The most common DMs I get on my social media channels go something like this. “I am a banker / dentist / work in an MNC, but interior design is my passion. How do I get started?” Or, “I have been working as a designer for a while, and now I want to start my own interior design business. How do I get my first site?” Or, “I have been freelancing as an interior designer for a while. How do I grow my business and make it big?”

Let me first start by saying that I haven’t ‘made it big’ yet. But I like to believe that every day I’m getting one step closer to it. And so today I’m going to share everything I did to get here, and what I continue to do to go further still.

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9 Basic Steps To Steps To Starting Your Interior Design Business:

I’ve always assumed that the reason I get these questions so often, is because most of you know that I didn’t start of my working life as an interior designer. After class 12, I did my Occupational Therapy from GS Medical College. I worked for a while and then, like so many of you who have written to me, realised that I would be happier doing something creative instead.

As it happened, my own home was being renovated at that time. Watching the work and giving my little inputs made me happier than going to work every day. And I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

What I did next was what any of you who are planning to start your own interior design business should do…

1 – Get Yourself A Qualification

After you have a few beautiful projects in your portfolio and recommendations from people you have worked for, no one really asks you about your qualification. But when you go looking for your first job, or are hoping to bag your first solo project, more often than not you’ll be asked how you are qualified.

However impressive it might be, there isn’t much point having B.Sc. Occupational Therapy, or an MBA or CA on your resume when you’re applying to a design firm for a job. Your qualification must be relevant.

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And so, even though a few people (including the architect I interned with) advised me that if I am getting work experience, a qualification is not required, I signed up for a Diploma in Interior Design from Rachana Sansad.

Doing the short course also helped me get a good foundation on a lot of my basics. You are expected to know the ABC’s of measurements and planning when you start off at any job. The diploma certainly gave me the confidence in my ability to get that right.

2 – Get Yourself Some Experience

While college prepares you with skills for drawing and presentation work, nothing except actually getting on to a site in progress prepares you for the execution of a project. Over time you will realise that what you draw on paper and what is executed on site are never exactly the same.

A wall you planned to break that turned out to be a column. An AC position that needs to be changed because of the route it’s piping will take. A gap in the balcony railing through which the client’s cat can jump out. Wall panelling design that the client decides he wants to change after he’s seen it put up. A contractor delaying the work.

So many little (and big) unplanned situations develop and have to be handled on site. No book or set of lectures can teach you how to deal with these. It’s only by going on site and seeing how these situations are handled, that you’ll get the confidence to handle them yourself.

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So getting yourself some actual, real life, design and site experience is a must before you start your own interior design business.

How I did this, was to intern with an established interior designer while I was doing my diploma. I would work at his studio in the day, and go to college in the evening.

To be honest, the only reason I got this internship was that my parents knew him. They requested him to let me learn alongside. I was obviously not paid for this internship. (In fact, he should have asked me to pay him for being my teacher… I didn’t know anything at all when I joined him.)

You can do it while you study, or after you’ve got your diploma or degree. But do get yourself some work experience with a designer before you start your own interior design business.

If possible, select a designer whose design sensibility compliments yours rather than one that is completely opposite. You will learn tips, tricks and styling ideas that will help enhance your own work.

3 – Get Yourself A Project!

You’ve got yourself a degree and some great experience under your belt. You are now confident of being able to handle a project on your own. But how do you land that first job?

Say you start a pastry shop, or a clothing boutique, and send out an invite to family and friends, a lot of them will come and place an order for a cake or a garment to encourage and support you. But it’s not possible to undertake a renovation costing a few lakhs just to encourage your friend, however special she might be.

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So always begin with your own home. You don’t have to undergo a major renovation. Decorate and style your own spaces as you would professionally for a client. Take pictures before and after the transformation and start building your portfolio.

The first people you reach out to will be family and friends, and seeing how you’ve transformed your home in little ways will give them the confidence to allow you to transform theirs. Again, don’t expect a major renovation to start off with. Offer to style your friend’s room for her for free.

Working on these little transformations helps in three ways. Most importantly, the only way to get work in this field is through word of mouth recommendations. When people spend as much money as they do on renovations, they have to trust the person who will be in charge of spending all that money. As more and more people see your work, you’ll gradually start getting requests to help with more makeovers.

Secondly, every bit of work you do, whether free or charged, helps you to build your portfolio.

Finally, every project you undertake, however big or small, helps you to build your confidence. And there’s nothing like a good dose of confidence to help you land your next client.

4 – Build Your Portfolio

Starting with that styling you did for your own home, put together all the little (and big) work you’ve done to make your portfolio. As you get bigger and better projects, you can always remove the smaller ones from your portfolio afterwards.

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But it certainly helps a client to gain some confidence in you if he knows that he is not your first experiment.

5 – Click Amazing Project Photographs

What is extremely important to build a good portfolio, is good photography. You cannot have shabby, unprofessional looking pictures and make a good impression.

And yet, getting an expensive professional photographer to shoot a project from which you have earned nothing may not be a very appealing thought.

There are two options here. If you have a family member or friend who generally has the best vacation pics for instance, request them to shoot these initial projects for you.

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Or, the second option, is to click these photographs yourself. Which is what I did, and still do for the smaller projects like single room makeovers. I always click my photographs with my phone. And all the tips and tricks I’ve learnt with practice and advice are all listed in this post – How To Click And Edit Interior Photos With Your Phone. It’s a must read to get started yourself.

6 – Spread The Word 

Now that you’ve built yourself an amazing portfolio and have work to show people who don’t necessarily know you, start to spread the word. WhatsApp groups are a great tool to help with this.

I assume all your close family and friend groups already know that you are a designer looking for work. But there are so many more WhatsApp groups that each one of us is now a part of. Building groups, society groups, school alumni, kids school groups, their extra-curricular classes groups…

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Though we may not know each member of the group personally, just the fact that you are on the same group means you have a common thread that binds you. And so these people are more likely to give you a ear than complete strangers.

Till date, I share every new project or achievement on many of these groups. When I restarted work a few years back, I landed my first project outside my family and friends circle from one such WhatsApp group.

7 – Use Social Media

Social media is a great way to share your work far and wide, way beyond your immediate circle of acquaintances. It is also a great way to reach your target audience. While every member of your building group may not be interested in design or like your design style, every person who follows you on Instagram or Facebook most certainly will.

My two favourite channels and from where I have got the most work enquiries are Instagram and Houzz.

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Instagram is a great place to connect with not only future clients, but also like minded designers and a whole range of artists, contractors and vendors. I have often been introduced to new products and concepts by first seeing them on Instagram.

Houzz, on the other hand, is a sort of directory of design professionals. Prospective clients can go through your portfolio and connect with you if your design sensibility suits theirs.

Again, for both of these, make sure you put up good quality photographs that showcase your work professionally.

8 – Build Your Website

When I first started working, about 20 years back, I used to carry an album of photographs when I went to meet a prospective client. This was my portfolio then. Now when I speak to a prospective client they have already seen my work either on social media, or on the portfolio page of my website.

Every designer now has their portfolio online. A prospective client is going to go through all these portfolios and pick the designer he likes best. If your work isn’t available for him to see, you won’t even be in the running.

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If you like writing you can even start a full fledged blog. Else you must have a website that has at least this basic information –
– A short introduction to who you are and what you do. (Here is mine)
– Your portfolio page. (This is mine)
– Contact information for a client who wants to reach you. (My email id is listed on my introduction page. There is a contact form at the bottom of my portfolio page)

9 – Never Compromise On Quality

I consider the MOST important thing to remember while growing your interior design business. Just like every client has a budget, so do most designers. Different designers work with contractors and vendors of different price ranges so that the overall price range of their makeovers is different.

I will give you one example of a project I compromised on early in my career. A client came with a very low budget that I didn’t think was possible to work with. He told me how another designer was willing to work in that budget and so I should also be able to. At that stage, I wanted to grab any project I could lay my hands on and I agreed.

We went with a cheaper contractor and cheaper products to complete the project. The quality of finish was not the same as that of my other projects. It didn’t match up to the photographs the client had seen of my work before he came to me. He wasn’t satisfied with the work I did there. Neither was I.

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I promised myself that day that I would never compromise on the quality of my work. It’s far better to let go of a project than to do shoddy work you’re not proud of.

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Good work = happy client = recommendations and pretty pics = more projects = more good work = more happy…

That’s the cycle of work that helps you to establish your interior design business. Hopefully, with every cycle you get better, and bigger… and the cycle continues.

I started my cycle a few years back and I hope these tips will help you to start yours. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below.

Here’s to bigger, better and more beautiful.. cheers!