Starting your Interior Design Business? Here are 3 tools not to miss
Starting up an interior design business is one industry that’s worthwhile getting into. Interior design is always something that will be required, whether you’re working on projects for businesses or domestic properties.
There are also some great benefits to starting up a business with the internet in existence. With the online world, there’s more opportunity for growth on a global scale, or simply just beyond your local area. So with that being said, what are the basics that you need when starting an interior design business?
In this article, you’ll learn all about starting up an interior design business and three essential tools that are needed to maximize your chances of success and sustaining your business beyond those first few months.
Table of Contents
Three tools that you need for an interior design business
With so many tools out there to choose from, what are the best ones out there for interior design businesses? Picking the right tools to invest your time and money in is necessary to get right the first time around. Here are three tools that will get you started with your interior design business.
Pick a great interior design software
As human beings, we’re driven by visuals. In fact, 90% of the information processed by the brain is visual. So when it comes to setting up an interior design business, it’s useful to have a design software that can bring yours or your client’s vision to life on a screen.
There are lots of floor planning and design software out there for interior design and one such platform is Foyr. This is a great one for building spaces from scratch or using pre-made layouts to work from.
When you’ve only just started a business, there will likely be a lack of evidence or proof of your work as a designer. So, even if you have actually secured any clients for paid work yet, it’s always good to get experience and to document it through these design platforms. That way, you can build up a portfolio to show your talents off regardless.
If you’re looking for the best house designing software, then Foyr is a great starting point for any type of design business, including interior designers just beginning their journey.
There’s a lot of flexibility that this platform can offer to interior designers who might be handling multiple projects that all need a visual draft of the final product. This can then be presented to the client who can make any suggestions for tweaks and changes.
A design software like this one is going to ensure that the client is happy with the end result more so because they’ve been able to iron out all the kinks in the process.
Think about brand imagery and creatives
A business nowadays has to really put some effort into branding. With a lot of competition both online and offline, it’s important to stand out where you can. As a design-orientated business, your branding needs to be spot on so from the logo, your website and other social media content, it’s worth making use of tools like Canva and Fotor to create and edit your digital assets.
Canva is perfect for pretty much everything and anything you need for branding. From portfolios that showcase your previous work to premade templates that can be edited to create your very own business logo to an Instagram post.
The opportunities are endless with this tool and what makes it even more appealing is that for the most part, it’s free to use. There are premium subscriptions available to get access to more advanced features but the basic version would be suitable for most.
With Fotor it’s the same basic offer but this tool is great for editing images. This can be useful for when you perhaps want to take photos of the spaces you’ve designed and want to elevate the images with some basic editing software.
What makes both these platforms so popular is that you don’t need a design degree or extensive experience in order to use them. Unlike Adobe Photoshop where you’ll need more training to use the tool, Canva and Fotor can be used by anyone regardless of how skilled they are.
At the same time, having tools that cost you nothing can be great when starting a business. At least 79% of businesses that fail had started out with too little money. However, if you can take advantage of freebies, then you can make that little amount of money go even further.
Invest a budget for marketing
You can put in all the blood, sweat and tears to start up a business successfully. However, it’s critical to promote your business with an effective marketing strategy. Otherwise, all that hard work is likely to go to waste as a result.
A marketing strategy can be made up of many elements, so it’s worth knowing what you should be focusing your attention on from the start. Here are a few suggestions to add into your marketing strategy.
Get to know your audience
Understanding who your audience is can be helpful for targeting any paid advertisements and ensuring it lands in front of them. This is better than having no audience data at all and having fewer conversions in sales as a result.
Google Analytics is a good platform to use in order to collect data from the traffic hitting your website.
Nurture your leads
Leads need nurturing and so in order to influence your clients further down the sales funnel, you may want to focus on email marketing and building a list of subscribers that you can segment depending on where they are in the funnel.
Mailchimp is a great tool to implement when it comes to collecting emails and creating email marketing in general.
Get on your socials
Social media is a powerful part of running a business in today’s world. With 3.78 billion social media users worldwide, it seems silly to dismiss using them to your company’s advantage.
Platforms like Instagram, YouTube and Tikok for example, are all great for showcasing visual content and as an interior designer, this could really help get your work out there for the masses to see. There’s a lot more potential for your business to reach global clients with the help of social media.
Ask for testimonials/reviews
Testimonials and reviews are great for marketing because you can use these as examples when promoting your services. Testimonials are great for featuring on your social media platforms as well as in your design portfolio and website.
When it comes to reviews, reach out to reputable businesses within the interior design world that might be interested in featuring you in some way. The more exposure you can get, the better.
The basics of starting up a business
With any business, there are some basics that you’ll want to cover when it comes to setting it up. Getting the formula right is important because 20% of small businesses will fail within their first year of existence. Here are a few basics to get you started when setting up your company.
Conduct market research
A few starting points for a new business is to conduct market research to figure out whether there’s a market for your services. It’s likely that many other companies will already exist with the same product or service you’re offering. It’s good to find your niche and a gap in the market you can take advantage of.
You can conduct market research through focus groups or surveys that you send out to your target audience.
Set up a website
Finally, be sure to set yourself up with a website, especially as this would likely be where you showcase your previous work and take inquiries from potential clients. It’s easy enough to set up a business on WordPress, so look into the process of creating one for your business before going live.
Funding your business
Think about how you’d fund your business in order to keep your finances healthy within that first year of going live.
You may need to source investors for your business or perhaps take out a loan if you’ve not got the capital already available. All businesses vary in how much funding they’ll need so it’s important to think about what you’ll need.
Create a eye-catching name
A brand name is important because it’s one that needs to be instantly recognizable. Try to create a name that’s going to be memorable and that represents your interior design business fully. It might take some trial and error before you find the right one.
With many people working from home during the pandemic, many homeowners and businesses are looking to update their properties and make the changes now whilst they have the opportunity. Whether it’s a home office to a small business giving their premises a revamp, starting up an interior design business is a must.
