Hi all- not sure if there are any interior designers on this group, but maybe the construction folks could help me out too? I am trying to gather some information on what interior designers charge for hourly work & how they calculate the # of hours worked. I am fresh out of interior design grad school and am not sure if I should adjust down my hourly rate or bill based on 3/4 of hours worked, etc. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks! Char
It depends partly on what kind of education, background and certification you have, but basically, you charge what the market will bear minus any competitive edge you need to help getting started. I am surprised you aren't chosing to work for someone else for at least a year or so, until certification at least. One thing I think is appropriate is not to charge for learning on the job. Thus, if you have to spend a lot of time on a job researching one aspect or another, say, contextual historic interiors in the specific particular locale of a job, you would not charge for your time in becoming competitive with your already up to speed competition, whether or not you already have the work, but you would charge for preparation of your design and alternatives and any change orders, field work, travelling around with the client to showrooms, and etc., assiciated with the job at hand. Usually the charge rises with the level of liability implicit in the particular piece or stage of work. An interior architect doing only DDs does not need to cover the same liability as CDs and this is less than something requiring CM or CQM.
Try to look at your fees in terms of necessary overhead and hours spent on necessary tasks and client work. Your firm will, for example, spend x number of hours going after work, x number of dollars travelling to everything from presentations to whatever and y number of dollars on furniture, equipment and etc., all of which gets expensed various ways according to the IRS and become the basis for the overhead you apply to your base rates. You can acquire a certain amount of knowledge of what junior and senior and various levels of experience and expertise by perusing open source documents for competitive bids for public projects. You can get more knowledge from associations like the AIA, APA and etc. You can get some assistance from an accountant who regularly prepares materials for firms that regularly bid out work.
"Ken S. Tucker" wrote in news:f1c63ef3-6faa-4779- snipped-for-privacy@l42g2000hsc.googlegroups.com:
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I'd just add: keep in mind the idea of "theme". An English Pub style isn't necessarily the best for a sushi bar Much depends upon the expected menu, the target clientelle, and the ambiance that the owners/operators of the eatery want to evoke.
Interior design fees are charged on Two clear basis
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