Survey Results

Thank you to the 50+ designers that took the time to answer my survey in the last blog post. The results are listed below and I will comment on them over the next week.

Q1: How do you charge clients for Design Concept Development (i.e. consult w/ client to determine design requirements; prepare initial design and color scheme; space plan; and possibly a preliminary budget)?

65% of you charge by the hour

19% charge a fee per space or a total fee for all spaces

Q2: How do you charge for the time you spend Designing / Sourcing / Shopping / Selecting items prior to actually purchasing items (i.e. taking the design concepts and sourcing out the individual items to present to the client for possible purchase)?

69% of you charge by the hour

26% of you don’t charge for these services – as you include the charges in either the Design Concept Development Fee, in your Purchase Mark Ups, Flat Fees or just don’t charge for it at all

Q3: How do you charge for Purchasing and Managing orders (i.e. the time after Proposals are approved; the time it takes to place orders and do all follow up work with your vendors, suppliers and workrooms through to completion and installation)?

58% of you charge a Mark-Up or Commission on top of the trade cost of the items or charge Retail Price and your fee is the difference between Trade and Retail Prices)

27% of you don’t charge a mark-up and only charge hourly for these services

Q4: How do you charge for work you do with the Project Architects and non-decorating contractors?

63% charge hourly

19% charge a fee equal to a percentage of the Architect’s or Contractor’s Fees

Flat Fees

One response that flowed through all four questions were the designers that charge a Flat Fee for the entire project. 8% of the designers responding to the survey said they charge this way.