one of the reasons i started a division of my company calledida or interior design authority where we have a collaborative of mentorees that i work with on a regular basis. the reason that we started that wasbecause young and upcoming interior designers had no idea how to start their business, how to go about making it runeffectively as a business and to make a profit from it.
so what you need to do is puttogether a business plan. well a business plan can be verydetailed and far more than we want to get into right now. some of the main topics in thestarting points that you should begin with is obviously for any kind ofplan that you have you want goals. what is it you want to accomplish? what is thatwhat you want to achieve? do you want to specialize in an area like nurseries ordo you want to specialize in commercial? or do you want to even be more specificin terms of maybe doing window treatments. but your business plan should havespecific goals that you intend to achieve.
and remember goals- the best ones areshort term goals getting you to your overall, long term goal. the next aspect of the business planthat i feel is extremely important and often a very weak aspect of any business plan or anyone in the creative field especiallystarting out is an accounting system. it's really an important thing becausemoney will be coming in, money will be going out. there are certain rules andregulations that we're required to follow in terms of government taxes, sales taxes, businesstaxes, licenses and those kind of things. so you really need to get yourself agood accounting system or a good accountant
on board as part of your business plan. and then of course another veryimportant aspect of it is marketing. now marketing for interior designersis not as easy as one might think. obviously, networking is number one onthe list, because most people hire interior designers because of referrals either because of someone they know or projects they've done in the past successfully and they'rereferred on to another client. you can also make sure that you have awebsite and that you've gotten involved
in the social networking aspect of our world because people will go there tovalidate who you are and your ability and the fact that you are a credibleinterior designer with a viable project. it's not as complicated as it may seem. we all think that we should be more business-oriented than we are but if youfollow a few simple steps and put together a good business plan and follow those steps, you'll befine and you'll be successful. again we are available to help you withany kind of mentoring that we can do.
it's one of things i enjoy verymuch 'cause i want to see other up-and-coming interior designersbe successful in their careers.