How Designers Charge

Among the questions I get most frequently from designers, especially designers who are launching their own business, are how should I charge and how much?  It’s never an easy question to answer.  Fees vary greatly depending on a designer’s level of experience, reputation, demand, the type and size of project, and other considerations.  To help provide some guidance and parameters, we put the question to the designers who participated in our 2014 Interior Design Fee and Salary Survey. Here’s what they told us.

No surprisingly, nearly half (46%) said it depends on the job.  About one in four charge either a flat fee or hourly plus mark-up. A third charge hourly only.
However, when we asked participants what is their PRIMARY method of charging, the picture shifts. We see a lot more variety in how designers are charging, with no one method really dominating.  Hourly plus mark-up was the most frequent response, but only by about a fourth of designers, followed by hourly and flat fee, at 15 percent each.
This tells me that designers are continuing to “experiment” with which approaches are best for them, as client requests themselves become more variable.  Interestingly, few designers in our survey are offering packages, although this approach received a lot of media attention last year.
For the most, fees have not changed much in recent years.  Here, again, we found a lot of variety, as might be expected. The majority of respondents reported typical highest average fees of between $100 and $150 an hour.  About 1 in 10 respondents is charging less than $75 an hour, which, in my opinion, is way too low, even with mark-up or other add-ons.  I would like to think we will see a rise in fees as demand increases, but at present the trend is going the other way, with clients demanding more and wanting to pay less.  How will you change your approach to earn more money next year?