1. What is Hothouse?
Hothouse is a free professional development group for ambitious interior designers, built around the Hothouse Method of Business Growth: Design – Declare – Deliver.
✨ Design – we plan our businesses with care and creativity
✨ Declare – we set bold goals and targets in public
✨ Deliver – we track progress and celebrate results
Hothouse is for designers who want more than inspiration – it’s for those ready to take action.
At the heart of my work is a theory of interior design business evolution. Over time, practices move through four distinct tiers – Tier One: startup; Tier Two: growing pains; Tier Three: maturity; Tier Four: stardom – each with its own challenges, mindset shifts, and growth opportunities.
My coaching is designed to help you level up – to elevate your business with intention, so you’re not simply drifting forward, but actively shaping the next stage of your growth.
Wherever you are now - starting out or refining a mature practice - Hothouse brings structure, momentum, and community to help you get to the next level. 🌱
👉 Join the Hothouse Facebook group
2. How to Work With Me in 2026!
As 2025 draws to a close, I’ve been mapping out the full Recipe for a Room designer support system for 2026 – the most complete, cohesive version yet. Prices and enrolment details coming very soon!
Each offer now fits clearly within my Business Growth Framework, guiding designers who self-identify as:
Tier One (Start-Up)
Tier Two (Growing Pains)
Tier Three (Maturity)
Tier Four (Stardom)
So, whether you’re just launching or leading a thriving practice, I have an entry point designed to meet you exactly where you are.
This isn’t about doing everything - it’s about finding the next one or two steps that will move your business forward with clarity, confidence, and calm. It’s about having foundations and a plan; targets and a roadmap to achieve them...and a network of collaborative peers to help you along.
🌿 The Framework
Tier One (Start-Up)
You’re just beginning, full of ideas but unsure how to start or feeling overwhelmed.
➡️ Business in a Box (next live run: Sept–Dec ‘26) - a 12-week guided (group) launch programme with every document and process you’ll need to begin trading confidently.
➡️ White Label Studio - comes as part of Business in a Box: your ready-made digital filing system of templates and tools.
Tier Two (Growing Pains), and Tier Three (Maturity)
You’re trading, but behind the scenes it's a bit chaotic, and you'd love to be more organised and professional (Tier Two). Or, you want to rediscover yourself as an entrepreneur, and sense-check your systems and processes in this age of AI - prepare for the next decade in business (Tier Three).
➡️ Recipe for Success Bootcamp (Apr–May ‘26) - a 5-week business and marketing overhaul that re-energises your studio, aligns your brand, and clarifies your strategy. Group work plus one-to-one strategising.
➡️ Designers’ Boardroom (starts Jan, with new cohorts launching regularly) – a new course for Bootcamp graduates in the form of monthly meetings, offering goal-setting, accountability, and peer insight and support.
➡️ Boardroom Bespoke (from Jan) - a year-long, one-to-one strategic mentoring programme for those ready to move into their next phase of growth.
Tier Four (Stardom)
You’re aiming for mastery: visibility, impact, and personal authority.
➡️ Boardroom Bespoke continues to serve this level, with personalised metrics, positioning, and mindset work to help you perform at your very best, and push hard and consistently throughout the year.
🌸 Open to All Designers
Some spaces are designed to connect the whole community:
➡️ Hothouse – my free Facebook group with monthly guest webinars, practice themes, and the weekly newsletter you’re reading now – FREE Hothouse will be back for 2026, bigger and better 👍.
➡️ One-to-One Coaching - ad-hoc sessions (or 6 for 5 blocks - DM me for info) for bespoke guidance whenever you need it.
➡️ Self-Directed Courses – short, affordable, self-paced lessons on a growing range of topics like Fees & Charging, with Time Management and Selling to UHNW Clients coming soon... available anytime via my website.
Get in touch now to join the waiting list for any of 2026's live programmes.
3. This Week’s Blog – The Designer’s Sixth Sense: The “Sniff Test” and How to Use It Wisely
When a client’s ambition outpaces their budget, it’s easy to feel deflated. But this is where great designers shine – by turning fantasy into something beautifully achievable.
The latest blog explores how to use professional instinct to:
🌿 Increase trust in your business
🌿 Save everyone time
🌿 Avoid post–fee proposal “ghosting”
🌿 Steer both client and project toward success
4. Coming Up in Hothouse: Webinar - How to Collaborate with a Kitchen Designer
🗓️ Thursday 27 November, 1pm (UK time)
This month in Hothouse, I’m joined by Danielle Kudmany, founder of Liate Design - an accomplished kitchen designer who truly feels design. Danielle combines aesthetic sensitivity with a pragmatic, straight-talking approach making her an exceptional collaborator.
A perfectionist with a big-picture mindset and an eye for detail, she is passionate about creating beautiful, functional interiors and supporting interior designers with smart, flexible solutions across different price points.
In this live session, Danielle will share the process and benefits of working with a specialist kitchen designer - from creative collaboration to the practicalities of specification, supply, and client management.
If you’ve ever found kitchen projects challenging or confusing, this session will demystify the process and show you how partnership with a specialist can make your work more seamless, profitable, and rewarding.
🍳 The link to join is in Hothouse, under the Events tab.
5. Managing Clients: Process, Paperwork, and Professional Poise
Every successful project rests on a well-mapped journey.
Step one in creating a defined and well-managed client experience?
✨ Map the process, then codify it.
This little hand-drawn sketch illustrates a typical client journey through design services, aligned with the stages set out by the British Institute of Interior Design (based on the RIBA Plan of Work).
🔵 In blue, I’ve noted the activities carried out in view of the client - the moments when they see you leading with calm authority.
🟢 In green, I’ve added the suite of documents that quietly underpin each step - the systems and tools that keep everything running smoothly behind the scenes.
Together they show how the design process, client experience, and business operations all knit together.
If you’ve never mapped your process visually, I hope this sparks ideas for how you might do it. A clearly defined pathway (with named stages like Discovery, Concept, Design Development, Implementation, and Completion) creates reassurance for clients and quiet confidence for you.
I’d love to hear how this process 👆 compares with yours? Do drop me a line to let me know!
6. A Favour 🙏
Please support my one-woman business by sharing this newsletter with other designer–entrepreneurs who might enjoy it.
Either forward the email, or if you read this in a web browser, hit the 'share' arrow at the top.
Spreading the word is so valuable - I really appreciate any help you can provide. Thank you 🌸
7. BIID Fees and Charging
Next week I’ll be presenting online to BIID members (and non-members) on Fees and Charging.
Because this is such a hot topic, we’ve changed the format and will now welcome a larger audience.
There may still be a few spaces available!
📅 Wednesday 12 November, 10.00–11.30am
🎟️ Tickets via the BIID website.
8. 🌱 My Week in Hothouse
I'm late publishing this week - I've been juggling family responsibilities with work, I'll have more time next week. I haven't posted on social media or LinkedIn, something had to give. I'm not stressed about it, just a wee bit frustrated.
I'm also late starting my Big Push goal for Q4, but - because I've declared it in public - I feel like I don't have a choice...I know it will be done.
As I wrote last week, the glorious clarity of vision I now have for 2026 is the result of the work I've done here in 2025. There is no power quite like just getting on and doing it. I really recommend just jumping in.
I hope you have a vision for the coming year? It's almost time to fashion this...stick around because we'll be doing it together in Hothouse 👍.
9. Final Thought 🌼 - Holding the Reins
One of the quiet arts of running a successful design practice is learning how to stay in charge without looking as if you’re trying to. I have a blog coming on the subject.
When you communicate predictably, deliver consistently, and lead with calm confidence, clients relax, that's why Hothouse promotes the following values: compassion, curiosity, confidence, clarity, consistency, and commitment.
Wishing you a super week ahead,
Julia
Founder - Hothouse
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