Go Your Own WayThe Carrick Times, in conjunction with Carrickfergus Enterprise, showcases business start-ups in the borough

BUSINESS: Heather Craig Interiors and House Doctor

What is your business?

Heather Craig Interiors and qualified House Doctor. My inventive and resourceful business is about helping people make their homes stylish, gorgeous and comfortable, with cleverly arranged rooms that positively support the people living there. I have inspiring ideas when designing and creating rooms so they reflect my client’s personal style in the most creative and fabulous way. I have inspirational ideas for organising homes efficiently, so daily living takes less effort as things just run more smoothly, leaving you time to relax in an environment you’ll love. I’m also Northern Irelands only House Doctor! I realised too that some people need to sell and with the property market being difficult, I could confidently help by giving their home the best possible chance of selling, so they can move on with their lives. I decided to get properly qualified and gain new skills so I have been to London and have taken TVs original House Doctor © courses and am now part of their UK network of consultants. Home Staging is a trusted creative technique of making a property look the most attractive, desireable and stylish it can possibly be, on the smallest of budgets. So instead of your house hanging around on the market for a while with no offers, followed by the dreaded advice from the agent telling you to just drop the price by £10-£50k, I can creatively transform homes with some clever and inspirational advice on colours, furniture layout, organising and styling. The initial outlay for me to give the owner everything they need to know is only £125 and they can DIY the changes or call me back!

Other annoying issues people have these days is all their accumulated belongings and stuff that has to go somewhere - lots of us are totally overwhelmed with things like school notes, family photos on computer, MOT appointments, daily junk mail (and bills that we’d like to put on the junk pile in that overstuffed drawer), recycling this and that, too many small plastic kitchen electrical appliances that we don’t use etc and so on - it all can leave you feeling out of control. I love helping customers reclaim living space and make their homes more manageable, so I produced a solution to help any weary person juggling too much and have called it my Organising and Decluttering service to deal with all the above! My aim is to achieve for people what they don’t have time to with minimum disruption to bring calm from chaos, while saving them time and money and making a dream living space!

Tell us a little about yourself and how you ended up doing what you are doing now?

As an ambitious, creative wife and mother of two lovely boys and having over six years of running my own businesses, I’ve always loved the constant evolution of interior design and have continually been very creative in my own home as I just love working with interiors to create amazing living spaces. Over the last few years so many friends and family have asked me to help with their apartments and houses, that I made a gradual shift into interiors and couldn’t be happier.

As a designer, I tend to hone my craft as the years go on. I get better with detail, better with my eye, and better with trusting my instinct. I love this constant shaping of myself through design. I also love the new trends and materials that become available and combining them with traditional styles. I also always get excited working with a new client as I can see the potential of their setting, when they can’t. I think about their lifestyle needs and layer in personal style as I solve their design problems, it falls into place naturally, but making sure that you have a rapport with the client and speak the same language is most important. And when it’s done, seeing people’s amazement is great!

In particular, my clients are often so busy with work they don’t have days to spend looking around shops for furniture or curtains. They see it as an investment to hire me, saving them time and preventing them from making costly mistakes. I am often asked to look at one room which can lead to doing the whole house.

Did you always want to run your own enterprise?

Yes, I have run my own business since having my two boys. I wanted to work around family commitments and be flexible so working for myself was the only way. I am blessed to be able to work in job that I love and combine both of my passions.

What skills/qualifications do you require for the role?

Over the last number of years, I gained a vast number of business skills, then I invested in a interior design qualification and achieved a distinction in it. I have also fully qualified with the UK’s House Doctor© Network which gave me the skills to present a home for sale with the sole aim of getting the most for it. I personally value investing in continual training and qualifications to be the best I can be personally and for my clients.

Was it difficult for you to start your business during the recession, and how have you been affected?

It wasn’t difficult as I initially used the time to gain my new qualifications and to retrain. I thought about what I wanted my business to look like and spent time creating that. Certainly the housing market hit bad times, but we in Northern Ireland we have a real love and sense of pride in our homes and as ‘eating-in’ is the new ‘eating-out’ people are keen to surround themselves with stylish comfort and luxury.

What were the biggest challenges you faced when setting up and what support did you get?

Starting off in any business and in a new industry is as challenging as it can get, however I really believe and love what I do (which is a must). However, with a key business plan in place, a target market in place and a bucket full of energy it has been all go. After completing the Go For It course, I received invaluable support from Carrickfergus Enterprise Agency Limited including assistance in creating a website, which I did with the great help of Joanne Magee from Castle Web Solutions.

What three tips could you offer those considering starting their own business? It takes hard work, self-discipline and a real believe in yourself. I would recommend it to anyone but focus on these three areas. 1 Plan - it has been my saving grace: you need know you where you are going, how you’ll get there, who can help and by when. 2 Invest in promoting your business: people need to know you are out there but go for targeted efforts as quality is better than quantity. 3 Surround yourself with supportive people and don’t be discouraged by anyone. If your idea is good and you’re determined to stick with it through the first few difficult years, your chances of success are great.

What are your plans for the next 12 months?

I am so very excited about 2012, this year it’s all about the delivering individual projects for my clients. There are some very exciting residential projects on the horizon. I’m very excited about this but I’m trying to stay pretty grounded too because there is a phenomenal amount of work ahead! Im just focused on growing my business.

What do you get up to in your free time?

As growing a business can be quite demanding, it is essentially I spend some of my time way from it. I find inspiration everywhere. I would say I find a lot of inspiration in nature. A walk in nature is enough to replenish me and give me a basket load of fresh ideas. I also find inspiration in my own home, which I treat like a personal playground. I love to travel and spend as much time as I can in museums, shops and market places to soak up the material culture of a place

If you could swap places with anyone who would it be and why?

Oh, with such a passion for interiors it would have to be the lovely Lawrence Lewellyn Bowen. His individual sense of style, his personal talent and his amazing natural flair for working with people is inspiring. But just for one day thanks!