Welcome back.
January has a particular kind of energy: powerful if you give it structure. This weekâs Hothouse is about exactly that - designing systems, rhythms and intentions that steady your business and quietly move it forward, even when enthusiasm ebbs.
1. The Hothouse 2026 Planning Event
One of my greatest reliefs, after five days of live planning sessions, was discovering that the most common feedback was âI feel excited about my business again.â That matters more than almost anything.
The structure of the planning event was intentionally simple. We began with values and vision, because without these youâre just optimising noise. From there, we grounded ambition in reality by looking at the local market you operate in and your current level of experience, using these to shape a suite of services that actually makes sense now, not in some imaginary future version of your business.
Next came the numbers: forecasting the revenue youâd like to generate through the sale of those services. And only then did we turn to marketing - not as a creative free-for-all, but as a focused commercial function. You hand the revenue targets to your marketing department (yes, thatâs you) and ask it to do one job well: make those sales.
From there, your role shifts. You step into the CEO seat, checking in regularly, measuring progress, and making small, intelligent adjustments rather than dramatic reinventions.
If youâd like to experience the full arc, you can either watch the five hours of recorded sessions or read the accompanying blog post, which distils the thinking into a single, coherent philosophy of business planning for designers.
2. January Energy - Structure & Intent
Theme: Order, resolve, authority
Energy: Quiet, serious, reflective
- Annual planning, revenue targets, and service mix
- System upgrades: contracts, onboarding, proposals, templates
- Reset expectations with yourself and your clients
- Set up that CRM spreadsheet! (đ)
3. CRM - New Excel Template Free In Hothouse.
(CRM - Client Relationship Management - a live external record of client interactions, leaving your brain free to do other work).
Most interior designers donât need a complicated CRM.
They need a reliable memory and a fail-safe for follow-ups.
If youâre running a small, relationship-led practice, the biggest risk isnât lack of leads - itâs letting warm conversations drift because nothing is clearly held anywhere, and because you donât have closing the deal as a focus.
The fix is surprisingly simple: use relationship-stage tags properly.
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Think in stages, not spreadsheets
A good CRM answers just one question: Where exactly am I in this relationship?
For a small interior design business, standardised tags - the categories you assign clients to for their current relationship stage - could look something like this:
- ENQUIRY â New
- LEAD â Warm (real intent, not just browsing)
- CONVERSATION â Scheduled
- CONVERSATION â Completed
- PROPOSAL â To Send
- PROPOSAL â Sent
- CLIENT â Active
- CLIENT â Paused
- CLIENT â Completed
- CLIENT â Past / Repeat Potential
- LEAD â Dormant
- LEAD â Not Proceeding
Each contact sits in one stage only at any given time.
If the stage changes, itâs because something happened in real life - a call, a proposal, a decision.
No wishful thinking. No vague labels.
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Why this works so well
Used consistently, these stages:
- stop warm leads falling through the cracks
- make follow-up obvious (and unemotional)
- show you where momentum tends to stall
- help you distinguish ânot nowâ from ânot a fitâ
Most importantly, they free up headspace. You no longer have to remember everything, your system does that for you.
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One rule to keep it elegant: no relationship should exist without a clear next stage or next action. If something feels messy, itâs usually because the stage hasnât been named yet.
Clarity creates calm, in business as much as in design.
Youâll find the downloadable spreadsheet stored under the âFilesâ tab in the Hothouse group. Enjoy.
4. The Hothouse 2026 Calendar - Business circuit training for interior designers
You might think that interior designers spend most of their time designing interiors. Nuh-uh.
Most of the time youâre selling, delivering, managing clients, managing money, managing energy, marketing, positioning, confidence, systems⌠often all in the same week.
Youâll be aware that around here we see business strength as something you build over time through consistent application.
So rather than expecting you to hold everything perfectly at once, Hothouse this year will work like business circuit training.
Each month, weâll put the spotlight on one core pillar of design entrepreneurship.
Youâll cycle your business through a focused set of âexercisesâ, building strength and resilience in that area, before moving on to the next.
Over the year, you build a balanced, robust, well-conditioned business⌠not one strong limb and six weak ones.
Here are our topics for the year: The Seven Pillars of Design Entrepreneurship
These are the seven capabilities I see, again and again, underpinning sustainable, confident, well-run interior design businesses:
- Strategic Vision and Planning
- Founder Presence
- Marketing and Brand Expression
- Sales and Client Acquisition
- Operations, Systems and Professional Practice
- Financial Mastery
- Design Quality and Client Experience
They behave much more like muscles than rules: unused, they weaken; trained regularly, they support everything else.
HOW THE YEAR WILL RUN
Each pillar will be explored over a dedicated month.
The format will usually be:
- Two live sessions, one each on consecutive weeks
- Each session tackling the same theme from a different angle
- Perhaps strategic thinking in oneâŚand
- Practical application in the other
Dates will be released nearer the time (find them here and in Hothouse) so you can plan without feeling locked into an inflexible diary months in advance.
Feel free to:
- Attend live when you want momentum
- Catch up on recordings when life intervenes
- Drop in and out depending on what your business needs most right now
This isnât a linear course you âfall behindâ on - itâs a training room you return to, again and again, as your business evolves.
HOW TO USE HOTHOUSE WELL THIS YEAR
Donât try to do everything perfectly. Instead, ask yourself each month:
âIf this area of my business were 10% stronger by the end of this month, what would change?â
Thatâs enough: small, repeated improvements applied consistently over time, the intentional and conscious strengthening of your business.
Hothouse isnât here to overwhelm you.
Itâs here to help you train your business to behave well, so it supports you rather than drains you. It's free, all year. Join here.
5. RECIPE FOR SUCCESS BOOTCAMP
Bootcamp is back.
20 April â 22 May 2026. With live group teaching on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
If you want to properly reset your interior design business this year - this is the room to be in.
Over five weeks weâll review everything, tighten your foundations, refresh your positioning, and rebuild your marketing so youâre set up for the next decade (not just the next quarter).
Youâll get 5 hours of 1:1 support from me, plus the momentum of a sharp, supportive peer group.
Donât just take my word for it, read Sonia Aucott's Instagram post...
The Early Bird offer wonât be around for ever - currently ÂŁ890, instead of ÂŁ985. Find out more here, or get in touch to chat to me about it.
First-come-first-served.
6. My Week In Hothouse
This week was dominated by the Hothouse 2026 Planning Event, which took up most of my working hours and which I delivered from a rather beautiful coworking building here in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Four days in, a female coworker walked past and I realised I hadnât noticed a single other woman on site (staff aside) until that moment. It seems the world of coworking digital nomads still spins almost entirely male - at least in this part of the world. An observation rather than a complaint, but a striking one nonetheless.
I posted on LinkedIn twice this week! Was it because I felt inspired, strategic, or particularly enthusiastic about the platform? No. I did it because otherwise Iâd be sitting here today having to tell you, once again, that I hadnât.
That is genuinely the reason.
Because Iâve designed my business intentionally, declared my commitments, and measure my activity weekly, I know almost immediately when I havenât followed through. The system does the remembering for me. Once itâs set up, it requires remarkably little willpower or emotional energy.
For the same reason, I also squeezed out a last-minute, panic Instagram post. Here are this week's stats - a green streak đ:
Elsewhere, Iâm keeping up my New Year intention to speak live online more often, both inside Hothouse and on Instagram. That still stretches me, but it matters.
And, I've been booked by the BIID to deliver at least another three sessions in the coming months - more to follow.
So, all things considered, not a bad week at all. I showed up.
A quick request: if you find this newsletter useful please do share it with other creatives who might enjoy the content - thank you! đ
7. Final thought
The most reliable businesses arenât powered by motivation. Theyâre powered by designâŚand guess what - you're a designer!
When your values are clear, your services make sense, your numbers are visible and your systems hold the detail, progress stops being dramatic and starts being dependable. You show up not because youâre in the mood, but because the structure youâve built expects you to.
Yes, it is work up front, but then there is quiet đ§.
The quiet advantage weâre cultivating in Hothouse this year: not intensity, not perfection - but a business that behaves well, even on the weeks when you donât feel at your best.
I hope you feel great next week!
Julia
Founder - Hothouse
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