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 business.
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. 🌱
2. How to Work With Me
Whether you’re just starting out or ready to level up, there are several ways we can work together:
🌱 Hothouse (Free Membership Group)
A private Facebook group for practising interior designers. I check in regularly to offer input and answer business questions alongside our brilliant peer community. Join here.
💬 One-to-One Consultations
Book a focused session to tackle a specific challenge or explore a new opportunity in depth. Available via the Coaching page of my website.
📦 Blocks of Consultations
Ideal if you’re working toward a long-term business goal or want consistent support while establishing your studio and working with your first clients. Ask me about my ‘6 for the price of 5’ offer.
🚀 Business in a Box
A structured, supported 90-day programme designed to help you launch your new interior design business with clarity, confidence, and strong foundations. New dates coming soon, drop me a line to join the waitlist.
📈 Recipe for Success Bootcamp
My flagship business planning course, blending one-to-one coaching with peer group sessions. Designed to help you push up into the next tier of business evolution - with a clear plan, defined targets, and the momentum to grow. Drop me a line if you’d apply for a future cohort.
3. 🚦 Using Your Hourly Rate to Drive Your Business
‘Calculating your fee using an hourly rate’ does not mean ‘charging by the hour’. In fact, they’re entirely different beasts. Many design business coaches dismiss hourly rates as toxic - but I think they’re golden.
Used well, your hourly rate isn’t a billing mechanism, it’s a business lever. It gives you structure, clarity, and a metric you can push upwards with strategy and confidence. In my new self-directed course, Fees & Charging for Residential Interior Designers, you’ll learn how to use your rate as a foundation - not a ceiling.
The course includes 1 hour 20 minutes of video content across 17 bite-sized lessons, plus:
🧮 Smart spreadsheets to calculate your hourly rate and build out fee proposals
📄 Templates and advice for client-facing documents
🎨 A visual plan for a beautiful fee presentation
💭 Mindset shifts to help you talk about money without apology
I want every designer to see their business as a machine with moving parts - parts you can oil, hone, optimise - and soup-up, like a finely tuned racing car. That’s how you gain control, speed, and performance.
That’s how you get paid properly.
4. 📸 Styling Is Not Optional
Last week I had the pleasure of sitting down with interior stylist and designer Sam Grigg in a webinar presenting the added value that interior stylists bring - and the impact was immediate. Within days, I heard from two designers in the Hothouse community who had already booked stylists for their upcoming photoshoots, inspired by what they heard during the session.
It’s no exaggeration to say that Sam’s guidance reframed how many of us think about styling. Her presentation was clear, compelling, and - in true stylist fashion - beautifully layered. She shared how styling isn’t just about making things look nice. It’s about storytelling, strategy, and soul. It’s the final 5% that elevates a project from “lovely” to editorial, aspirational, unforgettable.
If you missed the live session you can - watch the recording here 👀.
I’m so inspired that I’m planning a blog post on the subject, watch this space - coming here shortly!
5. Hothouse Long Read: Have you used Agentic AI yet?
Let Agent Mode Do the Legwork
One of the most powerful things about Agentic AI is that it doesn’t just answer a single question - it keeps going, digging deeper, comparing options, and pulling together the kind of research that usually takes you hours. Think of it as a diligent assistant who never gets tired of trawling through suppliers’ sites, cross-checking details, and lining up the best options for you to review.
I’ve recorded a short demo to show you exactly how this works in practice, using the first example in the list below. Here’s a link to watch it telescope an hour or two of human work into four minutes.
And once you’ve seen it in action, here are 10 examples of ways Agent Mode could help you as a designer:
- Custom Furniture Makers – e.g. a 3m extendable oak dining table with slim profile, sustainably sourced, trade-only.
- Specification-Heavy Fittings – e.g. dimmable IP65 LED downlights with CRI 95+, minimal bezel, under £80/unit.
- Specialist Craftspeople – e.g. hand-painted silk wallcoverings in bespoke motifs and colours.
- Performance Fabric Comparisons – e.g. UV-resistant, high-humidity upholstery fabrics in a set budget range.
- Budget Feasibility Checks – e.g. can £X realistically cover 100m² of walnut parquet, and from which suppliers?
- Compliance-Driven Sourcing – e.g. Crib 5 certified velvets in jewel tones under £60/m for hospitality projects.
- Regional Trade Specialists – e.g. a Cotswolds stonemason experienced in cutting reclaimed stone for residential work.
- Sustainable/Provenance Verification – e.g. UK flooring suppliers with FSC certification and published eco-credentials.
- Scenario Analysis for Clients – e.g. comparing marble vs porcelain vs quartz vs microcement for bathrooms, with pros/cons and costs.
- End-to-End Product Search – e.g. sourcing a large bespoke chandelier, shortlisting suppliers, comparing lead times, and drafting enquiry emails.
6. 🚀 This Week’s Blog – Your Big Push for Q4 starts here
The final quarter of the year is where momentum is made. Small, focused changes now can unlock growth and set you up for a calmer, more successful 2026.
That’s why I’m launching The Big Push - a new initiative to help you identify the single roadblock in your business and make one small change that creates big results.
I’ve written this week’s blog to spark ideas on where to focus. And on Wednesday 1 October at 10.30am UK time, I’ll be hosting a live webinar to kick off the whole initiative.
Join me, choose your Big Push, and step into Q4 with clarity and confidence.
👉 Join Hothouse and get the webinar link - it's under the 'Events' tab.
7. In Case You Missed It
I posted a couple of sets of advice on social media this week.
The first, Working for Friends, above, explored how to navigate this most slippery of commissions - if you absolutely must.
The second, Do I Want This Job?, above, offered a probing checklist for those moments when a project doesn’t exactly scream “yes!” - but you’re still tempted to take it on. Not an exact science - just a few prompts.
8. A FAVOUR
Each week I send this newsletter off into the void - and honestly, I have no idea if it’s landing. Your feedback makes all the difference. Once you’ve browsed this copy, could you hit reply and tell me: what in today’s edition did you find most useful or interesting? And what didn’t resonate? Your thoughts will help me shape content that genuinely supports you.
9. 🌱 My Week in Hothouse
I feel as though I’m standing on a threshold - ready to gather my focus and make a final push towards the year’s end.
My target is clear: 1,000 names on my email list. That single shift would transform my business, and I know it’s within reach. My strategy? Restart Meta ads. If I can find the energy for this one, last Big Push, then 2025 - with all its challenges - may turn out to be the most significant and memorable year of my career so far.
At 58, that feels both exciting and, quite frankly, a little bit astonishing!
10. Final Thought 🌟
The most powerful network I belong to is my Bootcampers’ Board Meeting groups. They are the strongest, most supportive part of my work life - and the most uplifting. These are designers who have put aside the fear of competition to give generously to one another, sharing both emotional and practical support.
Being the founder of your own interior design business can feel terribly isolating. Our industry is fragmented, and working alone can magnify that sense of distance. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In a community of practice, it becomes the opposite: rewarding, supportive, fulfilling.
That’s the vibe I want to bring into The Big Push. It’s free, but it’s intentional. You need to opt in to the concept - to commit to showing up, sharing, and supporting. Because growth feels so much bigger, braver, and brighter when we do it together.
Wishing you a strong week ahead!
Julia
Founder - Hothouse
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