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Interior Decorating For Fun & Profit!
By Randy Wilson, Thu Dec 8th
Interior has grown 11% in the last five years andwill continue to grow as more people are working outside thehome and acquiring more money. If you are constantly being askedfor your interior design ideas, this could be an incredibleopportunity for you. All you need to do is make a few decisionsand love to create beautiful home interiors. The first thing to decide is if you want to be an interiordesigner or just do interior decorating. It may not seem like abig difference, but it actually is. An Interior Designer has tograduate from an accredited Interior Design program, and in manyStates, the person must take an exam and are licensed. However,if you don’t want to attend school right now or ever, you canopt to be an interior decorator instead. Before selling your interior services, you mustpractice. Learn some of the tricks to on a budget,and get ideas about what services you want to provide to yourcustomers. Try these services out in your own home, and offerthem for free in the homes of your family and friends. It isgreat practice and can help to build your portfolio.
To build your portfolio take before and after pictures of eachproject you do, whether it is large or small. You should havefifteen to twenty pictures in your portfolio and letters ofrecommendation from happy clients. It is also a good practice tocreate design boards for each project, and keep them with yourportfolio. Once you have decided on opening an interior decoratingbusiness, you should call around to different competitors to getan idea of the services they provide and the fees they chargefor their services. This is a great way to decide on how tocharge your clients. There are several ways to price your interior decoratingservices. They include using a flat fee, hourly fee, percentagefee, cost plus, retail cost or per square foot fee. Mostinterior businesses use the cost plus method fortheir fees. To use the cost plus method, you must contact wholesalers andretailers who offer interior businesses discounts.This way you purchase everything for the project from paint tofurniture. You then, sell the products and your services to theclient for your cost of the products plus the twenty percentgoing rate. Now that you have decided what services you will
Image Gallery -- More Mediterranean Images
More photos have been added to the existing albums for Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes, Athens, Istanbul, and Ephesus. New albums featuring Rome, Naples, and the excavation site at Herculanum have also been added. There are now over 100 images of the Mediterranean alone.
Image Gallery -- Places
The Image Place has recently added a series of Mediterranean photos that include: the Greek islands of Mykonos, Santorini, and Rhodes; Athens, Greece; Istanbul, Turkey; and the excavations of the ancient city of Ephesus where St. Paul preached to the Ephesians of Asia Minor in the first century A.D. (located near present-day Kusadasi).
Image Gallery -- Modes of Transportation
The Image Place has recently added a series of photos of ships and boats. The selections include cruise ships, sail boats, and tug boats.
What's next?
The Image Place will soon add the following photo series to its gallery: sports, Rome, animals, and nature. Let us know what images you would like us to add to our gallery. Email us at admin@theimageplace.biz.
provide and thecost for each, it is time to advertise. Since you have contactedsuppliers, ask them if you can leave interior flyersand business cards at their locations. If these suppliers haveseen your work, and make sure they do, they may also refer theircustomers to you. You should also contact realtors, new homebuilders, businessoffices, stores, hotels and just about anywhere that uses aninterior that needs to be decorated. Send each a letterannouncing the opening of your business, make sure there is aname on the letter and envelope, and not a generic “BusinessOwner” opening. Follow up with a phone call and try to get anappointment to present them with information about you and yourinterior business. Even if they are not interestedright now, they will be in the future, and you want to make surethey remember you. You can also offer services in the way of teaching a class onhome interior decorating. Many community colleges offer personalenrichment classes for everyone in the community. In the classhave each person pick a room in their home they want toredecorate. By the end of the class, their room should becomplete and you will have more happy customers to spread theword about you and your business. Once you have started your business, you should subscribe totrade periodicals, and visit websites to get interior decoratingtips and ideas from others in the industry. You should purchasebooks about different areas of and techniques you canuse. Many of the industry associations will only accept members thatare licensed Interior Designers. Keep this in mind when you areplanning your future goals, but remember there are also manysuccessful interior designers who are not licensed. With your thoughts now racing about interior decorating, costs,marketing and keeping up with trends, you seem to have made yourdecision. Start calling competitors, and friends andfamily’s homes. Open your own interior designing business now. © Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved. About the author:Randy has dozens of home based business articles such as Best Home Based Businesses and Batting Cages Business. Also has a blog: ProfitableHome Businesses.
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