How to Start an Interior Design Business: A Comprehensive 6-Step Guide for Success

Have you decided to take your talent for interior design and open your own interior decorating business? Owning your own business can be both challenging and rewarding. However, if your business is based solely on your creativity, those challenges will often outnumber the rewards. Here are some ideas to consider when opening an interior design business

6 Tips on How to Start an Interior Design Business or Startup

1. Choose a Descriptive Business Name

Everyone has their own style when it comes to home decoration. If you open a business that involves people’s preferences for home styling, your prospective clients need to know what style you plan to specialize in. You can make your personal style apparent in the name of your business. For example, if you prefer using handcrafted furniture, such as Amish furniture, which is 100% handmade, in the homes you design, you could name your business “Home Design By Hand.”

2. Establish Your Business Legally

All businesses need to have business licenses and business liability insurance – and your new company will be no exception. Most states will require a business license and a tax identification code. In addition to that license and business liability insurance, you’ll also need to open a separate bank account for the business. If your business is operating from your home, you might consider posting a small sign in your yard to advertise your services.

3. Collaborate With Related Local Businesses

When you design a client’s home or office, you won’t have to be directly responsible for procuring all the furniture, wallpaper, and appliances for the home. While your design will become the blueprint for the elements in your clients’ homes, a wise proprietor knows that collaboration with local businesses can be mutually beneficial. When the appliance furniture store brings in a silver sink and refrigerator that will perfectly coordinate with a backsplash made from onyx tiles from the local home furnishings store, those stores will gratefully display your business card in their stores. In return, you can gather a list of local business owners to provide referrals.

4. Be Ready to Be Flexible in Styling

Although your preferred style doesn’t have to change when designing all the rooms, you may need to use a variant of your style to suit the taste of each room’s occupant. For example, a teen or young child will want something livelier than the minimalist Shaker styles that Amish furniture would fit into. After all, statistics show that if your client is divorced, their children will spend about 277 days of the year with custodial parents. Therefore, your clients who are divorced parents will need rooms for their children.

5. Create Pet-Friendly Rooms for Pet Owners

When designing a home for a family with pets, you must consider those pets when planning your design. Statistics show almost 3/4 of millennials (people born between 1981 and 1994) own pets. When planning flooring for homes with pets, you should consider ceramic tile, which is resistant to pets’ claws and easily cleaned after pet accidents. To further pet-proof your home, you may recommend a mud room or entry room where their pet can wipe its paws and shake off its fur after being outdoors.

6. Promote Your Business Successfully

For your business to become a success, you must find ways to let your prospective clients know about your company. Most businesses today understand that an online presence – including an informative website and a social media account – is essential for your success. On your social media page, you can feature a blog with articles about home decoration topics.

Conclusion:

While not all home design businesses evolve in the same ways, the above tips should give you some tips to get started. The most essential elements of success are talent, responsive actions, and good customer service. If you operate with those principles in mind, your business will have an excellent chance of success.

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