal, and form lives inside Dubsado; organized, searchable, and version-proof.
3. A clear, visual workflow for every project
Chelsea can see which stage each client is in with a single login.
There’s no second-guessing. No forgetting. No “Did I send that yet?”
4. A communication trail that protects her business
This might be the biggest shift of all.
“A contractor ignored my invoices, and that Dubsado read-receipt literally saved me in small claims court.”
She used Dubsado’s read-receipt feature to prove the contractor had opened the invoice.
That single email protected thousands of dollars of work.
The Real Transformation: Confidence + Clarity
Chelsea didn’t just gain a system.
She gained peace of mind.
She now moves between coasts with ease.
She sends contracts and invoices in seconds.
She knows exactly where each client stands at any given time.
She’s protected legally, financially, and operationally.
And her business?
It’s now built to support growth; not scramble to catch up with it.
A Final Word
Designers don’t buy systems.
They buy time, clarity, confidence, and a client experience that feels as elevated as the spaces they create.
Chelsea’s story is a reminder that when you streamline the backend, everything else, from marketing to money to momentum, falls into place.
If you’re building a high-end design studio, you deserve a high-end infrastructure behind it.
And just like Chelsea discovered, the “after” is closer than you think.