I work with interior designers often on their websites, strategic planning, and marketing goals. I love working with interior designers because they’re so visually creative. Often, one of our main goals when collaborating is figuring out how to create additional revenue streams for interior designers based off of that creativity.
Finding new ways to make money in your business is actually not new at all. No matter what industry you’re in, we’re all trying to find new ways to reach current clients and new ways to reach new clients. The only way to solve that problem is to start getting creative in how you package your skills and services.
After spending a lot of time working with interior designers, I’ve started an ongoing list of ways interior designers can add new revenue streams to their business. You’re more than welcome to use these for your own business. And please, if you’ve got ideas, add them in the comments section!
Service Based Revenue Stream Ideas for Interior Designers
- Virtual Consultations: If you feel like your style and skill set could speak to an audience beyond your local clients, consider offering virtual consultations. Set your virtual interior design consultations apart from others in the industry: Make it clear exactly how you’ll help your virtual clients; show before and afters based on previous virtual clients; and make sure to get testimonials to prove that your virtual consultations lead to real results.
- Staging Services: Home staging is a massively growing service, particularly for high-end homes. Reach out to luxury realtors and estate managers offering your services and sharing your portfolio. A pricing structure that includes both setup/teardown as well as the duration of the project is key as some of these homes take months to sell and you want to make sure you’re bringing in money each month for every home staged.
- Space & Color Planning: This is a great service for corporate clients when paired with an explanation of how space planning can help efficiency and company morale. Offering to do paid consultations can often lead to larger corporate interior design projects.
- Artwork Selection: Another growing interest in the interior design field is artwork collection and curation. For both corporate and residential clients, you can develop a one time or ongoing service of artwork sourcing and selecting. If you’ve an eye for or background in art this is a great way to upsell a current client. Some interior designers have also been paid to accompany clients abroad for the sole purpose of selecting art and artistic pieces from international galleries or auctions.
- Event Design & Styling: Use your interior design skills to work with corporate clients on creating memorable events and conference spaces. Again, this is a great upsell to current corporate clients. Offer your services for their next client social, holiday party, or conference.
Product Based Revenue Streams Ideas for Interior Designers
- Curated Furniture & Goods Shop: Sell directly to current clients and new customers through an online shop. This can be anything from unique finds to wholesale purchases to local artist prints. You curate based on your style and what you can procure at a good cost. I have found that if you don’t pair this with a strong marketing plan, you’re looking at an uphill battle. Hire a web designer/marketer (ahem, like me) to work with you on a web traffic and direct marketing plan for your online shop.
- Printable Design Templates: If you work with clients who often prefer a mix of professional help and relying on their own abilities, offer downloadable mood boards, floor plans, or shopping lists. This will help them with their DIY attempts while still keeping you in their mind as an expert for future projects.
- Fabric & Wallpaper Collections: Your time in the interior design field, working for clients on their specific tastes often shows you where there’s a white space in the market. No beautiful wallpaper with certain colors or patterns? Hire a graphic designer to design and create your own collection. This can then be sold by you or licensed to a larger fabric or wallpaper company.
Content & Education Based Revenue Streams for Interior Designers
- Online Courses or Workshops: Teach incredibly specific design skills or industry knowledge through online platforms. There’s so much competition in this area now that you need to be very niched down. Do you have a background in Japanese design, Feng Shui, or something else interior design adjacent? If so, that’s where you focus your courses or workshops.
- Interior Design Blog with Advertising: This is a great way to earn passive income through blog ads with relevant brands, but you need planning and strategy behind it. You’ll want to work with a web designer/marketer (ahem, like me) to develop an editorial calendar that will drive organic traffic and grow your SEO.
- YouTube Channel: YouTube is one of the best social media options out there when it comes to making money. With long-form videos about interior design, you can make money through YouTube commercials as well as sponsorships within your video. That’s an allowed double-dipping that you should definitely make the most of.
Partnership Revenue Streams for Interior Designers
- Affiliate Marketing: This is a must-do for interior designers. You work with brand products to create visual beauty every day. Now, take photos of your products and find “similar” or “exact” links to items in your photos and post on Like To Know or Amazon. You can also work with individual brands as a brand affiliate to promote their products on your blog and socials and receive a small percent of every sale you develop.
- Real Estate Partnerships: This one is less of a new revenue stream and more of a new client stream. Reach out to local real estate businesses and offer your services to their new clients. If you want to incentivize them, offer them a kick back of every sale they send your way. And, if you’re offering virtual
There are so many ways to expand and scale your interior design business, and I enjoy thinking about them. If you’ve tried any of these additional revenue streams for interior designers or have other ideas, please share in the comments. I’d love to hear more about what worked in your business.
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I believe we are called to a life of creativity, and I’m trying to show up for that every day. When I’m not designing website templates, brands or illustrations, I’m getting my glitter shoes metaphorically muddy with my own artistic pursuits. I’m a maker, a quilter, a Christmas enthusiast, a baker, and a truly abysmal (but passionate) gardener.
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