Hello and welcome to episode 39 of design curious podcast, I'm
your host and Mentor Rebecca Ward today on the podcast, I'm
talking about a very controversial and Hot Topic
charging for that initial consultation.
Now I would say that nowadays, it seems like more people are
charging for it than not which I believe is a good thing but we
can talk about that in the episode.
And before we get into that let me remind Adieu that I have for
you a few free things that you are looking for more information
about the career of an interior designer, then you can download
the three things. I wish I had known when I
started my career in interior design and then I also have the
roadmap to becoming an interior designer.
So you can find those links for those downloads in the show
notes of today's episode. And I'd also like to remind you
to leave me a rating and review of the podcast.
I love to hear what it is, you're enjoying about the
podcast and just helps me to keep on going.
I have so many great ideas, so many great interviews coming up
for you that I'd love to make sure that those are things that
you are interested in in hearing.
All right. Now let's talk about charging
for the initial consultation. You're now listening to design,
curious a place where you create a one are here to learn about
what it really is. Like, to be an interior designer
and I'm your host and Mentor Rebecca, Ward, if you're worried
about how to succeed in a creative career, if you're ready
to learn your next steps to become an Interior Designer.
And if you want the satisfaction of doing something you love
everyday, you are. In the right place, grab a
coffee, a notebook. And let's dig into today's
episode. Charging for your initial
consultation is actually a really controversial and Hot
Topic, among the interior design Community, it is very often
discussed of whether or not you should charge to do your initial
consult and there are strong feelings and both directions.
However, my experience has always been that you charge for
the initial consultation. I believe it was recommended to
me out of college. Definitely because I was a
member of asid American society of interior designers.
They always also encouraged their members to charge for the
consultation because they are professionals.
So the argument for not charging, I guess it could be
that oftentimes contractors are not charging to come to the
site. So the client is not expecting
that the designer would charge for you to come to the site.
If you're looking at the project to see whether or not you want
to take Take it and the rebuttal to that would be when a
contractor comes on site. They are not typically doing any
work they're just taking a look at the project seeing the scope
of work and getting a feel for it.
Whereas when a designer goes on site the client is expecting
them to come up with ideas and talk about a probable solution
that could work and what their needs are and they'll talk about
what their taste and style is and all that is information that
the Could give out for free on site and give the client, a lot
of ideas, a lot of information and some would say, that's what
you should do. So then the client can know
whether or not that you are a good fit that, you have some
great ideas and that they should hire you to move forward.
Conversely though, I would suggest you charge for your
initial consultation. Then there are actually many
reasons why I would encourage you to do that.
First of all, you are a busy person.
Person and your time is valuable and so taking a couple hours out
of your day to go, visit a job site would be prohibitive of
making any profit throughout the day because you're only getting
paid by the hours that you are billing.
If you Bill out early or even if you are doing a flat fee, you
still need to be working and moving your projects forward.
So one of the arguments for charging for an initial
consultation is that the client will Start to perceive your
value when you get something for free, usually value it a lot
less than if you're paying for it.
So there is a phrase, I think that goes people who pay pay
attention and so if you want your client to pay attention to
the value that you're bringing and your expertise, then
charging them, a fee, for your time, would be a good way to
facilitate that, then if you are charging for Your time you can
then speak as freely as you. Like at that initial
consultation, you can give out as many ideas as you might want.
Whereas, if you weren't charging, you might be saying, I
have a few ideas for this, but we can talk about that once we
get into contract or you might be like, well, this, this could
possibly be a good solution, but you're really hesitant to go all
in and start the design work. Whereas since I charge for my
initial consultations, I'm We actively working on those
consultations and coming up with Solutions and coming up with a
plan and direction at that initial console for the client.
It's really, and that's why I call it a project starter
consultation, because we're doing a lot of work on that to
our consultation. And if you're doing just a half
hour, free half hour or hour, consultations here, and there
that does build up over time, even if you're not giving a lot
of information, you have to drive there, drive back, and
take time out of Out of your schedule to do it.
So, most people that I talk to now do charge for that initial
consultation, I think that is becoming a more common practice.
I'm hoping that it is a more common practice for designers.
So even if you're just starting out, you know, I encourage you
to charge hourly because you're not aware of how many hours.
It might take you to complete a project and the hourly charge
that you're doing should be at least a hundred dollars per hour
and Over that depending on your education and experience.
So I would say at least charge $100 for that first hour
consultation. Now, I charge a high fee for my
initial consultations because I want to factor in the time it
takes to travel to and from that consult, which is typically 20
to 30 minutes away from my office.
And then I'm charging for two hours of my time.
And then I bring my associate designer with me and it's two
hours. As of her time.
So, our initial consultation fee covers, all of those are early
charges that I would normally charge a client for.
And so that way, we're not resentful of the time that we
are spending with the client starting to do this project
starter consultation. And then it is worthwhile for
us. It's worthwhile for them because
they get a lot of value out of that, whether or not, they're
moving forward. But most of the time, if we know
that we're doing a project starter consultation, then we
know that They are 95% of the time moving forward with our
services. And how do we know that is?
Because we do offer a free Discovery call.
So this is what designers will often do to help the client
understand whether or not they are a good fit before the
designer comes out to the job site.
So a discovery call is typically 15 to 20 minutes long.
You get the client on the phone and we talked about this a lot
with our Our view with Porsche back in episode 15.
So I'll put a link to that. So you can listen to her,
explain the reasons why you want to Outsource your intake calls
and that whole process. But on that intake call, we're
typically talking to the client asking them their project scope
parameters. What they're hopeful budget is
what our typical design. Fees are getting feedback and
really trying to get to know the client.
See if they're a good fit for our Firm in the way that we
operate in. There's a certain way that I
like to operate and run a project start to finish and
there's other clients who might not be looking for that.
They might be looking for a client to just be on call if
someone to go shopping with them and I don't do that with my
clients. And so this is a great way to
really screen out. The clients aren't a good fit
and then really get to start a relationship with the ones who
are a good fit. And so, and even before that
Discovery call, we have them. Fill out a questionnaire.
That has a lot of this information on it so then we can
discuss that with them on the Discovery call and then
afterwards we follow up with a more in-depth document on what
that consultation will include and what they can expect to get
out of that. And then once they agree to
that, we can move forward. So we have a lot of touch points
with the client before we even get on site with them.
And so by the time were on site, we are prepared to really do the
work Really provide a lot of value because we are
professionals and we want to give our professional opinion on
everything and really be helpful to the client.
And the best way that I see, I can do that is by charging the
client and having them get value out of it.
And my goal is to actually deliver more value than what
they are charging for it. Another way that you can provide
more value to those prospective clients at no charge is to have
a lead magnet. So you might have a PDF download
that gives them tips on how to style bookcase or whatever it is
that your ideal client might be looking for some things to avoid
when you're remodeling your kitchen or you know, it could be
anything. So I have a style quiz which
gives the client information on what their taste and style
actually is and how to put that into words and then they can go
and explore those images further.
So that Before they meet with us, they have a better sense of
what it is that they like and what they'd like to see in their
project. So that is one way, you can also
have additional downloads. You can give and send in a
follow-up to your Discovery call.
I have a remodel Survival Guide that is available for people who
just want a little bit more information might be doing
things on their own. So there's always an Avenue for
someone who might not be ready to commit to a full project.
I like to To provide value at a lot of different levels.
And so, that's something you consider, but, definitely highly
encourage you charging for that initial consultation and
hopefully some of the things that I've brought up today.
Will convince you to do likewise So short and sweet episode today
on that initial consultation, but I wanted to make sure that
you have that information because when you're starting out
or thinking about starting out, this is really good advice for
you and just to be able to make sure that you're making money
every week as you go out on these consultations.
And then the other bonus from it is that you also value yourself
as a professional, you know, that your expertise is worth the
fee that you are charging. But I love to hear your thoughts
on initial consultations that I said, I know it's a Hot Topic
and so if you disagree with me, anyhow some great points, you'd
like to bring up. I would love for you to reach
out to me and let me know what you think about that.
So you can reached out to me at podcast at our design.com are
saying to my DMs on Instagram at our Ward design and we can have
a conversation there because I love hearing all sides of the
story. And so that is it for me?
This week next week, I'll have another great interview for you
with someone who does a lot of eat design and what her take is
on it and how you could incorporate this into your
business model. So stay tuned for that next week
and until then stay creative. Thanks for listening.
If you loved this episode, please leave a rating and a
review. This helps me reach other
curious. Creatives.
Like you, if you have a topic request or would like to contact
me, Simply head over to my website, our Ward design.com or
email me at podcast at our Ward design.com.