5 Essentials Every Interior Designer Needs to Start and Build a Business That Supports Their Dream Life

We’re not just in this industry because we love design—we’re here to create a life and business on our own terms. If you’ve ever wondered how to start an interior design business that is profitable, sustainable, and fits your dream lifestyle, this episode is for you.

Rebecca shares the five essential steps every designer needs to build a solid foundation for long-term success. These aren’t complicated strategies—just the critical areas to evaluate so you can avoid burnout, build trust, save time, and create consistent profits.

It all starts with taking a hard look at your business today and getting crystal clear on where you want it to go. Rebecca shares her own lessons from the early days (mistakes and all!) and offers simple, actionable steps you can start implementing now.

Start with just one step—and watch how it transforms your business and your life.

episode highlights

1. Defining a clear and scalable business model for your future

2. Creating a signature design process to build client trust and streamline projects

3. Protecting yourself with a strong legal contract (and what it must include)

4. Setting up financial systems and pricing strategies to stay profitable

5. Building a marketing strategy that consistently attracts your ideal clients

Episode Resources

• Learn more and save your spot at Rebecca’s Standout Designer Bootcamp

Read the Full Transcript ⬇️

00;00;00;00 – 00;00;28;05
Rebecca Hay
Get yourself a lawyer and develop a strong contract, which will be your legal foundation for your business. A contract is going to protect your time. It’s going to protect your money, and it’s going to protect your sanity. By setting clear expectations boundaries with your clients. All right. I’m Rebecca Hay, and I’ve built a successful interior design business by trial and error.

00;00;28;07 – 00;01;04;08
Rebecca Hay
Podcast, online courses and so many freaking books. Over the last decade, I’ve grown from an insecure student to having false starts to careers. And now I’m finally in the place where I want to be. Throughout my journey, it’s been pretty obvious that I’m passionate about business and helping other entrepreneurs do the same. Each week, I’ll share tangible takeaways from my own experience and the experiences of other badass women to help you build your confidence and change your business.

00;01;04;10 – 00;01;44;03
Rebecca Hay
Hey hey hey, it’s Rebecca, and you’re listening to Resilient by Design. Today, I’m talking all about the mistakes designers make when they are trying to build and grow a business, and specifically, how to better build a design business that fits your ideal lifestyle. Right? One that is really there to support your dream life. And so I want to walk you through five areas that you can work on that will really make a big difference in helping you build a business that’s going to fit your ideal lifestyle, because that is just as important as making money.

00;01;44;05 – 00;02;14;07
Rebecca Hay
This is a shorty episode, so hopefully this gives you a little bit of pep in your step. These are the five steps that you can consider. Evaluate your business where it stands today. Evaluate the type of business that you want to grow and figure out if you have clarified these five things. Because having these five foundational areas organize and set up in your business, these are going to make a really big difference for you to give you the time freedom to have a wonderful business that’s profitable, but also that fits with your lifestyle.

00;02;14;07 – 00;02;37;26
Rebecca Hay
So here we got the five essentials. Every designer needs to start and build a business that supports their dream life. Let’s go. Rapid fire. Number one. A clear and scalable business model. If you don’t define your services and who you want to serve, you’re going to take on anything which will lead to burnout, right? This is why it matters.

00;02;38;04 – 00;02;58;12
Rebecca Hay
This is why you need to treat your business like a business and have a business model. So here’s what you can do. You can write down if you don’t, especially if you don’t know what I’m talking about or you don’t really have a clear business model. You’re like, it’s kind of wishy washy at best. Write down what is your dream project five years from now?

00;02;58;14 – 00;03;22;09
Rebecca Hay
Take a minute. Write it on a piece of paper, a paper, journal, Pinterest, it, whatever works for you. Whatever floats your boat. But what kind of spaces are you designing? Five years from now, who is your ideal client? How much are you charging? How much are you making? I want you to use this as your guiding vision. What is the business model that will scale you to get to that?

00;03;22;12 – 00;03;41;01
Rebecca Hay
It might be that you simply want to have 1 or 2 really large scale decorating projects a year. It might be that you want to have a team with multiple designers and a studio space. It’s personal. What does that look like to you? Don’t look at your neighbor. Don’t look left. Don’t look right. Don’t look on Instagram. Close your eyes.

00;03;41;01 – 00;04;02;01
Rebecca Hay
What is that vision and what is the business model that you have? Is it going to get you to that five year vision that you have for yourself? I can tell you that a business model where you are a designer for a day, and that’s all you offer. That’s probably not going to get you to 1 or 2 large decorating jobs a year.

00;04;02;01 – 00;04;26;24
Rebecca Hay
I mean, it might, if you happen to do design for a day to for the right client. Think about how you position your service so that you are going to be getting the clients that are going to get you there. Okay. Number two, you need a signature or design process. So here’s why that matters. When you have a clear step by step process, it will build trust with your clients and potential clients.

00;04;26;27 – 00;04;46;10
Rebecca Hay
It’s going to save you time because you’re not reinventing the wheel with every step of a project. And it is going to allow you to charge more money for your services. This was a game changer for me. Once I started to follow a repeatable system and steps, a process that I told my clients about. This is how we do things.

00;04;46;16 – 00;05;14;11
Rebecca Hay
Every project follows our seven steps. I was able to charge more money because clients saw the value. You want to ensure that you have a process that works for you. So take a minute. Outline your design process. Maybe it’s five steps. Inquiry. Concept design. Project management. Styling. Keep it simple. No more than ten steps. Keep it simple and clear so that you can communicate it easily to your clients.

00;05;14;14 – 00;05;31;24
Rebecca Hay
So first you need a scalable business model. You’ve got a vision. What’s going to get you there to get yourself a freaking process? Whether you do full service design or you simply do design for a day, or you do paint consultations, what is the process? What happens after they reach out to you? How do you deliver the service?

00;05;31;24 – 00;06;02;09
Rebecca Hay
It should be rinse and repeat. And then number three, get yourself a lawyer and develop a strong contract which will be your legal foundation for your business. Here’s why that matters. IT contract is going to protect you. It’s going to protect your time. It’s going to protect your money, and it’s going to protect your sanity. By setting clear expectations, boundaries with your clients, your contract can be the cornerstone of your business.

00;06;02;09 – 00;06;29;24
Rebecca Hay
That is the foundational piece. It’s simple. All you need to do is to download a template from the internet. If you want to get it from a reputable source like Acid Burrito or a business lawyer, and then customize the sections to fit your business, and then you need a lawyer to review it. Just because you’ve downloaded it from a reputable source on the internet does not mean that it’s good to go.

00;06;29;25 – 00;06;50;29
Rebecca Hay
I always recommend you get a local lawyer, review it. You pay them a one time fee for them to review, give you feedback, and give you the okay. This is good to use. Three non-negotiable sections that should be in your contract. One. Payment terms. Write what is expected of your client. When do they pay you? How much should they pay you as a percentage?

00;06;50;29 – 00;07;14;10
Rebecca Hay
Is there a hold back? What does that look like? Two what is the project scope? If it’s in the contract, great. Or if it’s an attached appendix also great, but it needs to be in there. Number three timelines. What is the deliverable? Do you have a timeline? Is there an estimated timeline? Are you responsible for timelines that matters?

00;07;14;11 – 00;07;37;09
Rebecca Hay
Make sure those three areas are inside your contract. And of course, make sure that you talk about the services. I feel like this goes without saying, but I’m going to say this anyways. What type of service are you delivering for the fee? What type of service are you responsible for? Who’s on the hook if something goes sideways? These are all of the areas that a lawyer can help you with.

00;07;37;14 – 00;08;08;12
Rebecca Hay
So number one, you need a clear, scalable business model. Two, you need a signature design process. Three you need a strong legal foundation by having a contract. Four you need a clear pricing strategy but also a strong financial system. Number four is all about the money. Here’s why it matters. You need to know your numbers. Because when you know your numbers, it’ll help you set profitable pricing.

00;08;08;15 – 00;08;31;08
Rebecca Hay
It will help you manage your expenses and avoid any financial any financial stress. I can tell you in the early years, oh my goodness me, was I stressed about money? I was in the red, which meant I was owing back taxes to the CRA because I didn’t realize I was collecting money that wasn’t mine, that I then had to pay HST.

00;08;31;11 – 00;08;51;17
Rebecca Hay
Then it was income tax. Like all of those things. Get yourself a bookkeeper. That is how you are going to start and scale a business that fits your lifestyle. If you have someone who’s looking over your expenses monthly and your revenue coming in and helping you track all of that, that will then be the foundation for you to figure out your pricing strategy.

00;08;51;19 – 00;09;07;26
Rebecca Hay
Because if you don’t know how much money you need to keep the doors open in a year, how the heck do you know if you’re pricing your projects accurately? Here’s a simple task that you can do with the help of a bookkeeper or on your own. List all of the business expenses that you have incurred for one entire month.

00;09;07;29 – 00;09;23;23
Rebecca Hay
You could use software. You could do it online. You could enter into an Excel spreadsheet. You could write it on a piece of paper. I don’t really care where it goes. This is an exercise to start to open your eyes. Ideally, if you put in an Excel spreadsheet or a Google Sheet, you could track it month over month, which is what I like to do.

00;09;23;23 – 00;10;07;13
Rebecca Hay
So you can see if there’s any changes. Anything pops up and where areas are that you can reduce, but put them all down on paper for one month. That would include things like software as a service aka SAS rent. If you have a space, marketing expenses like photography, anything you’ve printed printables like business cards, your Wi-Fi, your your your computer expenses, any of your programs like a design files, you know, QuickBooks, subscriptions that you might have like Photoshop, AutoCAD, etc. people that you’ve paid freelancers office supplies, your car if you’re putting that onto your, business, any travel, perhaps any continuing education, like any courses that maybe you’ve signed up for, that is all

00;10;07;13 – 00;10;34;14
Rebecca Hay
a business expense listed, all for one month. Get clear. Pay attention. There might be some expenses that are charged annually. Don’t forget those. Maybe amortize that over 12 months. If you want, but list them all out and then use this amount of money to set your minimum project fee. This is a unique way of looking at it, but if you don’t know your costs, you can’t price profitably.

00;10;34;16 – 00;10;52;13
Rebecca Hay
If it costs you $5,000 a month in expenses plus what you pay yourself, that should be the minimum you’ll ever collect on a project, assuming you get 12 projects a year. Do you see where I’m going? This is basics. This is not a more complex, robust way of doing things, but this is a really good place to start.

00;10;52;16 – 00;11;14;07
Rebecca Hay
If you don’t know your costs, though, it’s going to be very hard for you to price profitably. If your costs in one month exceed how much you’re charging for a project, then you better be bringing in double the amount of projects, right? You need to look across a year, how many projects you need at how much money to cover your expenses.

00;11;14;09 – 00;11;36;24
Rebecca Hay
So that’s number four. So we covered already four areas. These are the essentials that every designer needs to start and build a business to support their dream life. First, a clear scalable business model a vision. What type of business do you want? Is it scalable to where you want to be in five years? To a signature design process?

00;11;36;24 – 00;11;54;26
Rebecca Hay
A step by step way that you run projects every time? Three A strong contract. And hopefully as you’re hearing me talk, some of you are like yep, check. Got that? Yep. Check. Got that. You might need to tweak it like I’m hoping a lot of these are you already have. These are reminders. But for those of you who are new you might not have any of these.

00;11;54;26 – 00;12;18;02
Rebecca Hay
And that’s okay. Number three legal foundation to your business. You need a contract and you need it to be reviewed by a lawyer. Number four financial systems and a pricing strategy. So once you figure out the financials in your business, what does it cost you to run your business every month. Then you can start paying attention to how you price your design projects.

00;12;18;05 – 00;12;46;07
Rebecca Hay
And then lastly number five is marketing. You need a marketing strategy to attract your ideal clients. Why? I mean, it goes without saying, right? But you need to find a consistent, which means repeatable way to bring in new clients, not just to rely on word of mouth. You know, my husband has always said to me, referral business or word of mouth business will keep you in business.

00;12;46;09 – 00;13;12;04
Rebecca Hay
But if you want to scale and you want to grow past your current customer base, you need marketing. You need sales. You need to consistently bring in clients on repeat and not rely on word of mouth. Word of mouth is great, though you still want that. So try and brainstorm a list of five tactics that you could use for marketing to bring in your ideal clients.

00;13;12;04 – 00;13;30;25
Rebecca Hay
If you can’t think of what you would do, then you need to get in my bootcamp because that’s exactly what we talk about. We talk about attracting better clients. Many of you have clients, but they’re not the ideal and you just want better projects. You want maybe bigger projects, maybe you want bigger budgets. How are you going to attract those clients?

00;13;31;02 – 00;13;51;27
Rebecca Hay
That’s exactly what my bootcamp is for. It’s coming up. I think you can even register for it today. It is at rebecca.com/bootcamp. Head on over there and you can register for my bootcamp where we do two whole weeks. I’m kicking your butt and I’m going to give you some strategies so you can get moving on the marketing. So you can start to generate those leads and bring in those new clients.

00;13;51;27 – 00;14;20;03
Rebecca Hay
Because without a marketing strategy, it’s going to be very hard to scale. Five essentials. Let me remind you of these five areas. Don’t overcomplicate it. They are essentials, which means focus on the core component and then take small actions that will lead to big results. If this feels overwhelming, pick one, pick one area or even one tiny task from today’s episode that you could complete this week.

00;14;20;05 – 00;14;40;05
Rebecca Hay
Is it? Reach out to a lawyer. Is it? Review your expenses? Is it join my bootcamp? Is it casting a vision for five years from now? I mean, if it was me, I’d probably do that first, even if I’ve done it before. I freaking love that exercise. I do it at least once a year, if not daily. I’m constantly dreaming of where am I going to be in my future?

00;14;40;05 – 00;15;00;19
Rebecca Hay
Is it your process? Do you need to map out step by step? What step? What task can you accomplish this week? So I would love to hear from you. DM me which task are you tackling first? I would love to hear from you. Send me a DM on Instagram. I’m Rebecca, he designs on Instagram. Please subscribe to this podcast.

00;15;00;20 – 00;15;17;01
Rebecca Hay
Leave me a review. Share this episode with a friend. Maybe there’s someone you know who is just starting out in their design business, and this could be a real good kick in the butt. Maybe it’s somebody who hasn’t even taken that leap of faith yet, but is curious and wants to know if they’ve got the chops. Send them this episode.

00;15;17;01 – 00;15;40;14
Rebecca Hay
It’s bite sized and I hope it’ll inspire you to take a little bit more action to get your business set up like a business, so that you can scale to that five year vision for your life. All right, guys, I hope you enjoyed this Shorty episode. I’ll see you soon.