Poor pricing, weak business models and inadequate protection of creative work are limiting the profitability of Nigerian interior design businesses, industry practitioners have said.
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The practitioners said many designers with strong creative skills struggle to translate their work into sustainable businesses due to weak pricing, inadequate business structures and poor protection of their designs.
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Creative director of Teal Harmony Limited, Folakemi Oloye, said there was a wide gap between Nigerians’ creative abilities and their capacity to build businesses capable of generating sustainable returns.
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Oloye, who spoke at an interior design business masterclass, ‘Structuring Your Design Business for Profit’ in Lagos, said designers were often expending significant energy on creative work while receiving minimal returns on their investments.
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She identified pricing and protection of designers’ work as major problems, but said the deeper challenge was inadequate business information tailored to the Nigerian market.
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“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.
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‎She said such knowledge often did not translate to Nigeria because the models were not contextualised to the local environment often failed to p roduce the desired results, adding that some designers eventually abandoned the profession and returned to conventional employment.
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‎“There isn’t enough information out there on how to do your business as an interior designer,” she said.
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The financial consequences of weak business structures were illustrated by a designer at the masterclass who recounted losing money on a landscaping project after she spent her own funds to make changes she believed would improve the facility for its users.

‎She said the clients had approved the original design, but she allowed the preferences of students and staff who would use the facility to influence her decision to add a covering to a pergola.
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After the clients rejected the alteration, she paid to have the covering removed and disposed of, saying she was still recovering from the loss a year later.
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The experience prompted Oloye to stress the importance of establishing clearly what the paying client values and documenting professional recommendations.
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‎She said designers should ensure that design, procurement and installation are structured as separate stages, with appropriate fees attached to each, so that a client’s withdrawal from a project does not leave the designer financially exposed.
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“Design is intellectual property,” Oloye said, stressing that designers should not give their work away without understanding what they were receiving in return.
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Another designer recounted how she measured eight apartments and prepared drawings for a service-apartment project but later discovered that another designer appeared to have used her work after the client did not proceed with her.
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‎She said the experience made her realise that she had failed to separately charge for the design component of the project.
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‎Oloye advised designers to separate their design fees from procurement, manufacturing and installation charges so that they remain financially protected even if a client eventually chooses another person to execute the project.
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‎Founder and chief executive officer of Agatha’s Interior Design Limited, Agatha Eric-Udorie, identified pricing as the major reason talented Nigerian interior designers fail to achieve sustainable profits, adding that the masterclass could help practitioners better understand how to price their services.
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Oloye advocated standardised pricing models, including charging by room or square metre, depending on the nature of the project, instead of determining fees arbitrarily from one client to another.
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She also recommended breaking design services into components such as three-dimensional designs, floor plans, mood boards, working drawings, sourcing and bills of quantities, allowing clients to select services according to their needs and budgets.
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Creative director and founder of TCP Design Studio, Kene Nwe, said procurement, logistics and marketing remained major challenges for practitioners.
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‎He said the masterclass had helped participants identify weaknesses in their businesses and move towards more structured operations.
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Oloye said the inaugural masterclass, which was limited to 15 participants, was designed to help emerging designers establish systems that make productivity repeatable and business outcomes more predictable.