What you need to know to start your own interior design business
When it comes to starting your own interior design business, anything is possible. This is an exciting business endeavor and you should look to it with positivity and hope. Interior design is one of the most enjoyable professions because it allows you some creative leeway and you are able to create spaces with your very own brand of ambiance.
Here are three tips that we have for women who are looking to start their own interior design business.
Start From Scratch
You should start your design business from scratch. This means that you should garner all of the education that you have earned in your working life and educational life to contribute toward your interior design business. Have you worked in a furniture retail setting? Have you taken classes in design? All of these experiences will contribute to your ability to start your own interior design firm.
Don’t be too humble when it comes to utilizing the resources that you have in order to begin your own business. Working at a furniture store is in fact an accomplishment in and of itself and it is completely relevant to your work as an interior designer. More likely than not, you have considered your interest in interior design while choosing your previous jobs.
Whether you’ve worked at a furniture store for a couple of months or a few years, this is all viable educational experience that you can put towards starting your very own interior design company. Don’t be afraid to start from scratch. We all have to start somewhere when beginning anew.
Make Your Own Brand
Every business needs a niche. You need to decide what it is about your business that is going to set it apart from all other interior design businesses. You need to have your very own brand that is completely unique to your business. This means that you need to establish the color schemes that you will use in your decorating and if there are any trademark decorations that you will always use in every design. You can use a Buddha statue or an interior French door in literally every design you do. There’s nothing wrong with adamant branding.
What is it about your work that is one of a kind—the color pallet that you utilize? You need to decide which trademarks are going to be unique to your company and then use them in all of your designs, no matter what. You need to brand every interior design project that you do so that your name is on every single accomplishment you have made.
Know Your Customers
Unlike some other forms of employment, interior design is not a hello and goodbye type of job. You form lasting connections with your clients and you spend a lot of time getting to know exactly what it is that they are looking to create in their own personal home or commercial space. Interior design requires a lot of dialogue with your customer. It requires you to get to know your customer as an individual, including their creative likes and dislikes.
In order to be a successful interior designer, you need to want to know your customer. You need to understand what they favor, what their goal is in their interior design project, and whether or not they like what you’re putting on the table. You need to ask him or her questions in order to get a better understanding of what they’re looking for in seeking out your services.
You should take the lead when it comes to getting to know your customers. They shouldn’t be responsible for divulging all information about their interior design requests before you ask them leading questions in order to better understand. You need to ask them what their vision is for the interior design project and what their preferences are when it comes to color schemes. You should bring swatches of fabric to get a better idea of what upholstery they want for the furniture.
You should bring a portfolio of images, including pictures of works that you have done in the past. You should ask them to rate these photos from one to ten with one being not liking it all and ten being loving it. You should then gather together all of the pictures that they rated as ten and ask them which ones they like the best. You should emulate the designs of the pictures that they have rated as ten in your design for them.
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