This blog started out as a place to bring the client, the homeowner that might not afford to be a client, the person out there searching for witty repartee and fellow designers into the life of interior design. I must say, over the last few months the struggles of the economy hit home. Many of my high-end clientele flew the coup and smaller jobs led to job cancellations. In this day and age, many designers and contractors are doing what one of my general contracting friends refer to as " over-practicing" their craft. We are spending countless hours for which we are normally paid to plan a home, bidding the home for free because clients are looking to compare nine quotes to "make sure they have picked the right person for the job". What most fail to realize is, by doing this- you are not selecting the best, but the cheapest person for the job. This bidding war seems like a good thing to the consumer, because contractors and designers are out trying to slit the competitor's throat by beating the last price to win the job. Instead this is doing two things:
It is forcing contractors and designers to accept less than what they are worth or possibly to charge less than their operating expenses just for the sake of still working.
It is cheapening what we do- and why would anyone want to do that. A good Interior Designer, Architect or Contractor is a skilled, seasoned professional. They have spent many years learning what they know, some spending many tens of thousands of dollars to earn their degree and someone swooping down from who knows where and offering a client a bid of half of what it would normally cost to do a job well is like 10 homes going into foreclosure in your neighborhood and your half a million dollar home is now worth $200K.
The sad result of this combination of circumstances is that the consumer that chooses the cheapest bid is getting a bad experience 70% of the time- and I have seen this first hand. Contractors are bidding low and then adding incidentals driving the final cost up too high for a client to afford and many are walking away with their deposits. Most of what my company is seeing is inferior quality of work that must be repaired by a second contractor. In the design world, I am seeing many decorators attempting to fill a designer's shoes but then choke when it comes to any work involving heavy measurements or structure. If you need to hire a second person to do some of what should be your job- it will always cost more!
Th funniest thing that I have seen lately (and the saddest!!!) is that wealthy clients are looking for the most absurd bargains I have ever seen, and just because! They have the money and know how to spend it. They know the name brands and spend obscene amounts of money for them, but then want a design deal. They want me to help them design their home or business for far less than my fee- or for free! They are dreaming up unrealistic budgets for what they want to have done and trying to find the person to take the bait. The same clients that I am having trouble reaching for a consultation because they are on vacation every weekend are trying to negotiate on their projects or EVEN WORSE- compare us to the Big Box Store! Gasp... why are they even scouting prices there? You don't spend $2,000 on a luxury black chandelier and get your floor at Home Depot...talk about tacky and cheap! The wealthy have a higher standard of presence and stature- to most that I know, they liken decorating their home from a box store to shopping for clothes at K-Mart! It's just not done.
OK, OK... I guess that's my vent for the day! I am off to a business lunch and then to work on another design bid for a whole home, which the client will probably tell me they want to do for $3,000...let's hope not!
