The 2025 UK Houzz State of the Industry report* revealed that, despite a tricky 2024, around half of firms are feeling positive about revenue and profit growth in the year ahead.
“After navigating a difficult two years, home professionals are approaching 2025 with a sense of cautious optimism,” Houzz staff economist Marine Sargsyan says. “Pros report that they’re implementing new processes for operational efficiency and client communication, and making strategic investments in technology to address the challenges they faced last year.”
Read on to find out the strategies pros are planning to adopt in 2025, and discover tips on how to implement them and which Houzz Pro tools could help.
* 2025 UK Houzz State of the Industry was conducted among home renovation firms in the Houzz UK community that offer services related primarily to residential renovation and/or design. The study was fielded from December 2024 to February 2025. N=160.
1. Increasing efficiency
Our 2025 State of the Industry report highlighted that 42% of pros want to improve efficiency and create a leaner process in the year ahead. A streamlined approach to workflow makes sense, particularly when you consider that 13% found keeping up with their workloads to be one of their biggest challenges.
Garden designer Peter Reader recommends taking a moment to think through your business and design processes and ask yourself, “Is there a template or a resource file that you’ve been meaning to make or update that would significantly speed up your workflow and reduce that frustrating repetition of simple tasks?”
If you find creating estimates and proposals time-consuming, for example, consider using the dedicated Houzz Pro tools. Both the Estimate Builder and Proposals features include built-in templates that you can quickly populate and send over to potential clients, so you can concentrate on other aspects of running your business.
2. Enhancing the sales process
The second most popular area where pros want to invest their time and money is the sales process, with 37% of our report respondents saying they were focusing on this in 2025.
Taking the time to meet with a potential client and showcase your fees and expertise will pay dividends when it comes to converting leads into clients.
Interior designer Ann Cope, who has a 90%+ lead conversion rate, offers her clients an Inspirational Visit. “They love this option,” she says. “They get my expertise and advice with a brief for their home. In that brief, I quote for the full project. I’m transparent with my fees and take off the Inspirational Visit cost if they’d like me to continue on the project.”
3. Improving communication with clients or teams
Transparency and communication are key to ensuring a client feels confident that their project is in safe hands, and team communication is vital for moving a project forwards on time and on budget.
Our report respondents agree, and in fact 35% said they were going to invest more time and money into this aspect of their business in 2025.
“The design and build process can be a long and confusing one, with lots of hoops to jump through,” Keith Jewell of design and build firm Bastion says. “We break this down into a step-by-step process, always explaining where we’re at and what the next step is. This helps the client manage their timeline and feel less overwhelmed.”
Houzz Pro’s Client Dashboard is a really efficient tool for collaborating with clients, as it allows the homeowner to access all the information about a project, including plans, invoices, photos and files, in one space and on-the-go, and provides an easy way to send messages back and forth.
Within the Dashboard, it’s possible to create a Schedule, where a project can be broken down into an easy-to-understand timeline, with tasks allocated to different team members, contractors and clients.
4. Reducing costs
Our study showed that rising labour, overhead and product costs are a challenge for many professionals and, as a result, 33% have decided to focus more on reducing costs in the year ahead.
One way to reduce product and materials costs is to order in advance. “We advocate that the client has a cost on every single item before the project starts, and orders with suppliers as early as possible,” Mark Barratt of CATO Creative says. “There are many benefits, such as securing better prices and delivery times.”
To speed up your product specifying process, consider using Houzz Pro’s Clipper feature. This handy tool enables you to ‘clip’ products from all over the internet and save them to a product library, together with all the information about each particular item and a link to the brand’s website.
You can then add products from your library into a Selections board to quickly send over to your client for an immediate decline or approval.
