Everyone wants a beautiful home. Especially now, our homes are where we spend the most time and energy, so they should feel nice, welcoming, and comfortable. This is why the US home decor market is worth almost $190 billion. If you have a good sense of style and design, you could start your own business selling home furniture and help people feel better about their living areas. You could start by selling online and then open a shop later.
But you need more than a good eye for design to start a business selling home decor. You need to know how to run a business and understand all of the complicated parts of doing so. This step-by-step guide has all the information you need to get ready for your new job in home decor.
Step 1: Find Out if this is the Right Business for You?
Positives Vs Negatives
| Use your creativity when choosing what to sell. Flexibility: Choose a niche, make things, sell online, or open a store. Good Value – Excellent markups on home décor goods. If you use a drop-ship provider, you don’t need to keep any stock. | Tastes change, and it’s important to stay up-to-date. Competition on the market: There are too many options for home decor on the market. |
Industry Trends
- Size and progress in the past: In 2020, the US home decor market was worth $175 billion and had grown by an average of 3% each year for ten years.
- Growth predictions: The industry is projected to grow at a rate of more than 3% per year until 2024.
- In the United States, there are almost 15,000 shops that sell furniture for homes.
- The number of employees: Nearly 190,000 people worked in US home goods shops.
Cost of Starting Home Decor Business
About $2,500 will be needed to start an online store where you get things from a supplier or manufacturer. This price includes the cost of your most unique request and a website. When you outsource, you ask a provider for something only after a customer asks for it. The provider then sends the thing directly to the customer. You could sell your goods on Etsy or Shopify instead of your own website if you wanted to.
Opening a business that sells home decor can cost up to $40,000. You’ll have to pay to rent the room, get it ready, and make your first inventory.
Is Home Decor Business Profitable?
Prices will vary by item, but these calculations are based on an average item price of $50. Depending on the item, you can increase the price by 20% to 40%, with 30% being the average. After taking out costs, the profit rate for an online store should be around 20%.
For the first year or two, you might be able to sell 5,000 things from home and make $250,000 a year. With a 30% edge, this would mean a total gain of $75,000. As your name becomes more well-known and people buy from you again and again, your yearly sales could hit 25,000 items. Now that you have to rent a shop and hire people, your profit margin will drop to 20%. With a yearly income of $1.25 million, you could expect to make a profit of $250,000.
Entry Barriers
- If you decide to open a business, you will have to pay fees to get started.
- In a busy market, there is a lot of competition.
Step 2: Create a Strategy
Identify a Gap
Research local and online shops that sell home furniture to find out what they sell, how much it costs, and what sells best. You need to fill a gap in the market. For instance, you might not be able to find a local or online business that specializes in 3D art for home decor.
This could get people talking about you again and bring you customers right away.
Solutions
You’ll have to decide if you want to sell a lot of different kinds of home furniture or just a few main types. You should choose things based on what’s hot on the market, but you can also use your own style.
Pricing
Each item will have a different price. To keep your prices competitive, you’ll need to find out what similar things are selling for. A profit margin of about 20% is a good goal.
Once you know your costs, you can use this step-by-step profit margin tool to figure out your rate and final price. Remember that the starting prices could change if the market says so.
Target Market
Your target market will be very big, so your marketing efforts should be spread out. You can find clients on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. You could also work with interior designers to learn about their clients.
Location
If you sell things online and use drop shipping, you can run a business from home. If you want to open a store, you’ll need to rent a place to do business, especially in an area with other stores and a lot of people walking around. Websites like Craigslist, Crexi, and Instant Offices can help you find business space to rent in your area.
If you are looking for a place to do business, you might want to keep these simple ideas in mind:
- The place is in the middle of everything and is easy to get to by public transportation.
- The area gets plenty of natural light and has good air flow.
- You can make the lease longer as your business grows.
- It doesn’t need any major fixes or changes before it can be used.
Step 3: Write a Business Plan
This will serve as a manual for your startup to follow as it launches and stays focused on its primary objectives. A business plan also helps investors and partners learn more about your company and its mission:
- Executive Summary: Brief outline of the whole marketable strategy; ought to be composed after the arrangement is finished.
- Business Outline: An overview of the business, its vision, mission, ownership, and objectives.
- Services and Products: Give a thorough description of your services.
- Market Investigation: Do a SWOT analysis and look at market trends like shifts in demand and potential for expansion.
- Analyses of the Competition: Make a list of your services’ advantages and conduct an analysis of your main competitors, evaluating their advantages and disadvantages.
- Marketing and Sales: Analyze your organizations’ special selling recommendations (USPs) and foster deals, showcasing, and limited time techniques.
- Team of Management: An overview of the management team, including a corporate hierarchy and information about their roles and professional backgrounds.
- Tasks Plan: The procurement, office location, key assets and equipment, and other logistical details of your company’s operational plan are included.
- Monetary Arrangement: Three years of financial planning, including estimates of profit and loss, cash flow, break-even analysis, and startup costs.
- Appendix: Include any additional documents pertaining to business or finances.
Step 4: Create a Marketing Plan
Some of your customers will walk by or find you online, but you should still spend money on ads! Getting the word out about a new business is very important because it will bring in more people and make the brand more well-known.
Once your site is up and going, link it to your social media accounts. You can make fun content and sell your products on social media, which is a great way to get the word out about your business.
- Facebook is a great place to run paid ads because it lets you target specific groups, like guys under 50 in the Cleveland area.
- Instagram is used by a different group of people than Facebook, but it has the same perks.
- Website: Search engine optimization (SEO) will help your website rank higher in appropriate search results, which is a key part of making more sales. Make sure your website makes it clear what people should do next. Change the size, color, and location of calls to action like “Book Now.” This could make a lot more people want to come.
- Google and Yelp: Having your business mentioned on Yelp and Google My Business can help people find out about it and buy from you.
- Signs: Put up signs in your store and on your website that get people’s attention.
- You can hand out handouts in your area and at business events.
- When you sell your goods at local markets and trade shows, you are making person-to-person sales.
- Send buyers and people who might become customers a lot of emails. Do something special for them.
- Start a blog and keep adding to it. Change your work and share it through a variety of platforms.
- Ask for suggestions. Give people a reason to tell their friends about you.
- Paid social media ads: Run targeted ads on sites where your target audience is likely to be.
- Client Testimonials: Show what happy clients have said about your home design.
- Make pictures and put them in what you write.