Interior Design Consulting Details Available On Chuzai Living Blog
Chuzai Living Designs is an interior design consulting for expats. The style of interior design is targeted towards the lifestyle of expats who live abroad for a limited time.
More details on the interior design consulting for expats are available under About Design Services tab on this Chuzai Living blog. You can click below to jump to the pages if you’d like.
It took me sometime to gather courage to hit the publish button for the above pages. Starting a business is scary and daunting. There are many stages in the process of getting to the starting point of a business. Now I am here that I feel excited about helping other expats decorate their home abroad.
On the contrary, during the period of preparation, I constantly faced with my fear and self-doubt while I also experienced butterflies in my stomach with anticipation.
The Fear of Unknown
I have wanted to work as an interior decorator for some time to help expats who live in rental homes. Nevertheless, the fear of unknown always clouded over my head.
Will this interior design consulting business idea to help expats even viable? What if this business never takes off? How do I pay federal tax in the U.S. as an independent business owner? How long can I continue paying all the business expenses if I can’t make any money?
All the thoughts in my head had convinced me that I shouldn’t go for starting a business. It was easier that way, too. This might be obvious to you, but I have never run a business. I have worked as a freelancer in the U.S. many years ago. At that time, I didn’t know that I had to file federal tax quarterly to IRS as a freelancer. As a result, during the tax return, we were charged with high late penalty fees which amounted almost as much as the paycheck I received for the freelance work. This experience in the past traumatized me to do any freelance work or even consider to start a business.
All these fear of unknown blocked me from bringing my feet forward to start my business.
How I Overcame My Fear
I started job hunting last October in 2024. In a span of 4 months, I probably applied to 50 office jobs and received rejections one after another. Most of them didn’t even respond to my submissions. It was the end of January this year, 2025, when I started to dawn on me that my job search might not go the way I wished. I needed to shift gear.
My journey of soul searching lead me to dive deeper into what I have always dreamed of doing: working as an interior decorator. I even applied to some interior design related jobs in the area. Unfortunately, my recent job search experience taught me that I probably didn’t qualify as an interior designer without a degree or professional experiences.
The only way for me to attain my dream seemed to be by starting my own interior design business. Since I struggled to find a job in a corporate world, I didn’t have many choices. It was time for me to push myself harder to pursue my dream. The tight job market in Northern Virginia was a sign telling me to challenge myself and start my own interior design consulting business for expats. What am I waiting for?
It’s Okay For My Plans To Not Be Perfect
I’m at the starting point of my interior design consulting journey. Finally.
All I can say now is that I won’t have a regret at my death bed. No more “I wish I tried.”
In the process of working on my business plans, I told myself that I didn’t have to make them perfect. Waiting for every detail in starting a business to be perfect means that the time to launch my business may never come. I had to start somewhere. The best I can do is to start up my interior design consulting business with all I know. Through trial and error, I will modify my business and polish it as I go.
Now that the information pages for my interior design consulting business for expatriates to help create their homes abroad are online, I will have to work hard to bring traffic to these pages. It’s important to get out there and increase visibility of my business on search engines and social media. Self promotion is not my cup of tea, but that is a commitment which I can’t avoid for starting my own business.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the business to take off. Regardless, I’m proud of what I have created thus far. It would be my honor to be able to help others through my interior design consultations.
Thank you for reading my blog!
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