Interior Design Business Plan

One of the most exciting businesses to be in today, interior designing is a fast growing business with a huge potential as more people are buying newer homes or remodeling the existing ones. According to Home magazine, around 46% Americans plan to remodel their existing living spaces today. Like any other business, interior design businesses need the drawing up of an interior design business plan before beginning operations.

The benefits of making an interior design business plan are:

1. It gives you a framework within which to operate your business.

2. The plan outlines the main action points to be done to set your business in motion.

3. The drafting of the plan gives you a thorough idea about all the facets of the business and you get an insiders view of your business.

4. The plan outlines your mission, company profile, target market and products and services to be offered thus giving you a broad framework for your business.

5. The plan will also give you an idea of the expenses that you will need to incur to start your business and thus greatly reduce the risk of overspending and unproductive expenditures.

6. The plan is also the basis on which you can approach banks and investors for funds for your project.

The key points that are to be included in an interior design business plan are ( This is an indicative list and actuals may vary for different individuals):

1. The business plan should begin with an executive summary of the company. This is actually a short summary of your entire business plan. This executive summary is normally drafted once you are done with preparing the entire plan.

2. The plan should include a list of objectives of the business- what it aims to achieve in revenue and market size and how it aims to do so.

3. Your plan should include a mission statement which will highlight the reason for operating the firm and how you plan to achieve yourobjectives.

4. The interior design business plan should include a company summary which will contain a brief note about the company along with the name and address of the owner. Apart from this, it will also contain the address of the registered office of the firm along with the locations and addresses of branch offices if any.

5. The organizational layout of the company should also be included.

6. The interior design business plan should contain details about the all products and services being offered to the clients.

7. A market analysis survey based on geographical area and demographics (specific preferences and tastes) will help you to understand your potential clients better and design products and services to suit your clients needs.

8. Your plan should include a report about the future potential of the market in terms of the growth expected (to help you analyze the scope of the market). This will help you to select a niche which has scope for growth and has a low entry barrier.

9. Details about the target market (in terms of the geographical area, segment and the size of the market) that you have chosen to operate in and a list of the services and products that you will be providing to your target market should be expounded upon in detail.

10. A Competition analysis report can be included to give you a picture about your competitors (their strengths and shortcomings). This can be very useful to you to decide the segment you want to work in by analysing the level of competition in each. Thi analysis can also help you to build up on the weaknesses of your competition and to learn from their strengths.

11. Include a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis spells out strengths,weakness,opportunities and threats of yours firm. This anaylsis helps you to understand how your strengths and weaknesses and threats and see if could be converted to opportunities.

12. The report should contain a list of different vendors and suppliers, and preferably quotes from each, to help you zero in on the vendors that you wish to work with.

13. The marketing strategy to be undertaken by the business to penetrate the market should also be included.

14. Personnel and human resource policies to be followed are an often overlooked component. You may want to include this in your plan.

15. Financial projections and estimations are a very important element. Run your numbers carefully.

16. Pricing strategies to include the credit terms for clients and the rules to make tenders to

participate in bids shold be a part of your plan.

17. Future growth plans for the interior design business should be included, as well.

18. A section containing details of why you think that the growth assumptions made by you are realistic will be very important if you're looking for outside funding. Investors will want to see the facts listed here.

You should try to incorporate as much data and as many figures in your plan that you can manage to collect. Data pertaining to market size,market trends and even competition will give you the correct picture of the business you are in and will help you formulate a realistic interior design business plan.

After collecting this data and preparing the plan you will begin to see a outline for your business. Now you can begin to execute your plan on the ground. Begin by following the plan in the listed order and begin to undertake the activities that you have listed in the interior design business plan.

By Souvik Saha

The Interior Design Resource Agency

The Global Leader in Business Information Resources for Interior Designers

Bringing You the Business Behind the Business of Interior Design

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