Irina Ditu: 10 Years of Entrepreneurship – Challenges, Lessons, and Success with Homesign

Irina Ditu celebrates 10 years of entrepreneurship and shares how she transformed Homesign into a unique concept: buy, design, rent with us.

Irina Ditu, entrepreneur and beauty enthusiast, celebrates in 2025 ten years of entrepreneurship and says she loves every single day of her life. After years of challenges and trials, Irina is in love with her business: Homesign, a real estate, design & build agency. Her motto is buy, design, rent with us.

C&B: How would you describe yourself in a single sentence, in order to spark curiosity in those who don’t know you yet?
Irina Ditu: “The greatest adventure is to live the life of your dreams” – I believe that in life you can be or become whoever you want, and it’s only up to you to fulfill your dreams. I am calm and warm, ambitious and perfectionist, creative and brutally honest, I don’t like things done halfway and if I have something to tell you, you can be sure I will. I also love numbers, as I believe that’s the only way to efficiently measure progress and success. Entrepreneurship is the only job that truly represents me and allows me to be authentic.

C&B: If we were to look at the storyline of your career or business, what were the key moments that defined you?
Irina Ditu: In 2015, right after finishing university, my mentor advised me to open my first business in web design and graphic design. That’s how I started my entrepreneurial journey.
Then, in 2017, being in love with my creative side, with growth potential, and also with the opportunity to access non-reimbursable funds, I applied for Start Up Nation and received funding to create a print workshop and an interior design office in Dorobanți. Those were some beautiful but also tough years, full of valuable lessons.
After the pandemic, in December 2020, I decided to close the workshop and accept that a stage of my life was coming to an end.
Of course, it didn’t take long for me to bounce back after failure, to start over, and return stronger on the market through the integrated service concept offered by Homesign – buy, design, rent with us.

C&B: What has been the most difficult moment in your journey so far, and how did you overcome it?
Irina Ditu: The hardest moment was closing the workshop in Dorobanți, where I had invested all my resources: time, money, health, relationships, and having to accept failure as part of the success that would come a few years later.
Mentally it was very hard to get past that moment. The year 2021 was the toughest year of my life – I had to gather myself and start again from zero.
I managed not to give up, supported by my loved ones and with patience. Together with new business partners, I began working on the Homesign concept.
Then, in 2022, at exactly 30 years old, I realized that the wisest teacher is failure, and it is part of success. You can’t have success without failure.

C&B: Is there a dream or ambition that has always guided you, regardless of obstacles?
Irina Ditu: I’ve always believed that my place is in entrepreneurship, that I create myself, that I decide what I do with my life no matter the obstacles, and that alongside the right people, I will succeed again. I just need patience.

C&B: How did you look at the beginning of the road and how do you feel you have transformed until now?
Irina Ditu: At the beginning, I was a naïve, dreamy girl, eager to learn and achieve great things. Today I am me, Irina, a woman, an entrepreneur with 10 years of experience in design and real estate, who has learned to say NO, who trusts her judgment, and acts as she believes is right, for herself and for others.

C&B: If we were to meet your team or collaborators, what do you think they would say about you?
Irina Ditu: I think opinions would be divided – no one is perfect. They would probably say that I am demanding, honest, and involved. Most collaborators and clients are people with whom I share a history, and I assume they are satisfied with me, since they have continued the collaboration or recommended me to their close ones.

C&B: What is the most important decision you have made that changed your trajectory?
Irina Ditu: Closing the workshop, moving from Dorobanți to the North, accepting failure, and starting over. After all the lessons I had learned, the perfect moment came to put them into practice through Homesign.

C&B: How did you build your leadership style or the way you make decisions? Was it a natural or learned process?
Irina Ditu: It was a natural process. I’ve always wanted to work in a team and to lead a team. I am endlessly curious and empathetic, I care about what motivates those around me, I like to help, I am involved. I also believe that sales and leadership are directly connected to psychology and personal development, topics I explore through my readings.

C&B: What do you think differentiates your business or your professional approach from the rest of the industry?
Irina Ditu: I believe people make the difference, and the unique concept of a real estate agency that creates and delivers turnkey design projects are key elements that define Homesign.

C&B: What does a typical day look like for you now, and what moments bring you the greatest satisfaction?
Irina Ditu: My mornings begin in harmony with my life partner, then around 9:30 I start my activity in the field, with client meetings and team meetings. There are days when I finish work late, at 8 or 9 PM, but the satisfaction is huge when I close collaborations with great people, no matter the hour. The freedom to make my own schedule is the greatest satisfaction, always.

C&B: What values or principles guide you in what you do, and how do you apply them daily?
Irina Ditu: Values such as discipline, self-learning, honesty, positivity, success-orientation, and respect are the foundation stones of Homesign, and you need to resonate with them in order to thrive in our team. In addition, patience is essential. The real estate market is competitive, just like design & build.
We manage to successfully apply these values through systems, an organized workflow – CRM, to-do list, calendar, database – and through monthly monitoring. Numbers bring clarity.

C&B: How did you come up with the idea to open this business and give it this name?
Irina Ditu: Homesign comes from two English words: home and sign (signature), and it perfectly reflects our activity. The business is a concept I created from scratch: visual identity, graphics, marketing, website.
The idea came as I advanced as a real estate agent, with patience and small steps, until I named the business Homesign – buy, design, rent with us!

C&B: If you were to send a message to people who follow your example, what would it be?
Irina Ditu: Never stop dreaming, embrace lessons and failure as your best friends, and always find the good in every situation – focus on the positive. Being a good human in business is the most honorable thing you can do.

Irina Ditu’s journey proves that entrepreneurship is about courage, patience, and resilience. With Homesign, she turned past lessons into a success story in real estate, design, and build.