Why I started my new liturgical design firm

Sometimes I have to remind myself that what appears to be permanent, constant, stationary or otherwise fixed, is always flowing, moving or otherwise transforming, even if I can’t detect it. Change is a constant in life; it can also be scary. But there’s usually a reward in it, which is why I ended a 30 year business partnership to start my own liturgical design company, Lawrence Hoy Studios.

It was scary—terrifying in fact. Why end a company of 30 years with the same business partner, the same way of doing liturgical design and the same way of servicing clients, to start something unproven? I had two kids in college. A mortgage. Credit card bills. But I was frustrated by the feeling that I was working just to pay our company’s overhead and keep my employees busy. It felt like their needs came before my clients’.

So there I was, yearning for a new way—a better way. I had a vision: a streamlined liturgical design and fabrication process at the lowest possible cost to my clients, and I needed to see it through. My dream propelled me, but it still felt like flying out into the wild blue yonder without a parachute.

Introducing Lawrence Hoy Studios, a better way of doing liturgical design

I was fortunate that when word got out that I had gone on my own, people found me. I soon realized I did have a parachute, a very sturdy and functional one at that—my 30 years experience as a liturgical designer and the 300 or so church projects I completed for satisfied clients (including designs for Pope Francis, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II). Now when jobs came in, I was able to focus entirely on my clients’ needs, and consequently the work came in on time and within budget, every time. It felt fantastic, and the parishes of St. Mary Magdalene, (Springfield Gardens, Queens, NY), St. Joachim, (Cedarhurst, Long Island, NY), and St. Helen, (Howard Beach, Queens, NY) were among the first to reap the rewards of this new way of working.

Today, my 2-year-old business, Lawrence Hoy Studios, is running just the way I envisioned and I couldn’t be happier. I have more time to spend with clients, determining what they want and making sure they get it. I have a terrific on-site production manager, who looks after our clients and parishes as if they were family (and whistles happily while he works). I have an amazing office manager who takes care of all the organizational projects in our office, as well as a fleet of the best sub-contractors who know how to get jobs done. Best of all is the end result, which is the smile on our clients’ faces when they see their dreams realized, on time and within budget.

Yes, change is good.