Page 48 - Lighting Magazine March 2019

Managing ExpEctations
Gail Doby has created an “Easy Client Budget Calculator” for all of her projects that break down the fees according to speci c criteria.
According to the Index, homeowners should “budget up to 35% of the value of their home for interior design services and furnishings.”
Which websites do you regularly visit?
While the list of questions might seem unneces-
sarily personal to the casual observer, Doby asserts that the answers provide greater insight into your client. For example, those who already have a nancial planner or personal trainer are already comfortable with the idea of paying for services. Preferred brands and stores o en reveal the clients’ comfort level with luxury, convenience, or service expectations.
The primary quibble revolves around design fees, and Doby points out that many interior designers hate to bring the topic up or feel defensive in stat- ing their rates. To make ma ers worse, over the past several years more consumers are watching home improvement reality TV programs that give the impression that furnishing a home beautifully could be accomplished in just a few days and for under $2,000 or less.
What has worked for Doby was changing her business model to a “Value-based Fee Structure” that she calculates in a spreadsheet that outlines all the variables such as the home’s overall value, the percentage of furniture needed (also whether using some existing furnishings), the project’s square foot- age, sales tax, freight, delivery, and the designer’s markup, among others.
Doby suggests using The Home Trust Interna- tionalTM Interiors Index (h p://thehometrust.com/ luxury-home/interiors-index) as a guideline. The Index is geared toward consumers looking to furnish or renovate their homes and recommends hiring an interior designer.
According to the Index, homeowners should
“budget up to 35 percent of the value of their home for interior design services and furnishings. For ex- ample, if a nished home is valued at $2,500,000 then you should budget $875,000 for the interiors, design fees, and project management costs.”
If the client hasn’t revealed a real estate value for their home, Doby suggests using the real estate website Zillow.com to provide a realistic estimate for the worksheet. Doby’s Easy Client Budget Calculator even breaks down the client’s cost per square foot of furnishings. Her worksheet also or- ganizes the calculations into Low and High Budget categories with costs listed for design fees at 20-, 25-, 33-, and 35-percent of the total budget.
Another area interior designers might not calcu- late accurately is the hours spent by each member of the design team on the project (i.e. principal designer, project manager, senior designer, junior designer, design assistant, purchasing manager, and CAD dra ing). Doby recommends tabulating a “Predesign Hours Budget” for each, followed by “Predesign Actual Hours” and likewise “Design Development Hours Budget” followed by “Design Development Actual Hours” and so on to make sure all hours of work on the project are accounted for.
While creating charts and tracking information might be labor-intensive to set up initially, these templates can be used on every project going forward. With the budget costs upfront and expec- tations addressed, the amount of “surprises” that can derail many designer-client relationships can be greatly reduced and interior designers can spend more of their time handling the enjoyable aspects of each project. 
44 enLIGHTenment Magazine | March 2019
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