How to become a color consultant

Whether you know it or not colours have the power to impact your mood, motivation and productivity. From fashion to interior design, many of the colours you see all around you were decided with the help of a colour consultant. A colour consultant is an expert on colours and the effects they have on mood, productivity and ambiance. If you’d like to take your natural artistic talent to the business world, then this is the consultancy field for you.

Before The Start-Up – Let’s Not Get Ahead Of Ourselves

With an art background you should be able to become a colour consultant without any additional training. If however you don’t hold an art degree you can quickly become qualified by taking a short course in colour consultancy. These courses can run anywhere from one to sixteen weeks depending on the intensity and range of topics.

The Start-Up

You’re going to be mobile during most of your work day so a mobile office is essential. For greatest productivity you’ll need a car, cell phone, laptop and all the sample boards and swatches necessary to demonstrate colour possibilities.

Until you find your niche its best to target your services at both corporate and residential customers. Corporate customers will use your services to design work spaces while residential customers will use your services to design living spaces. Once you’ve had the opportunity to work in both kinds of environments it’s a good idea to choose an area of focus.

Making It Work

Business and residential clients alike will rely on you to make the right choices and suggestions for their environment. Ascertaining exactly what someone wants to get out a space will ultimately decide whether you get it right or wrong. Don’t rush the initial interview and always make sure you and your client are on the same page.

Marketing

Combine a mix of offline and online marketing efforts to sell your consultancy. Develop a business website with a list of the services you offer along with your rates. Also include client testimonials and a small amount of free advice and tips. If you want to create a strong online presence consider starting a blog, your latest job and recent colour trends should make for interesting reading.

Use newspaper classifieds, business magazines, the yellow pages and direct mailers to local firms to market your services offline.

Don’t Forget

Balancing what you know to be the right choice and your client’s preferences can be tricky. Use a well written contract for every job, it’s important that you’re not liable should your client be unhappy with the choices you’ve made.