House Tutor

House Tutor is the franchised home interior design business set up by Sally McIlroy. House Tutor bridges the gap between interior designers and the homeowner doing it themselves. House Tutors provide the tailored guidance and hand holding through what at first can seem like a daunting process.

CHANGE YOUR ROOM IN 2 HOURS, CHANGE YOUR LIFE IN 10 WEEKS

A House Tutor course is a two hour personalised interior design workshop explaining the key principles of design and decoration and how they relate to the client's home. This route can be far more valuable than enrolling on a conventional course where the design concepts you learn can be more difficult to apply in your own home. Similarly instead of going on a  longer course to learn how to become an interior designer, by training to become a House Tutor, students are set up over ten weeks with the tools to run their own interior design business. House Tutor is on hand to provide support, especially useful in the early days.

HOW IT WORKS

House Tutors arrive at clients' homes armed with a special portfolio, Be Your Own Interior Designer, and they are then shown how the principles of design apply to them. This personal workshop takes a short morning and is both fun and stimulating. Starting with information on how professionals go about design and decoration, the House Tutor then demonstrates the near foolproof way of approaching design projects. The House Tutor leaves the client with a booklet on interior style and a sample scheme and they are then left at large to complete their own design projects, although they are available for further assistance if required.

HOUSE TUTOR FRANCHISE

House Tutor is a franchise in that its trained designers use goods and services as agreed but given that there are no royalties or territories, it is really a straightforward licence agreement. All House Tutors hold a design qualification and are carefully chosen. They must be well spoken and be able to relate well to clients. Training in West Surrey sets out the principles of the system, along with marketing strategies, business building, product knowledge and trends.

Sally McIlroy sees the franchise as allowing women (and men) to have the opportunity of working for themselves in a flexible way. By buying into the franchise, the initial outlay is a far lot less than if you were building a business from scratch. There is also the backup of an established business when you need to draw on their experience. You pay for a four year licence, which includes the training, a start-up pack and the right to use the House Tutor and 'Be Your Own Designer' brand.

OTHER SERVICES

House Tutor has introduced other services with sample/swatch boxes and group presentations on topics like colour in the home as well as for small businesses that are struggling to get people through their doors.