You can be as confident about your pricing as you are about your design work.
You’re in business for profit. Otherwise, it’s a hobby. Your pricing has to take care of you and pay you for your time, your eye, and everything you bring to a project.
Once these principles click, the rest of your business shifts with them. Picture walking into every pitch so sure of your number that negotiating never crosses your mind. That’s where the right clients sign, and where the business starts paying you properly.
Here’s what I cover:
- Leave Hourly Billing Behind
- The Benefits of a Flat Fee
- Past Project Data
- Get Paid in Full Upfront (Yes, You Can)
- You’re Worth More Than Your Time
- Cover Your Booty
- Build a Luxury Experience
- Never Share Your Trade Discount
- How to Raise Your Rates
- Raising Rates with Existing Clients
- Plan for Rejection
- The Shortcut
Let’s dig in, shall we?
Leave Hourly Billing Behind
We can’t talk about pricing without talking about hourly billing. Early in my career, I hated talking numbers. I second-guessed my pricing, I negotiated, and my clients found my hourly model vague, even with my finance degree and years as a business process consultant.
When I charged hourly, I worked my booty off with little to show for it. Plenty of money came in the front door and went straight out the back.
Then a high-end repeat client, a true dream client, told me, “I don’t want to be nickeled and dimed,” after one too many invoices from me.
Rude in the moment? Completely. It was also the pricing lesson I needed.
He valued my work and could easily afford it. He just didn’t want to keep hunting for his checkbook, his login, and the next invoice.
Our clients are as busy as we are.
If a client has ever suddenly wanted to “take it from here” midway through a project, they were probably feeling the weight of all those time bills. It happened to me again and again when I charged hourly. Even with an accurate estimate, clients watched the clock, and the further we got, the closer they watched.
They were only committed to me as far as the next invoice. And I’ve never met an hourly client who didn’t believe they’d come in under my estimate, which goes over poorly when the estimate turns out to be right.
It was time for a flat fee.
The Benefits of a Flat Fee
With a flat design fee, my clients know what their project will cost before we start: my fee and the estimated total for furnishings.
Your client should see the full investment, start to finish, before you take them on. That’s what it takes for their home to look like the images in your portfolio.
Moving from hourly to a flat fee saved me years of strife and made me dramatically more profitable.
I only take on clients who are on board with my fee, and nobody is quietly hoping it will come in lower. It is what it is, paid upfront.
I also get to see every project through to the end. No one fires me midway to save a few dollars, so I finish the vision (and get the portfolio images). When clients pay in full upfront, they want you overseeing every step.
“So how do you arrive at a flat fee?” you ask. Three little words.
Past Project Data
Numbers don’t lie. Use past project data to set your pricing, and if you don’t have any yet, start collecting it now.
Your past projects let you estimate new ones upfront: the design fee, the furnishings budget, and freight. You’re the expert, so you give those estimates at the start, when your client is deciding whether to move forward at that number.
Inside the Interior Design Standard, I walk through this in depth, including the calculator I use to price an entire project, fees and budget, in minutes before designing a thing.
Get Paid in Full Upfront (Yes, You Can)
Get paid in full before you present a single design idea.
Here’s my payment timeline: 50% of the design fee when the agreement is signed, and the remaining balance before the first design presentation.
Design is intellectual property. Once you present an idea, you can’t take it back. It carries every project and experience that came before it, so get paid in full before you deliver it.
Furnishings are paid 100% before you order anything, tax and freight included. I love finishing a project without a single freight invoice at the end. Nobody wants to close out a beautiful project with a stack of freight bills.
You’re Worth More Than Your Time
A flat fee also lets you charge for what you’re actually worth. Hourly billing leaves out your talent, your eye, and that trip to France where you absorbed so much about nuance, scale, age, and beauty.
It leaves out every mentor, every hour of study, and every book you’ve read on design and the history of furnishings. All of it took years to build, and all of it adds value to your work.
Separate your worth from your time. You get faster with every project, so hourly works against you over the long run.
As my rate rose over the years, I watched hourly clients fixate on invoices and watch the clock in meetings. That’s no way to build a relationship.
Cover Your Booty
A flat fee lets you build in everything you want to create: the extras, the details, and the “what ifs” that make a design sing.
It also covers what happens on every project: a scratch, a nick, a delay, the usual punch list fun.
Coming to the rescue costs money.
So instead of nickel and diming my clients, I build in what I call “oh shit money,” a percentage that covers the what ifs. I’ve done enough projects to know it will be needed.
Priced in, it means no stream of small invoices or change orders (or worse, eating the cost yourself). You get to be the hero instead.
Build a Luxury Experience
Your pricing should also fund a memorable, custom experience for every client. That might mean noticing what they order, or asking in your intake process, and having their favorite snacks and drinks ready at the next meeting.
Paying all in, upfront, is like flying first class. You board first, you have room to breathe, and the champagne arrives before you’ve sat down and keeps coming. You know the ticket cost far more than the champagne, and you’re happy anyway, because you’re getting the full experience.
So price in the experience you want to give.
“I want to be on site for every install and weekly during construction.” Price it in.
“I want room to send flowers when a client has a life event.” Price it in.
“I want an assistant at big presentations taking notes while I work the room.” Price it in.
Once your client has chosen your price point, you get to shower them with delight. Clients aren’t afraid of a big number when the result is a gorgeous home that reflects them. You take the project management off their plate, you communicate constantly, and their home ends up looking like the ones in your portfolio.
Those extras are also what get clients talking and referring. I can’t overstate that benefit.
Never Share Your Trade Discount
Many years ago, I walked a potential client’s home while she was interviewing several designers. She knew our industry well, and she asked, “Do you pass along your trade discount?”
I turned to her and said, “No, I don’t. That’s the part that makes this a business.”
I smiled and kept walking the space. She laughed out loud, I got the job, and we completed a beautiful project.
The tone you answer with matters most. Own the fact that you’re in business for profit.
I may get “In Business 4 Profit” tattooed on me.
No other industry struggles with this. We receive trade pricing so we can resell goods and profit from the difference. That’s it. Clients are never privy to my purchasing power or the vendor relationships I’ve built.
When you’re that clear and that frank, a potential client is either in or out. Keep your pricing simple and clear throughout the process, and work only with clients who value you at the level a profitable, joyful business requires.
How to Raise Your Rates
My husband likes to say, “If you’re signing every potential client you meet, your pricing is too low.” Basic economics.
So look at your metrics. Are you profitable? Are you making enough?
If you’ve reached the point where you need to hire, need an office or a sample library, or need to travel to markets for better vendors, your business has grown into a rate increase.
Look back at how many potential clients you’ve met and how many you’ve signed. You already know when it’s time.
Raising Rates with Existing Clients
Whether you’re moving from hourly to a flat fee or simply raising your rate, tell existing clients about the change directly.
Inside the Interior Design Standard there’s an email template members love for exactly this. It explains that to give clients the best service, and to keep the business properly structured and insured, the business is growing.
When I raised my rates, I also moved from hourly to a flat fee, so I told clients how I’d be working going forward. It sounded something like this:
“I’ve been listening to my clients, and going forward you’ll see a flat fee to work with me. You’ll know exactly what I cost upfront, with no more wondering.”
I appreciate every client, and it’s still up to them whether they come along.
Finish existing projects at whatever rate is under contract. If those clients add scope or start a new project, move them to your new rate.
It helps to name the improvements you’ve made, for example: “We’ve added a senior lead designer, invested in new equipment, and upgraded our AutoCAD.” Those changes matter to clients, so point them out and connect your new fee to them.
Plan for Rejection
Rejection is part of the job, so plan for it. Plan your response, and plan your face, for the moment someone says, “Whoa, that’s way more than I was thinking.”
Some rejection tells you your pricing is right for your market and for you.
If you close 100%, your rates are too low. Trust your gut.
There’s nothing worse than an underappreciated entrepreneur. If you feel taken advantage of, or you keep thinking, “They have no idea how much I put into this,” you’re charging too little. That resentment is bad for your soul, your client relationships, your referrals, and your mental health.
If you’re carrying a chip on your shoulder because no one appreciates you (a.k.a. pays you enough), consider this your reminder that you set your pricing. You’re the entrepreneur, so you decide what you earn. That puts you squarely in the driver’s seat.
The Shortcut
I’ve done the legwork on the business side. Your life, that’s up to you.
The Interior Design Standard gives you what you need to run a profitable, joyful design business. No homework. Just templates you download, customize, and put to work.
When I moved from hourly to a flat fee, I sat down with three experts and built the whole model: the flat fee calculator, the design agreement that sets every boundary and expectation, and the process templates that keep a flat fee profitable. It’s all inside the Standard, along with the methods I use to attract and keep the right clients.
Inside, you’ll:
- Price projects in minutes with the flat fee calculator
- Present yourself as the trusted expert with the design agreement and sales presentation
- Take control of your finances so your pricing produces healthy profits
“The Standard is a true game changer. I have the confidence to charge my worth by calculating my flat fee AND estimated furnishings costs for my clients’ projects up front. It takes away ALL the stress by setting those budgets before I start the design process.”
Kristi Patterson, Grace Hill Design
If you’re ready to price with confidence, you can find the Standard here.
