Question:

All my clients want these days is Pottery Barn furniture. How do I find their product wholesale so that I can resell it?

Answer:

Sorry, you can’t do it.

Pottery Barn is a huge corporation (owned by Williams-Sonoma) who purchases manufactured inventory at deeply discounted prices, because of the volume that they sell. You, as a designer purchasing “onesie, twosies,” as they like to call it in the business, don’t have a chance to buy at that level.

Frankly, Pottery Barn has done an excellent of job of marketing their good looking, inexpensive, if not so great quality furniture. They present their product as if it were high-end furniture, and their photography and merchandising are really good. That is why your clients like it.

I would suggest instead of trying to beat them you join them.

If you have a client that wants Pottery Barn, move forward. Design the room, specify their product, and charge appropriately for your design, research and purchasing time. If the client doesn’t want to pay for your purchasing services, let her do it.

You get move on to the next job opportunity.