Color plays a huge role in our lives and its power is often underestimated. Colors can affect our mood and trigger emotions, and they can totally transform the feel of a space.
Paint a room a deep burgundy red and it will feel small yet cozy, but if you change the color palette to a selection of pale blues, the room will feel cooler and more spacious.
The colors you choose are so important, and that’s why color consultants are invaluable when it comes to design within both homes and business premises.
Color can actually make or break a new venture, so when someone is deciding on the colors for a new restaurant, they’re choosing the entire vibe of the establishment. From warm and welcoming, to light and airy. If you know the ambiance you’re going for, a color consultant can make this happen.
Here at the Color Consultant Institute, we specialize in teaching people how to become color consultants and earn the Color Consultant Certification, and this article is a quick teaser of what we teach in our two popular color consultant courses.
What type of person makes a great color consultant?
If you’re considering a career as a color consultant, you need to be passionate about color and design.
You must believe yourself to be a creative person and you should have an in-depth understanding of how colors work, and how they can transform rooms and evoke certain feelings.
In addition, you’ll know how to perfectly use color to solve problems.
For example, you should be able to come up with unique solutions to make a dark basement feel lighter and more spacious or choose colors that give a doctor’s waiting room a more relaxed and peaceful atmosphere.
You’ll also need excellent interpersonal skills, to convey your ideas to others, and to listen and fully understand your client’s requirements. You may also be working in conjunction with interior decorators and home stagers, with your skills helping to bring their visions to fruition.
Of course, you’ll need an excellent eye for color. Some people can determine the difference between similar hues more easily than others, being able to distinguish between a wider range of shades. If this is one of your talents, it’s a natural ability that will make you a superior color consultant.
Some of these skills can be learned, for example you can take a course to increase your color consultation skills, but some of it will come naturally.
Do you have a love of color? Do you instinctively know what colors work best together? Perhaps you’re often complimented on the design choices in your home, or even with the outfits you wear.
If you have an eye for color, then you could very well excel in this lucrative and highly rewarding profession.
Taking the first steps in your new career
Starting a new venture is always an exciting time, but it can also be rather nerve-wracking.
If you’re used to working a run-of-the-mill 9-5 job, becoming a color consultant will feel incredibly liberating, but when you’re relying solely on your own marketing or word-of-mouth recommendations to build your business, it can also feel quite daunting.
You may be concerned that you don’t have all the skills you need, or you may be unsure of all the ins and outs of running a small business.
Perhaps you’d like to learn more about promoting your business, setting up social media, or keeping accounts.
The best way to prepare yourself, to ensure you have everything covered and put yourself in the best position to become a successful, high-earning color consultant, is to take a training course, particularly one that offers certification such as those offered here at the Color Consultant Institute.
The course will give you the skills you need to tackle any challenge, and the resulting certification offers proof to potential clients that you have the ability, knowledge, and skills to do an amazing job.
As color consultation is an unregulated industry, having the capacity to prove your credentials is important, and will make your business stand out from the crowd.
Preparing to launch your new color consultation business
Preparation is key, when you prepare, you’re less likely to make mistakes, and that’s vital when your business is in its infancy.
Let’s take a look at some points to consider, and some things you can work on prior to launching your exciting new venture…
Decide on the scope of your services
Clarity is important, and you need to convey this on your website, so you need to be clear yourself as to the details of your services.
You will need to specify an area within which you will work. Will that be your city, your state, or even further afield?
Will you focus solely on private houses, or will you choose business color consultation as your niche?
Could you handle working with a huge company, with hundreds of offices or would you prefer to work one-to-one with a homeowner, making their dreams of a perfectly color coordinated home come true?
Set your prices
How do you determine what you will charge?
There are many factors that come into play, but you need to have a pricing system in place. You can’t just make it up as you go along. When someone asks for a quote, you must be able to quickly assess the level of work and price it up accordingly.
As a first step, it’s a good idea to check out other color consultants in your area and see what sort of prices they are charging.
You can raise your prices as you gain experience when you have plenty of good reviews under your belt, but to begin with, you may choose to place your price point a little lower in order to attract attention.
If you’ve taken a training course and are now a certified color consultant, this gives you great credibility and could therefore allow you to charge a premium for your services.
Finally, you may wish to consider both an hourly rate and set fees for certain specific tasks.
Develop a website and social media presence
A professional business needs a professional image, so you need a high-quality website with a smart, eye-catching logo, and you should set up accounts on all the major social media channels.
When you’re starting out in business, it’s good to cast the net as widely as possible to spread the word about your new venture and gain as much publicity as you can.
We always suggest getting a cheap .com domain name from Namecheap.com, and installing WordPress to get started. Once you’ve installed WordPress you can buy a premium theme for about $50 to get started.
Put your efforts into marketing
Which leads us to marketing and advertising. You know you have incredible skills to transform homes with the use of color, but no one is going to hire you if they don’t know you exist!
So, it’s time to focus on marketing your business wherever you can. Social media of course is an excellent route to take, and you may want to consider taking out paid advertising on these channels.
But don’t overlook other avenues too. Advertising in newspapers and magazines can often be very expensive, particularly for a startup business, but what about smaller, local, or niche publications?
Look for online business directories and sponsorship opportunities, and never miss a chance to network.
You just never know where you might find your next client, but you’re more likely to meet them sooner if you’re out there, actively searching for them!
