How to Start a Design Makeover Show ~ Create a Design Video



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Design Makeover Show Host Creator Producer
Home Makeover TV Show Host Creator Producer

Breaking Into and Succeeding as a Home Improvement Show Host
How to Start a Home Decorating TV Show
How to Start a Home Designing TV Show

Today’s modern lifestyle has created a definite market for the kind of show you’re planning on creating. While many people share the ideal of the perfectly kept house, neat and tidy with everything in its place and renovated to perfectly suit their tastes, they more often have to make do with apartment rentals and what little housecleaning a nine-to-five job will allow.

The stay-at-home housewife (or husband) is often nowhere to be found; both spouses find themselves working outside the home just to make ends meet. And between commuting time and surprise office emergencies, “nine-to-five” frequently means seven or eight in the morning until seven or eight at night. Who has time to build a dream house in this climate? Who has enough money left over, after bills and rent or mortgage payments, to plan such expensive renovation projects?

That’s where design makeover and home improvement shows come in.

Design makeover and home improvement shows make renovation, space saving, and redecorating look easy. We watch them in order to get ideas for improving our living spaces without spending a lot of money or taking a lot of time. If you can make your on-the-go audience feel less hassled and more competent to take matters into their own hands, you’ll have more likely success with your TV show.

Back in September of 2000, Entrepreneur wrote, “home is where the money is.” Steady growth in home improvement product sales from 1998 to 1999 (7.3%) to 2000 (6.3% predicted) indicated that “people are more willing than ever before to spend money on their homes,” according to Gerald Baldner, president of the kitchen- and bath-remodeling company Kitchen Solvers Inc.

That franchise earned $11 million in sales in 1999. Moving forward to this year, a February 5, 2006 report from Henry Fund Research predicts that the overall retail home improvement industry “should continue to be robust in the coming years with sales growth averaging 6-8% per year.” The report attributes this increase to growth in primary and secondary home ownership—the more homes owned, the more home improvement projects undertaken.

It didn’t hurt that Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which rewards certain energy efficient home improvement projects with tax credits of up to $500. Currently the home improvement market is considered to be somewhere between $250 billion and $340 billion—a healthy industry indeed.

Interior design is an industry that’s doing well, too. According to Interior Design (January 2006), the “Top 100 Interior Design Giants” were experiencing “steady growth” as the new year began. “This group earned a grand total of $1,751,147,122—up 9% from the previous study period. After 2004s leap from 1.1 to 10.2%, this past year's little dip in the growth rate only means that the gains are settling down to a healthy, regular pace.” Staffing at these top 100 firms was up 10.2%. “That's a sure sign,” says the article, “that these industry leaders—and, we hope, all design firms—are breathing easier than they have been since the beginning of the millennium.”

You don’t have to be an interior design giant to be optimistic about the market outlook. In November of 2000, Terri Maurer, president of the American Society of Interior Designers was quoted by The Oklahoma City Journal Record as saying that it was a good time to get into the interior design field.

“There were 53,291 practicing interior designers in the marketplace in 1998, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and with the strong economy, it is projected that we will need an additional 14,500 interior designers by 2008," she said. She cited design firms turning away work, lacking the necessary army of designers on staff to handle the workload. Demand was high then—and it still is high now.

The entertainment industry is a tricky beast these days, however. Change is a constant. According to a 2006 report by Plunkett Research (a trend analyzer), “revenues are stagnant in many traditional entertainment and media segments…. Movie theater attendance is down. The traditional, store-front video rental sector is suffering due to alternatives including Netflix, TiVo and video-on-demand services.” That might not sound like good news in the short term, but if you take the long view, predictions are more optimistic.

PricewaterhouseCooper put out a report, the Global Entertainment and Media Outlook for 2006-2010, which predicts that U.S. box office spending will grow from a weak $9 billion in 2005 to a much tastier $11.1 billion in 2010. There’s a caveat, of course: “Admissions in 2010 will remain below the levels achieved during 2002-04.” Look instead for real growth in online subscription and video streaming services: “Together they will reach $2.2 billion by 2010 from only $216 million in 2005, averaging 59.1% growth compounded annually.” If these predictions are starting to suggest marketing strategies to you, your head’s in the right place.

Let’s take a look at the figures for television viewership now. Pricewaterhouse Cooper’s 2006-2010 Outlook goes on to predict an increase there over the same period, attributable in no small part to digital video recorders (think TiVO), digital television, and high-definition television (HDTV). They predict growth in Canada as well; where the Canadian television network market came to $3.7 billion in 2005, we’re looking at some $4.5 billion in 2010. (If that looks small to you, remember we’re talking billions here.) In televisions distribution, the fastest-growing category in the U.S. is expected to be video-on-demand, which should reach $3.9 billion in 2010. In Canada, VOD is predicted to outpace pay-per-view by 2009.

Nearly ten years ago, the American Booksellers Association prepared a study of consumer purchases of adult books covering the years 1991 to 1998. In that study, the category share attributed to books about “Cooking/Crafts” was seen to show overall growth of 22.4% over that period. That’s a broad category; it’s defined as including “Animals, Antiques/Collectibles, Photography, Automotive, Crafts/Hobbies, Cooking/Wine, Do-it-Yourself/Home Improvement, Gardening/Indoor Plants, Nature/Guidebooks, Transportation & Sports/Recreation.”

Flash forward to today. The book publishing industry as a whole continues strong, according to the Association of American Publishers. Their Industry Statistics tells us that the U.S. publishing industry saw net sales increase by 1.3% from 2003 to 2004, culminating in a total of $23.72 billion. Unfortunately, this says little about home improvement books in specific; we can point out, however, that “’Other’ book publishing sales were up 5% ($2.20 billion) emphasizing the overall growth in publishing sales through this catchall designation.”

For more good news about book publishing in general, we turn to Book Industry TRENDS 2006, which estimates that total publishers’ net revenues reached $34.59 billion in 2005. Clearly the industry has been experiencing continued growth. The 2006 Trends report has made a point to include much more data on small publishers than before—and DIY/how-to books are one of the few genres that stand a good chance of success in the self- and small-publishing industries. Because these books cater to a clearly identified target market, it’s much easier for an author to locate and reach out to that market at presentations, classes, local stores, and via TV shows, including home makeover TV shows.

Magazines in the Do-it-Yourself/Home Improvement categories are also doing well. Magazine Publishers of America tells us that from 2004 to 2005, Better Homes and Gardens subscriptions, already in the top ten at 7.4 million, increased by .4%--and that trend seems to be continuing according to a report on the first six months of 2006. Architectural Digest saw a rise of 11.7% in advertising dollars from 2005 to 2006 as of February 10, 2006. House & Garden’s average subscription circulation increased by a relatively large 3.2%. Advertising dollars for Martha Stewart Living, which showed a subscription increase of 1.4% from 2005 to 2006, went up by 136% during that same time.

The Nielsen Ratings from October 17, 2006 make it clear what the hottest home improvement show on the networks is. That would be ABC’s Extreme Makeover – Home Edition, coming in at number nine on the “tops among ages 18-49 breakout.” (Most of the shows that beat it out were crime and hospital dramas.) In this show, a team of designers take “one very run-down house, a deserving family,” and seven days to do a renovation job “that would ordinarily take at least four months to achieve.”

Viewers watch as much to see the reactions of the surprised family, who have no idea that they’ve been chosen for the show until team leader Ty Pennington shows up on their doorstep to say “good morning,” as they do to see how the house is transformed.

One of the most well-known titles in home improvement TV shows is This Old House hosted by Bob Vila co-hosted by Norm Abram and Steve Thomas, originally a PBS staple and currently in vintage rerun mode on the DIY Network. This show “explains home improvement in layman’s terms… combining the best of old-world craftsmanship and modern technology.” The show is still running today on PBS but Bob Vila is no longer part of the cast.

Moving over to Bravo TV and forward by a few decades, we have another popular and thoroughly untraditional makeover show: the Emmy Award winning Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. While not strictly a home improvement show, interior design is definitely part of the all-inclusive makeover the Fab Five visit upon each episode’s lucky guy. This in-your-face show starts with the stereotype of the gay man’s fashion sense and blow it wide open. “The makeover unfolds with a playful deconstruction of the subject's current lifestyle and continues on as a savagely funny showcase for the hottest styles and trends in fashion, home design, grooming, food and wine, and culture.”

Another show that isn’t squarely inside this book’s scope but certainly worth a mention is Home Improvement. It was a sit-com that spun off the home improvement reality show concept, a genre that was already popular back in 1991. Its main character, Tim Taylor, was the “accident prone host of a Detroit, Michigan television program about tools.” The show followed his misadventures and those of his dysfunctional family. The show ended in 1999, but its fan base continues strong to this day.

Do you know?

The television distribution market is expected to see increases, with its fastest-growing category in the United States being video-on-demand. VOD is predicted to reach $3.9 billion in 2010. In Canada, it’s expected to outpace pay-per-view by 2009.

The DIY Network, for example, reports a gender split in their audience of 68% women to 32% men, a median age of 46 years, and a household income median of $66,695.

Its sister station, HGTV, identifies its audience as 74% female and 26% male. Its median age and median household income is similar to that of the diy network: 46 years old and $69,023.

Both stations report a 77% portion of their audience that’s married and 86% that—no surprise, given the genre—own their own residence. You can interpret these demographics in either of two ways.

How much money can you make?

With all the above choices, your income potential is literally unlimited. There are several scenarios, depending on which path you choose:

New TV show host most likely sell videos offered through their complimentary public TV show
You can expect to sell 20 to 100 copies per episode aired, earning you $200 to $1,000 per week
Once you hit commercial TV channel, you can expect to earn a six-figure income annually
With a few design books in the market earning you a few thousand dollars per month, you can expect to earn $30,000 extra annually
Total earning per year: a potential million-dollar once your image and show are established worldwide
The experience: priceless

Need we say more?
This eGuide provides insightful information, advices and tips for anyone who is contemplating to become a design makeover TV show creator or producer. Numerous hard-to-find resources are included to help you locate pertinent information.

About the Authors

Jennie S. Bev is THE fashion, image and fun careers expert, whose reputation has been acknowledged by prestigious media internationally. She has been profiled and mentioned in Entrepreneur, Teen People, Canadian Business, Home Business, Dong (France), San Francisco Chronicle, The Independent, Daily Southtown, The Arizona Republic, Chic (Asia), Fit (Asia), Femina (Asia) and Dewi (Asia).

Editor-in-Chief Jennie S. Bev was named 2003 EPPIE Award finalist in Non-Fiction How To category for excellence in electronic publishing. She has published over 40 books and 900 articles in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany and Southeast Asia. She is also a college professor based in San Francisco Bay Area.

Co-author Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little is an accomplished author, freelance writer, and web designer from the New Orleans area. She graduated from Metairie Park Country Day School and went from there to the University of Washington to pursue B.A. in English.

Her fiction and essays have been published in a diverse handful of literary and New Age magazines, including PanGaia. An aspiring novelist, she has been an annual participant in National Novel-Writing Month since 2002. She now resides in Colorado.

This 60-page instantly downloadable StyleCareer.com eGuide Breaking Into and Succeeding as a Design Makeover TV Show Creator brings you valuable insider tips, advice and suggestions not available elsewhere to help you embark on this highly lucrative career path.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Myths, the Realities, and the Basics
Home Makeover Expertise
I am not a celebrity interior designer.
I don’t have any professional interior design education or background.
Television Know-How
I have no experience in starting a TV show.
I have no experience in writing for, directing and shooting videos. I am definitely not a TV show or video producer.
I don’t know which angle to shoot.
Marketing Wizardry
I don’t know how to market a TV show.
Money Matters
I cannot pay a team of video writer, camera crew and director. I’m penniless.

Design Makeover Shows in a Nutshell
By the Numbers: Good News for the Design Makeover TV Show Creator
Interior Decoration and Home Improvement Industries
Entertainment Industry: Movies, Television, and Home Theater
Publishing Industry: Books, Magazines and Videos about Home Improvement
Simplifying the Home in This Modern Life
Top Shows in the Genre

Getting to Know Your Genre: Interior Decorating, Interior Design, and Home Improvement
What’s the Difference?
Interior Decorating
Interior Design
Home Improvement
Brief History of Interior Design/Decoration and Home Improvement Shows
Philosophy Behind
Celebrity Status: Who’s Got It and Why

Starting Your Own Show
Anatomy of a Successful TV Show Host and Creator
How Much You Can Expect to Earn
DVD Sales
In-Store Presentations and Design Classes
Take This Show on the Road
Television Revenue
Pre-Production
Finding an Angle
Finding Investors
Writing the Script
Hiring Production Staff
Getting Equipped
Formatting Concerns
Duplication: by Yourself or Outsourced
Packaging
Post-Production
Publicity on a Shoestring Budget
Branding and Positioning
Promoting Yourself to TV
Publishing Distribution: Books, Video Sales, Rentals

Being Successful
Joining Trade Associations and Networking Groups
Participating In Trade Shows
Auxiliary Products

Success Stories

This eGuide literally saves you hundreds or even thousands of dollars spent on professional workshops and training and hundreds of hours of research. It will help you break into the career of your dream faster without having to repeat the same mistakes that most newcomers do.

We have also included resources on the following:

Trade and networking associations where you can go to pitch TV channels in one sport
Secrets to pitching to TV channels

You can have this exclusive eGuide right away by instant download for only $65.95, which you will earn many times over with your first paid job. This special low discount price is reserved for today, Friday, September 05, 2008 only. (Regular price: $78.95)

Breaking Into and Succeeding
as a Cooking Show Creator
Regular Price: $78.95
Sale Price: $65.95

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