The Interior Design Business Handbook: A Complete Guide to Profitability

thank you

Really great 'bible' for a beginner interior designer. Lots of wise advice. Although I am in NZ this reference book still has a large amount of relevance.

This is a thorough and clearly written guide to beginning and running an interior design business. The chapters cover and are entitled:1. Finding Your Place in Interior Design2. Starting or Changing Your Business Type or Structure3. Planning for Profit and Growth4. Setting Up a Design Studio5. The Design Team6. Business Development7. Charging for Your Services8. Succeeding in Project Management9. Working with Sources and Contractors10. Managing Your Office11. Managing and Securing Your Financial Position12. Growing Your Firm and Your Professional SkillsThe author also speaks to the personality of designers and qualities that would help their effectiveness in different aspects of the design business. The book also contains several sample ASID contracts. There are also templates for project managements sheets, budget sheets and sample invoices. In the back of the book is a comprehensive list of schools, by state, for studying design, professional associations, and a thorough glossary for terms used in the book.My only criticism is that because this is a book aimed at the visually-inclined, the book's design could have been a little more colorful and creative - perhaps with some illustrations. That said, this 549-page tome is a good, straightforward guide to the business.

THE QUICK TAKE: The Interior Design Business Handbook is a useful survey and overview of the business side of interior design.But this is probably a tough type of book to write. It's meant to be all things to all people - residential, commercial, big firm, small firm, etc. It has to be encyclopedic in scope, but in just one volume, so it can't always go deeply into any one topic. Within the limits of that format, it does a reasonably good job of covering a lot of ground.FIVE EDITIONS OF REFINEMENT: This book has been recently revised, and has now been through five editions. That revision and refinement shows in the current edition. Generally, the selection and discussion of topics is well done.MORE USEFUL AS AN INTRODUCTION: The book will will be probably most useful to those learning about the industry, whether in school or in the initial years in the business, or for those who split their time with another functional or industry role. It may also be useful as a reference for more experienced designers, but I suspect it would tend to be out of sight and out of mind most of the time. Though experienced designers who are still learning the business side may find it especially useful.MORE EMPHASIS AND GUIDANCE WOULD HELP: The book is designed and written in a way that somewhat equally emphasizes and covers all of the topics. That's a missed opportunity. It would be much more helpful to emphasize and focus on certain topics - both with the design of the book and the discussion - to guide the thinking of those using the handbook.For example, there's some fairly flat discussion of the issues around your firm's strengths and what type of clients to seek. But client targeting and client selection are critical to your success, your sanity, and your profitability. It helps a lot to know when to say no to a potential new client.To put it another way, there are 5-10 aspects that are critically important to an interior design business. But the presentation style of the book won't do much to help you quickly learn what they are.At times it seems this book was written more as a textbook, for that lucrative publishing market, than as a practical business guide.NOT STRONG ON TECHNOLOGY OR ITS MEANING: Some of the the discussion of technology aspects seems a little outdated. This book really ought to have been updated to reflect how people work now, and edit out some things.More importantly, I was hoping to see (and didn't find) useful information about how to use technology to support the business, especially marketing. For example, there's too much discussion of marketing brochures, and too little discussion of websites and email.Now in fairness, that may be really be another book that needs to be written. But I do think it's the job of this type of book to get you oriented and point you in the right direction, and in some areas it falls short.MOVE THE APPENDICES TO A BOOK COMPANION WEBSITE: Much of what's in the appendices of the book - such as the list of schools offering design programs - would be better placed on a companion website to the book.BUSINESS HANDBOOK: Note that this is the business handbook, not a more general handbook to interior design. Look elsewhere for how to calculate how much fabric you need!Some other Amazon books you may want to consider adding to your bookshelf:Interior Design in Practice: Case Studies of Successful Business ModelsInterior Design Clients: The Designer's Guide to Building and Keeping a Great ClienteleMarketing Interior DesignThe Interior Designer's Guide to Pricing, Estimating, and Budgeting (Second Edition)Interior Designer's Portable Handbook: First-Step Rules of Thumb for the Design of Interiors

This book pretty much covers everything you need to run an interior design business. I currently am not in the interior design business but was thinking of getting into the business. This book starts with what kind of interior design do you want to focus on. Then it goes into hiring your team and then leads into marketing and business development. The section on project management is good too. I think the only section that probably needs more detail is the managing your finances section. That is probably another topic for another book. There are also quite a # of useful templates that you can use or at last get ideas from. Overall this is a great book for someone looking to get into interior design or for someone already in the business.