Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Dalton.
Hi Mark, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Moved to Florida in 1984 from Connecticut after a brutal winter. NEVER intended to stay, started working in a high-end wallpaper store, met the right people and it all took off from there. (lot more to it than that but that’s the short version)
IN 2007 As the market was crashing, I bought a house…Took out a BAD mortgage (money was being added to the note monthly) Because something in my gut said BUY THIS HOUSE. Businesses were collapsing around me, designers going out of business BUT my gut said do whatever you have to do to buy this house and I did.
The newspaper came to me to ask if they could do a story on the house, generally I stayed away from publicity as my business was typically higher end people that didn’t really want attention, BUT I said sure.
AS they say the rest is history. THE paper dubbed the article Chic on the Cheap and an idea formed immediately. IN a downturn market I started a new design firm and did 1 hour consultations for 100.00.( I borrowed against everything I owned except one small condo I kept free and clear in case it all tanked) ALL the designers in town stayed away from me, said I’d fail not only because I was asking 100.00 for a consultation, they were giving for free but because my company had the word CHEAP in it. Screw them…..the newspaper reporter loved the idea, the way I do business and the fact that MY OWN ego never interferes with the designers I’m promoting. (flat fees or hourly rates NO MARK-UP is the business plan) they did 30 stories on us (over 13 years) until that reporter retired.
HUGE lesson for people starting companies…do whatever your gut tells you to…..IF you have pure intention and thought the universe will ALWAYS provide…and it has.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The biggest problem was other designers…MY home was on an ASID tour and the other designers told people NOT to come here because I was awful and my house sucked. WELL, that drew EVERONE to see it because they were curious…300 people went through my house over 2 days.
AT an ASID meeting one time with all the top designers there someone asked a question I answered, ONE of the designers looked at me and said ,”what the f*ck do you know, your company has the word cheap in it” Needless to say that was the last ASID meeting I ever went too
Over the years other designers have gotten in the ear of some of my people….you shouldn’t work there, that word CHEAP, blah blah blah to the point were two designers left the company.ONE that was with me the whole time, and she left with a NOTE in my Mailbox, took another designer with her, who lied to me when I asked if she was leaving. IN the end this was a good thing. IF you are not on board, get out,
I should point out that most of our work is high end..(my personal clientele has always been high end) AND I mean high end like 32,000 sq feet in Atlanta and 4 other properties for that one client. ONE of my best clients told me she has ALWAYS followed my career BUT would never call me when I was Mark Dalton because she felt intimated, BUT she DID call when I was Chic because she didn’t feel that way…WE are finishing up a 10-million-dollar property for them presently.
Pure intention, the universe provides.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I view myself and my personal work as ART, what sets me apart is the transparency of my work and the way I charge people. (flat fees, hourly rates no markups on goods) People personally come to me because I am willing to take risks, they know this going in, they also know that if they don’t like it or the risk didn’t pan out they may have to redo it at their expense….That’s why you hire me for the art of it all. Generally, the people that want me personally aren’t price askers’, they know that what I chose is based on what’s the right thing, whether it’s from Crate and Barell, or Baker. Whenever they do feel something is rather high the question I most get asked is “IS this what you really want”? and if it is, I’ll answer yes and that’s the end of it, if not so much I’ll continue looking. END OF STORY.
NOW in business my goal is to help, advise and promote every designer that works for me. It’s not about me it’s about them, I have 40 years’ experience, I want people to succeed….I want to help them achieve everything they want and didn’t even know they want. I am completely self-educated, and I’m very smart about business and people. I also pay them very very well on each of their jobs, Whatever the hourly or flat fee they make on every job they keep 75% of, the rest goes into the firm, for advertising and running of the business (the website is also a huge expense) I don’t need to live my life any better than I do, I live in a smallish house in a downtown neighborhood that I bought in a depressed market, I’ll die in this house. I don’t need to live my life any differently…..I’d rather spend the money on seeing the designers succeed then on myself…MY weakness though is I like a nice car. (right now, a 2022 Lexus IS 350, an old man’s sports car).
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
Just because you see something in someone, that doesn’t mean they see it themselves, and maybe they don’t have the capability to ever see it. LET IT GO.
Hard hard lesson to learn…..
Contact Info:
- Website: Chiconthecheap.net
- Facebook: chiconthecheap
- Youtube: chiconthecheap
Image Credits
Jeremy Piper, Piper Creative
