How to start an interior design business: my top 10 most asked questions

Over the past 10 years or so I have grown my interior design business from absolutely nothing to a multiple 7 figure a year business that I have today.

I’m not saying that to brag - I’m just sharing it so you know that I know what I’m talking about :)

I started with no design qualifications, no clients and no revenue.

When I started I also had three young boys under 5 (one who is profoundly disabled) and a full time job as a change management consultant in the corporate sector.

If I can build a business under those circumstances then you can as well!

But you will need a desire to succeed, a real passion for what you’re doing and a lot of hard work, consistency and discipline.

Over the years I’ve learned so much about starting and growing a successful business and today I am collating the top 10 questions I get asked over and over in my Instagram DMs and emails and offering my perspective on those questions.

Remember there is no right or wrong way to start a design business and there are many ways to do this - what I’m sharing is in this post is what has worked for me.

I hope you find it helpful!

Q1: Should I work for someone else or start my own design business?

This really depends on who you are and what you enjoy doing. Some people are cut out to be fantastic business owners and others are better at working for someone else and just sticking to what they know best (i.e. design work).

Here’s how I see the difference between the two options.

If you have your own business and work for yourself:

  • you keep all the profit that is in the business (or choose what is done with it) - this means you have the potential to earn an unlimited amount of money depending on what business model you choose and how successful your business becomes.

  • you set the strategic direction of the business.

  • you will wear all the hats and your day to day work is only partly related to interior design. If you don’t enjoy the process of building the business itself then you will struggle. You need to have an interest in (or be willing to learn about) business, marketing, accounting, sales, branding and content creation (among many other topics!).

  • you need to be willing to work much harder than you would as an employee. For a new business to become profitable it requires much more work and “hustle” than most people are willing to put in. There’s no such thing as weekends or set work hours, especially when you are first starting out.

  • you are in charge of all creative decisions, which projects you accept and the work you do with clients.

  • you need to be obsessed with your business and live and breathe it, especially in the beginning. In fact from my experience nearly 10 years in to business I’m still completely obsessed with my business and I’m always thinking about it or working on it. I do that because I absolutely love what I do. If you don’t feel passion for starting your business you’re unlikely to have what it takes to push through the amount of work it’s going to take to make it succeed.

  • you are in control of everything that happens in the business - you get to make all the decisions and the success (or otherwise) of the business rests entirely on the choices you make.

  • you have to find all the clients yourself - you are responsible for bringing in all the revenue (especially in the beginning).

  • you get to choose how much (or how little) you work and can build the business around your lifestyle and how you want to live.

  • you don’t need to ask permission from anyone if you want to take an afternoon off or go and watch your child get an award at school.

  • you need to be willing to push yourself out of your comfort zone regularly and do things that scare you constantly. Growth rarely happens but staying within our comfort zone and building a business can be very scary at times. The growth and confidence you build as a result is definitely worth it though!

If you work for someone else:

  • you work your set hours and then don’t have to think or worry about your work for the rest of your time or on your weekends.

  • you get a pay check each week - your income is always consistent and reliable.

  • the strategic direction of the company is set by the business owner and you are only responsible for your part in helping implement that direction.

  • the creative decisions are set by the business owner and often you’ll be asked for input on design direction but ultimately the decision won’t be yours to make.

  • your time will largely be spent on design work rather than being split in lots of different directions with multiple hats (like a business owner has). This can be less stressful!

  • you can earn quite good money as you gain more experience in the industry and move to higher level jobs but your earning potential will always be capped while you are an employee in someone else’s business.

  • you will be assigned specific projects or parts of projects to work on based on what is needed within the firm and have little control over the projects you work on or what sort of tasks you do, especially as a lower level designer.

  • you won’t be responsible for bringing in revenue or finding clients, especially as an entry level designer, so you won’t have the stress of this responsibility.

  • you don’t need to fully understand all the aspects of the business and be on top of how to do all of these skills (e.g. marketing, sales) as there will be others who are responsible for this. It’s always helpful to understand all the different parts of the business you work in though, it will make you a much more valuable employee over the long term.

  • you may find it less scary to work as an employee if you’re lacking confidence and you may not have to push yourself quite so much out of your comfort zone.

  • you can gain experience and learn how a design business runs, which can help you build confidence to eventually start your own business down the track (if you decide you would like to do that).

Here’s a few other resources you may find helpful:

2: How many years of experience should I have before starting my own business?

It really depends…I had no experience at all in how to run an interior design business, no formal training in design and I hadn’t worked as an interior designer before I started my own business.

But - I did have a few strategic advantages that allowed me to feel confident starting a business without this specific experience.

These advantages included:

  • I had worked in the corporate sector for many years in a senior role. I was used to working with high level clients (albeit not design clients) and I understood how businesses worked and how to manage client relationships successfully.

  • I was in my mid-30s and had a certain level of life experience and confidence. I was very comfortable meeting new people of all different levels of education, social status and sophistication.

  • My husband and I had renovated quite a few houses and I had learned a lot about the process of design and renovation through these projects.

  • I was very confident in my design abilities and knew that I could deliver high quality work for my clients.

  • I had done work for free for friends and family and those projects had gone well. I knew I was able to make a go of a paid career in the industry if I worked hard and learned what I needed to learn.

  • I am a passionate life long learner and believe in myself enough to know that everything is ‘figure-out-able’ (as Marie Forleo says).

  • I have been obsessed with interior design since I was a teenager. I have consumed so many design books, magazines, blogs and renovation shows that I have given myself a true life-long self-education in design. Because I love the industry so much I easily remember products, suppliers and things I’ve seen over the years and can recall these easily for use in projects.

  • I was willing to do the hard work to educate myself on things I didn’t know how to do but were important to ensure I was working safely with clients and in a professional way - e.g. learn a technical drawing skill (SketchUp), learn the correct drafting conventions, learn how an interior design project should be run, learn social media marketing - there was so much I had to learn but I put in the hours, watched videos, listened to podcasts and took online courses.

Having said all of that I was still completely shit-scared when I first started working with paid clients that weren’t family or friends. And just like so many of you I felt like a complete fraud and couldn’t believe people would pay me to do something I would happily do for them for free!

But the way I overcame this imposter syndrome is to just take action bit by bit.

I did some work for free and got some images and testimonials from those project.

I then found my first paying client and I did my very best to over deliver on what I was doing. I learned as much as I could via courses and blog posts so I would put my best professional foot forward. I also started with smaller projects that didn’t overwhelm me. I wouldn’t suggest you take on a 5 bedroom full home renovation as your first paid project, for example!

My first paid project was a small 2 bedroom apartment that needed interior styling. This was a very contained project that I felt very comfortable delivering and was well suited to my skill set at the time.

Over the years my projects grew and changed in scope, size, budget and complexity - but this was a gradual process that took time.

Here’s a few other resources you may find helpful:

3: When is the right time to quit my job and go all in on my business?

I definitely don’t recommend you quit your job until you know you have a viable business that is bringing in stable revenue.

I quit my full time, 6-figure corporate job after about a year of working on my business as a ‘side hustle’.

I had been working nights and weekends for the year - meeting with clients and delivering their projects at times when I wasn’t working in the city.

I had been writing regular blog posts and had been posting consistently to Instagram so my community was starting to grow (but was still very small at that stage). It had been a year of exceptionally hard work that required a lot of sacrifice and discipline. I also relied on my husband to help a lot with our three boys (who were under 5 at the time!).

But with enough passion and determination everything is possible.

If you want it badly enough you will be willing to put in the effort that’s required. If you aren’t willing to put in that effort then you probably want to question if you really do want it.

After about a year of working my corporate job and my business ‘side hustle’ the revenue for my business had almost hit the same amount as I was earning in my job and I trusted myself enough to quit my job and go all in on the business.

I knew that if I had more time to spend on it each day I could make it grow faster and I could earn more money as well.

Here is what I would suggest before you quit your job:

  • you make sure you have proven product/market fit - i.e. you have had numerous paying clients and you know that you have a product (e.g. design services) that people want from you and are willing to pay you for.

  • you have gained experience delivering a number of projects to completion and feel comfortable doing this.

  • you know that you enjoy actually running a business and all that entails - if you aren’t enjoying it in these early months/year it’s not going to improve after you quit your job.

  • you make sure you actually enjoying marketing, sales and finding clients as you’ll be spending most of your time on these tasks!

  • your revenue has steadily been increasing and you have at least a few months of stable revenue that is close to what your current salary is at the moment - this shows that you haven’t just had a ‘fluke’ month with lots of work and you know how to consistently bring in revenue.

  • you have ideally got a few months of buffer income set aside that you can tap in to if you need to.

Here’s a few other resources you may find helpful:

4: I’m only just starting my business - how do I get my first clients?

The best way to get your first clients is to do some work for free. That’s exactly what I did and what so many of the people I know have done as well.

Normally the clients you’ll have for these free jobs will be friends, family or people you already know.

To find people to help you need to start talking about how you are starting a business to everyone you know. If your house is beautifully designed then invite people over for coffee and show them what you’re capable of.

This may seem scary at first. I know it was for me. I felt really silly telling people I was starting an interior design business. I was working in a serious corporate job and had only recently finished my PhD in business. I was worried people would think I was crazy to give all that up for this dream I had!

But I pushed through and bravely told people anyway. You won’t find any clients without putting yourself out there and telling people what you’re up to.

The reason you should work for free is:

  • it will be easier to get people to work with you and give you a try

  • you don’t really know what you’re doing yet so it’s not really OK to charge people for this as you’ll essentially at this stage be making it up as you go along

  • it gives you the chance to gain experience in a relatively risk-free way

  • you will be able to use images of the project you work on as part of your portfolio and also ask your clients for a testimonial - this is how you’ll start to build social proof you can use on your website and social media to then find your first paid clients

While you are waiting for your first free clients I also suggest you build a portfolio for your website and images to share on social media by using what you already have.

For example when I started I posted images on my website of our own home projects that we had renovated and also created project examples (e.g. SketchUp drawings, mood boards) that I posted up as well. I made do with what I had.

Remember that everyone has to start from somewhere!

Once you’ve done some work for free you can add the images from those projects to your website and you’ll eventually start to build out a little portfolio of work.

So work your network and find people who are willing to give you a try for free.

But don’t work for free for too long. Once you’ve had a few projects like that you’ll know you’ve got something that people will want from you. It’s then time to start charging for your services!

Here’s a few other resources you may find helpful:

5: How do I know what to charge as a new designer?

When you are first starting you’ll have no idea what to charge - don’t worry nobody does!

Most people start by guessing a number that ‘sounds about right’ and then going with that. And that number is normally dramatically under what it should be.

Last year I was in Melbourne at a design fair and I was listening to a panel of some of Australia’s top interior designers talking about how they started and grew their businesses. Even those top designers talked about how when they first started they had no idea what to charge and definitely weren’t charging enough for the time they were spending delivering projects. So trust me when I say that nobody really gets this right when they are first starting.

My first (paying) client paid me $1000 in design fees. This is what I asked for. The project was to style a full 4 bedroom house - it was a big project and it took me weeks to deliver.

But I was thrilled with my $1000 as I would have styled her house for free quite honestly. I was so excited that someone was paying me anything at all that I thought $1000 was everything!

Since those early days I’ve spent time building out a much better pricing formula and strategy that can be used by any designer - whether they are just starting out or whether they’ve been in business for years.

The pricing formula is based uniquely on you and your circumstances - how much you want to earn, how much you want to work, the types of projects you want to do.

 
 

So if you want a more sophisticated way to set prices than just pulling out a random number from the air then you can implement my system by taking my short course - ‘The Pricing System for Designers’

A bonus in that course is that you get my fee proposal templates completely for free, so they will likely help you out as well if you’re just getting started.

Here’s a few other resources you may find helpful:


6: How do I find clients consistently? Some months I have some and others I have none

Most designers I know who have issues bringing in enough clients just aren’t doing enough consistent lead generation work.

The cycle normally goes a bit like this:

  • no clients are coming in = no revenue

  • the designer does lots of lead generation to try and find a client

  • a client eventually comes in (yay!)

  • the designer gets busy delivering the work for the new client

  • they stop doing any lead generation as they are now busy working on the client project(s)

  • they finish that design project and realise the don’t have another client lined up next = no revenue again

  • they start doing lead generation work again and eventually another client comes

And so the cycle continues over and over.

This means that some months there’s plenty of work and revenue (sometimes too much!) and other months there’s no work at all, which is stressful.

The way to overcome this is to make sure you are doing lead generation work every single day.

Lead generation needs to become a non-negotiable in your day, even during periods when you are swamped with work for existing clients.

That’s the only way to ensure that you have a steady stream of clients, ideally with a back up waitlist.

Not sure what sort of tasks or strategies you should be using for lead generation?

I will teach you thirteen proven ways to find clients in my lead generation short course.

Here’s a few other resources you may find helpful:


7: How do I start working with trades and suppliers?

As you get started in business you will want to have a network of people you can rely on who can help deliver work for your clients. I always encourage the students in my courses to start building these relationships as soon as they get started in business, even if they don’t yet have any client work coming in.

Here are the supplier relationships that I suggest you try and put in place:

  • an architect (more complex architectural projects)

  • a draftsperson (less complex projects that need a structural building designer)

  • a number of different builders at different price points

  • a handy man (for hanging pictures/shelves/small jobs)

  • tiling and flooring suppliers

  • bathroom fixtures/fittings suppliers with trade partnership ready to go

  • appliances supplier

  • electrician (for small electrical jobs)

  • painter(s)

  • textile/window dressing supplier

  • lighting suppliers

  • a large collection of furniture, accessories and art suppliers

When you are working with suppliers make sure you are organised and easy to deal with. If you develop good relationships with them they will be likely to go out of their way to help you (e.g. find things out of stock, fit your project in above others in their queue) but they will also likely send work your way as well.

Here’s a few other resources you may find helpful:

To find supplier or trades to work with, here are some recommendations of places to look:

  • Houzz - especially for builders, joiners and architects

  • Ask other designers or other trades for recommendations

  • On Instagram (often other designers will tag their suppliers) - you can also try searching by different hashtags

  • Ask for recommendations - e.g. in Facebook groups.

You may also find this blog post helpful - Should you take commissions from trades?

8: Can I work as a designer without having qualifications?

This is a tricky one for me to answer and my overarching response is - it depends.

In many parts of the world interior design industry is currently unregulated, which means there is no requirement for you to have a qualification to do work as a designer. But it’s always important to do your own checks about the legalities of this within your own jurisdiction. Seek legal advice if you’re not sure as one way to expose yourself to serious risk is to be doing work that you are not qualified or licensed to do. So make sure you really understand what you can and can’t do.

I don’t have any design qualifications and I have built a very successful business in the design industry.

But I also had a lot of work experience under my belt, which made me feel confident initially meeting clients and understanding how to build up my business. I also had a lot of renovation experience so I knew how a design project worked and was comfortable being on a building site and understanding what was happening and the ‘lingo’ of how to work with different trades and consultants.

If you don’t feel confident or you want to be working in a complex part of interior design (i.e. structural work or that sort of thing) then you should definitely consider getting a qualification in design or architecture.

However if you are confident and ready to start working with clients then there is nothing stopping you in just getting started straight away (of course ensuring you have checked local requirements around this).

Always keep in mind that the most important thing is to never be doing work that you aren’t legally required to have a qualification to do and always make sure that you have the appropriate insurances for the type of work that you are doing as well.

One final thing is that my prediction is that in the coming years many jurisdictions will crack down on the fact that interior design is unregulated. I think that in time we will see more legislation that comes in that requires people to hold qualifications or licenses in order to do specific types of design work. We are already seeing this change starting in NSW (where I live) with the introduction of the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020.

If I were starting my business now I would probably seriously consider doing some kind of formal training in interior design to ensure that I was prepared for any legislative changes that may come in the future.

At the bare minimum I would suggest you learn a technical drawing skill (e.g. SketchUp, AutoCAD) so you can present your work professionally.

Here’s a few other resources you may find helpful:


9: How do I know the right way to work with clients when I’m first starting?

Over time you’ll learn and become more confident in working with clients and delivering an exceptional customer experience.

And the process for working with clients will also differ depending on what sort of work you do with them.

I worked mainly on residential single-family homes and so my design process developed around this model.

I would suggest that before you start working with clients you take time to think through the process you are going to work through with clients and make sure you have the documents and collateral in place that will support each step of the process. That way when it comes time to sign your first client you will look super professional and will feel confident in what you are doing.

Confidence comes from being in momentum and taking action so while you have some down time as you look for clients take that time to get yourself set up for success by setting up your back end systems.

Here’s a few other resources you may find helpful:


10: What are the very first steps I should take when starting my interior design business?

The way you launch and start your business is important and will cost you some money (not normally a lot though so don’t worry!). You need to be prepared to spend a little to set yourself up professionally and ensure you are working correctly, legally and safely.

The very first official steps vary around the world in terms of the legalities of starting a business and choosing which business structure you will set up under (e.g. sole trader or company/LLC) so make sure you get some professional advice on what is best for your situation.

Many people think that the first steps are to set up a pretty website and perhaps even spend lots of money having this created, but that’s just not true. You can easily create a website yourself these days on a platform like Squarespace or Wix and then put that money towards other much more important start up costs instead.

Instead the places you should invest when you’re first starting in business are these:

  • appoint an accountant who can give you advice on the best structure to set up your business and help you set up your accounting system - e.g. Xero

  • hire a lawyer to draft your client agreement and legal documents - lots of people are tempted to draft these themselves but this puts you at risk if you ever need to rely on these documents in court as they will be unlikely to actually cover you

  • invest in upskilling and professional development - fill gaps in your knowledge, whether that is design knowledge, business knowledge or both. If you aren’t sure what you’re doing it’s your responsibility to find out.

Here’s a few other resources you may find helpful:


Overall my advice if you’re just starting your business is to enjoy the process, work hard and learn as much as you possibly can.

I’m here to fully support you and my blog, Instagram, free resources and paid courses are full of more tips and advice for you - so spend time having a look through all of those!

Thanks for reading and catch you in my next post!

Clare x

Dr Clare Le Roy

Courses and Templates for Designers and Architects

 
 

DO YOU WANT TO….

  • Improve your professionalism?

  • Find more clients?

  • Bring in more revenue?

  • Create better systems and processes?

Then check out my business courses and templates for designers and architects.

These courses and templates leave you with work done - not just a long list of things you need to do next. We have a really strong focus on taking action and getting things created that improve your business.

You may also like these posts…

 
10 questions I get asked about starting an interior design business
 
Start a Design Business, Business OperationsClare Le Roy1 Comment