1. 🪴What is Hothouse?
Er… excuse me – before all that – would you allow me a… 🤗 !WEEK 20! 🤗 …as you were.
Hothouse is a free professional development group for ambitious interior designers, promoting the Hothouse Method: Design; Declare; Deliver.
• Design – we plan our businesses
• Declare – we set goals and targets in public
• Deliver – we measure and watch our businesses grow
Hothouse isn’t about theory – it’s about action. Whether you’re just starting up or pushing to level up, Hothouse brings structure, momentum, and accountability to your creative enterprise. 🌱
2. 🎯 May Intentions and Focus
May is Bootcamp month – I’ve been deep in one-to-ones with our latest cohort, supporting ambitious designers to scale with strategy and confidence. Meanwhile, Hothouse has welcomed guest experts bringing practical insight to keep everyone growing.
✨ We began with Pinterest Power – thanks to Kat Dooney for a brilliant breakdown of how to make Pinterest work for long-term visibility. [Watch here]
📸 Then, interiors photographer Simon Maxwell led a masterclass in shooting your work professionally – see the summary below.
👥 And coming up on Monday – our New & Pivoting Designers meeting (link in Hothouse 'Events' tab) – whether you’re just starting out or shifting focus, join us for a chat and a check-in.
3.🛡️This Week’s Blog – How to Protect Your Business (and Your Sanity)
Clients may be lovely - but they’re also fragile.
This week’s blog looks at how to prepare yourself professionally, emotionally, and operationally for the sometimes unpredictable journey of delivering a design project.
In Bootcamp, we teach designers to build four layers of protection into their business:
• Layer One: Your presence - the authority and attitude you project
• Layer Two: Seamless systems and processes that guide clients smoothly
• Layer Three: Contracts and insurances (for when things go sideways)
• Layer Four: Your own mindset and resilience - your ultimate fallback
You’ll also find a complete list of documents recommended by BIID and SBID, from enquiry packs to post-project care guides, a useful reference whether you’re just starting out or refining an established practice.
4. 📸 Behind the Lens – Highlights from Simon Maxwell’s Webinar
Last week in Hothouse, we were joined by interiors photographer Simon Maxwell, who generously shared wisdom from nearly 40 years behind the lens. The session covered everything an interior designer needs to know about commissioning, preparing for, and making the most of a professional shoot - including how to:
– choose the right photographer and brief them clearly
– style and prep a site for the camera
– navigate licensing, copyright, and sharing costs
– plan for press features and avoid common pitfalls
– shoot your own content on the day without undermining the professional results
It was an insightful and practical session, ideal for any designer looking to build a compelling portfolio and elevate their brand presence.
We’re so grateful to Simon for his generosity and expertise - if you missed it and would like to rewatch, 🎥 Watch it here.
5. 💡Race Day III – A New Way to Work
The problem with content creation isn’t ideas – it’s energy. Race Day I and II revealed that most of us stall around post 6 or 7, not because we’re stuck, but because we’re starting from scratch each time.
So for Race Day III – Tuesday 27 May, 9:30–3:00 UK (link in Hothouse under 'Events') we’ll be testing a smarter, easier system: content stacking.
This technique (hat tip to Kat Dooney 🙌) helps you create multiple posts from one core idea – saving time, brainpower, and frustration.
Next week’s blog - keep your eyes peeled - will explain how to get set up. Until then, mark the date – and prep your best idea to stack.
6. 📬 A Postcard from Bootcamp Week Five – Big Plans, Bold Moves
The last four weeks have flown by in a blur of ambition, creativity, and hard graft. Our latest cohort has accelerated from 0 to 60 on the business planning front: strategising in class, supporting one another outside it, and showing extraordinary commitment while also juggling installations, photoshoots, fee proposals, and active building sites.
I’m proud to report that we now have a suite of exciting, well-structured business plans, brand-new services and revenue streams, and the beginnings of marketing plans designed to attract each designer’s dream client.
But we’re not stopping there. As we head into our final week, we’ll be creating tailored marketing strategies - and, booking in monthly and quarterly group check-ins to make sure the goals we set now are tracked and celebrated all year long.
This is my third time running Bootcamp, and I still can’t quite believe my luck. Once again, the warmth, humour, generosity, and grit of the group have made this a truly special experience.
7. 🚀 Coming Soon – Interior Design: Business in a Box
Next week I’ll be sharing something new. It’s called Interior Design – Business in a Box, and it’s been built for newly-qualified designers and early-stage businesses who want to launch fast and learn live.
This isn’t a theory course. It’s a practical launchpad.
You’ll get everything you need to start trading confidently - ready-made templates, foundational systems, client-facing documents, and a simple 90-day roadmap to get your first projects off the ground.
Because the best way to grow a successful business?
Start doing the work, and then fine-tune based on who shows up. I can personally attest to this strategy from Bootcamp and Hothouse, both of which launched as experiments.
🧠 Stay tuned for next week’s launch announcement…
8. 🔄 My Week in Hothouse
Bootcamp mode is full-on – so growth in other areas has slowed...to a trickle 😱. But what we’ve seen within Bootcamp more than makes up for it😃.
We’ve had early breakthroughs in positioning, pricing, and personal confidence – and the sheer calibre of work produced already has been phenomenal.
Meanwhile, I’m quietly holding the thread on Hothouse content, Race Day planning, and what comes next…there will be news coming on new courses, new collaborations, new webinars and new angles on professional design practice.
9. 📅 Dates for May
All links in Hothouse under the Events tab!
🔹 New & Pivoting Designers Chat – Monday 19 May, 10am UK
🔹 Race Day III – Tuesday 27 May, 9.30–3.00pm
🔹 Bootcampers’ Board Meeting – Thursday 30 May, 9.15am (by invitation)
10. 💬 Final Thought
There’s a quiet magic in starting lean.
You launch with a hunch, a sketch of an idea, a minimum viable version of the business you imagine. You test it. Tweak it. Learn fast. Change course. You do what’s needed - not what’s perfect.
And then, one or two years down the line, something funny happens.
From the outside, it looks like you’ve arrived all at once - fully formed, polished, thriving. An overnight success. But you know better. (I loved Rina Vastu's post on this subject in LinkedIn last week 😂).
What people rarely see is the scrappy beginning. The duct-tape systems. The quiet moments of doubt. The pivots that made the difference.
This is how real businesses are built. Not in grand unveilings, but in motion – one thoughtful step at a time.
Start now. Start small. Start with what you’ve got. The rest grows with you.
See you in the group this week 🤗
Julia
Founder - Hothouse
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