# 88 | What You Need to Know Before Starting an Interior Design Business

Welcome to the Designers Oasis podcast. I'm your host, Kate Bendewald. If you're tired of one-size-fits-all all advice to running your interior design business, you're in the right place. Join me each week as we dive into topics to help you run a thriving interior design business. Without the hustle. We'll talk about the business of design, but also mindset and mental health because I know when you thrive, so will your life and business. It wasn't that long ago that I stepped away from my corporate interior design job to build my own design business so that I could realize my own creative dreams, have more time with the people I love, and serve my clients at the highest level, while making more money than I ever could have working for someone else. It wasn't always easy, and I made my share of mistakes along the way. Fast forward to today. And I've learned a thing or two. Since then I've built multiple six-figure interior design businesses on authentic word-of-mouth referrals with many repeat clients. And I want to share it all with you the ambitious, inspired, and I get it occasionally overwhelmed interior designer who shares this dream of transforming lives through the art of interior design, You can do this. Thank you for letting me spend part of this day with you. Let's get to it.

Well, hello, my friends, and welcome back to the podcast. I'm your host, Kate Bendewald. And I am thrilled to be back here with you again today. I'm very excited for today's episode, I am answering a listener question who wants to know about starting their own business? And this is what she has to say. So this question comes from Melissa. Melissa says interior design has been a part of my life for decades. But I haven't worked in this field professionally. After graduating from an interior design program, I'm considering going right for it and opening my own design firm. I feel confident in my ability to design for clients. However, I feel uneasy not having any real world professional experience. I want to do right by my clients and enjoy my second career as much as possible. What do you think I need to know before deciding to go for it? PS thank you so much for sharing valuable specific insights on the podcast. I have learned so much from you. And I'm so grateful. All right, Melissa, I love this question. And thank you so much for writing in. First, I want to just say I think it's always a good idea to go work for someone first, if you can. There's so much real world knowledge that you just simply can't learn from school. Even if you just do it for six months or a year, you will avoid making potentially very expensive mistakes that comes with trying to figure it all out on your own. However, I understand that this is a second career for you. So I'm sure you're eager to just get started. I think that this will require a lot of self reflection before you can take the leap so that you can be really truly honest with yourself about what your strengths are, as well as your shortcomings because we all have them. So today I've put together a list of qualities that I think are important and necessary to be a successful business owner. I want to note this is not a how to start your business episode. Right. What I'm talking about today is what are the hallmarks, the characteristics, the traits, the strengths that are required for being in it for the long haul, right? This work isn't for everyone, and that's okay if it was everyone would do it. Passion for Design alone does not make a good business owner. I want to remind you that I had no business experience before starting my own business and I talked about this in episode one, which I'll link to in the show notes If you want to listen back to that story, however, I did have design experience both in a small high end residential firm, as well as a large corporate commercial firm. So I was able to experience both sides of the spectrum. Both of those experiences, it gave me invaluable experience that I carried with me into my own firm. But I wanted to mention this first episode in case you want to go back and kind of hear that story about how I got started and, and what I had to think about and go through and experience but I want to get into it. So these are some of the characteristics and traits of someone who that I think is required, or at least a willingness to cultivate them. Some characteristics of what would make a really strong savvy business owner who can who can truly thrive. So first and foremost, you need to be well organized. You don't need to be Marie Kondo, or Clea, and Joanna, although those things wouldn't hurt. You need to be organized in business, you need to be able to organize your thoughts, you are going to be organizing spaces for clients, projects, timelines, products, and ideas. All of these things require the ability to keep your information organized, whether that's digitally on paper in your head. Of course, I don't encourage anybody to keep themselves organized in their head. But you need to have systems that work for you. And everybody's learning style and organization style is different. Right? And that's okay. But the important thing is that you have a natural ability to stay organized. Now, if you're not a naturally organized person, I want to encourage you to work on developing those systems and strategies that can help you stay organized. Otherwise, you are at risk for making costly mistakes and risking your reputation. Okay, and I know many designers who have to hire or choose to hire, let's say, an office manager or design assistant, who can really help keep those details organized on a project. And that I think is a perfectly viable way to go about it someone to support you in that role. But you might not be able to come out of the gate, hiring those kinds of roles to help you stay organized. So there needs to be sort of this baseline level of being able to stay organized, continuing to develop that and asking for support and help to fill in the gaps if you need to. The other thing that I think is required is you need to have a little bit of grit, okay. Grit isn't the same thing as hustle. Okay, what grit is, is really perseverance. You need to have a passion for a long term goal. There will be times when you'll have deadlines, when a plan gets unraveled, and where there are days where every turn presents a challenge, okay? You need to be able to look up and take a bird's eye view and remember the big picture, okay, you can't get stuck in the weeds, right? The, you have to have the ability to just get shit done, despite challenges, okay? Building a business takes time, and dedication. And if you aren't willing to give yourself a year or more, there's a good chance you will end up walking from the business. So again, grit is about perseverance. It's about being able to stay in it for the long haul, use that passion for design to keep that motivation to keep that fire in your belly. Because there will definitely definitely be times and days that feel very, very hard. I know. I probably second guessed myself on a daily basis in my first year of business. And I thought to myself, I don't know if I have what it takes to do this. This shit is hard, right? It felt like, you know, I was trying to do everything right. And inevitably, there would be something that comes up some sort of a roadblock or challenge that I had to stop. And it kept me from making progress. It kept me from trying to finish what I was trying to do that day. And it's it was very easy to you know, ask myself, it was very easy for me to start to think I don't have what it takes. But I continue to put one step in front of the other because I was determined and I was willing to go for that long term goal and then persevere through those hard things and use those as opportunities to learn So alongside grit, I would say that resilience is also another aspect or key characteristic trait of a successful business owner. And it's a little different than grit. Resilience is about the ability to adapt and to withstand and to bounce back from challenges. Now, I personally identify as a highly sensitive person. So this is something that I have to continue to work on. But here's why it's important, right? Like I mentioned a minute ago, there will be times when you make mistakes, and you're forced to fix it. And sometimes it's going to cost you money. There will be times where a client is upset with you, or they misunderstood something, or they don't see things the same way, where you face a setback. And it's very easy to get caught up in a negative spiral and stuck into thinking that you're not good enough, or you don't have what it takes. Right? I just mentioned that a minute ago when we were talking about grit, right? But you have to separate what's happening from your worth, your worthiness, your value, right? That is different than the mistake, okay? And all you need to do is be willing to take that as an opportunity and a challenge, and be willing to learn from it. All right. Every time this happens, your thing gets a little thicker, and you the next time you face a challenge, you've built resilience, you can look back at past

experiences where you like, you know what I got through that I can get through this. In fact, just this week, I had a client call me hot on something that she was upset about. It wasn't my fault, but it was, you know, she, I was the one she needed to call to get it figured out. And if that same thing had happened to me, in my first year of business, first of all, I would have come unraveled, I would have felt like it was my fault, and just fallen into this spiral. But instead, I was able to take a beat and just asked my client, can we just take a breath here for a second? Let's Let's separate facts from feelings. First and foremost. And let's because she was talking about a couple of things at once, and I was like, let's start with the first thing, right? We talked about that. What are the facts? What do we know? What do we need to find out? On to the next thing? What are the facts? What do we know? What do we need to find out? And how do we solve this right? And at the end of the conversation, she realized, you know what, this isn't that big of a deal. This was a simple question. And I sort of blew it out of proportion. And I didn't take it personally, I didn't get caught up in the moment with her. Because of the resilience that I've built over the years of going through many, many, many experiences, like this big and small, right? That's given me some perspective. So understand that resilience is maybe something well, not maybe I know that it's something everyone needs to work on. Resilience, sometimes doesn't come naturally. Resilience is something though, that you can cultivate. If you're if you consider yourself a sensitive person, you can still be a successful business owner, but I would encourage you to focus on building resilience. And this is about finding your voice, right? Being able to stand up for yourself when, when, when necessary. And being steady, right, staying steady in the moment, and not allowing yourself to get whipped around by the emotions of the people that you're engaging with. Okay. All right. So the next thing that I want to talk about is curiosity. One of my most favorite things to talk about in the whole wide world. curiosity gets me very excited. But good business owners have a natural curiosity about the world, about people about things about how stuff works about how people work. They're constantly asking why and how, right? I'm not talking necessarily about taking courses, right, Curiosity is about asking questions through your your day to day life, right? You there's just this natural curiosity that exist. I want to share a little story and I want you to hear me out because at first it may sound a little morbid, and in fact, it might be a little morbid, but when I was a kid, remember this, I'm gonna date myself a little here, but this is pre internet. I tell this to my kids that I grew up without the internet and they just they think I'm a dinosaur. They can't imagine a world without internet or iPads. But all that to say that I was pretty much a free range kid. My mom worked I was raised by my grandma during the summers I had lots of free time to myself. have, you know grandma was usually napping on the couch while I was out and about in the neighborhood running amok, which is honestly, I wish what more kids did these days. But I distinctly remember, as a as a child, were young, I think, I I super glued a lizard to a popsicle stick. And again, I know this sounds morbid, but stick with me. But I was so curious about the decay process. I wanted to know, do lizards have bones? Right, I played with lizards a lot. I was free range kid, we used to make them bite our ear lobes and wear him as earrings. we interacted with nature all the time. But I was just curious, you know, do lizards have bones. And so I super glued the lizard and to this popsicle stick. And I watched over time, I went out there every single day. And I watched what would happen. And I would see how the you know the sun how it would impact this. And here's what I learned in the process. Number one, I learned that ants are carnivores and two that lizards do, in fact, have a skeletal system. So why am I telling you this? Right? I think you can probably look at your own history and your own past and you know really kind of see for yourself? Am I a naturally curious person? Or is that something that I really need to cultivate? So here are some examples of how curiosity can show up in everyday business and life. When you're engaging with a new client, for example, and you see a red flag or you hear a red flag from your client. Does that mean you should automatically run for the hills? Absolutely not. You got to get curious first. Oh, why did they fire that designer? Well, because she wasn't returning phone calls or emails, right? If you want more examples of getting curious with red flags we've got I've got a whole episode on red flags and how to handle them. So we'll be sure to link to that. In the show notes. Think about as a designer, well, what would happen if we switch the location of the dining room and the home office? What would happen if we use this old classic material in a new and interesting way? What would happen if I hired a recent graduate to just help me get through this one big project that I landed right? Who is my client? Really? Right? What makes them tick? What motivates them to get up in the morning? What are they passionate about? Why is this project important to them? How is upholstered furniture made right? Be committed to being a lifelong learner? Learn something new, every single day. All right. So the next thing I want to talk about is attention to detail. Attention to detail is what sets you apart from a homeowner or your client or a design enthusiast. Okay. Clients may see a space, they like and say, Ooh, I really like that. But they have no idea where to start to pull together a comprehensive design, especially without mimicking exactly what they see. Okay, a client is going to think about things like, how will we transition from this floor type to this floor type? Will this new tub fit into the stairs up and around the corner into the bathroom? We're remodeling? Great paint color, but what kind of paint product is going to be appropriate for this bathroom? And what Sheen is going to make sense? How would it look if we added a contrasting piping detail on this sofa that we're upholstering instead of shopping online for this piece, what would happen if we customize something to make it that something that fits perfectly for the location that we're working with? Ooh, while it's framing this art, instead of just a white mat, let's put a second thin black matte under it so that the art really pops. Okay. These are the kinds of pain staking details that will set you apart as a designer. And it's one thing to have these ideas but it's another thing to be able to execute on them for a client and that's really where you stand out. As as a designer. Now of course attention to detail doesn't stop with design. It should also show up in your design process. In creating an experience. The clients talk about how you communicate with your clients, how you send invoices and proposals in your deliverables. Think about your drawing, set, your presentations, your specifications. By the way, all of this stuff that we're talking about, we go through all of this in depth inside my program, the interior designers business blueprint. I'll be sure to link to the show notes on that but if you want to learn more, you can go to designers oasis.com forward slash blueprint because I love talking about client experience. I love talking about How to really put together a thoughtful, fully thought through well executed project. And that's just one aspect of our program. But I wanted to mention that while we're on the subject, alright, so attention to detail is very, very important. Next, I want to talk about decision making the ability to make decisions. As a good, a good business owner needs to have the ability to be able to analyze your options, and make decisions and move on. Otherwise, you're gonna get stuck, and you're gonna stagnate. You can't get distracted by shiny object syndrome. Oh, look at this new software, maybe we should switch or, Oh, look, this designer has an online shop, maybe I should do that. Or

thinking that you have to dig to the end of the internet to find that perfect, whatever lamp for your client, right? You have to have the ability to make decisions. So both in design and business, you will be faced with 1000s 1000s of decisions each and every week. And if you are a deer in headlights, when faced with decisions, you are going to constantly feel stuck. Okay? Being in business is about making imperfect progress, knowing that you can come back and refine as you go. In fact, speaking of refine, is actually one of the pillars of the interior designers business blueprint, because I understand that it's important that you make progress, right? Without everything being perfect. And just know that you're going to have the opportunity to come back and iterate in your business. So now, full disclosure, I say this as someone who identifies as an over thinker. So I constantly have to be aware of my thoughts. And sometimes I catch myself and say, Well, shit, I am totally overthinking this, and I need to make a decision and move on. Right? This takes practice, and it takes an awareness of your thoughts. Okay? So be able to make decisions. All right. Next is you need to be a creative problem solver. And this may seem obvious, but I think it's really important that we talked about it. If you love a puzzle, or a challenge, that is a good sign. Good design is all about solving problems. You need to be able to apply that same creative problem solving to the way you approach business, okay, you're going to have to do things like get creative with client projects and timelines. Say for example, you've got a great new project opportunity that just comes your way. But you are fully booked, how can you get them on the hook, and get them in and not lose this project, without overloading yourself or your team? And compromising your other projects? Right? So you have options, you've got to get creative. Maybe you can work them onto your paid waitlist, right? Maybe you can start with them incrementally. What do I mean by that? We've had this happen many times. And it depends on how long we have before we can start. If it's longer than, you know, three months, we're going to put them on a paid waitlist. If it's less than three months, what we do is we try to get them started incrementally, meaning we want to get them into our orbit and get them into our world get a contract sign, we always let our clients know what our timeline is, before we start, we don't want to surprise them with that information after we have taken their money. So it's very important that you're clear upfront with them about when you can truly start. But what we tell them is listen, we have a full load, we're fully dedicated to seeing overseeing, you know our existing projects, so that when we pivot to you, you can have the same undivided attention that we're giving our current clients. So here's what I propose. And we'll say, I want to get started right away with a site survey. And with a deep dive interview, okay, maybe we're gonna have a con conversation with a contractor, that sort of thing. But then we're going to need a couple of weeks while we wrap some things up before we really start to dig in on the design. And here's what we're looking at for the concept, presentation date, range and the design presentation, date range. So they know, we're not really going to get into this until this date, but we can really get started right now. And that gives them a sense of feeling supported. We're getting started. They're in our orbit and we have promised and dedicated time in our calendar to them. Right, but that's one way that you can get creative with solving problems instead of just trying to over instead of overloading yourself or your team and therefore compromising your existing projects. Mmm, you might need to get creative with hiring right? Maybe you need help in your business, but hiring full time employee isn't in the cards, what are some ways that you can get support, get the support that you need? In other ways. Creative Problem Solving is really about challenging assumptions. Okay? Again, this goes back to getting curious, brainstorm ideate ask hypothetical questions. These are all ways that you can become a more creative problem solver. Okay, next, I want to talk about willingness to connect with others. You can't hide behind your computer, or in your home office and be a successful business owner. You have to be willing to get out to meet people, and to talk about what you do and share how you help people. Introverts listen up. I'm not talking about going to a networking Power Hour and making small talk with a bunch of strangers. So just settle down. What I'm talking about is making meaningful connections. meaningful connections can happen anywhere, at any time with anyone, okay, this can happen on the sidelines at soccer practice, it can happen in a coffee shop at a book club in your place of worship, where you do volunteer work, wherever you live out your daily life, the best connections happen in person where people can get a sense of your warmth, where you can make eye contact, and where you can let your body language communicate your genuine interest in other people. Okay, so you need to be willing to get out of your house, live your life and when opportunities present themselves, be willing to talk about what you do in a way that showcases your excitement and love for helping people through design. You don't want to be your town's best kept secret, okay? And I am telling you guys this, but I'm talking to myself too, right? I, it can be very easy to get stuck behind your desk, on screens, trying to network through email, and I want you to find opportunities to get out and go meet people. Okay. All right, we're almost done. We've got one last one. And this one is probably the most obvious, but we're going to talk about it anyway, you need to have a basic business sense. Now again, remember, I said I didn't know anything about business when I first started. And so all of these things that I've talked about, including this one, are all things that even if you don't feel like you have a natural sense of curiosity, or you're naturally a creative problem solver, or you don't have a sense of a good business sense. These are all things that can be cultivated. Okay. So what do I mean about having a business sense, you cannot put your head in the sand when it comes to your business numbers. You don't need to know everything, but you need to be willing to learn, you will need to understand your p&l, you will need to understand how to make projections, you will need to know where your money is and how it will be used. Right? All of this takes practice. But you can't just hold up the I'm a creative card and get out of jail free card right? I, I want to my skin crawls when I hear this. I'm a creative, I'm not good with numbers or math, you don't need to be good at math. That's what calculators are for. But you do need to be willing to stay connected to your business's flows of inputs and outputs. Things move quickly in business. And you can't just look at your bank account balance and think you have a clear understanding of where things are. You need to understand the big picture. If you have some work to do to get clear on Your Money Story, start doing that work. Otherwise, you will constantly be running your business from a place of scarcity, right, and that's not healthy. So you need to be willing to not only face the reality of your business numbers on a on a on a day to day basis, but you need to know where your money is coming from, where it's going and how long it's going to last you right. You're being a steward of your clients money too. And you need to be able to maintain that well. Again, this has nothing to do with math. That's what calculators are for. This is just a willingness to put eyeballs on your business finances and make some some good business decisions. You don't have to do this alone. I highly recommend that you work with a bookkeeper who understands the interior design business. I will link to a past episode with my bookkeeper. I highly recommend them but

You know, I've had to learn a lot, right? And I've had bookkeepers who didn't do me. Right, right. They didn't they didn't they misinformed me. So, not everybody is a great bookkeeper. Just like not every designer is a great designer. You want to find somebody who really understands this industry, and can be your partner to figure all of this stuff out, because you definitely don't have to do it alone. All right. So I hope this helps, I want to recap real quick, here are the things that I think that the hallmarks of a good interior design business owner, number one, you're well organized. Number two, you've got some grit. Number three, you have resilience, or you're at least willing to learn how to cultivate resilience, you have a natural sense of curiosity, you're attuned to details, you have the ability to make decisions without getting stuck. You look for ways to approach problems creatively or creative problem solver. You have a willingness to connect with others, and you have a basic business sense, you're willing to look at your numbers, okay? My friend, you don't need to have this all figured out from day one, right, your work will naturally give you opportunities to build the skills, maybe you don't feel like you exhibit all of these characteristics. And that's okay, you can learn as you go and some of it, you can outsource, right? You can't outsource curiosity. But maybe you're not the most organized person. So you hire an office manager or design assistant that can help you with that. Your bookkeeper can help you understand your numbers. Attention for detail, for me shows up in knowing exactly what I want, I'm really tuned into what I want to happen in a space in terms of the details. But when it comes to the execution of it, I love to rely on either well, both my contractor and or design assistant who can put together all of the details, all of the drawings, so that we can clearly communicate this vision to whoever is going to be installing it. So again, attention to detail for me, I'm not attuned to all the detail for everything or my head would explode. So there's areas where attention for detail I'm really strong in and then areas where it's not, but I rely on some other folks that can help me get the job done. So much of business is learning to fail with grace. It's learning to get comfortable making mistakes, and learning from them. Perfection chokes creativity. Okay. And here's the other thing I want to say, It's okay to walk, right? It's okay to say, You know what, I think I'd rather be a designer and work for a business owner, and let them think about where the next client is coming from or who to hire next. And if you get started on this path, and you decide, this isn't really what you want, there's nothing wrong with that. It's not failure, it's being honest with yourself about what you want in life. It's honoring yourself. I used to joke when I was, before we moved to Texas, there was a period of time where I was really in the weeds with work. And I just couldn't see the light of day, I couldn't embarrass myself from the work that I had created. And it was it felt so hard. And I remember looking at my husband and saying, I just want to be a mailman, all I want to do is just wake up and go deliver people's mail. And at the end of the day, as long as the mail gets delivered, and my job is done, and there's and then I just do it again the next day. Jokes, he knows I would be painfully bored by that job. But in that moment, in that time, I just felt like, I just want to go get a j ob, you know, and that would be okay, too. If that's if that's a decision you make. And I want to encourage you that if you're feeling the calling to do this, you think about what these characteristics are that we talked about today and how many of them resonate for you. Okay. And one final thought, next time you're scrolling through Instagram and you see a designer and who you perceive to be successful. I'm using air quotes. Remember this? Nobody, I mean, no body got to where they are alone, and without failing without falling down and having to pick themselves back up. What you're seeing is the most polished version of someone you're not seeing the nitty gritty, behind the scenes and the messy middle. If you're on the path to running an interior design business, I really want you to consider joining the interior designers business blueprint where I provide education, support and resources for designers who want to thrive in business. You can join the waitlist you can go to designers oasis.com Ford slash blueprint so you can be the first to know when the doors open again, and it doesn't matter. If you're on day one of your journey, or if you're a seasoned designer, and you're looking to elevate your brand to attract better clients and to be more profitable, there's a home for you here. So I want to read to you real quickly a recent note that I received from a student named Charlie. She says, I've been in Designer spaces for three years, and it has been a huge asset to my business. Every year, I go back and I rewatched the lessons. Each time I learned something new I didn't hear or get the first time because I'm in a new place of business with fresh eyes and ears. Not only that, the monthly trainings and community keep me coming back. I can't imagine where my life and business would be without designers oasis. So thank you, Charlie, for that note. And thank you for joining me today. Don't forget, if you have a question that you want me to answer on a future episode, you can send us a message, go to designers oasis.com, forward slash dear Kate, and you can share your question there. And if you found today's episode helpful, which the podcast is a resource that I provide for free to support designers like you, it would mean so much to me, if you would share it with a friend who you think might also enjoy the show. You can also rate and review the podcast right inside your podcast player. Both of these things means so much to me, and it helps me more than you know, so that I can continue to make episodes like this for you. Thank you so much, my friend. I'll see you next time. Bye for now. Hey, friend, thank you so much for letting me spend a part of this day with you. I'm so passionate about helping designers like you. And I believe in a rising tide that when one of us does well, we all do better. So if you share this attitude of abundance with me, I want you to do just one little thing. Please share this episode with someone using might love it. And if you're feeling extra generous today, go ahead and take just 30 seconds to open your podcast app and leave us a five star rating and review. It's free for you to do and it helps me to be able to keep making more episodes and resources for you. However you choose to help please No, I appreciate you so very much. Thank you, my friend. Have a wonderful rest of your day. I'll see you soon.