Frequently asked questions about running a design business
Since I started working in the design industry in 2012 I have found it to be quite a ‘competition driven’ industry.
There appears to be a lack of willingness to share ideas and tips among colleagues and there is a veil of secrecy about it that I think many people find intimidating and unwelcoming.
My aim with everything I do is to share what I know and what has worked for me in the past. I have never pretended to run the perfect design business - I made mistakes and learned lots of things the hard way as I grew my business - but I am willing to share what I know in the hope that it helps others who are passionate about design build the confidence to create a career in this industry and have a place to go to ask their questions and seek advice and support.
Because of my willingness to share my ideas, every week I am sent many DMs and emails from people in my community who are interested in different aspects of running a design business.
So today I am updating a popular post I wrote a number of years ago now about the main questions I get asked in the hope that it will help others who may have the same questions but who haven’t reached out to ask these questions. In many cases I have already written other articles that answer these questions, so if that’s the case then I will also link to these resources as well.
I hope you find this post helpful. If you have other questions please feel free to reach out to me and I will always try to help if I am able to!
Q1: How did you find your first clients?
This is probably the question I get asked the most.
If you’re new to my community then you may not be aware that I used to work in corporate as a change management consultant. I have a PhD in business and had been working in my corporate job for some time but had always had a passion for interior design - which I think is the case for many people!
For me the way I got started in business was to start telling everyone I knew that I was now taking on design and styling projects. In fact, the way that most people who are starting their own business get started is generally by word of mouth referrals (e.g. from friends, family or colleagues) and so this needs to be your first place to try and seek out your initial clients. If you have to work for free when you’re first starting then that’s not a negative - you will gain not only experience from doing this but you will also get some images to use on your website and also (hopefully!) and great testimonial to use as well.
If you are having issues finding design clients then I suggest you check out the detailed post I wrote about this topic here: ‘How to get more design clients (plus a free worksheet)’
Q2: How should I price my fees and services?
I have always found the design industry lacking in transparency when it comes to pricing.
While there are a number of different models for how to price your fees and services many designers are cagey about speaking about how they charge and don’t make this information publicly available. Each designer is, of course, welcome to run their business in whatever way works for them. But the way that I have always thought about pricing is to picture things from my clients shoes. I have always aimed to be as open and transparent as I can be and I have always aimed to offer my clients the best possible value and perks of working with me that they can. For me this has meant that I have only ever charged clients for design fees. I have never charged any commission or mark ups on trade discounts I am able to secure - I have always passed these on in full to my clients. And there’s a number of reasons for this:
firstly I found that this just made my life easy in terms of accounting and doubling up on payments. I didn’t have to get involved with invoicing clients for furniture/accessories or other supplier products and I didn’t have to worry about being involved in that transaction at all.
I never had to worry that I was making my client upset by doing dodgy behind the scenes deals with suppliers to get good trade discounts that I made a profit from - while my client had no idea that this was happening. I know many designers that work in this way and for me it leaves an icky feeling and I know it makes a number of designers nervous as well as there is always the risk that the client can find out what the ‘real’ costs of the items are and this will harm your brand and reputation. Again - this is no judgement on how others run their businesses - it’s just not the way I have ever done it.
I don’t have to worry about whether furniture or accessories arrive damaged - if they do come damage I of course help my clients deal with that with the supplier (if they want me to) but I don’t have to be responsible for that transaction in any way.
Many clients think they will lose money by not charging markups on their trade discounts but for me I was able to charge slightly higher design fees and offer my trade discounts as a clear and tangible ‘perk’ for doing business with me. So for a client who might be purchasing $50,000 of furniture and where my design fees for that project might be $6,000 to help select all the furniture and accessories - I can tangibly say to them they are likely to get back at least $5,000 in trade discounts alone, just from working with me. So they are essentially almost getting their design for ‘free’. This really helps clients see the value in working with me and was definitely a key factor in me winning work.
How to price your design or decoration services is a big topic. If you are keen to learn more I have some extra resources for you:
First is my blog post all about this exact topic, where I break down the different options and explain how I work in more detail. YOU CAN READ THE BLOG POST HERE
Second is my short online course - The Pricing System for Designers - where I help you create your own pricing model that is completely unique to you and your individual business circumstances. To find out more about that short online course - CLICK HERE
Q3: How can I get a job with an interior design firm?
So my best advice for this question is that you have to work, put yourself out there and be competitive.
The simple reality is that if you want a job in a design firm then you will be competing with a lot of different people to get that job. You need to work out how you are going to stand out from all those people and you need to be proactive in taking control of finding a job as well. Not all jobs are advertised. Many small business owners are often thinking in the back of their mind that they need to find new staff but they don’t have the time to do anything about it.
I have, in the past, hired people who have emailed me or direct messaged me out of the blue - simply because I had been thinking I needed someone and then the right person has just appeared at the right time.
Here are some ideas of how to try and get a job with a firm:
look on local job sites and apply for the jobs (obvious of course - but remember that this is the path that most people are taking so will have the most competition)
research the firms you would love to work for and make a short list of about 100 different places. Then spend time and do your research so you can create emails or direct messages to the appropriate person in the firm (HR manager, Director) and reach out to them with a personal message about you and how you would love to work for them. But be warned here - you need to be VERY good at doing this. Speaking as someone who is sent a few emails every day like this it is very obvious from initial glance who has bothered to spend time doing any research on you and who has just spammed 100 different companies all at the same time. Make sure you personalise your message not only with the name of the person but with some unique information that shows you have done your research. DMs or LinkedIn are often better for this than emails as people are in a different psychology when they are on Instagram than when they are sitting answering emails (i.e. normally a bit more relaxed and friendly!).
have a portfolio or presentation to send to a prospective employer that stands out from what others are doing - could you include video or do something creative and out of the box?
upgrade your technical skills - make sure you are competitive against others but having better knowledge and training around skills that will be helpful for design studios - (my SketchUp and business skills courses and pre-made templates are one way to do this!).
Q4: Do I need a qualification in design to start my own design business?
This is a tricky one for me to answer and my overarching response is - it depends.
The interior design industry in Australia is currently largely unregulated, which means there is no requirement for you to have a qualification to do work as a designer (always do your own checks about the legalities of this within your own jurisdiction of course!!). This is constantly changing and my guess is that over time it will become more and more regulated - so it may no longer be wise to think you can start a business as a designer without getting proper qualifications.
I don’t personally 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 and worked through a period where the industry has been unregulated, so for me formal design training hasn’t been necessary.
My previous work and life experience also meant I always felt confident 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. On top of that I did a lot of my personal learning and upskilling around different aspects of the design industry so I knew I was offering the best possible service to my clients.
If you don’t feel confident or you want to be working in a complex part of interior design (e.g. commercial or multi-resi work) then you should definitely consider getting a qualification in design. However if you are confident and ready to start working with clients then there is nothing stopping you in just getting started straight away.
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.
Q5: How do you fit so much in to your weeks?
I get some version of this question most days! And the simple answer is that I work extremely hard. I am up at around 4am every morning (including weekends) and I am extremely productive and organised in making sure that I prioritise the things that will move my business forward, while putting things that are just ‘busy work’ (i.e. procrastination!) to the side.
If you’re interested to learn about what a week in the life of running my business used to look like back when I was working as a designer - you can check out THIS BLOG POST.
Q6: Client work is very unreliable, how can I make more money in my business?
I am an extremely strong advocate of having multiple streams of revenue inside your business.
I think relying solely on client work is a mistake that many designers make as it dramatically limits them to a time for money business model (i.e. where you trade your time for money and can only scale to a certain point as you only have a certain number of hours in the day!). The business model that I have always had, which is why I have been able to scale my business to become a multi-million dollar business that I pretty much run on my own is by having a whole lot of different revenue generation streams in my business - many of which ‘make money while I sleep’ - i.e. they don’t require my hands on involvement in order for them to tick over and make me money.
If you are interested in how to create multiple streams of revenue in your own creative business then I have a blog post all about that topic as well. YOU CAN READ THAT HERE
Q7: How did you find builders (or other suppliers) to work with?
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.
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)
Ask for recommendations - e.g. in Facebook groups.
Q8: How do I write a fee proposal?
The elements of your fee proposal will be very personal to the way you run your business and the fee and pricing model that you select. I provide detailed information about how I approach all of this (including templates) inside my short course - The Pricing System for Designers.
Otherwise grab my pre-made Fee Proposal template here
I hope you have found the information that I’ve shared in this post helpful. As mentioned above, if you have other questions then feel free to put those in the comments below and I would be happy to try and help.
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.
Enjoy the rest of your day!
Clare x
