When you imagine starting an e-design business, I’ll bet what first comes to mind is not: “Hooray! I can’t wait to get all of my behind the scenes business stuff set up!” I’m guessing that your initial thoughts are probably more along the lines of being excited to start working with clients and designing beautiful spaces. I know that was true for me when I started Mix & Match Design Company and I bet many of you are nodding your heads too.

When you’re embarking on the journey of creative entrepreneurship, it’s easy to want to jump right into client projects and push the backend business aspects to the side to tackle later. But, if you want to set your online interior design business up for long-term success, you have to prioritize getting the backend in tip top shape. Getting your ducks in a row now will ultimately lead to more clients, more profit, a better client experience, and help you create a sustainable business that’s poised for growth.

So what exactly am I referring to when I’m talking about getting the backend of your business in order? Well, there are four major categories that I think are important to focus on: administration, operations, business strategy, and marketing. I highly suggest working on each of these early on in the life of your company – think of them as the foundation on which you build your design empire (yes!). Without a firm foundation, your business will be on shaky ground, and you’ll find yourself frustrated and wondering why it isn’t taking off like you thought it would.

Let’s define each of these four categories and talk a little bit about what falls under each one.

Administration

Administration is a broad category, but in the context of a new business, there are some one-time tasks you’ll need to check the box on before you can (really) do anything else.

The first is to choose a name for your business. This may seem obvious, but it’s important and worth mentioning explicitly. Your business name is ultimately what will represent you and your brand so choose wisely! It’s also necessary in a practical sense because you’ll need it to move forward with some other significant administrative tasks like defining the legal structure of your business and filing federal/state paperwork, setting up a business checking account, and purchasing the domain name for your website.

Another important administrative task is to determine where you’ll work and what equipment you’ll need to run your business. For a designer, creating your office provides an opportunity to flex those creative muscles when you’ve got your head down in the nitty-gritty, behind-the-scenes stuff. While it might be tempting to claim your dining table or sofa as your “world headquarters,” I’d encourage you to establish a dedicated work space if possible. Whether that’s renting office space, joining a co-working space, or creating an office in your home, having a spot that’s fully committed to running your business will help you feel legit and give you a place to be “all in.” It’s also good for your work/life balance to be able to physically leave work at the end of the day. Trust me, after working at home for several years, I’ve learned the value of being able to shut my office door!

Once you check off some of these one-time administrative tasks, you’ll be ready to tackle the other three categories.

Operations

Business operations is all about creating high levels of efficiency in order to maximize your profits. While we can’t possibly cover everything under this topic today, I do want to highlight some key ideas that you’ll want to work on to bring order to your business and make it highly productive. Investing in your business ops now will serve you well in the long run.

Over time, you’ll want to establish processes and standardize as many parts of your business as possible. Break down everything you do on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis and start organizing systems to get all those tasks done. When you first begin, there will likely be a lot of trial and error (give yourself some grace!), but once you feel like you have a good handle on what it takes to operate your business, you can begin to look at what you’re doing with a more critical eye. For example, think through each step of taking a client project from start to finish and ask yourself, “How can I do this better or more efficiently?” Figure out if there are particular time-wasters that are repeat offenders, if there are better tools or software you could use, and if you should outsource some things that simply aren’t in your skillset (or that someone else could do faster or better).

Remember, time is your most precious resource as an entrepreneur!

Business Strategy

Business strategy is all about figuring out how you will achieve your goals. Of course, to get the point of being able to craft strategies, you’ll need to have some goals in place – these two things are clearly interrelated!

To get to the strategy piece, first spend some time brainstorming your big-picture goals for your business. Figure out the answers to questions like how much money you want to make this year and what kinds of clients you want to serve. Once you’ve answered those, then it’s time to dive into the how. Think through the resources you have at your disposal and create a clear roadmap to achieving those goals.

Practically, in an e-design business, this means putting together a thorough business plan that defines your revenue model, determines your pricing strategy, outlines your deliverables, and lays out a marketing plan among other strategic considerations.

Marketing

Once you’re well underway on the administration, operations, and strategic categories, it’s time to figure out how you’ll market your business. Marketing is all about getting the word out about what you’re offering to potential clients.

Marketing is about more than just advertising or posting on social media. To be successful, you’ll need a multi-pronged approach that involves research, idea generation, and action. Your marketing strategy should ultimately be about crafting a brand that represents you and your goals, and then publicizing it like crazy across all sorts of channels. Shout it from the rooftops!

The marketing “materials” you create can be physical or digital – they include everything from your business cards, to your website, to your public profiles on the web. The promotion of those materials is about getting folks excited about your company and convincing them to work with you. Social media, press, and advertising are some of the big channels you can use to market your business.

A Final Word

Clearly there’s a lot of work that needs to happen in the backend of your business before you even think about taking your first client! If you want to create a successful, sustainable e-design business that serves your clients well, you need to prioritize tackling the tasks in these four behind-the-scenes categories.

My best advice for getting it all done? Start with the basics, take things one step at a time, and find someone you can bounce ideas off of and who will support you as you get started. Taking that approach will help decrease the overwhelm and keep you going when you’re in the early phases of launching your e-design company.

***Want to learn more?

Join Chaney Widmer and Sheilah MacSporran, the CEO of DesignFiles, for a FREE webinar on May 31st (10am PT / 1pm ET) where we’ll be diving into more detail about setting up the backend of your business for success.

As an added bonus all webinar attendees will receive the “Startup Checklist” an absolute must if you’re launching your own e-design business!

Mix & Match Design Company was founded by Chaney Widmer in 2015 with the goal of making interior design services accessible and affordable for everyone. Over the past several years, Mix & Match has grown into a multi-faceted business that serves not only clients, but other interior design businesses as well. On the client side, Chaney offers one-on-one e-design packages, and also shares inspiring and educational design content to a broad audience through twice-weekly blog posts and on social media. In February of 2018, she expanded into the “B-to-B” world and released an online course for designers (or aspiring ones!) who want to launch their own online interior design businesses. This self-paced course is released a few times a year and provides a “quick start” guide to getting an e-design business up and running. Enabling others to pursue their goal of starting a design business is a passion of Chaney’s, and she’s very excited to help them succeed!