How To Start An Interior Design Business

How To Start An Interior Design Business - Background Info:

If you love mixing and matching patterns or rearranging furniture, you may want to consider starting an interior design business. Learn the basics of this ever growing business.

The interior design business will allow you to work closely with clients to help them decorate their homes in a beautiful and impressive way. Use your skills to help them make a living space that they love.

The interior design business is a go-out of your house kind of home business. While doing the business aspects inside the home, most of the sales will be done at the client's home or office as you evaluate the space, match color swatches to existing furniture and measure windows for draperies, etc.
People want to live in an environment that makes them feel happy with their surroundings. They want to create a design that makes them happy to be at home and they want to do this on a budget.

Most of these people do not have the time to hire a decorator, though, who can help them find all of the pieces they want to make a room perfect. This is why they hire an interior design business to help make their homes perfect.

If you decide to start an interior design business, you will first have to figure out if there is a local market for it.

If there are successful interior design businesses in your area, you may want to figure out the rates at which these organizations are successful at, for you want to be competitive with them.

After this, you may want to start by giving a few free design tips so that people know that you are experienced with designing.

How To Start An Interior Design Business - Tasks And Skills Needed:

Business Specific Tasks:

If you are planning to do all the business tasks or hiring or subcontracting tasks, here's a list of tasks that need to be attended to when it comes to the business side of running an interior design business:

Bookkeeping

Advertising

Customer Service

Billing

General office

Industry Specific Tasks:

Same as above if you plan to do everything yourself or get help, here are some of the tasks necessary to operate an interior design business:

One person is all that is needed to run an interior design business, although having an assistant can be very helpful as the business begins to grow and more clients are brought on.

The assistant can help with picking up orders and packages, fielding calls, and organization of the tools.

Ordering of samples

Photography

Sales

How To Start An Interior Design Business - Approximate Daily Hours Needed:

General Hours of Operation: - When your business is open - You will generally work during the business day, as you will be dealing with different retailers that you need to purchase from.

Hours Needed to Prepare - Before Opening and After Hours Activities - Meetings with clients can happen during the day or in the evening hours, whatever suits the needs of the client. You may be taken on a tour of their home and will be responsible for keeping important details. Generally, however, you will be working during business hours.

Number of Employees Needed To Run This Business:

Minimum Number of Employees -During the Start Up Phase: You can start this business yourself on a full-time basis.

Number of Employees - Once Your Business is Up and Running Successfully:

Website maintenance

Record/Bookkeeping

General office

Customer Service

Consultant

Skill Requirements for This Business:

Graphic Design

Clothing Design

Eye for color and balance

Sales

PR

Knowing trends in the field

Licenses:

The only requirements which are needed to start an interior design business are local permits which you need to open up a business.

It might help, however, to have a certification or a degree in an interior design program because that could help your credentials when people choose to hire you for a project.

Approximate Minimum Start up Cost:

Bare essential: - This can vary. To make a good impression, you should redesign your own home so that you can show people your skills.

Minimal exposure - This could take anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on what you plan on doing. You should also have a portfolio of your work and examples of what you have done, which will cost some money.

Necessary Equipment to Run this Business:

Necessary Start-Up Equipment & Supplies:

Computer

Printer

Cell phone

Website

A portfolio of your work. With this portfolio, you can show different examples of the interior design business work that you have done. You can use this portfolio to talk about different ideas that you have for different lifestyles and use this to impress clients.

Supplementary Equipment: - Equipment or helpful products that you can acquire to once your business is off and running:

You may want to have swatches of special fabrics that you particularly like. When you can show these to clients, you can get them excited about the possibilities you have for their particular interior design business projects which they are hiring you to complete for them.

Monthly Expenses To Consider:

Wages
Phone/cell phone
Internet access
Permits
Advertising/Marketing
Electricity
Water

Special Requirements and Considerations For This Business:

Find out all you can about the trends in the industry. Know your competition, in particular, their strengths and weaknesses. This will help you identify your competitive advantage. In other words, this will help you figure out what you can give your customers that they're not getting from the other businesses. And keep from emulating the competition's strategy. Instead, make the most of your own advantage points.

Pros And Cons of Opening an Interior Design Business:

The Pros of Running an Interior Design Business:

You get to spend time being creative and making people happy.

Every living space is different and you get to work closely with people to make something unique every time that you go to work.

You get to experience a thrill when you find a great deal as well as the satisfaction of a job well done.

The Cons of Running an Interior Design Business:

You may have to deal with high-strung clients who do not know what they want, leaving you to play a guessing game. They may change their minds halfway through a project, deciding that it is going in the wrong direction.

You may also find that when you try to get deals on certain pieces for a room, you will have to deal with salespeople who might try to change their mind.

Type of Customers You Need to Attract:

Most of your clientele will consist of people who own high-profile homes and businesses.

Interior Design Business Statistics:

The opportunities that await interior decorators spread across the map. This field goes way beyond homes - think restaurants, hotels, spas, art galleries, model homes, corporate offices, even bed and breakfast inns. You may want to select a market that interests you and specialize in that niche.

The design business enjoys strong demand as people continue to buy or move into new homes, and remodel old ones. According to Home magazine, 46 percent of Americans plan to redecorate or remodel in the next five years, compared with 35 percent in the previous five years.

Revenue:

What is unique about the interior design business is that you never do the same job twice. It will be hard to place a specific price on individual projects. What you will earn from a job that requires redecoration of an entire room from the carpet, wallpaper to upholstery will be different from a job that requires you to put up drapes to ten windows.

According to Suzanne Dewalt, author of the book "How to Start a Home-based Interior Design Business," a home-based interior designer earn an average of $734 per job. If you are working at four jobs per month, you can expect monthly sales of $3,670 per month. First year designers can expect to earn about $44,040. As you are able to do more jobs in a month (maybe by hiring an assistant in your second or third year of business), you can increase your sales potential.

Interior Design Business Resources:

Industry-Specific Websites:

Interior Design Business

Interior Design Companies Directory

Courses:

Rhodec

School of Interior Design

Sheffield

Interior Design Degrees and Programs Guide

Equipment and Supplies:

Interior Design Specialty Business Cards

Forums:

Interior Design

Topix Interior Design Forum

Ning

Franchises:

Decor And You

Doti

Decorating Den

Associations:

Professional Associations and Certification

Books:

The Interior Design Business Handbook: A Complete Guide to Profitability [Hardcover]

Get Paid to Decorate!

Start Your Own Interior Design Business and Keep It Growing!: Your Guide to Business Success : Touch of Design [Paperback]

How to Start a Home Based Interior Design Business [Paperback]

Secrets of Success for Today's Interior Designers and Decorators [Paperback]

Estimating for Interior Designers [Paperback]

Software:

Home Design

Home Designer's Software

Businesses To Related to an Interior Design Business:

Re upholstery
Carpet installation
Cabinetry
Window Dressings
Real Estate