Sage had been taking design work on the side of a marketing career for years — enough to know she could sell it, not enough to trust that she could deliver it. Read how she put the two halves together.
My marketing background already gave me some advantages but The Interior Academy added what was missing. Right now my studio is on track to pass $30,000 this month. The combination of business strategy and design training in one place is rare and incredibly valuable.
Read it on Trustpilot →Sage spent her career in marketing and took design work on the side of it for years. Friends' homes first, then referrals, then small paid projects fitted around a full-time job.
The marketing half came easily. She knew how to position an offer, what to charge for it, and how to find people who'd actually pay — the part most people starting a design business never crack. She'd been doing it professionally for a decade.
The design half was the one she'd borrowed. She was working from instinct, a good eye and a lot of saved images, which is enough for a friend's spare room and nowhere near enough for a whole-house brief.
So she turned things down. Bigger projects, rooms she wasn't confident specifying, clients who wanted drawings rather than ideas. She could sell almost anything except her own design work, because she wasn't sure she could deliver it.
With the design side properly underneath her, the projects she'd been declining became the ones she took. Bigger briefs, proper fees, and a process she could hand a client at the start instead of improvising as she went.
The studio she runs now is on track to pass thirty thousand dollars this month. The selling was never the problem — she finally has something she trusts herself to sell.
A decade in marketing taught her positioning, pricing and how to find people who'd pay — the part most new designers never crack. The design itself she'd picked up as she went. Strong enough for a friend's spare room. Not strong enough to quote a whole house without hedging.
Not a career change — she already had clients and knew how to reach them. What she wanted was to stop declining briefs because she wasn't certain she could specify them, and to put the selling and the designing under one name.
“The combination of business strategy and design training in one place is rare and incredibly valuable.
You already have the eye. We'll help you build the business around it.
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