Entrepreneur learns value of 'service first' strategy

With nearly three decades in interior design and staging homes for sale, in Southwest Florida and Nashville, Beth Starnes took a big career leap in 2014: she opened a consignment furniture and design store, seeking to capitalize on the surging Lee/Collier residential real estate market.

Starnes entered a crowded market: research revealed there are nearly 80 consignment shops between Marco Island and Punta Gorda. The move has since worked out. She recently bought out a business partner, and is now sole owner of the company, which operates one of the largest furniture showrooms, 6,500 square feet, in the region.

The store itself, on U.S. 41 in Bonita Springs, is a staging center, giving customers ideas about how things will work in their own homes. “I don’t like mistakes,” she says. “I don’t let people buy something unless I know it will fit.”