Vicente Wolf

Name: Lindsey Bond
City: Birmingham
State: al
Country: us
Comment:

Vicente,

You will never understand how much your blog is helping and inspiring me. Every time I read it, I feel liberated as an interior designer. Thank you so much!

We have actually met before at your showroom. I was there with my old boss, Betsy Brown and we were visiting all the “it” designers’ showrooms. Both you and David Weeks were the only designers that stopped work to say a few words. Designers can be intimidating, but you both were very approachable.

My point to all the flattery is I really respect your opinion and I think you are doing a wonderful job of educating us, as designers, how to sell and value our work. So… I have a few questions….

I recently started my own business January 2009; Last year was great and I learned so much. This year is totally different… things are not quite so great and the business side of design is starting to wear on me. I have trolled through your billing and commission posts for weeks trying to decipher the best and most appropriate billing system for my clients. I was wondering if you could clarify what you charge a commission on- the retail cost or your cost (net).

Birmingham designers usually charge $100-150 per hour plus full retail. That is fine, but I would rather see my clients pay higher design fees with a markup 35% of my costs for items. I feel this way, they can afford for me to be a more hands on designer, because much of the money is not tied up in retail costs, and they can also afford my product, therefor the overall design is much more complete and everyone wins. What are your thoughts? I know you stated you take a 10% retainer and then 35% MU on costs. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time,

Lindsey Bond

Vicente Responds:

Lindsey, I charge my markup on the net cost of the product. It’s hard for me to offer you exact advice based on a few lines, but I just received a letter from a company called DA Designer Advantage – www.designeradvantage.com. The service they provide is billing, bookkeeping and job management across the US. I have no information on them and cannot vouch for their work, but it seems that this is the type of help you need. Why don’t you visit their website and see what they do? Maybe a service like that would be a great help to you. Do any of the other readers know of a similar service that you can recommend?