Nicole — this is everything we've researched about running a freelance interior-design business, turned into the handful of decisions only you can make. Read each short bit, pick what feels right, and add anything in your own words. Your answers become the actual settings for your pricing, your packages, and the proposals & contracts the system will generate for you — all in your brand.
There are no wrong answers, and nothing here is locked forever — we can change any of it later. ★ marks what Chapter V suggests for a strong start, blending proven industry practice with Dr. Clare Le Roy's (@thelittledesigncorner) methods you love — so this becomes your studio, not a copy of anyone's. Your work saves automatically as you go.
What's inside
The 11 things we'll decide together
Skim now, fill in order. Each section teaches, then asks.
Two connected pieces, sharing one set of client records.
In plain terms
Studio HQ — your private back office. Where you manage leads, build quotes, send proposals, store documents, and watch the money. (This is the dashboard you've already seen growing.)
Client Portal — your clients' front door, living on tailormate.design. Where they fill out intake, view & approve proposals, sign, pay a deposit, and watch their project move. Your clients can use this now, while the phone app is still being built.
Every client flows along one track: Inquiry → Qualify → Discovery call → Quote → Proposal → Sign & deposit → Project → Deliver → Invoice → Done. Everything else in this document is just a stop on that track.
Does this two-part direction feel right to you?★ Yes, build it this way
Section 2 · Brand
Your brand & your voice
Every proposal, quote, and email is a sample of your taste. We make them all look like you, automatically.
Why this matters
Research is blunt about it: typography and consistency are the #1 "amateur vs. pro" tell. One study found the same item judged 24% more valuable simply set in an elegant font. Your docs literally signal your price tier.
We already have a starting kit: the TAILORMATE wordmark, a warm chalk + soft-pink palette, and two fonts (Poppins + a typewriter accent). We just need you to confirm or redirect.
The pink-and-chalk palette you see here — keep it?★ Keep it
Your voice — how should your writing sound?★ Confident, warm, a little blunt
This trains the "Write with Claude" tool so drafts come out sounding like you, not a robot.
Section 3 · Services
The services you'll offer
Designers stack services into tiers — from a quick paid call all the way to full-service. You don't have to offer all of them.
The usual menu (pick what's you)
Discovery call — a free 15–20 min fit check (no design ideas given away).
Paid consult — a focused session with real advice (virtual or in-home).
E-Design package — you design it, the client buys & executes. Flat price, location-independent. Great first money-maker. Typical $299–$999 per room.
Full-service — you run the whole thing: design, sourcing, ordering, install. Typical $3,500–$10,000+ per room, plus product.
The Find — sourcing secondhand/marketplace gems for a client (already in your toolkit).
Procurement / markup — you buy the furniture at trade pricing and earn the markup (more in Section 4).
Which services do you want to offer to start?★ Discovery call + Paid consult + E-Design
Check all that apply — we can add the rest as you grow.
Want us to set up a "Good / Better / Best" package ladder?★ Yes
A simple 3-tier menu (e.g. E-Design Essential → E-Design Plus → Full-Service) makes it easy for clients to pick a "yes."
Section 4 · Money
How you'll charge
This is the part beginners get wrong most — so we researched it hard. Here's the honest version.
The one idea that protects you: there are 4 different things you charge for
1. Your work / expertise — your design fee. This is your profit engine, and it's separate from any product. Beginners undercharge here most. Charge it as hourly, a flat fee, or a package.
2. Furniture & product — you buy at trade pricing and add a markup. The markup is your pay for sourcing, ordering, and handling.
3. Materials — paint, fabric, hardware. Same idea as furniture (cost + markup).
4. Other people's labor — painters, installers, contractors. Usually passed through at cost, or +~20% if you manage them. Keep it visibly separate so clients see you're not padding the trades.
⚠ A few honest things to know
Two valid philosophies on product. You can add a markup (the common industry approach), OR — like Dr. Clare Le Roy teaches — take no markup, pass your trade discount to the client as a perk, and charge a higher design fee instead. Neither is "right" — you'll pick yours below.
Markup isn't the same as profit margin. A 40% markup on your cost is only about a 28.5% margin on the price. We'll show both so you're never fooled. Most who mark up land near 35%.
Your consult prices ($49 / $99 / $149) are below the market for in-home work — those read like virtual/e-design prices. In-home consults usually run $150–$350. Totally fine to start low to win your first clients — just your call. (More in Section 5.)
What's your main way of charging for your design work, to start?★ Hourly — lowest risk for a first-timer
Why hourly first: you literally can't underbill, and you learn how long jobs really take. Then we graduate you to flat packages (where speed = profit). We'll track your hours either way. Love Clare Le Roy's way? Her phased fixed-fee + hourly-for-meetings model is the 4th option.
How do you want to make your money on furniture & product?★ Your call — both are legit
Two schools of thought. Pick the one that feels like you — you can change it later.
Got it on the 4 cost types?
Section 5 · The first call
Consults & discovery
How a stranger becomes a paying client — and how to talk about money without the dread.
The move that saves beginners
Offer a free 15–20 min discovery call — but treat it as a fit check, not free design. You confirm budget, timeline, and who decides; you do not give away ideas.
Put budget on the form before the call, as a range to pick from. This is how you avoid pitching a $40k room to a $12k client — and it spares you the awkward live money talk.
A great trick: credit the paid consult fee toward the project if they book. Filters out tire-kickers without scaring off serious clients.
Dr. Clare Le Roy's rule: every project starts with a paid consultation — no free design advice. You can still keep a free fit-check call before that paid consult, or skip straight to paid. Your style — choose below.
Your consult price ladder?★ $99 / $199 / $299
Free 15-min discovery call before any paid consult?★ Yes
Credit the consult fee toward the project if they book?★ Yes
Section 6 · Geography
Location, travel & tax
Where your client is changes your price, your travel, and your taxes — so we build it into the quote.
Three things location drives
Your rate. Big metros (NYC/SF/LA) pay 1.3–2× small-market rates for the same work. We set a "market tier" so your prices fit where you are.
Travel. In-home visits past a set distance usually carry a trip fee or mileage. You set the free radius.
Sales tax. If you resell furniture to clients, you'll likely need a resale certificate, and you collect tax on the product. Rules differ by state — your accountant confirms this. (For e-design, none of this applies.)
Which market tier fits where you work?
Your home base & service area
Will you resell furniture/product to clients (buy at trade, sell to them)?★ Yes — it's a real revenue stream
If yes, you'll need a resale certificate + to handle sales tax. We'll flag it for your accountant — not legal advice.
Section 7 · Screening
Choosing good clients
The wrong client costs you more than no client. A short intake form screens them out before you spend a minute.
How the funnel works
Two forms, not one. A short form up front (the gate) qualifies them in ~10 questions. A longer one comes after a good call, to actually start designing.
The system can auto-flag risky leads: budget below your minimum, deadline too tight, no single decision-maker, or "fired their last designer."
Your minimum project size (your floor)?★ Route anything smaller to E-Design
Leads under your floor get gently pointed to your lower-touch package instead of a full consult.
Which warning signs should the system flag for you automatically?★ All of them
Section 8 · Paperwork
Proposals, contracts & documents
The system generates these for you, in your brand. You pick which ones matter first.
The essentials
The proposal is a sales document — pretty, personal, and it never shows one scary lump sum. It shows itemized or tiered pricing, ends with "sign here + pay deposit."
The contract (Letter of Agreement) protects you: scope, what's excluded, revision limit, deposit, cancellation/kill fee, who owns the designs, and your right to photograph the work for your portfolio.
Then the working docs as a project runs: scope of work, mood boards, product/sourcing lists, purchase orders, invoices, change orders, and a final handover binder.
⚖️ Honest note: the system will draft your contract, but a few clauses (liability, ownership, cancellation, and anything about your state's rules) genuinely need a licensed attorney in your state to review once. We'll mark exactly which ones. This document and the tool are not legal advice.
Which documents should we build first?★ Intake → Proposal → Contract → Invoice
How many revision rounds are included by default?★ 2
This single number is your best defense against "just one more change" forever. (Straight from Clare Le Roy: cap it in writing, then bill beyond it.)
Run projects in phases, like Clare Le Roy?★ Yes — cleaner & safer
Break a project into stages (Concept → Documentation → Construction → Install), price each one, and get paid + signed off before each begins. The client never sees one scary number, and you never work unpaid.
Deposit to start a project (or each phase)?★ 50% up front
Clare's rule: never start work unpaid — 50% to begin, balance on completion (and if you phase it, 50% to start each phase).
Section 9 · The portal
What your clients can do online
Your portal lives on tailormate.design. The biggest complaint about every competitor's portal: clients find them confusing and hate logging in. We win by making yours dead simple.
The edge
Top tools (Houzz Pro, Mydoma) get dinged for clunky logins and 50–80 hour setup. A challenger is winning purely on "no account needed."
So your clients get a single private link — no password, no app download — where they do everything below.
What should clients be able to do in their portal?★ All of these
No-login "magic link" for clients — sound good?★ Yes
Section 10 · Launch
What goes live first
Stripe & your business registration happen next — so here's the realistic order.
Two ways to start
Option A (recommended): You start running your newsletter + back office for real right away. The client-facing intake/proposal/portal flow is built and polished, and goes live to real strangers the moment Stripe + registration are done (very soon after).
Option B: We rush a real stranger being able to submit an intake on day one — which means wiring payments & sign-up before everything else is ready.
Which launch path do you want?★ Option A — back office now, clients right after Stripe
What matters most to have working first? Pick your top few.
Section 11 · You
Your wishlist & worries
This part is just you, in your own words. The most useful answers in the whole document.
If this studio worked perfectly, what would it do for you?
What's the part of running this business that worries you most?
Anything else on your mind — a feature, an idea, a question?
That's it — send it to Chapter V.
One click and your answers go straight to Chapter V — no files, no email needed. Everything you chose turns into your studio's real setup.