Home remodelling is always exciting. Even the smallest project is a lot of fun to plan and execute. Larger projects may be challenging, but there is an endless array of exciting moments that put a huge smile on your face.
Don’t get me started with how successfully remodelling your house or a room in it can bring a lot of joy.
You may be talented in working on remodelling projects too. After a few remodelling projects around the house, you’ll begin to realise how your designs and ideas are good and fun to execute.
You can have fun and earn money by turning your design abilities – and your ability to manage remodelling projects – into a business.
How to Turn Your Design Abilities into a Business
Getting started is easier than you think. There are a few things to prepare before you can market yourself as a designer and begin taking projects, but we are going to go over the preparations you need to make in this article.
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Learn to Channel Your Ideas
One of the first things you need to master if you want to start a home design business is channelling your ideas. You need to be able to create sketches, designs, or other visuals that help explain what you want to do to space.
Unlike working on your own house, offering design ideas as a service means you have to get the owner of the house on the same page before starting the project. The ability to channel your ideas is a crucial skill to have, but it is a skill that can be mastered.
Learn to draw if you want to be able to design rooms and houses manually. Alternatively, find a design software that suits you personally and start using the software to turn the ideas you have in your mind into designs and visuals that others can enjoy.
Practice with Some Projects
Stage small projects as a way to practice your design as well as project management skills. Go through the necessary steps as if you are handling the project for a client. This means you need to create a design to use as a guideline for the project.
Learn how to budget for a project carefully. Remember that you will have to provide potential clients with quotations and detailed estimates in the future. It is best to practice with your own projects before you move on and start turning your talent into a business.
Lastly, master the art of sticking to the plan. There is no point in creating a detailed plan if you are just going to wing it and make changes along the way. You can still make adjustments to the plan, but the overall design needs to work as a guideline.
Start With a Portfolio
One of the biggest reasons why you want to do some practice projects is because you get to use the results of those projects as content for your portfolio. Having a strong portfolio as a freelance designer and project manager is crucial. You can attract more potential clients when your portfolio is appealing.
The task of setting up the portfolio is easier. You can use the portfolio maker offered by Format.com to create a fully functional portfolio website, complete with a contact form and other features you need to sell your services. Even better, the whole setup process takes no more than a few minutes to complete.
The next part is adding content to that portfolio. This is where the practice projects mentioned earlier come in handy.
Since you started with designs, you can add material about your ideas and the results of each project to the portfolio. This way, potential clients can immediately see the kind of transformation you can do to a room.
Add Personal Touches
If the idea of offering your ability to design and remodel as a service came from the past success of your own remodelling projects, you can also add stories about those projects to the portfolio. Make these stories less formal and tell them from your own personal point of view.
You’ll be surprised by how many homeowners will find your stories immensely relatable.
For example, a remodelling you did to a kitchen and the problems you faced along the way are most likely similar to – if not the same as – the experiences of other homeowners whose kitchen suffered from the same issues.
You can also add personal touches by branding the site to really represent you who are.
Establish a Brand
Even when you want to market yourself as a professional rather than a business, it is still necessary to have a brand for your new design service.
The brand will act as a marketing instrument. It allows potential customers to recognise who you are and the projects you have done in the past.
Your brand doesn’t have to be over the top. A simple handwritten logo of your name in black or other colours you like is often more than enough. You can add accents or use a visual logo too.
Focus more on conveying the right feel and tone with the brand since these are the elements that people will experience as you market your brand further.
Once you have a brand in hand, use it consistently across your business communications. Add the logo to your portfolio and social media pages; you don’t have to use it as an avatar, but make sure the logo is easy to spot when customers visit your profile.
Start Marketing
At this point, you are ready to start marketing your new design service. Before you run a digital marketing campaign, take the time to further sharpen the services you want to offer.
Do you want to position yourself as a consultant? Will you be handling the remodelling projects directly?
How you position yourself will determine how to best market the new service. The more you dig into the kind of services you can provide, the more you will learn about the right market segments to target and other details that are useful for your marketing campaign.
You now have a wealth of instruments to use. The portfolio site you created earlier is a marketing tool. The same can be said for your social media pages and the content you publish through them.
You also have advertising networks, industry-related blogs, search engine optimisation, and other tools at your disposal.
Maintain!
Lastly, make sure you are prepared for the projects and clients that come your way. Setting up a business (both operationally and legally via company registration) and turning your ability to designing and remodelling houses are only the first two steps. The real challenge is maintaining the business you have established.
Keeping clients happy and offering your best services is how you keep your business going. Taking extra steps and continuing to add personal touches to the projects you handle will get you more exposure and recognition. Doing everything with passion is how to top it all off.
There is a huge market for capable designers who know what to do with spaces around the house, so the opportunities are there for you to grab.
Now that you know the preparations you have to make to really enter this field and start a design business, there is nothing stopping you from pursuing your dreams.
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