One of the most exciting businesses to be in today, interior designing is a fast growing business with a huge potential as more people are buying newer homes or remodeling the existing ones. According to Home magazine around 46% Americans plan to remodel their existing living spaces today. Like any other business,the interior design business too needs the drawing up of an interior design business plan before beginning operations.
The benefits of making an interior design business plan are;
1.It gives you a framework within which to operate your business
2.The plan outlines the main action points to be done to set your business in motion.
3.The drafting of the plan gives you a thorough idea about all the facets of the business and you get an insiders view of your business.
4.The plan outlines your mission, company profile, target market and products and services to be offered thus giving you a broad framework for your business.
5.The plan will also give you a idea of the expenses that you will need to incur to start your business and thus greatly reducing the risk of overspending and unproductive expenditure.
6.The plan is also the basis on which you can approach banks and investors for funds for your project.
The key points that are to be included in an interior design business plan are; ( This is an indicative list and actuals may vary for different individuals)
1. The business plan should begin with an executive summary of the company which is actually a short summary of your entire business plan. This is normally drafted once you are done with preparing the entire plan.
1.The plan should include a list of the objectives of the business in terms of what it aims to achieve in revenue and market size and how it aims to do so.
2. It should include a mission statement which will highlight the reason for operating the firm and how they plan to achieve their objectives.
3. The interior design business plan should also include a company summary which will contain a brief note about the company along with the name and address of the owner of the business. apart from this it will also contain the address of the registered office of the firm along with the locations and addresses of branch offices if any.
4. Organizational layout of the company.
5.The interior designing business plan will also contain details about the all products and services being offered to the clients.
6.It should contain a market analysis survey based on geographical area and demographics (specific preferences and tastes) which will help it to understand its potential clients better and design their products and services to suit their clients needs.
7.The plan should also contain a report about the future potential of the market in terms of the growth expected (to help you analyze the scope of the market). This will help you to select a niche which has scope for growth and has a low entry barrier.
8.It should also include details about the target market (in terms of the geographical area, segment and the size of the market) that you have chosen to operate in and a list of the services and products that you would be providing to your target market.
9. A Competition analysis report can be included to give you a picture about your competitors (their strengths and shortcomings). This can be very useful to you to decide the segment you want to work in by analysing the level of competition in each and can also help you to build up on the weaknesses of your competition and to learn from their strengths.
10. A SWOT analysis ( strengths,weakness,opportunities and threats) of yourself to help understand your strengths and weaknesses and to analyse threats and see if they could be converted to opportunities.
11. The report should contain a list and preferably quotes from different vendors and suppliers in the area to help you zero in on the vendors that you wish to work with.
12.Marketing strategy to be undertaken by the business to penetrate the market.
13.Personnel and human resource policies to be followed.
14.Financial projections and estimations.
15.Pricing strategies( includes the credit terms for customers and also the rules to make tenders to participate in bids)
16.Future growth plans for the interior design business.
17.A section containing details of why you think that the growth assumptions made by you are realistic.
Make a note here that you should try and incorporate as much data and figures in your plan that you can manage to collect. Data pertaining to market size,market trends and even competition will give you the correct picture of the business you are about to begin and will help you formulate a realistic interior design business plan.
After collecting all this data preparing the plan you will begin to see a outline for your business and now you can begin to execute your plan on the ground. You can begin by following the plan in the listed order and begin to undertake the activities that you have listed in the interior design business plan.
