Careers With Style
Careers With Style is published periodically by Decor&You.Decorators offer their clients the opportunity to live in a more beautiful world. It’s a dreamy proposition, yet many consumers, it seems, hesitate to hire professional decorators, even though most admit they could really use the help of a qualified decorator in their home. Leslie Klinck, a Decor&You decorator in Parker, Colo., believes that the biggest obstacle is the basic unknown. How do consumers know what they’re getting when they hire a professional decorator, and what will make a decorator’s resume stand out from the competition?
Decor&You CEO Karen Powell believes that professional credentials are a key persuasive factor that impacts the hiring decision. For that reason, in January 2007 the franchise partnered with Certified Interior Decorators
International (CIDI) in a first-of-its-kind agreement to certify the franchise’s national training curriculum and its decorators.
In just six months, more than half of the 100-plus Decor&You decorators in the U.S., including Klinck, have enrolled in the certification process and nearly 50 have obtained the official CID designation. “Combined with 200 hours of professional training, and it’s impressive,” says Klinck.
Klinck says in her entire portfolio, just 10 percent of clients had ever worked with an independent decorator before. Klinck noted, “Obtaining professional certification is just one of the ways we can clearly illustrate the skills we offer.”
In the past, personal decorators were a luxury reserved for the wealthy. Today, because of companies like Decor&You, decorators have become a time saving asset. Although more Americans have access to decorating services, they are unfamiliar with the process, the real costs, and the tremendous benefits, notes Powell.
Powell says Decor&You is on a mission to educate this new group of consumers: “How much is your quality of life worth… the opportunity to carve out more time for your children, your spouse or your health?,” she asks. Powell feels too many people waste precious time stressing over furniture shopping, paint colors, and bewildering choices, and arguing with retailers over mistaken purchases, when their decorator could expertly manage all these details for them for about the same cost.”
Decorators understand the value of a beautifully and fully decorated home. “The importance of real estate as a lifetime asset is a compelling reason to factor decorating or redecorating dollars into an annual household budget,” Powell recommends. A Decor&You news release highlights the facts:
“The median U.S. home price in the spring of 2007 decreased about two percent from last year. Also, homeowners who are trying to sell their homes face strong competition from homebuilders, who have begun pricing homes aggressively during the past several years and now are bargaining to entice buyers. In addition, national statistics report that those who have an improved home, average a net of three to 10 percent more than those who choose not to make improvements before selling.”
CEO Karen Powell says these market forces position Decor&You decorators strongly, as trusted local businesspeople and representatives of a national brand. Decor&You offers clients a clear advantage to interpret local real estate value and provide the services needed to enhance it. 
DECOR&YOU® SETS NEW PROFESSIONAL STANDARD FOR INTERIOR DECORATING FRANCHISES IN THE U.S.
Through a new alliance with Certified Interior Decorators International (CIDI), announced today, the interior
decorating franchisor Decor&You® has declared more than 130 of its decorators in 30 states eligible for
CID® certification in the interior decorating profession. The deal makes Decor&You the first interior
decorating franchise in the U.S. where people can become an interior decorating business owner and a
professionally certified decorator in a single training program.
Decor&You CEO, Karen Powell,says her company puts people on the fast track to becoming competent
small business owners – and talented decorators, who noted, “We are proud of the fact that Decor&You
offers a turn-key business, combined with decorating training, through which every graduate can now
obtain CID certification.” CID’s president, Ron Renner, has formally accredited the 200-hour
Decor&You training program as conforming to the highest standards of training available in the industry.
Renner added, “Fewer than 10% of decorators and designers nationwide hold professional designations.”
