Ivy Hartman: Welcome to Phoenix Arizona home to the 2008 NAWBO conference, I'm Ivy Hartman and with me is Patricia Richardson in Casa Linda Design LLC out of Tucson Arizona. So how perfect for this to be your first conference Patty and it’s not too far for you Tucson to Phoenix.

Patricia Richardson: Two-hour drive piece of cake.

Ivy Hartman: Are you staying here at the Baltimore?

Patricia Richardson: I am staying here at the Baltimore.

Ivy Hartman: How do you feel about—maybe you’ve attended other conferences, how do you feel about having this conference here at the Biltmore which is designed by Frank Wood Wright.

Patricia Richardson: I think it’s wonderful. We get so often that its unique architecture that we have in Arizona. Our scenery is spectacular here so you really get a flavor of Arizona.

Ivy Hartman: Now, she has a discerning eyes, talk about Casa Linda Designs.

Patricia Richardson: It’s actually an interior design and decorating firm. I do custom art as well. I've done for both commercial applications and non-profit. It’s a fun business to be in. it allows me to be creative and work with the people and the things that they have to make their space beautiful.

Ivy Hartman: Now I called you an artist but I didn’t mean it in a literal sense you know what I mean because somebody like me you know as far as having an eye for a room and being creative in that sense is not a quality or skill that I possess. So outsourcing someone like you Patty would be in my best interest. Talk about some of the unique things and great ways and things that you have done with some of your clients.

Patricia Richardson: One thing I really like to do with my client is to work with their existing collections and their existing things to create a space that turns their house, their Casa Linda. Linda is beautiful in Spanish, that’s the name of firm. So I love just working with people’s thing and I love helping them find ways to reuse their space without having to rebuild their space.

I have a recent client, actually he’s still a current client where I took a small dining room and a huge unused living room and I split the spaces, and he now has room to entertain which he loves to do. He can extend the table in the room and we’ve created a whole new entry way for his house out of the old dining room which is now just a foyer with a few chairs and a perfect greeting space for his friends and family.

Ivy Hartman: Now when you're marketing your services to people you're also kind of hitting up the fact that you're a green business. So I'm reusing and I'm recycling the stuff you already have and I'm not changing your house structural necessarily.

Patricia Richardson: That’s correct. There's a lot of things people can do that are green but they don’t think about why get rid of the table when you can repurpose it as a desk in another room. There are all kinds of things that you can repurpose in your own house especially in Arizona we look at lighting. People want to change their lighting. Solar light, solar tubes and solar lighting in Arizona is the perfect fit for our houses and our interior spaces without having to put in new windows and without having to use electricity.

Ivy Hartman: One last thing Patty, when you started your business five years ago or so what was your biggest challenge and what advice you have for others small business owners.

Patricia Richardson: The biggest challenge is learning how to structure your time when you're your own boss. So knowing that you have to plan your day and plan for emergencies and plan around the things that you need to be able to do your business. Time planning is absolutely critical to being able to manage your own business and work for yourself.

Ivy Hartman: Yeah. I mentioned you probably work at all hours of the day with your client.

Patricia Richardson: I do.

Ivy Hartman: Patty thanks for your tip here on sbtv.com. Keep it right here on sbtv.com as we continue our complete coverage of the NAWBO 2008 conference here in Phoenix Arizona only right here.