Time is money – we’ve all heard that one. “It takes the time it takes” is another old adage worth considering when considering professional help with your Interior design project – or with any other “professional service” provider. Paying for what are perceived as “intangibles” begs explanation, as well as a measure of respect for shared experience, specific venue insights and expertise, knowledge and ideas. Those factors have solid market value.
You might say that when you engage a “professional service,” absent hard goods, you are renting the brain content of someone who knows more about a certain subject (or field of expertise) than you do!
Let’s look at that time is money adage. What time? Well, any time spent on your project requirements, issues, problems and challenges – whatever the characterization. When a professional Interior designer (or any professional service provider such as an attorney, etc.) works with a client, the first imperative is trust in mutual integrity. Without those two qualities in both parties, the relationship just won’t work!
The time in that Interior-design-time-is-money thing – the billable time – is quite inclusive! There is consultation time, phone time, administrative account management time, selection, guidance and management of sub-contractors time, intellectual problem solving and strategizing time, design time, brainstorming and ideation time, travel time, interaction with project associates time, purchasing facilitation time… etc.
(I was going to add time thinking about your Interior design project while driving, but I was afraid my email would blow up!)
That developmental investment of project time eventually translates into tangible Interior design elements! The project components do not just magically appear! Even the smallest was first an idea, a discussion, a research, a choice and a decision followed by action.
Sometimes a client of a professional services provider will question some of the elements on a list such as mentioned above. Perhaps that client may believe that just asking questions, sharing their ideas or “running something by” their Interior designer (or attorney, or CPA…) for answers, advice or insight does not quite “qualify” as billable time. Such a situation begs the question: Why was the question asked, the advice sought or the insight needed specifically from that professional?
Such a quandary, if unresolved, can lead to conflict, perceived discrepancies, argument and even failure of the relationship. Which brings us straight to the importance of clarity of billing information. Thorough documentation and frank explanations of how and when fees are incurred, what qualifies as billable time and the disciplines that can insure frugality must be handled at the front end of your Interior design project!
If you are a prospective client for Interior design (or other) professional services, be sure to get precise information on how fees will be applied, what will comprise “billable time,” and how to NOT to incur unnecessary billable time! Arguing, after the project is underway harms three ways: the Project, the Client and the Professional.
It is just smart to think twice before picking up the phone! Use email or text the question. Be sure to clarify if lunch with your professional is “a working lunch” or “off the clock!” In other words, think before unnecessarily inflating that next Invoice.
When a client chooses a professional Interior designer and design team, it has to be understood that while “hard goods” evolve from the process (and the client pays for them: equipment, fixtures, furnishings, materials, etc.), the cost of their Interior designer’s skill, guidance, advice, knowledge, experience and connections are over and above the cost of any tangible elements.
Levity and lists aside, no one likes a fight over an Invoice! Be sure that you and your professional pay attention to the fine print in your Contract – which should clearly define “billable time!” Be sure there is mutual clarity and understanding – before you launch!
Robert Boccabella, B.F.A. is principal and founder of Business Design Services and a certified interior designer in private practice for over 30 years. Boccabella provides Designing to Fit the Vision© in collaboration with writingservice@earthlink.net. To contact him call 707-263-7073; email him at rb@BusinessDesignServices.com or visit www.BusinessDesignServices.com or on Face Book at Business Design Services.
