Name: Sophie Louisa Interiors
Based: Exeter
Website: sophielouisa-interiors.co.uk
Setting up my home-based interior design business has been hard work but extremely rewarding. One of the things that I realised early on in the startup stage is that it can be a lonely place – you often wonder if it is just you going through some of the obstacles that come up.
I set out to meet other people within the industry who were running their own home-based businesses. Through joining a social media networking group, which is run for interior designers and curtain makers, I found I am far from alone. We share our thoughts on the everyday running of our businesses and the challenges that we all face.
This has helped me hugely when it has come to my own business. We post questions when we get stuck or just need advice, and there is always a huge amount of feedback from people within the trade, and responses to questions nobody else would know how to answer. This has been invaluable and most importantly, I don’t feel it is just me anymore.
Going through the challenges of running a home-based business, I started to look for networking groups in my area and was surprised to find there was a huge amount of events to meet other small business owners in an informal way. These are fun ways to get out and meet like-minded people, while bringing your business to the forefront of people’s minds. And all over a latte – brilliant!
Sophie Watkiss an interior designer at Sophie Louisa Interiors
