New design for new apartments

Opportunity: Interior design services

New apartments are being quickly built in Bucharest and other major cities in Romania. For the people who will move into them, this is probably the most important change in their living environment, and comes with high hopes. They will want to decorate their apartments to reflect a new lifestyle.

This opens a huge market for professional interior design services - people able to design functional, pleasant spaces for new lifestyles.

Although there are a few interior design firms operating on the market, most of them offer design as a side-dish to the main business of custom-made furniture. However, with IKEA announcing that their first store will open in Bucharest in spring of 2007, demand for all but the best custom-made furniture might experience a sharp drop.

One part-time entrepreneur in Constanta, for example, offers redecoration services, complete with tiling, plumbing and others. There is high demand for these services. However, the main challenge is finding workers; many people with construction skills have left the country to work abroad. Those who are left prefer to work on their own. As a result, this entrepreneur does no advertising whatsoever, only covers projects for relatives and close friends, and keeps this business small.

A large, professional firm might be able to solve the manpower problem by either investing in extensive training programs or offering benefits that will convince self-employed workers to join a firm.

Written by Sara

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