How interior design work is won in South Africa
Residential is emotional, commercial is procedural
Most practices run both streams. Residential renovations and decorating projects come from referrals, Instagram and estate agents, are decided slowly by couples, and often wait on a contractor becoming available. Commercial fit-outs arrive through architects, quantity surveyors and facilities managers, follow a documented process, and are compared against other practices on fee and delivery. The skills overlap; the sales motions do not. A single diary that treats a hesitant homeowner and a scheduled office refurbishment the same way will serve neither of them well.
Lead times and the rand set the pace
A large part of any scheme is imported or made to order, which means the studio sells a promise measured in weeks and priced against a currency that moves. Clients hear nothing while goods are made and shipped, and silence is read as neglect. Meanwhile a specification quoted early in the year can become unviable by the time it is accepted. Add the mid-December shutdown, when the country stops and nothing is signed until the middle of January, and timing becomes a skill in its own right.