Quick Tips on Pricing your Services
Every Interior Designer has to learn how to price their services.
You have to do this so that you can give proper estimates to your
clients. This will be invaluable to you as a service provider.
Many people find this to be a very difficult process because they
don’t want to over price their clients, nor do they want to lose
money on the deal. This can be very frustrating and stressful.
However, if you know how to break down the costs it gets a lot
easier, and helps you break it down to the client so that they are
comfortable.
Since every job is different, every invoice will be different as
well. There are different types of invoices that you should have.
They each require a different layout and outline. This makes it
easier to break down later for calculating the costs.
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Costs and Labor
This type of invoice is for designers that have to hire outside
contractors to help with the work. (usually when you need to hire
people to do drywall for construction work etc)
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Costs
This type of invoice is generally just for the costs of the extra
furniture and accessories or lighting fixtures that are needed. It
also covers the agreed upon extras like paint and wallpaper.
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General
This is the type of invoice that only covers your prices as the
designer. It deals with the work that you do alone. This invoice is
always included with one of the others.
When trying to decide how to put a value to your services alone,
that is pretty much up to you. It is best not to price yourself too
high in the beginning because you are not a bankable name yet. There
are two ways to charge your clients.
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Hourly
This method is best for small or simple projects because they are
more difficult to price on a per project basis. If you are a
starter, you should start yourself at around $15-$20 an hour. At
least until you establish yourself in the field. Once you are
established you may charge as much as you’d like.
ˇ
Per Project
This is generally reserved for projects of a larger scale. These
are the projects that require the hiring of contractors and various
others to help you. Since there is so much work involved, you cannot
expect to charge by the hour.
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