I'd been teaching at Evening at Emory
and one of my students wanted to refer me to her boss for interior design.
It turns out she was the Executive Assistant to the CEO of a boutique banking recruitment firm and he wanted to redo his offices.
My rate agreement for that project was straight forward, I got my hourly rate and we split my trade discount ranging from 20%-40% on all goods.
The project turned out really well and I turned it quickly. Then he asked me to do his residence.
He was newly remarried with twins on the way and the place was under construction. This time he wanted to negotiate.
Based on my experience with him, I agreed. (Keep reading this is where I lost my proverbial shirt!)
On his
offices, he'd not generally gone to any of my sources with me. Instead, I went and showed him pictures, tear sheets, and samples.
He was focused on his business so it meant a lot of hours of research, sleuthing, and sourcing for me, all good (also my favorite thing to do.)
Well, that all changed when it came to his house and I didn't see it coming and got totally
blindsided.
So his desire was to triple my hourly rate and get my full trade discount. Since I thought I was going to be sourcing again without him and making a great hourly, I agreed.
I mean I didn't even ask for 10% on goods which would have been the bare minimum smart move to make.
I was also a little intimidated because he was a CEO (I didn't
see myself in the same light though I totally was and still am.)
The following week we met at ADAC, Atlanta's high end design center with over 60 showrooms.
In no more than 90 minutes he spent $80K (not a typo that is $80,000) I made less than $600 total. WTFudge (and that's being wickedly polite?)
This was very early in my design practice and I
had no idea how to negotiate or that I needed to, I've never made that mistake again.
You deserve to be well paid, and your client deserves an agreement that is clear and concise.
I've seen a lot of very complicated rate calculations in my years in practice, rates that confuse, bewilder, baffle, and even piss off clients.
The movement to flat fees today is partly a backlash to the former complexity our industry created. You can still make great money, you
just have to understand how.
Go check out the blog post and if rates are one of your big challenges (and they often are for designers), let's have a conversation to clear up the complexity.
And, by the way, please don't give into not being fully transparent and not using a letter of agreement that spells it all out as a way to earn more. It's not honest.
(I say this because I know designers who do this and it's out of integrity.)
Rates don't have to be hard or scary to talk about. Let me make it simple for you. READ MORE...
Let's Prosper by
Design together.
Mega Hugs,
Melissa
P.S. Have a rate that you are confident in and feels good will totally transform your business; without it, you may lose your shirt. That sucks.
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