Reply To: Fees and Consultations charge

I like this topic Alejandra,

I am to-the-trade only. My process is a bit different. Because my designers are good about pre-qualifying projects, I’m generally not brought in until they know the client is on board. It’s super rare for me to quote projects that don’t happen. Having said that…I charge a $100 to measure locally and $120/hour to out of area (including driving).

I also charge a minimum of $100/room as an admin fee. This includes time for quoting and tracking. If there are 10 spaces, that’s a minimum of $1000 on the project. Some rooms are more…$150/$200. This fee is buried in the overall price of the room. It’s not itemized. I did recently quote an entire house (long-distance project) where I did itemize the fee. The designer was good with that plan. Long-distance jobs require more admin.

I also recently started charging for quotes for new designers. ($250 / 2 spaces, $450 for more). I did this because I was getting calls from designers out-of-the-blue asking for quotes. Many of them were out-of-town designers (Chicago designer doing a CT project). I knew they must be calling a bunch of workrooms trying to get help. Some paid and others walked. The tactic worked in my favor.

I think charging a measure/consult fee is important. I’m shocked at the amount of time the designers and/or homeowners will waste when they aren’t paying for it. I need to think of a way to charge for re-quoting. It’s just so damn time consuming!!

Thank you for bringing this up.
Lisa Salvatore