Focus Your Business Vision

What is your vision for the future of your interior design business?Obviously, one of your goals as an interior designer is to help your clients realize their vision of any space they wish to repurpose, reimagine or create from the ground up. In fact, helping them to do so may be your most important function as their interior designer. As a business owner however, that same talent may be just as important – creating and realizing your own vision of your design business.Creating a vision for your business involves generating a vivid mental image of what you want your business to be at some point in the future, based on your values, goals, and aspirations. Having a strong vision of your hoped-for future will give your business a clear focus, and can stop you heading in the wrong direction.

Begin with a Vision Statement

The Vision Statement for your design business should focus on the potential you see for your future, or what you intend that future to be. While your Vision Statement might contain references to how you plan to turn that future into reality, the “how” you will do so is really part of a “Mission Statement”, while your Vision Statement is more a description of the “what” you hope to do; meaning, what the you intend your design business to become.The clearer you’re able to hold the mental image of the future of your business, the more effective your Vision Statement will be, and the more focused your actions will become. Generalizations and vague goals will not work well for you. Rather, think in terms of definitive statements that reflect your values, which will help you outline a path toward your long-term business goals.

What will success look like?

Here are four steps you can take to articulating a Vision Statement for your design business:

1. A typical Vision Statement will be brief and succinct; saying much in just a few words, so those words must be very carefully chosen.
2. The key to a good business Vision Statement is to think of things in a long-term, broad sense, without sounding generic.
3. If you're too specific, you will limit your vision and it won't be applicable ten years down the road: for example, if your current goal for your business is to move into a larger space, that's a vision for the future but it's not the vision for the future of your entire business. It's too narrow in focus.
4. On the other hand, if you say that you want to achieve success – well, any business in the world could say that. It's too generic. The best statement will be clear about who you are as a company as well as who you wish to become.

Here is an example of a possible Vision Statement:“In five years, I want to bill $10 million annually, with a client base of “A-listers”, and a staff of 5 designers and design assistants, located in a home that we have completely renovated in my favorite styling.”The beauty of this statement is that it is very specific, contains realistic goals, and includes a values-based outlook.We’re all familiar with the type of client who says they know what they want, but simply cannot put their vision into words. Of course, since they have you and your training, experience, and talent to fall back on, that’s not an insurmountable obstacle for them. As a business owner however, you have no one to fall back on – you ARE the “last resort” in this situation – with your image and vision of the future of your design business being your only guide.