The Interior Design Business Handbook: A Complete Guide to Profitability

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Product Description

Thousands of interior design professionals have come to rely on The Interior Design Business Handbook for comprehensive, accessible coverage of the essential procedures, tools, and techniques necessary to manage a successful interior design business. The Fifth Edition of this essential resource has been revised to address the latest trends and changes in the field, with new and updated material on business size and structure, building a brand, client development, social networking and Internet marketing, finances, purchasing, technology and software programs, and other key areas.

Complete with more than 75 sample forms and letters, this Fifth Edition is a one-stop resource for all aspects of establishing and running an interior design business—from choosing a location and managing day-to-day operations to growing a business and putting it up for sale. All of the techniques and procedures in the book are rooted in real-world experience and are used daily in successful design firms throughout the United States.

Filled with valuable information for solo practices and small firms as well as larger businesses, this book is an indispensable resource for seasoned professionals as well as interior designers who are at the start of their career.

The Interior Design Business Handbook: A Complete Guide to Profitability Review

THE QUICK TAKE: The Interior Design Business Handbook is a useful survey and overview of the business side of interior design.

But this is probably a tough type of book to write. It's meant to be all things to all people - residential, commercial, big firm, small firm, etc. It has to be encyclopedic in scope, but in just one volume, so it can't always go deeply into any one topic. Within the limits of that format, it does a reasonably good job of covering a lot of ground.

FIVE EDITIONS OF REFINEMENT: This book has been recently revised, and has now been through five editions. That revision and refinement shows in the current edition. Generally, the selection and discussion of topics is well done.

MORE USEFUL AS AN INTRODUCTION: The book will will be probably most useful to those learning about the industry, whether in school or in the initial years in the business, or for those who split their time with another functional or industry role. It may also be useful as a reference for more experienced designers, but I suspect it would tend to be out of sight and out of mind most of the time. Though experienced designers who are still learning the business side may find it especially useful.

MORE EMPHASIS AND GUIDANCE WOULD HELP: The book is designed and written in a way that somewhat equally emphasizes and covers all of the topics. That's a missed opportunity. It would be much more helpful to emphasize and focus on certain topics - both with the design of the book and the discussion - to guide the thinking of those using the handbook.

For example, there's some fairly flat discussion of the issues around your firm's strengths and what type of clients to seek. But client targeting and client selection are critical to your success, your sanity, and your profitability. It helps a lot to know when to say no to a potential new client.

To put it another way, there are 5-10 aspects that are critically important to an interior design business. But the presentation style of the book won't do much to help you quickly learn what they are.

At times it seems this book was written more as a textbook, for that lucrative publishing market, than as a practical business guide.

NOT STRONG ON TECHNOLOGY OR ITS MEANING: Some of the the discussion of technology aspects seems a little outdated. This book really ought to have been updated to reflect how people work now, and edit out some things.

More importantly, I was hoping to see (and didn't find) useful information about how to use technology to support the business, especially marketing. For example, there's too much discussion of marketing brochures, and too little discussion of websites and email.

Now in fairness, that may be really be another book that needs to be written. But I do think it's the job of this type of book to get you oriented and point you in the right direction, and in some areas it falls short.

MOVE THE APPENDICES TO A BOOK COMPANION WEBSITE: Much of what's in the appendices of the book - such as the list of schools offering design programs - would be better placed on a companion website to the book.

BUSINESS HANDBOOK: Note that this is the business handbook, not a more general handbook to interior design. Look elsewhere for how to calculate how much fabric you need!

Some other Amazon books you may want to consider adding to your bookshelf:
Interior Design in Practice: Case Studies of Successful Business Models
Interior Design Clients: The Designer's Guide to Building and Keeping a Great Clientele
Marketing Interior Design
The Interior Designer's Guide to Pricing, Estimating, and Budgeting (Second Edition)
Interior Designer's Portable Handbook: First-Step Rules of Thumb for the Design of Interiors

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