I’m Donna Hoffman, they call me The Interior Design Advocate because I empower design lovers across the country and beyond to up their design game, and I’m constantly getting questions about what it takes to run an interior design business. 

If you’re either thinking of starting your own business or have started one the last two years and it’s not exactly going the way you’d hoped it would, read on.

Here are 5 things to keep in mind when running an interior design business:

You Have To Wear Many Hats

It means you’re not just going to be designing, you’re also running an entire business. You have so much more to think about than just the business of design and serving clients. You have to be somebody who’s willing to do a lot on your own especially in the beginning.

You Have To Become A CEO

You have to be the CEO who’s running a company, your own brand. The quality of the brand, the quality of your messaging, the quality of your design is all a reflection on you. You’re not just a designer, but as well as a CEO.

You Have To Market Your Business

When you own and run a design business, you’re not just designing for a living, you’re actually marketing and selling design. You’re going to have to feel comfortable doing your own marketing at the beginning until you can start to bring people in. You’ll need to look into social media – Facebook, website, Instagram, etc. and use them to get your message across. This is a big piece of your company’s lifeblood and success. 

Client Service Is Key

You need to be brilliant in design, fabulous on the business side of your business as the CEO, and have good mojo going when it comes to your marketing, but you also have to have great client service. This means not only how you make your clients feel as you’re taking care of them, but it’s also what your design and project management process is. Client service is everything for one of the hardest things you’ll do as a designer is gain the confidence and trust of your clients. If something goes wrong, your client needs to know that you’re there to fix it. Client service is a huge part of being a successful interior designer.

Design Is Just A Portion Of The Job

You’re not just going to design 24/7. You have many other things to do such as being a CEO, being a marketing genius, and being amazing about client service.

Go into this challenging but phenomenal industry with your eyes wide open and amazing things can happen for you! You can live the life of doing what you love and being paid to do it.