Name: Kathy
City: Cameron Park
State: CA
Country: USA

Comment:

Just started following your blog. I am curious to know how many collaborative hours it takes to pull a project together for presentation. Therefore, how do you get a deposit or retainer from your client up front before knowing the total cost of said project?

Vicente Responds:

Kathy, You don’t ascertain the budget, the client tells you the budget. You don’t design the project until you have the contract, which stipulates the budget. In this office, it can take off and on from two weeks to a month and a half, depending on the scale and how many items need to be estimated. I try to do each segment of the process in concentrated time, whether it’s to do construction, then furniture, then fabrics – with each of them, I sit and work on it, pull back, take some time to work on something else and then I go back to the next one. I do one segment at a time, take a couple of days, then I go back to do furniture design, take time, then I do fabrics and colors. Each time I go back I revisit and look at what i’ve done up to that point with fresh eyes. It’s like cooking – you cook, then you taste, you add a little more, cook some more, taste a little more, etc. The estimating – getting all the prices together – is something that needs a good amount of time as estimate sheets need to be written out and come back from suppliers. None of this happens until we have a signed contract and retainer and we’ve gone through a questionnaire with the client to find out likes and dislikes so I know what my perimeters are.

I received an email from EM and I wanted to share it with you all:

Dear Mr. Wolf,

As the “EM” mentioned in your most recent post, I would like to clarify my post that you quoted. If I remember correctly, a woman wrote in saying that she was a decorator and worked out of her home, and was happy with the 20% markup she charged. In response, you told her that you didn’t see how she could be profitable with anything less than 30%. My thinking was that if she worked out of her home with no employees, she had no overhead, so her 20% was quite robust. By contrast, you have (I believe) enormous overhead what with payroll taxes, NYC rent, travel, so I could understand a larger markup. If a decorator who worked out of their home with no overhead charged the
same as one with a more professional office, I would, frankly, think they are overpriced. As I am sure you understand, margins are only one piece of a business’s financial success. The other very important
component is cash flow–ergo, if the decorator who wrote in was, as she claimed, making enough money to cover her expenses plus profit, I didn’t agree with your advice to charge a higher percentage.

I called myself the “Befuddled Future Client” because I am trying to budget for a decorator’s services in about 5 years. In response to a few queries I have sent out, I have been told that 1) no designer would do one room, because it would never give them the enough photographs for a magazine spread, that 2) no designer would work with a client who had a small collection of fine art and antiques because it wouldn’t allow them the necessary creativity they required, and 3) no designer would ever agree to be paid for a master plan to be executed over a period of time because of the same reasons mentioned in #1.

As someone who studied architecture in Italy, I have an enormous degree of respect for architects, designers, decorators, and artists. Yes, I agree that they are “worth it.” Unfortunately, without a dollar amount attached to that worth–not just a percentage–I cannot budget appropriately to hire one. The big magazines, as you know, never ever show prices. Many designers’ goods are “to the trade”, also with no prices attached. And so I (and many other people, I believe) really have no idea just how much it costs to hire a quality professional. (At least I have enough sense not to believe everything I see on HGTV and the various Sunday Decorator Blogs.)

I enjoy your blog tremendously. All the best,

-EM

Vicente Responds:
Dear EM -

I’m glad my blog provides readers with a platform where we can discuss these things – and I’m glad you’re a regular reader and contributor!

A few things: Nobody can tell you how much you should spend. You have a set budget for a space and the simple maths is that a designer charges a percentage on purchases. Do you want to go with a designer who charges a fee or one who doesn’t. It’s pretty simple to figure out how much a designer is worth.

Your comment about designers not being willing to design only one room? That is not the case and I think that most designers that I know in New York city would do one room as part of a continuous process of doing a house. I’m currently doing a guestroom suite as the first room in a house and we’re only starting work on the rest of it down the line. Many designers, if you pay them for their services, would come up with an overall plan and as you start working on the project bit by bit you’ll have a roadmap of sorts. Nobody is going to design a whole house on spec, but if you pay them a retainer or a fee, they will design it and as your finances become available, you’ll know you’re on track with what the project should be.

A designer would probably love to work with a wonderful collection of art and antiques – it’s only going to make for a better job. I don’t know who these designers are and what information you gave them from which they drew their conclusions, but in my experience, I would disagree with your statements on all three points mentioned.

In my opinion, what somebody’s overheads are has nothing to do with what they should charge. Is it to say that if you have a low overhead you should charge less? As a business person, we all try to keep our overheads as low as possible. Do departmentstores get to charge less because their rent is lower than boutiques? Or should a doctor who sees patients from his home be cheaper than one who has a consultation room?

I think these beliefs are not unique to you, though. These are some of the misconceptions that exist for those of us are who are in the industry. I still believe that, as professionals, we cannot sell ourselves cheap, whatever our overheads are. How are you going to leave that stage if you’re not making money? It’s out in the marketplace, if people feel that your services are worth it, they will pay. We cannot sell ourselves cheap. It’s better for the industry and better for the designer. The service you are selling is worth every penny.

Any comments from other readers?