By: Sahil Mittal | Date : 27 Nov 2025 | Category : Interior Design & Architecture Business Know-How
Date : 2 months agoThe year 2020 has embarked its journey turning market immensely competitive and saturated. Starting a freelance interior designer business demands professional to be aesthetically sound and creative. Being an Interior Designer, if you believe you have a knack for designs, the art of complementing color hues & textures, an impeccable sense of style then starting your own interior designing studio can be the best decision ever.
For beginners, starting a freelance interior design studio is always challenging. Setting up a studio in the heart of the city, hiring quality team members, collaborating with the right manufacturers and contractors becomes a herculean task. With so many interior design jobs available in the market, we find the majority of interior design businesses struggling to find their very first client. According to CII latest report, the interior design industry of India is expected to grow by US$1138 million by 2020.
As per the Hindustan Times Report, Currently, India needs 8,000-10,000 designers a year, while the overall availability of qualified designers is only 3,000. To make matters worse, only 500 of these 3,000 are said to be practicing designers. Here we list out some of the amazing tips that will surely help in taking your freelance interior design business to the next level.
1. Decide your niche at the very first:
With so many interior designing firms already operable in the market, it becomes a major task to capture your very first business leads. The majority of the firms specialize in almost all the segments when then make it more difficult to compete with them forefront. We recommend designers to always start targeting clients in a single niche, which can be either residential, corporate, green, or sustainable designs.
2. Build yourself a Brand:
People know you from your brand value. According to CrowdSpring, 77% of consumers make purchasing decisions because of the brand. Always invest in getting a catchy professional brand name for your firm. Design a creative logo, flyers, and brochures for your venture that resembles your business identity. Always hire quality freelance graphic designers for this job, as people will always recall your identity with your business logo & identity. You can find quality web & graphic designers under your budget on UEPAKI.
3. Understand a client requirement:
Never hustle in taking a project without understanding a client's requirements and justifications properly. This would otherwise result in substantial losses and misunderstandings. Always prepare a proper draft of customer requirements and accordingly plan the proposed budget and timeline for the project. Divide your project into milestones and accordingly divide the cost into segments. If possible, charge customers as per milestones as this will create trust and any chance of getting delayed with your delivery can be explained and compensated over talks.
4. Charge your clients as per their spending horizon:
Always deal with customers in every tier group. This won’t only help you enjoy fan followers in every tier city but can substantially award you, customers, in your hard times. It will be always better to have work than to sit idle. Besides your chances of getting more and more customers will keep on increasing which can thereby maximize your earnings and fame.
5. Hire Quality team members:
Getting an interior design job done for any client is not a solo game. You need a team of quality decorators, architects, home stylists to deliver a project beyond client expectations. In order to scale your home decoration business through referrals and word-of-mouth marketing, always believe in delivering exceptional services. This will increase your chances in getting repetitive work from the clients. Also, collaborate with creative visual artists & home décor professionals to customize designs and art items as per client taste and directions.
6. Design yourself an online portfolio:
The Digital era has totally revolutionized businesses over these years. With almost 4.54 billion people active internet users as of January 2020, encompassing 59 percent of the global population, the customer today value businesses that exhibit an online presence. Customers always trust businesses that have an online presence over social channels, search engines & online marketplaces like UEPAKI.
7. Promote your business on social channels:
Social media statistics from 2019 show that there are 3.5 billion social media users worldwide, and this number is only growing. That equates to about 45% of the current population (Emarsys, 2019). Promoting your business over social channels can though lend some customers in your pocket but with social media platforms adopting paid strategies, this has become an extremely competitive and herculean task.
8. Collaborate with Illustrators and Designers:
With so many interior design jobs available in the market, it becomes extremely difficult to deliver something creatively different every time. To solve out this problem, we recommend professionals to collaborate with other design professionals in art, fashion, and graphic space.
You can collaborate with graffiti & doodle artists to decorate interior walls and designs for your customers. This will create an amazing experience for your customers and also will help you out network with other professionals in the industry, thereby awarding you successful referrals and recommendations.
9. Always deliver on time:
Customers always appreciate businesses that stick to their words and commitments. Always try to deliver before time, as this can let you enjoy higher compensation and credits. Besides these, your chances to get quality referrals, premium reviews, and ratings also increase.
10. Keep yourself updated:
With the market getting digitalized, designs too keep on revolutionizing every now and then. Always keep yourself updated with all the recent trends and happenings in and around your industry. This will then help you deliver the latest interior design trends to your customers and businesses.
Follow these incredible tips for your freelance interior design business. Don’t forget to join interior design communities to broaden your knowledge. Also, regularly participate in online competitions held worldwide as this will increase your presence among top industry experts and celebs. Your chance to rise as a successful freelance interior designer will totally depend upon your dedication and efforts towards your dream career.
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