So this past week was already pretty productive. One tip I can give to anyone starting a side business is to schedule in time specifically to work on it. Without the structure, I constantly kept letting other responsibilities get in the way. I finally decided to give up my lazy Saturday mornings in favor of what I now call my 'office hours.' This scheduled, uninterrupted time has already made such a difference (and it's only been 2 weeks so far.)
I decided to take a step back and start at the beginning, really thinking through my vision for the business and where I stand in the current market. I'm a step-by-step kind of person, so I am finding that this works better for me than just jumping right in as I was originally trying to do. I did a ton of research regarding the current state of the interior design industry, as well as looked up my future 'competitors' in my area. This research has really helped me identify a need within my local market, to hone in to what unique services I can offer, and who my target market will be.
What I discovered was encouraging. Lately I had been feeling like my vision to make interior design more accessible to all has already been offered by so many people (which made me wish I had followed through when I first thought of it over four years ago!) But now I see where I would stand within my target market and believe that there is still a strong need for the services I want to offer, even if the idea is not so unique anymore.
In case this helps, these are some of the websites that helped me with my research (in addition to our buddy Google):
Next week I will start focusing on one of my favorite topics - branding!
All images in this post by Interior Stylist Lucyina Moodie (her portfolio is gorgeous!)
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1 comment:
this is so helpful--I feel like we're going through the same thing, at the same time! It helps so much to hear it firsthand from someone who's trying to follow the same path...bravo!!
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