Designing a Business: My Adventure of Launching and Running an Interior Design Business

In this weeks post, I talk a little bit about my experience building my interior design business. I came up with the idea of writing this post from my adventures attending networking events. Naturally, as you mingle at networking events, the first question you get asked is “What do you do?”, in response to telling them what I do, sometimes people are really interested in the process it took to launch my business. So, It occurred to me that there may be people out there who may be really interested in running their own interior design business and want to get a little bit of insight from someone who is currently running an interior design business.

I want to say that I can only speak on my unique experience of course, everyone going into business will have their own experiences and outlook. This is just my 2 cents.

Where the business started…(without a real plan)

So, I started my business when I was really young. I have always been an eager person and didn’t like the 9-5 life. Before I started my business, I was working at a showroom, it was fine for the time being but I was always daydreaming about doing my own thing. So, eventually, I transitioned into being fully self-employed. 

In the beginning, starting my business was a lot of trial and error. Although, I knew how to design a space I didn’t know how to create or run a business. I started small. I put together my website on the cheapest platform I found and put up the few portfolio photos I had up. There wasn’t much to it. My branding was not on point, but at this point, I wasn’t really thinking about my brand. I just wanted to start booking clients and start designing. 

How I landed my first interior design projects

I put an ad in the local classified ads (Kijiji). Surprisingly, people started to call me. I took on whatever job came my way. At first, I really wasn’t charging a lot at all. Because, well I didn’t have much to show for. Naturally, it took a while to really get the ball rolling. I was getting some gigs, but certainly no dream clients or jobs. But, I was excited still, the fact that people actually decided to hire me at my age and lack of experience, I have to give myself a clap, clap bravo for that. 

Slowly, but surely I started to charge more and land some decent projects, which helped with my portfolio. 

As the years went on, things were slowly progressing. And I mean, slowly. I didn’t think my business would boom overnight or anything, but damn it has truly been a slow process. Through those slow years though, I learned a lot. I learned how to run my business by simply running it and messing it up.

Firstly, I didn’t know how to file my taxes or even keep track of invoicing/ expenses properly…thankfully, about 4 years in I decided to get an accountant. Pro tip: find some resources on how you should be keeping track of all your business expenses and invoicing. You don’t have to hire an accountant right off the bat, but educate yourself at least so you don’t have the CRA calling you. They sure did call me.

Secondly, I had a lot of maturing to do. I matured plenty with my business. And I learned A LOT. I wrote a post about the 6 major lessons I learned in the first 6 years of running my interior design business…Read 6 Lessons In 6 Years Of The Interior Design Business.

I got a bit lucky

Within these pivotal years of slowly growing and learning, I got lucky. There were a handful of times when I landed fantastic jobs with amazing people, I call those times my lucky breaks. In business, you’re dealing with the public and when you’re dealing with the public you get all sorts of characters coming your way. Some people are straight-up nut jobs, some people are ball-busters and some people are sent straight from heaven. I got a mixed bag, some clients were a dream to work with and really let my creativity shine. Some people busted my balls so bad I questioned why the hell I even went into the interior design business. I would tell myself “You should have just became an esthetician, you love popping pimples!” …

No, becoming a professional pimple-popper wasn’t the answer. I wasn’t going to allow these ball-buster clients to dull my spark. Plus, I will say, I learned far more from the ball-buster clients than I did with my dream clients. And, I really feel like I had no other option but to learn. 

My business started to build (slowly)

So, as the years went on things really started to pick up for me and I was finally starting to see significant growth. As I grew and changed, my business grew and changed. In early 2023, I decided I needed a bit of a rebrand. I rebuilt my website and started this blog as a creative outlet. I started to think about how the world and the interior design industry have changed since COVID-19. Read How The Pandemic Changed Our Homes.

With these factors considered and my new business goals, I started to focus on my eDesign services so that I could reach people all around the world virtually. Although I still love the in-person and hands-on approach of interior design, I want to expand my clientele further than Toronto. I wanted to do something different, bring a different type of service to the industry and make it more sensible for people, more approachable.

The end (I’m still in the interior design business)

So, that’s a REALLY short summary of my journey with starting an interior design business. It hasn’t always been easy. It’s a slow process that really challenges your faith and self. I don’t recommend that everyone goes and starts a business. I’d say, if you really see yourself being committed to the process, yes start your business. If you are not ready to work without seeing immediate results, don’t bother.

At the end of the day, you have to be running your business for a greater purpose than just money. You really have to believe in your vision and be happy to take away the intangibles. It’s not about rolling in money and having no boss, it’s about building something and having enough trust and faith in yourself and the process. Well, that’s my takeaway. Of course, we all have our own values and reasons for doing things. But I wish everyone good luck in business.