Sector guide · Window furnishings & interiors
The measure, quote, make, install business
Whether you sell plantation shutters, custom wardrobes, made to measure curtains or bespoke joinery, you run the same fundamental machine: generate a lead, get the measure right, win the quote, make or procure the product, install it well, and get paid without drama.
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Whether you sell plantation shutters, custom wardrobes, made to measure curtains or bespoke joinery, you run the same fundamental machine: generate a lead, get the measure right, win the quote, make or procure the product, install it well, and get paid without drama. Buyers assess every custom interiors business through that machine, because the machine is what they are buying.
That is worth sitting with, because many owners in this industry describe their business by its products, and a buyer assess it by its process. A buyer is not really purchasing blinds or benchtops. They are purchasing a lead engine, a conversion system, a margin structure, a production and install capability, and a reputation that keeps all of it fed. Businesses that can show each part of the machine working, with numbers, sell for premiums. Businesses that are one talented owner doing everything sell for far less, whatever the product.
The custom element cuts both ways at sale time. It protects your margins from online commodity competition and it builds a moat of skill and supplier relationships around the business. But it also concentrates risk in the details: measure accuracy, remake rates, warranty tails and key person knowledge. This guide covers how buyers weigh both sides, and how to tilt the scales in your favour before you sell.
The two mandatory standards for corded internal window coverings
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Goods standard, on what you supply | Competition and Consumer (Corded Internal Window Coverings) Safety Standard 2014. Requires a warning label on retail packaging, a warning label or swing tag on the cord, and installation instructions supplied with the product. |
| Installation services standard, on what you do on site | Competition and Consumer (Corded Internal Window Coverings) Safety Standard 2014. Register ID F2014L00363 on the Federal Register of Legislation. This is a mandatory safety standard for a service, and it binds the person performing the installation. |
| Made and registered | Signed 20 March 2014. Registered 28 March 2014. |
| Commenced | 1 January 2015. |
| Amendments | None. The latest version on the Federal Register of Legislation is still the as-made version of 28 March 2014. |
| Scope exclusion | Applies to installation in a domestic dwelling. Does not apply to caravans, mobile homes or boats. |
| Regulator | The ACCC, under the Australian Consumer Law, being Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. |
| Maximum penalties for supplying non-compliant goods or services | Corporations: the greater of $100,000,000, or 3 times the value of the benefit obtained, or, where that cannot be determined, 30 per cent of adjusted turnover during the breach turnover period. Individuals: $2,500,000. These figures apply to conduct on or after 28 March 2026. |
Instrument details are from the Federal Register of Legislation and the ACCC Product Safety Australia pages, current as at August 2026. One caveat is worth stating plainly. The ACCC cites the 2010 goods standard by the register ID F2010C00801, which did not resolve on the current Federal Register when this page was researched, while the ACCC page, published 17 January 2025, still presents the 2010 Regulations as a current mandatory standard. The obligations described here are the ACCC’s stated obligations. The current registration status of the 2010 instrument itself could not be verified.
What the 2014 installation standard requires your installer to do
Install the covering so that a loose cord cannot form a loop 220 mm or longer at less than 1,600 mm above floor level. That is the core rule and everything else supports it. A loop of that size, within reach of a small child, is the hazard the standard exists to remove.
Where a cleat is used to secure a cord, fix the cleat at least 1,600 mm above floor level. The height is measured from the finished floor, not from the sill, and it is not a recommendation. A cleat at 1,400 mm is a non-compliant installation regardless of how neatly the cord is wound around it.
Where a cord guide is installed below 1,600 mm, it must withstand 70 N applied in any direction for 10 seconds, which is roughly a 7 kg pull, and it must keep the cord tensioned so that no loop can form under that load. A cord guide that holds under light tension but releases under a sustained pull does not meet the standard. This is the requirement a buyer’s inspector tests physically on site, and it is the one that fails.
Two things must be attached or left in place. Attach a label to the corded window covering containing the name and contact details of the installer. Retain all manufacturer warning labels and swing tags on the product. Removing a swing tag at a customer’s request because it looks untidy is a breach of the standard, not a courtesy.
Fixing method is prescribed. Follow the manufacturer instructions, use only screw fixings with correct embedment, use the manufacturer-provided holes, and use the specified number of fixings. Nails, staples, tape and adhesives are not acceptable. Do not fix into rotted, water-logged, burnt or brittle substrate. If your installers were trained by another installer rather than from the ACCC installation guide, this is where the drift shows up.
One further point about enforcement risk. No ACCC enforcement action specific to corded internal window covering non-compliance could be located when this page was researched, beyond recalls and state warnings issued in 2014. That does not make the standard optional. It makes the penalty figures above the relevant number, because a first enforcement action against this industry would be brought under the current penalty regime, not a historic one.
Shares in a private company are a financial product under the Corporations Act 2001. Tony Pope does not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence and does not give financial product advice. Nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy or sell shares.
Where a sale is structured as a share sale, the share transfer itself is handled by your solicitor and your accountant. This page explains why the structure matters to your licence, your accreditation or your registration. It does not tell you which structure to choose.
This explains how the rules generally work on a business sale. It is not advice about your situation, and nothing here should be acted on without your accountant running your actual numbers.
Tony Pope is not a registered tax agent and does not give tax advice. Deal structure changes what you keep, sometimes by more than the negotiation does, so get that advice before you sign anything.
Tony Pope is a licensed business broker, not a solicitor. This explains how these rules and clauses usually work so you can have a better conversation with your lawyer.
Your contract should be drafted and reviewed by a solicitor. Where anything on this page differs from an official source or from your own legal advice, that source and that advice are right.
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