Seething in Seattle: A Critic Speaks Out
“If a designer actually applied your advice in the Seattle market, they would be out of business within a year.”
So wrote Leslie Baker, in her evaluation of my recent “Supercharge Your Sales!” presentation at the Seattle Design Center.
My “advice” included the suggestion that this is no time for design professionals to lower their fees. They would be better off raising them, I said, as a way to differentiate and distinguish themselves from lower-priced competitors.
Leslie, an interior designer for more than 30 years, wasn’t buying it.
“Know your market before you tell an inexperienced designer to double her rates,” she wrote. “I just think you need to deliver more common sense.”
The competition in Seattle, driven in part by Costco Home, is greater than elsewhere, Leslie told me when I called her after receiving her evaluation.
“Many of the designers here are wannabees who aren’t turning any profit,” she said.
That, to me, is all the more reason why they should promote their uniqueness, and attach value to it by charging accordingly.
Two things I know:
1/ Leslie Baker and I clearly don’t agree on this issue, and
2/ I’m especially grateful to her for taking the time to express her dissenting view.
Hello Fred, I enjoy your blog & look forward to your emails. Interesting ‘debate’ between yourself & Leslie. My mother is a professional interior designer & has been for more than my 43 years.(freelance, via word of mouth: She says-”You’ve either ‘got it’, or you don’t!” ) I am also a professional interior designer & have been working in the industry for 21 years,and after 19 years,’finally’ opened my own company in 2003. My mom has always stressed never putting yourself on the ‘discount shelf’ (in any way!). And I have found her advice over the years to be very valuable. If you want to be on the that level,fine. But if you don’t, and you wish to valued, respected and paid well for your talent-don’t do it! That being said, I also understand Leslies’ point of view, especially taking into account the present down-turned market housing market & the fear($) mongering heard in this industry & others. I do think that integrity is of the utmost importance, especially so now, yet, I also think that adjustments also have to me made! I mean, clients just are not spending what they used to,on my hours or what we buy, and this is high end! What do you think, Fred?- Thanks Sincerely, & keep up the good work. TJ Nichols, Naples, Fl.
Comment by TJ Nichols — March 14, 2008 @ 9:04 pm