5 tips when starting your interior design business

A Recap from an interview with Charlotte interior designer Cheryl Luckett.

1: Start Where You Are!

Cheryl receives a ton of questions about how she got her first interior design client. Honestly, she started with what she had, which was her own home. So, between DIY projects and little changes to your own home here and there, to sharing them and posting them online or on a blog, this eventually generates interest in your style. Once you get enough interests in what you are doing, that generates into clients. Cheryl recommends beginning where you are and what you have.

2: Invest Early and Invest Often

At any level you can, whether you are just starting out, an amateur designer with a couple projects a year, or full on interior design business with employees and a jam packed calendar, any money investment, time investment, anything you can put into your business , the better off you are! The truth is perception is reality and you get one chance to make a first impression. If that’s attending interior design conferences, reading books, going to workshops, hiring photographers or videographers for your work, it’s important to always be investing in your business and do it as soon as possible.

3: Plan and Execute

I know this is kind of a tricky one because you need to decide early one what kind of business owner you are and what type of business you want to have. Interior Design is a very broad field. Everything from blogging to styling, staging, and traditional interior design, the quicker you can get to a path you enjoy, the better off you will be. So, plan, plan early, and execute on your plans.

4: Consistency is Key

As with many things, consistency is so important when it comes to your desired interior design business outlet. Whether you are blogging, posting on social media, or posting videos to YouTube, you want to do it with the same regularity. That consistency and regularity will drive interest, which drives, followers, and potential clients.

5: Ask for Help.

Asking for help doesn’t mean always reaching out to someone for assistance. Sometimes it’s just recognizing that you want a mentor you can follow or someone you look up to for influence in the interior design profession. You may not even know that person. When Cheryl started out, there were people she wanted to emulate, so she followed them, and their projects. She watched everything that they did, how they posted, what their work looked like, what conferences they attended, and then she started using them as her guide. Having a mentor or asking someone for help usually means doing your due diligence and recognizing what you like about interior design and following people whose projects you like the most.

“Following your passion and turning your passion into a career is hard work and often you don’t see that on social media, posted on Instagram. You usually get the cute clips of what our day looks like, but at the end of the day it’s a lot of hard work. It’s totally doable and it’s totally worth it but you should know going in that it won’t be easy.” – Cheryl Luckett, DwellbyCheryl.com

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