Interior designers seek stronger business models at Lagos masterclass

Interior design practitioners in Nigeria are seeking stronger pricing, business and intellectual property models to improve the commercial viability of their businesses, experts said at a masterclass in Lagos.

The practitioners gathered at an interior design business masterclass titled “Structuring Your Design Business for Profit”, which focused on practical approaches to pricing, structuring and managing design businesses within the Nigerian market.

The session brought together emerging and established practitioners to examine some of the challenges limiting profitability in the industry, including poor pricing practices, weak business structures, procurement difficulties, logistics and inadequate protection of creative work.

Folakemi Oloye, creative director of Teal Harmony Limited, said the masterclass was created to address the gap between the creative capabilities of Nigerian interior designers and their ability to build profitable businesses around their expertise.

She said many practitioners possess strong design skills but lack the business knowledge and systems required to consistently translate their creativity into financial returns.

“What is available are things from maybe the UK, from America, from other different business models that are different from our Nigerian culture,” Oloye said.

According to her, business models developed for foreign markets cannot always be applied directly to Nigeria because of differences in the operating environment, client expectations and market realities.

“There isn’t enough information out there on how to do your business as an interior designer,” she said.

Oloye said the lack of industry-specific business knowledge could discourage talented practitioners, with some eventually returning to conventional employment because they struggle to make their design practices financially sustainable.

A major focus of the masterclass was pricing, with practitioners examining how designers can better value their creative and professional input.

Agatha Eric-Udorie, founder and chief executive officer of Agatha’s Interior Design Limited, identified poor pricing as one of the factors undermining the profitability of Nigerian interior designers.

She said stronger pricing knowledge would enable practitioners to better assess the value of their services and avoid accepting projects at fees that do not adequately cover their professional and operating costs.

Oloye recommended that designers adopt clearer pricing frameworks, including charging based on the number of rooms or the size of a project in square metres, depending on the nature of the assignment.

She also advised practitioners to break their services into clearly defined components rather than presenting clients with a single undifferentiated fee.

These components could include three-dimensional designs, floor plans, mood boards, working drawings, sourcing and bills of quantities, she said.

According to her, separating the components would give clients greater flexibility to choose services according to their budgets while ensuring designers are properly compensated for work already delivered.

The masterclass also examined the financial risks designers face when projects are poorly structured.

Oloye cited the experience of a designer who incurred personal costs after making an alteration to a landscaping project that had already been approved by a client.

The designer had installed a covering over a pergola after considering feedback from students and staff who would use the facility. The client subsequently rejected the modification, leaving the designer to personally finance its removal and disposal.

Oloye said the experience highlighted the importance of obtaining clear client approval before making changes that could increase project costs.

She also urged designers to divide projects into distinct stages, with separate fees for design, procurement and installation.

This, she said, would limit the financial exposure of designers when clients discontinue a project after the design stage or choose another contractor for execution.

“Design is intellectual property,” Oloye said, stressing that practitioners should place a clear monetary value on their creative and technical input.

Another participant at the masterclass described producing measurements and drawings for eight apartments for a serviced-apartment project before the client eventually abandoned the engagement.

She later discovered that another designer appeared to have used elements of her work.

Oloye said the experience reinforced the need for practitioners to separate and charge for design services before moving into procurement and execution.

Kene Nwe, creative director and founder of TCP Design Studio, identified procurement, logistics and marketing as other challenges confronting interior design businesses.

Nwe said the masterclass allowed participants to identify weaknesses within their businesses and examine how they could transition from informal operations to more structured and sustainable practices.

She said stronger systems were necessary for designers to improve consistency in project delivery, productivity and financial performance.

Oloye said the inaugural masterclass was limited to 15 participants to facilitate deeper engagement and practical discussions around the realities of running an interior design business in Nigeria.

She said the programme was particularly targeted at emerging designers seeking to build systems that make productivity repeatable, improve business consistency and create more predictable financial outcomes.

The discussions at the Lagos masterclass highlight a growing need for Nigerian interior designers to approach the profession not only as a creative practice but also as a structured business, with clear pricing, contracts, intellectual property protections and systems for managing projects from design through execution.

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