Meet the Pro

Alana Spears is the founder of Alana Spears Home, a Portland-based interior design studio specializing in remodels, furnishings, and a niche she's carving out on her own: glass houses as thoughtfully designed outdoor living spaces.

Three years ago, she left a career in television production and advertising to go all in on her firm. Today she runs a lean operation solo, bringing in contractors as needed, and she's actively interviewing for her first project manager as she heads into her biggest year of growth yet.

The Problem

For years, Alana ran her business through Houzz, using it for project management, invoicing, and her QuickBooks connection. It worked, until it didn't.

The QuickBooks integration was unreliable and difficult to troubleshoot without meaningful support. She'd update a number in a purchase order, only to find out later it hadn't carried through. Sometimes the mistake didn't surface until an invoice was already out the door.

That's not only inconvenient, it’s an uneccesary risk.

Annual renewal conversations didn't help. Every time, it felt like money was the only thing on the table.

And the platform itself kept expanding into floor plans, renderings, and concept boards.

"When any company tries to do it all," she says, "they're not going to be great at anything."

By September 2025, she'd had enough.

"I'd invested a lot of time and energy," she says, "but I just felt like I had no other choice. It was time to cut and form a different relationship."

She wasn't starting from scratch. She knew exactly what she didn't want.

Finding the Right System

Alana found Materio through her close friend and fellow designer Rebecca Merritt, a friendship that started in a Houzz webinar chat, where the two were strangers asking the same frustrated questions about the QuickBooks connection. They connected afterward, started trading notes, and eventually became close friends.

When it came time to make a switch, they were researching together.

Alana looked at Programa as well. But when she compared the options, Materio felt more complete for the way she actually runs her business.

But what sealed it wasn't just a feature list.

From her first onboarding with Lindsey, who stayed extra time to walk her through the platform and sent the recording afterward, to quick check-ins with Sally whenever a question came up, Alana felt supported in a way she hadn't experienced before.

"Everyone I've talked to has been an absolute gem," she says. "It feels like the support is just… there."

That mattered. But what mattered more was what happened once she started using it.

The QuickBooks connection worked. Budget tracking was built in from the start. The financial side of her business finally lived in one place, fully connected.

The Transformation

Getting started was fast. Alana watched the training videos, completed her onboarding session, and was running projects in Materio within a week, with almost no overlap from her old system.

The biggest difference showed up in the details.

In Houzz, a number could change in one place and quietly stay wrong somewhere else. With Materio, changes sync automatically across the project. When she updates a figure, it updates everywhere.

She stopped catching mistakes after the fact.

Alana is the first to say the creative work is only part of the job.

"Design is 25%, and tracking everything is 75%."

For the first time, that 75 percent had a home. Accounting, budgets, QuickBooks, purchase orders, invoices, all of it living in one system and staying in sync.

She wasn't reconciling across tools anymore. She wasn't second-guessing her numbers.

She could see exactly where she stood.

Success

Alana isn't patching systems together anymore. The books are clean. The numbers match. Invoices reflect the latest changes without extra checking.

After months of dialing the system in on her own, she's ready to bring someone on, because Materio is something she can actually hand off.

"I'm now in a good spot to have someone come in," she says. "I understand all the ins and outs. I can be a better trainer."

She's not hiring into chaos. She's hiring into clarity.

And for the first time, she's confident the system behind her business can grow alongside it.

"I don't feel like, oh, this would work for a couple years and then I might have to look elsewhere. It really does feel like it is set up to grow with my company."

Connect with Alana

Follow Alana's work or get in touch at alanaspearshome.com and @alanaspearshome on Instagram.