Architectural fees

[CARMELHILL]

I've been working on my own for three years. I do mostly residential additions with minor commercial and a few commercial site plans. I have three college interns that are making between $8 and $10 per hour. I'm trying to figure out if I'm charging my clients enough. I work M - F from 9am until 7pm and then again from 10PM until 2AM. I usually work Sunday nights and Friday and Saturday nights if I don't have other plans.

I have a few contractors that give me lots of my work, therefore they are very sensative about price changes. I am currently charging $3.25 per square foot of new construction which includes all design drawings, meetings with their clients, filing for permits. etc..(I don't pay for the permit fee). In any case, I am feeling a little used. My job minimum is $1500 but I'm thinking of boosting that to $2200 with filing extra.

I give the contractors extra blueprints occaisionally and get extra money for permit filing for specific towns (they are harder to file).

I know the AIA had fee guidelines in the 80's but was sued by the Justice Department for Anti Trust and price fixing....typical. Why don't the go after the attorney's for ambulance chasing and fake mold & asbestos litigation.

Does anyone, I mean anyone, have any thoughts on pricing. I am going to print out my expenses and income tonight with a cross reference to the hours spent on each project. I don't think it will look too impressive when I review it.

[grogers]

Carmel -

I have felt your pain. It is a very difficult and tricky decision to increase ones fees. Let me recommend the book "Good to Great" to you.

If you are indeed working that many hours, you should be making a very nice salary. We made the decision several years ago to take our firm to an hourly billing system. We tell prospective clients that they are in charge of how much they spend by how much they use (or abuse) our services. We estimate our fee in the proposal and make sure they understand our estimate is just that.

We didn't think it was fair to charge two clients the same when one demanded weekly 3-hour meetings for 20 weeks and the other made quick decisions.

We did weed out some rif-raf that were tough clients anyway. We found the clients we lost were only concerned about their own needs and didn't care if we worked all weekend while they were spending theirs on holiday. In return, we gained clients that respect our time and pay us well.

We review our billing rates annually. During that time we also look at the old "supply and demand" economics of things. In other words, if you are that busy, you are probably not charging enough. People are flocking to you because of the cheap price, not necessarily because you are a creative designer. Is this how you want to be known? Maybe so, that's up to you and no one else.

Good luck!