In today's video, we are going to look at how to price your interior design services in five easy steps. I find that this is something that most people over complicate and yet it's really not that difficult. It's the hardest part or the most taxing part of the process is working things out and that's the part that nobody likes to do. So if you actually want to price your projects profitably accurately or as accurately as you can without a crystal ball, it's just follow the system. I think the worst thing that you can do is copy someone else's prices. And unfortunately that's what a lot of people do. They look at what other people around them are offering and then compare themselves to those people without knowing whether they're profitable and without knowing whether they are actually able to provide those services successfully for that price. And then they base their own services on that and that is the biggest mistake that you can make. So just use a system that is tried and tested by big practices and little practices as well as my own practice and just follow it step by step and do the working out and you won't regret it. Step one, list out the services for your project. This really isn't that difficult and yet most people make it really difficult. Obviously a lot of established firms already have these services listed out and already understand what is required in each phase of a project. But if you're just starting out and you're only offering for example design or like an eDesign service, just go through and list out all of the things that you're going to be doing including administration, including meetings, including travel. So all of the things that are going to cost you time and money. Step two, dedicate some time next to each task and once you've got a list of things that you're going to be doing on that project, all you have to do is add an estimate of time next to it. The biggest problem that most people have is that they say, well, I've never done this before so I don't know how long it's going to take. Just take a guess because your guess is better. In my experience, you're going to get so much closer to an accurate figure if you take a guess rather than not taking any guess at all. And this is the biggest reason most people underpriced their projects because they have a look. Well, firstly, they didn't take the first step which they think there's only one task or two tasks that they're undertaking and then that once they listed out, they see that there's probably 20. And then the next step is they don't put a time association with it. So that could be your time or somebody else's time. I mean, a bigger company will probably be somebody else's time in a smaller company. You might be doing all of these things. Step three, choose a pricing system for the project. If you haven't seen our previous article and video about this, there's at least 10 or 12 ways that you can price. Obviously, there are a lot of different ways that you can price projects. But using a tried and tested system that is industry standard is a really, really great place to start. So if you don't know what they are, go and have a look at that video and then come back here and have a look at this. But once you've done that and you understand what system might be correct, or you have to do is choose the right system for the right project. Is it a big project? So a package price probably isn't the right kind of pricing system for a large project, unless you've done that, umpteen times. A small project might actually be perfect for a package price. So choose the system that suits the project. Step four, use the correct rate. Before you price your into your design projects, you need to know the rate that you're using. And most people would call this their hourly rate. But the trick is that there's more than one rate that you use. So you need to use the correct rate for the correct project that you're using. So for example, you wouldn't be using a trade price to price for a private client. Um, likewise, you probably wouldn't use your premium rate to work with someone in the trade. So choose the correct rate for the correct project. Step five, systemize your pricing. So obviously you don't want to be spending days and days and days doing your pricing for potential projects. What you want to do is spend that time up front once and then systemize it, create a system for it, package potentially your projects if there's more projects and create a system for it. Um, with a larger project, you want to create templates that already have your standard lists of services, things like that. And then create a system that is going to save you time every other time you price your projects. If you really want to see an example of how to do this, um, I'm going, well, I've got an example in the associated blog post. So you can download that or you have to do is link click through the link and you can use that example for yourself and have a look at it. I've added a bonus step here and that is to cross check your price using another system. I personally do this because I, um, I typically price larger or more expensive projects, uh, worth a greater value. And because of that, I like to just cross check that, um, I haven't made a mistake because I don't ask anyone else to, um, overlook my prices for me. Um, and this just allows me to check whether I've made any errors, but also, um, not something that I've heard anyone else do, I give my client an option. Would this be easier for you or would this be easier for you? And because this process typically come out in a similar, um, I don't mind which one they choose and they like to have options because they feel like you've really taken the time to work things out. This also helps me convert higher level clients because they see that I've not only, um, worked out all of my, um, project and services very specifically. They also trust that I've not forgotten anything and that, um, I also take the time to give them an option that might suit them better. So there you go. That is how to price your interior design services and projects in five really, really simple steps. The hardest part really is taking the time to work it out at the beginning, but I promise you once you take that time out, do the work. It just makes everything so much easier and then all of this drama around pricing projects. No, it doesn't have to exist. I'm J. Crowback. I'm an architectural and interior designer. I'm also the founder of the interior designers business school where we run a mentorship program to help startups and career changes who want to become interior designers later in life and help you step by step create your interior design business and set it up the right way.