Interior Design Fee & Salary Survey

It’s so interesting how many questions we’re getting in our Design Mastermind groups about fees these days.  One of the biggest reasons?  Consumers are more resistant than ever to hourly fees and mark-up.

I just received a bill from one of my attorneys (a junior partner) and I have to admit I was annoyed to be billed for .10 hour for him sending me an email to check on the status of information he was expecting to receive.  Never mind that he told me that I had a month to get the information to him, and it had only been two weeks.  GRRR!

So, I have to put myself in the position of my clients.  How do they feel when they receive time bills that appear to include nickel and dime charges?  What about sending bills at the beginning of the project that are larger because that is when most of the work occurs?  How do they react? If you’ve ever waited for weeks to get paid, it may be because your client is upset with their bill.

How often have you gotten to the end of the project, and the client wasn’t paying the bills and you kept working just assuming that you’d get paid?  How many times have you gotten stiffed for the last or even the last few bills, yet you did the work?  I’ve been hearing that from some of our members.

How many of you have lost jobs to other designers because they charge less per hour?

How do you make the money you deserve when the clients are shopping on the Internet and they find the same product for less money…and then they buy it?  How irritated are they with you and how do they express it?  Non-payment, job termination, no referrals?

These frustrations are so common these days, and in fact, I think they’ve become more typical.  What are you experiencing?  Please send us your biggest question or share your biggest frustration.  If you don’t want to do it on the blog, just email us, but I think an open conversation about this is important.

Would you share your thoughts and tweet this?

I’ll comment on the blog every weekday until the 17th about this topic.

PS – If you haven’t read our Interior Design Fee & Salary Survey eBook, I’d recommend downloading your own copy on our website. (Top right corner).

Related posts:

1. #9 Biggest Mistakes Interior Designers Make With Fees
2. 5 Things They Don’t Teach You In Interior Design School
3. Interior Designers – Are You Charging for Results or Time?
4. Top 10 Ways To Create Happy Interior Design Client Relationships And Avoid Disasters
5. Interior Designers – Are Your Clients Happily Paying Your Hourly Fees?