Interior Design Fees: Should You Lower Your Prices For A Dream Client?
As a new interior designer, you have complete control over your business. You get to choose all of your branding elements, build a website that reflects your personal style, and even set your interior design fees for your packages. It feels amazing to have control over these decisions - but what happens when a potential client tries to negotiate your pricing? You might be thinking that it would be easy to stand firm on your interior design service fees - but what if it’s a dream client who has a gorgeous home and a ton of wealthy friends and family? That’s when the decision gets a bit trickier…
You might be thinking, “If I take on this project, my portfolio pictures would look amazing, plus this person is so well-connected that I could end up getting a ton of referral work. I’ll lower my prices just this one time - it will be worth it.”
Let me tell you, I’ve been in this exact situation, and I walked away from it all for 4 important reasons.
Read on to hear exactly why you should never negotiate your interior design fees even for an absolute dream client.
My experience with negotiating my interior design fees:
I once had the wife of a real estate land developer approach me for my interior design services. She was interested in hiring me to design her entire 2 million dollar custom newbuild home. It was clear that they were very wealthy. The home was gorgeous and she and I really vibed well on our initial discovery call. I was really excited to take on this project, until she sent me a lengthy email before our in-person consultation asking me to significantly reduce my prices. It was clear that she didn’t value my services or understand the type of investment that comes with full-service interior design for a home of her size.
In short, what she was proposing was, “my husband is very well-connected - he’s building out over 100 new homes in the area, and if you give us this massive discount, we will be sure to recommend you to all of the new families in the area”. She claimed that she wanted to “help me out” by bringing me all of this new business, yet she wasn’t willing to pay my standard prices.
Some new interior designers would see this as an opportunity to work with a major client (even though she wouldn’t be paying nearly what the project was worth), but this conversation was a huge red flag for me. Let me explain the 4 important reasons why I stayed firm in my prices and walked away.
→ If you haven’t officially launched your own interior design business yet, check out this post for the top 5 reasons you should get started.
Negotiating your interior design fees undermines your authority as the business owner.
As the owner and sole decision maker of my business, I am not willing to compromise on the interior design fees that I set for my projects. If you show a client that you are willing to backtrack and lower your prices after you put together a detailed proposal for the scope of work, you are losing all authority as the professional designer. You need to determine what your work is worth, set a clear price, and stand firm on it (read to the end of this post if you’d like some support with this!).
If, in the back of your mind, you think there is any wiggle room on your service prices, you’ve already lost the confidence and authority that comes with being a professional interior designer. Why should a client trust you to handle the project if you’re so quick to waver on your decisions? Clients want to work with true professionals - and you lose all credibility when you are willing to negotiate your interior design fees.
2. Negotiating your interior design fees undercuts the value of your services.
When you are willing to accept less money than you originally proposed for a project, you undercut your own value as a designer. It’s like you’re saying to the client that you agree with them on your services not being worth as much money. That is no way to start a new client relationship. This is exactly why I turned down the woman’s offer - I’m not going to work for less money than I deserve, no matter what she could promise me in the future.
On the other hand, if you do accept the client’s negotiated price, you’re acting desperate by showing them that you will do the project for less money than you are worth just because you want the work so badly - like you aren’t confident enough that you could get another project if you turn this one down. Neither of these scenarios are worth it.
When I set my base interior design fee, I calculate it to cover my salary, business expenses, marketing, software, photography, 3D rendering, income tax, reinvesting in my business, and enough extra to save some cash for a rainy day. If I show a client that I will accept less money for the same scope of work, I’m basically telling them that those needs aren’t essential for me, when they absolutely are. I am running a business, not a charity.
3. Negotiating your interior design fees with a client will cause more challenges throughout the project.
I knew that a person who was willing to strongarm me on my prices and not respect my value as a designer would not stop at that. If I had chosen to work with this person, she would have continued to push boundaries in our client relationship all because I would have “bent the rules” for her once.
If you lower your initial interior design fee, you set yourself up for other challenges throughout the project, such as the client demanding for discounts, questioning which vendors you are sourcing from, and giving pushback on how you operate your business.
And you will create this type of client relationship by not standing firm in the beginning on your initial pricing and really positioning yourself as the authority on the project.
4. Lowering your interior design fees for one client will cause referral clients to expect the same treatment.
Let’s say you do negotiate your pricing for a dream client that you just couldn’t pass up. You’re willing to struggle through all of the small challenges in this client relationship just to have the benefits of this one particular project - and you think it’s finally over when you finish the work. Well, this client could potentially recommend you to their friends and family (which is the goal!), but the client is most likely going to tell those people about your “special pricing” or the negotiated fee that you accepted.
If I had chosen to work with the client who wanted a huge discount, with the promise that she would recommend me to tons of new homeowners, I guarantee that she would have told all of those new families about the “great deal” she got on my services. She would probably even tell them to push me a little bit in order to get the same discounted pricing.
If you choose to allow this in your business, you're going to create a vicious cycle of demanding clients all because you backtracked on your interior design fees in the very beginning. So even though you said you’d only lower your prices “just this one time”, you’ve created a long list of red flag clients who will give you challenges for years to come.
Negotiating Your Interior Design Fees - The Bottom Line
Hopefully by now you can understand why I walked away from such a seemingly big opportunity. Even though this woman promised me tons of referrals (which were all hypothetical projects by the way - she has no control over who wants to hire a designer), I wasn’t willing to compromise on my worth as an interior designer and I was definitely not going to set myself up for future challenges.
Just to be clear - everything I’ve explained so far is very different from adjusting the price of a project based on the scope of work. It is absolutely okay to change the scope of the project and set a new price to reflect that amount of work. You and the client would need to discuss what aspects can be removed in order to lower the end fee for a given project. But what you’re not going to do is accept a lower price for the same amount of work.
How To Calculate Your Interior Design Fees
When you price yourself correctly, you can afford to market your business to get other dream projects. Because you are actively paying for marketing, another project will be in front of you soon enough. You don’t need to rely on one client who might not value your services just to pay the bills - you have the luxury of choice for which projects you take on. Better opportunities will always be presented when you utilize the right marketing systems for your business.
Opportunity For Interior Designers
If this sounds like a distant dream for you, check out my group for interior designers called Design Business Secrets+. I share all of my expert tips on how to run a profitable interior design business, plus provide you with the educational training you need to get started.
If you need any type of support, whether you’re an aspiring interior designer or a true veteran looking to expand your business, I’ve got something for you. Inside this group, you’ll get instant access to courses like my Perfect Pricing Formula, SketchUp Fast Start, Client Onboarding Bundle, and so much more. Check out Design Business Secrets+ today to get one step closer to building your dream interior design business!