All Founder Stories are researched and written by our editorial team. The businesses and founders described are realistic composites drawn from our readership and industry research, presented as case studies for educational purposes. Financial figures are illustrative and based on publicly available sector benchmarks. We do not publish content designed to promote specific founders, products, or services. See our Editorial Policy for full details.
Hartwell Spaces: How a Bristol Interior Design Consultancy Built the Operational Infrastructure to Grow Without Its Founder
Helen Hartwell had the kind of problem most founders would consider a good one to have. Three years after founding Hartwell Spaces, her Bristol-based commercial interior design and fit-out consultancy, she was turning over £1.2m with strong margins, a full order book, and an excellent client reputation. She was also exhausted, unable to delegate meaningfully, and painfully aware that the business was entirely dependent on her personal involvement in every significant project decision.
The Problem: Growth Without Infrastructure
"I'd grown the business entirely on the quality of what I personally delivered," Helen says. "Every client came because of my design sensibility and my attention to the process. Which meant that when I tried to bring people in and hand things off, the handoffs fell apart — because nothing was written down, and my team couldn't replicate my judgement calls because I'd never articulated what they were based on."
The first three hires she'd made were talented designers who could execute competently — but couldn't manage client relationships or project timelines without regular intervention. Her attempt to delegate client communication to a senior designer in 2021 resulted in two client complaints and one partially lost project, which she attributed to unclear brief management. She reverted to direct involvement within six weeks.
"I realised I'd been thinking about delegation as a trust problem, when it was actually a documentation problem. I hadn't given anyone the tools to succeed without me."
Helen Hartwell, Founder, Hartwell Spaces
The Turning Point: Hiring the Operations Manager
The shift began when Helen was introduced to a business coach through her accountant, who identified the core constraint immediately: the business had no documented processes, no project management system, and no operational layer between Helen and delivery. The recommendation was to hire an operations manager whose primary brief for the first six months would be documentation rather than management.
Helen was resistant to the cost. A qualified operations manager with appropriate experience would cost between £45k and £55k per year — a significant commitment for a business still at around £1.2m revenue. Her accountant helped her model the cost against the revenue upside of freeing 40% of her capacity to focus on business development. The model suggested the hire would pay for itself within 14 months if Helen converted half the pipeline opportunities she was currently too busy to pursue properly.
She made the hire in September 2021. The first month was spent almost entirely in what they called "brain dump sessions" — structured conversations between Helen and her new operations manager, recorded and transcribed, covering every repeatable process in the business. Over eight weeks, they produced 23 documented processes covering project initiation, client brief management, design review gates, contractor coordination, site management, client sign-off, and post-project review.
What Didn't Work: The First Management Failure
With documentation in place, Helen promoted her most experienced designer — a five-year team member named Daniel — to a senior project lead role. The promotion was well-intentioned and based on genuine technical ability, but Helen hadn't assessed whether Daniel had the temperament or interest in the client management and coordination aspects of the role. Within three months it was clear that Daniel was unhappy. He was excellent at design direction but found client expectation management stressful and the administrative aspects of project coordination demotivating.
"I'd made the classic mistake of promoting my best technical person into a management role because they were my best technical person," Helen reflects. "Those aren't the same skill set, and I'd never asked Daniel whether it was what he actually wanted." She worked with Daniel to redefine his role as a senior design lead with no direct reports or project management responsibilities — a change he welcomed — and subsequently hired a dedicated project manager externally.
The Result: A Business That Runs Without Her
By mid-2023, Hartwell Spaces was generating £1.8m revenue with a team of 14 and Helen working a sustainable four-day week. Her own time was split approximately 60% on business development and strategic clients, 20% on team development and culture, and 20% on financial oversight. The project management and operational delivery of the business ran primarily through her operations manager and two project managers.
"The documentation project was the most important thing I did for the business — and I almost didn't do it because it felt like overhead rather than work," she says. "Every hour we spent writing those processes has been repaid ten times over in reduced re-work, fewer mistakes, and the ability to bring on new people who actually hit the ground running."
Key Lessons from Hartwell Spaces
Is Your Business Story Worth Telling?
We're looking for UK SME founders and operators willing to share honest accounts of operational challenges — including what didn't work. No PR gloss. No success-washing. Just practical stories that help other business builders make better decisions.
Submit Your Story