How To Craft an Interior Design Business Plan in 8 Steps

Many aspiring interior designers share a drive to create beautiful, functional spaces. Translating their instincts into successful careers, however, can be challenging for new entrepreneurs. 

Writing a business plan can help you gain clarity on how to translate your ideas and experience into your own interior design business. Here’s what to include in an interior design business plan, as well as tips for getting your venture off the ground.

What is an interior design business plan?

An interior design business plan is a written document that serves as an operational road map for an interior design business. It captures high-level details such as market analysis and target audience profiles alongside more granular elements like financial projections, services and specialities, portfolio samples, and branding.

A business plan plays an important role in long-term success. It gathers all aspects of your business in one place and illustrates how they will work together to further your goals. This is useful even if you only ever refer to your plan internally; checking your progress against a plan can keep things on track and help you make decisions that align with your broader vision. 

If you are seeking funding to get your ideas off the ground, financiers will want to see a thorough, well-crafted business plan that shows how well you know your market, industry, and offerings before they invest. 

What to include in an interior design business plan

• Executive summary
• Company overview
• List of services
• Market analysis
• Portfolio
• Financial projections
• Marketing strategy

This template can help you build out a comprehensive business plan to find your footing in the interior design industry.

Executive summary

An executive summary is a high-level overview and introduction to the information that will be included in more detail throughout your business plan. It also serves as a hook for your reader, sparking their interest or curiosity about your idea and building momentum for what’s to follow. 

Some executive summaries include mentions of a vision or mission statement, while others are more straightforward. If you’re not sure where to start, consider these four Ws:

• Who are you? Provide a brief company description that explains your brand. Depending on your audience, you may want to focus on what you’ve already achieved or the value and benefits of your interior design services.

• What will your audience learn? Give readers a quick overview of what follows in the larger document: market analysis, a project plan, or a description of your new business.

• Why should your audience care? Consider why you’ve prepared the larger document. Are you in search of a business partner or collaborator? Are you looking to secure funding? What does a potential investor stand to gain?

• What highlights should readers be excited about? Tease some of the most critical information or details to come.

Company overview

Your company overview should include any organizational details, such as your company name, your bio (and those of any cofounders or key team members if applicable), the legal structure of your business, and a list of your relevant degrees, accreditations, certifications, and licenses, such as those earned or offered through the Council for Interior Design Qualification (CIDQ), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), and National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

List of services

Services and specialities are at the heart of an interior design business. Use this section to detail what you plan to offer your clients, such as space planning, furnishings, renovations, color selection, or lighting design. Also include whether you plan to work on residential interiors or certain types of commercial locations, like retail, health care, hospitality, or office spaces. If you have expertise in a niche area, such as sustainable design, furniture design, or restoration, note that too.

This section also provides an opportunity to explain your pricing strategy for those services, whether you’ll work for a fixed fee on a per-project basis, charge clients an hourly rate, seek a retainer for continuous design services, or combine elements of two or more of these options. Consider the pricing structure that’s most appealing and practical for your operation and then describe it here. 

Market analysis

Market research is a critical piece of any business strategy, and the focus of yours will depend on the type of services you plan to offer (commercial versus residential projects, for example) and the market in which you’ll be doing business—say, in a major city versus a small town. 

It can be helpful to divide your market analysis into distinct buckets. For example:

• Competitive analysis. Use a framework like a SWOT analysis—which compares your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in a given niche or market—to illustrate how you can showcase your unique value proposition and differentiate your business.

• Details on your target audience and buyer personas. Demonstrate that you understand who your ideal clients are and what they are willing to spend money on, as well as the trends or influences driving their interests. Succinctly explain how well-suited you are to meet their needs.

• Brand identity and positioning. Illuminate your brand identity and how you’ll position that identity within the market you’ve identified. Clarify how you plan to uniquely capture opportunities and serve your target audience.

Portfolio

Interior design is driven by tactile experiences and atmosphere. In a digital format, a visual portfolio can provide a sense of how you see the world and approach your projects. Include one to two case studies on your past work, along with any media coverage you’ve received. If you’re just starting out, provide a few creative briefs or project mock-ups to show how you would approach different spaces. 

Financial projections

Creating a business plan for your interior design business lets you map out your projected cash flow and set realistic financial projections.

Your financial planning section should include: 

• Projected revenue. Create a projection of the income that will flow into your business, making estimates based on forecasted projects. 

• Projected expenses. Account for the money you expect to flow out of your business. This includes software, office space, and any other ongoing costs you incur during daily operations.

• Business capital. Outline the capital you already have on hand—for example, any capital you’re contributing yourself or capital from friends and family—and/or the capital you plan to raise. 

If you’ve been in business for a while and you’re updating your business plan for investors or lenders, you’ll also want to include financial statements. For example:

• Balance sheet. A record of your business’s assets and liabilities.

• Cash flow statement. The cash flowing in and out of your business over a certain time period, such as the past two years.

• Income statement. Also known as a profit and loss statement, this shows the company’s income and expenditures over a specific period of time—for example, a fiscal year.

Marketing strategy

The marketing strategy for your interior design business plan should outline how you plan to get in front of prospects and turn them into paying clients. 

Start with a business website. This is where your clients will learn the details about your company, pricing, and aesthetics. Shopify’s website builder helps you create beautiful websites where you can showcase your work, accept appointments, and collect payments securely.

List the channels you plan to emphasize, such as email, YouTube, traditional media, or Instagram, along with your strategy for acquiring customers. Use the customer and industry information you collected earlier to understand what’s likely to appeal to your target audience. Set initial marketing goals—10,000 Instagram followers, for example, or 1,000 impressions on a post. 

A good marketing strategy will also include key messaging. For example, if you plan to specialize in designing nurseries and playrooms, your messaging might be about helping parents design rooms that perfectly reflect their newest family member’s budding personality.

Tips for starting an interior design business

Striking out on your own is likely to be daunting, but you can take a few key actions to help lay the groundwork for a successful interior design business.

Get your degree

You may have an eye for color and a knack for transforming an average room into a revelatory space, but unless you have a degree in interior design—which covers space planning, architectural considerations, and styling—you’ll only be able to offer interior decorating services, which cover aesthetics and accessories but no structural changes. Many states also require interior designers to be licensed by the Council for Interior Design Qualification before taking on projects. 

Invest in interior design software

Look for project management solutions that combine interior design software like computer-aided design (CAD) with client portals that simplify invoicing, payment, and collaborative file-sharing. Popular options include Mydoma Studio (by Studio Designer), Programa, and DesignFiles. This will not only demonstrate to potential and current clients that you’re aligned with your industry’s standards, it’ll also make running many of your day-to-day operations more streamlined and convenient.

Develop a perspective

Seek out common threads or themes in your work that you can develop into a sought-after style or expertise. Curate the purpose of your social media channels and consider creating original content in the form of a newsletter (such as through a platform like Substack or your own website), where you can share regular insights on topics that inspire you, unpack your approach to design, or weigh in on industry trends.