How to grow your interior design business

How to grow your interior design business

Once you’ve started out as an interior designer, it is important to have a steady stream of work coming through. When you’re looking at how to grow your interior design business, the best way is to find more customers and grow organically.

Quick growth can be thrilling for a new business, but you need to be sure that your resources can match it.

By paying attention to the following, you can be sure you keep delivering a great service while growing your interior design business:

• Streamlining – if all areas of your business work in tandem without issues, you can be sure that things will run smoothly as you grow
• Finances – extra finances are a must when growing so that you have a safety net if things fall through
• Work quality – by keeping work quality at the forefront of your mind, you can be sure that your reputation never suffers as you grow
• New staff – additional hands can really help to make extra jobs easier. Just be sure to hire skilled people who gel with your business

There are many ways to grow, and many reasons to grow. Putting your ideas into a business development plan is a good way to structure your growth strategies.

Digitally marketing an interiors business

Using marketing through online channels is a cornerstone of modern businesses.

It is important to use a variety of marketing methods to reach more people when trying to get more interior design leads.

We’ve laid out all the essential considerations to include when starting an interior design business from scratch:

• Business website – This is essential as a way to show off your company, and there are number of ways of designing a small business website
• Social media channels – Interior design work is all about the visuals, and sites such as Instagram naturally lend themselves to the sector
• Online directories – People will often check with directories such as Checkatrade to find reputable tradespeople in their area
• Pay-per-click advertising – The ‘promoted’ adverts at the top of Google searches are a paid way to highlight your business

Most potential customers will do their research online before getting in touch.

Knowing how to grow your interior design business will start at your advertising and work from there. Marketing well will help you reach more people and seem more appealing when you do.

Advertising your trade skills

Although digital marketing is essential, traditional advertising is just as important.

We’ve listed out all of the traditional methods you should think about using to spread your business’s name:

• Print marketing – This is an easy way to bring in plenty of new business, through things like flyers and leaflets
• PPC – Ideal for boosting online visibility, pay-per-click advertising helps prioritise you in relevant searches
• Company branding – Branding is a crucial element for all companies, such as a logo on your van and uniform
• Sponsorship – Sponsoring events in your area, such as sports games and community events, can make other trade contacts and help you meet potential customers

Other marketing ideas

Finally, we’ve laid out a few other techniques to consider for your interior design business:

• Customer reviews – Great reviews can do wonders for extra business, as they’re part of social proofing
• Networking – Reaching out to other tradespeople in your area is a great way to land new jobs through referrals and contracting
• GMB listings – A quick and easy online addition, getting listed on Google will help your business to appear in more local searches

For more help in all these areas, make sure to download our free marketing guide. It has plenty of additional tips you can try.

How to get clients for an interior design business

Although your primary goal should be getting more, once it’s on its feet, you can expand in other ways too.

To make this easier, it is worth considering the following:

• Additional qualifications – More training and more certification will help build trust with customers
• Work specialisation – Focussing in certain areas of interior design will help you charge more for your services
• Repeat business – Leveraging any work you’ve already done can be a great way to get more work
• Trade associations – Joining a national or international trade body can show your professionalism, such as the SBID, BIID, or CSD

There are many ways of reaching people and getting more leads.

Once you have more work coming your way, you’ll be able to raise your revenue, increase your profits, and in turn bring on another pair of hands.

Boost your business with Checkatrade

Hopefully, you should now have a good idea of how to grow an interior design business. And if you join Checkatrade, we can help with that!

By signing up, you’ll be able to dip into existing customer interest for services like yours. And we’ll help you find more work.

On top of that, as a Checkatrade member, you’ll also get:

• Access to exclusive offers and discounts
• Optimised profile page and business listing
• Space to show off reviews and images
• 20% off public liability insurance
• Guaranteed work when booked through us (T&Cs apply)
• Dedicated trades app for job management and quoting/invoicing

Get in touch today to learn more about joining our growing network of skilled tradespeople.

Not sure if membership would suit you? Speak to our team about our different options that could benefit your interior design business.

Our fixed membership option lets you build the plan that’s perfect for you and your business needs.

Key takeaways

• It is important to reach more people in order to gain more customers
• There is existing interest in interior design services
• There are a range of advertising techniques
• More awareness means more leads, more jobs, and more revenue
• You can grow the size of business with more staff
• More resources helps you carry out larger projects
• Larger projects and more jobs won means more revenue and greater profits

When you’re looking at how to grow an interior design business, there are many reasons for doing so.

As there are also many techniques, it is worth planning ahead with a strategy and plan of action. Getting your ideas down first will help provide you with goals and rationale. So why not consider the next step for your business today?