Interior Design Industry - Business Case / Advice

skids

I am contemplating getting into the industry by default as I am set to inherit a company which had been manufacturing furniture and other interior fixtures and fittings, set up in the 1980s but went into decline in the 2000s but still has assets and a name and reputation which could be built upon. I've always been crafty, good with my hands etc. and feel I do have an eye for colour and feel it would be an avenue to get creative.

I'm looking for some feedback on the industry as it stands at present, are there many people on here who are interior designers? Is there a demand? Any particular areas one could look to positioning themselves in a niche?

My loose idea at present would be to complete at least a diploma myself, hire a young designer with some experience and build a brand and hopefully a reputation alongside them. Would that be an attractive proposition to someone or do most designers set up as sole traders? I would finance whatever requires financing; insurance, computers, software, transport etc. etc.

I am a business owner in a totally unrelated field so have plenty of hands on knowledge on startups and growing a business. I would be dividing my time between this new project and my current business.

Any feedback or ideas I'd like to hear.

antoinolachtnai

I would say that furniture design/manufacturing is basically nothing to do with interior design. Furniture is a product business and interior design is a service business. That is very simplistic but basically that is how it is.

If you are in furniture design, you are really not in interior design and vice versa. You could make bespoke furniture to meet specific requirements, certainly and that sounds like a bit of both, but that is really a further distinct business.

There is a furniture design course in Letterfrack (part of Galway Mayo Institute of Technology). I don't know much about it myself.

I would be very cautious about entering either of these businesses. These are each tremendously difficult industries to be in for their own reasons. There are opportunities in furniture design, certainly, if you found the right genius designer, but I think it would be difficult.

skids

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

I would say that furniture design/manufacturing is basically nothing to do with interior design. Furniture is a product business and interior design is a service business. That is very simplistic but basically that is how it is.

If you are in furniture design, you are really not in interior design and vice versa. You could make bespoke furniture to meet specific requirements, certainly and that sounds like a bit of both, but that is really a further distinct business.

There is a furniture design course in Letterfrack (part of Galway Mayo Institute of Technology). I don't know much about it myself.

I would be very cautious about entering either of these businesses. These are each tremendously difficult industries to be in for their own reasons. There are opportunities in furniture design, certainly, if you found the right genius designer, but I think it would be difficult.

I understand that they're two very separate things. I do not wish to pursue the furniture design or manufacture, it's far too labour intensive.

What is tremendously difficult about the interior design industry do you think? Are there more designers than jobs? Everyone undercutting each others prices?

antoinolachtnai

Well what you are talking about is setting up a proper interior design business as opposed to being just a sole trader.

The following is just my opinion, based on work in related fields (but have not been directly in this game myself).

The problem is how to get a steady flow of profitable work to keep the studio busy. To get the really good work with the budgets you need to be in with the right crowd and as a newcomer the design needs to be first class. There is going to be marketing and sales investment required.

Then of course you have to deliver the steady stream of great results. In practice this is really hard once it’s more than just yourself. You also need to have new blood coming through the business, to being new ideas.

You need to know all the suppliers. To do this at the high end and to a high standard this is going to entail travel to the manufacturers and exhibitions abroad.

You need to be able to price to cover all these costs and risks.

The business is basically cyclical. It is tied to building booms. Sure, there is always work for a good outfit, but it will get tight. Credit/collecting on invoices is going to be an issue because fees may end up getting deferred to the end of the project.

In terms of competition, there are a lot of professions that think they can do interior design. Furniture people, architects, graphic designers, fit out companies all have some sort of interior design capability, and some of them are pretty good. They don’t actually even have to charge a discrete fee necessarily - they factor it in as a cost of their wider service. This is what I would be worried about, as opposed to competition from other interior designers (though that might be an issue too).

As you suggest it would be a good idea to find some niche. It is hard to think of what this might be. You will have your own ideas from your own experience.