Dear Sean,

I am all over the place when it comes to billing. Don’t get mad, but I charge hourly—and that’s it. I pass everything through to my clients, even if I custom-make pieces for them. That has worked just fine for a long time. But recently, when my clients have added up the cost of my hours versus how much they spent on their FF&E budget, they have freaked out. I feel like I am being incredibly fair, but I am having a hard time articulating why. Can you help?

Value Proposition

Dear Value,

If hourly billing works for you, then it works for you. Instead of breaking down why I typically advise against that approach, let’s focus on what your clients are comparing you to: designers who charge hourly or a flat fee for design work and a percentage of FF&E for production. So that we are

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