How Jen Bishop turned The Interiors Addict from a hobby into a business

It may not have felt like it at the time but losing her job in 2013 was the best thing that happened to Jen Bishop.

Without it, The Interiors Addict, the blog she had started 18 months before as a place "to keep track of all the little bits and pieces I loved" might have remained a hobby.

Instead, she has grown it to become one of Australia's best-loved home and interiors websites with a loyal following of more than 150,000 readers, and in the process built a successful career she could tailor around the needs of her young family.

How did Jen Bishop cope with being made redundant?

"My whole world came crashing down the day I was made redundant," says Bishop.

"I was editor on a business magazine - a job I loved - and my boss called me into his office and said they were closing it down. It was a massive shock - when you're senior, you always think you'll be safe because you're an important cog in the machine. Then you remember that you're also the most expensive."

The timing couldn't have been worse.

Having moved to Australia from the UK four years before ("Like so many Poms, I'd planned to stay for no more than a year, but a few months in, I knew I wouldn't be going home"), she was on business visa sponsored by the magazine and in the process of securing permanent Australian residency.

She was also four months away from getting married.

"I'd built my entire life in Australia and for a hot minute it looked like I'd have to get on the next plane back to the UK," she says.

Then, quite unexpectedly, the stars aligned in her favour. "A week after losing my job, I got the call to say that my permanent residency had been approved and I could stay. I just cried," she says.

Surviving that nightmare week brought on a new resolve and made her rethink her next move.

Did she have a background in interior design?

A news journalist by trade, Bishop had spent years covering current events, crime and policing. She had even done a stint working at New Scotland Yard.

Nothing remotely in the realm of homes and design.

"I had zero experience in interiors - I was nothing more than an enthusiast. I started the blog as my own little Pinterest board before Pinterest existed to collect all the beautiful things I loved in one place. I never intended for it to be for anyone other than myself," she says.

But her journalistic experience made her unafraid to approach the who's who in the rarefied world of design for interviews and in-depth stories.

Readers lapped it up, drawn to her warm and relatable style, which was far removed from the stuffy tone of many glossy magazines.

More importantly, she was having a ball. Editing the business magazine by day, she spent evenings attending design events and blogging about all things home into the wee hours.

It quickly got her noticed.

"People got wind of The Interiors Addict and began pitching themselves to be on it. I suddenly found myself in this wonderful world of homes and it felt like a dream come true. But I still viewed it very much as a hobby.

"When my residency got approved and I was out of a job, I felt a new sense of freedom - I suddenly realised I could do what I wanted. My first thought was to go for another job and work for someone else. But I'd been lucky enough to work with some amazing entrepreneurs, many of them women, during my time on the business magazine, who told me that I could make The Interiors Addict a business.

"Honestly, I didn't believe them. But they gave me enough of a shove - and I had enough of a redundancy payout - to think, I'm going to give it my best shot," she says.

How did Jen build The Interiors Addict into a business?

Bishop gave herself six months to turn The Interiors Addict into a viable business.

"One of the first things I did was get off Tumblr and onto WordPress so I could serve some ads. I hustled hard - I'm a hustler when I need to be. To keep the money coming in,

I was also working as a freelance social media strategist on the side," she says.

Her efforts began to pay off.

"Freedom was one of my very first advertisers. They were big supporters of The Interiors Addict in the early days, which was crazy to me at the time - they were a huge high-street name and here was I, with this little blog that I was trying to turn into a business."

Over the next few months as her readership grew, so did the opportunities.

How did she grow the business?

"There was a third-party ad agency I'd worked with at the magazine who had sold the ads in print and online on a commission basis. I asked if there was any chance they would work with me on the blog. At the time I was doing everything myself - writing, ad sales, attending events - and it had just become too much.

"They asked about my stats and I told them I had around 50,000 readers," she says.

"I think it surprised them that I was reaching those numbers and had found this little niche. They agreed to sell ads for me on a commission-only basis. The commission was high - 40%. But it suited me because I didn't have the capital, confidence or amount of work to employ someone to do it."

This proved the moment that changed everything: "Suddenly, The Interiors Addict was making money."

The set-up with the agency worked swimmingly for a couple of years, until it went out of business.

Initially, Bishop hired someone to take over the ad sales. She then made a strategic pivot.

"I realised I was better off paying someone to write most of the blog content because I'm the best person to sell the brand. So, these days I sell the ads myself - and there's no 40% commission, which is nice."

As the media landscape evolved, Bishop saw that traditional banner ads were no longer going to cut it. "In the early days of the blog, people bought display ads - they paid for eyeballs.

Nowadays, they pay for content - sponsored blogs and social posts. I'm the best person to create this type of content in partnership with brands, so I effectively sell it then write it myself.

"Sponsored content is where most of my money comes from now. But there are also speaking gigs, brand ambassadorships, and many brands still love to pay for ads in the newsletter," she says.

Did she really survive necrotising fasciitis?

While it sounds like a dream trajectory for the business, Bishop's personal journey hasn't been free of challenges - the most recent one life-threatening.

"I was horribly ill during Christmas 2022. One day I was absolutely fine, the next I'm in hospital with necrotising fasciitis - flesh-eating bacteria - in my arm.

"I'm incredibly lucky to be alive. At one point, a doctor said to me, 'This is actually about saving your life before we're saving your arm,' which put things into perspective fast.

"It meant that for the first time in my adult life, I couldn't work. As a small business owner, that's not something I've ever been able to do - there's no sick leave to fall back on. Nor have I ever wanted to stop, because I love what I do," she says.

Fortunately, Bishop had always been diligent about setting aside a significant portion of her salary for a rainy day.

"This was definitely that day. It was such a relief to be able to not work for three months and still be able to pay myself.

"What surprised me most was that when I got back to work, it took quite a long time for the momentum to build back up and the money to start coming back in. But, ultimately, I got through that period because I had always been sensible with saving."

What impact did COVID-19 have on The Interiors Addict?

As with so many small business owners, COVID was another mountain to overcome.

"Overnight, everyone pulled their marketing spend - people panicked and marketing and PR were the first things to go. This hit The Interiors Addict hard.

"It was frightening, but the government's financial assistance got me through it, which is something I'm incredibly grateful for," she says.

The fact that people were suddenly pouring money into their homes rather than overseas holidays also meant more eyeballs on the blog, putting the business in a strong position when life returned to its new take on normal a few months later and the ad money started trickling back in.

Having weathered the market's ups and downs, Bishop has made a conscious effort to streamline her business. These days she has one freelance writer on a retainer and an administrative assistant for accounts and admin tasks. She handles everything else herself.

"Things aren't rosy for anyone who owns a business right now. The key to surviving times like these is to keep things as lean as possible," she says.

What are some of Jen's favourite moments?

Harsh learnings aside, Bishop's journey with The Interiors Addict has been filled with pinch-me moments.

"One of the earliest came in 2015 when interior designer Greg Natale asked me to ghost-write his first coffee table book. As an interiors addict and a writer - and someone who had never written a book - that was an incredible thing to be asked. It was a steep learning curve, but ultimately something I'm still hugely proud of."

Then there was that time she modelled for a photo shoot. "It was with Pottery Barn - there I was, sitting on one of their gorgeous couches in my own living room for an ad that would go into a glossy magazine, and all I could think is, 'How crazy is this?' "

What does her signature lipstick tell us about her?

While her bold red lipstick ("it's actually a very specific shade of raspberry pink - I'm incredibly fussy and every time I find the right colour, it gets discontinued") might be something her readers instantly recognise her by, those who have worked with Bishop know her for her strict 'no a--eholes policy'.

"It may sound cheesy, but kindness is very important to me.

There are so many horrible things going on in the world, so if you can make someone's day a little better by being decent, why wouldn't you?

"It's important to me to be authentic. I want my readers to know the Jen they meet on the street is the same one they'll see on stage or on the blog," she says.

What are Jen's priorities now?

These days, flexibility is the priority.

"The fact that I can tailor my week around my kids is what I love best about my job.

"I used to work seven days a week, but as soon as I had kids, I stopped working weekends.

"If an opportunity comes up that will take place over a weekend, I weigh up whether it's worth missing time with my kids, and it generally isn't.

"Now that both boys are in school, I tailor my schedule around school pick-up. I love that my work allows me to be there for after-school activities, to be part of the P&F and do school-canteen duty.

"Motherhood makes you efficient and I've always been a fast writer. Having been a crime reporter on a daily newspaper working the 6am to 2pm shift certainly helps. You had to have a front-page splash by 8am every day, even if nothing had happened - there's no better training than that," she says.

Why do her readers stick around?

So, in a crowded market of interior websites, many backed by major magazines with sizeable budgets, why do Bishop's readers choose to stay loyal and engaged?

"Because I'm exactly like them. I've never claimed to be an expert, and I'm proud to be speaking to the mainstream middle market - people who are just like me.

"My readers feel the same way about interiors as I do - we just want to create beautiful, liveable homes. We don't want everything to be uber trendy or expensive, and while we're happy to splash out on investment pieces, we can't go past the thrill of a good bargain."

As for the future: "I feel like I've created a job that's flexible and that I love, so the plan is to carry on doing The Interiors Addict as long as my readers will stay with me." n

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