A Day in the Life: What It's Like to Run an Interior Decorating Franchise

If you’ve always been a creative person with a good eye for design, and you’d also love to start running your own business and heading down a new professional path, why not start an interior decorating franchise? You’ll be your own boss at a lower level of risk, working in a profitable, growing sector of industry. Here’s what you can expect from a day in the life as an interior decorating running a franchise.

In the past five years, the British interior design industry has been on a steady upward trajectory [IBISWorld]. If you’d like to join this industry and thrive in the long term, you’ll need to first gain a strong grasp of what will be expected of you if you invest with one of the top interior decorating franchises in the UK...

A day in the life running an interior decorating franchise

Starting an interior decorating business and committing to a franchise agreement isn’t something you should do lightly. It will require not just a fair amount of your money, but a huge amount of your time - and because of this, you should know exactly what you’re getting into before you get into it with the signing of a legally binding contract. Step one? Figuring out what you’ll be doing each day, and whether that suits your skills and professional desires. Interior decorators will regularly:

• Meet, negotiate and communicate with clients, discussing requirements and ideas
• Develop, draft, edit and refine plans/ideas/work
• Schedule and budget out projects/work to be completed
• Advise clients on things like colour schemes, space suitability, fabric choice, etc.
• Cultivate and maintain strong supplier relationships
• Cultivate and maintain strong client relationships
• Manage your business and your time/the time of a full team of employees

Advantages of running your own business in the interior design industry

Evidently, a slowly but steadily rising level of growth points to a slowly but steadily rising level of consumer demand. This is one of the best reasons to consider finding the ideal interior decorating franchise investment and making your move, along with all the advantages inherent to franchising (provision of training and support, access to a proven business model and an existing customer base, so on). Even still, there are more advantages to running an interior design franchise, such as:

• The room to choose your specialism and find a profitable corner of the market
• The availability of low-cost investment options
• The ability, in some cases, to work from home
• The fun, rewarding and varied working life
• The endless room to grow and develop your business down the line
• The ability to benefit from word-of-mouth marketing
• The ability to promote your business on the go (e.g., with van signage)

Challenges you’ll face when you start an interior decorating business

There are, of course, challenges to face head-on when it comes to running an interior decorating business. Turnarounds can be fast, clients can be difficult and demanding, and working to budget restrictions can be a pain. Overcome the difficulties and focus on the advantages by following these tips:

• Set clear time periods with clients to manage their expectations/avoid rushed work 
• Institute a zero tolerance policy for outright disrespectful/unreasonable clients
• Set your working hours and stick to them wherever you can to avoid overworking
• Make space in your day to destress when the work worries pile up
• Ask clients for budgets BEFORE starting any work/planning

Franchise opportunities in the interior decorating industry

1. The Christmas Decorators

The Christmas Decorators is the UK’s favourite seasonal decorating company, and this festive franchise currently has a network of over 40 hard-working franchisees.

• Becoming a franchisee with The Christmas Decorators: You don’t need any particular prior experience - just the drive to succeed and the strong desire to make people’s festive dreams come true.
• How much you need to invest: You’ll need to make a minimum initial investment of £25,000, with advertising and royalty fees charged at 2% and 10% respectively.
• What you get for your investment: You’ll receive nine days of intensive training (including classroom training and hands-on practical training) and continual support from your territory’s dedicated Business Development Manager.

2. ColourHaus

Since 2019, ColourHaus has been transforming kitchens, UPVC windows, doors, furniture and fittings for a fraction of the cost of replacement.

• Becoming a ColourHaus franchisee: You don’t need previous industry experience, but you do need to be attentive to detail, committed to learning and prepared to work hard (as well as able to deal with people from all kinds of backgrounds).
• How much you need to invest: You’ll need to make a minimum initial investment of £12,500, with a total investment cost of £25,000 and a royalty fee charged at 10%.
• What you get for your investment: You’ll shadow professionals and train on the job. You’ll be provided with launch support, marketing advice and technical advice. You’ll have access to all the tools, equipment and supplies you need.

3. Schmidt

Founded all the way back in 1959, Schmidt has been designing, manufacturing and selling innovative, made-to-measure kitchen and bathroom furniture for six decades.

• Becoming a Schmidt franchisee: You’ll need to be passionate about sales, happy to work on high-value transactions and able to provide an excellent standard of customer service to your customers.
• How much you need to invest: You’ll need to make a minimum initial investment of £100,000, with a total investment cost of £420,000.
• What you get for your investment: You’ll enjoy a full franchise package of training and support, including assistance with site selection and fit-out (and an interest-free loan for the cost of your entire showroom fit-out).

Discover how to run a franchise in the interior sector with the support of Point Franchise

You should now be able to develop a strong sense of whether or not running your own interior decorating franchise is the right choice for you. Stay on Point Franchise to find out how, exactly, you could run an interior design franchise from home. OR check out some options in the wider world of home improvement, such as becoming a professional painter or becoming a blinds and shutters installation specialist.