LIVE Q&A SESSION 27:

June 17th, 2021: 7pm(Eastern Time, US & Canada)

Chat Transcript:
Where are you joining us from?
David:
NZ
Anna:
Austin, Texas USA
Victoria:
Melbourne
Craig:
NZ….
Marilan:
Miami, Florida USA
Renata:
SYDNEY
Ken:
Melbourne
James:
Sydney
Aaron:
Sydney Aus.
Laurie:
Chicago
Rachel:
Rachel, Toronto
Victoria:
Hi!
Melissa:
Sydney
Ben:
Brisbane
Valerie:
Valparaiso, IN
Misha:
Hi, Good to see you guys again, Hi from Sydney.
Kimly:
Salt Lake City, Utah
Misha:
Sydney!
Mark:
Madison, Wisconsin
John:
San Diego, CA
Thomas:
Hello from Glen Mills, Pennsylvania.
Susan:
Staten Island, NY
Ray:
Just got online. I like the venue and the outfits 🙂 Regards, Ray
Misha:
Follow up question then.
Misha:
How do I get my percentage fee through?
Ken:
Clients see percentage fees as an incentive to increase construction cost
Misha:
Good point Alexandra. We try to provide percentage fees and lock them into lump sum fees as we progress and get Cost of Works indications from the QS
Martyn:
Melbourne, Australia
Martyn:
Generally commercial small office
Martyn:
architectural small office
Susan:
What about design and product? We can design this space with product installed and specified for a flat fee?
Susan:
I do the same. Design and product. Design is flat fee, the product is a mark up.
Robert:
Great point about offering options. I had never thought of it like that.
Robert:
Great talk. Thanks, got to go.
David:
Thank you for your time 🙂
Valerie:
Thank you both!
Victoria:
Amazing! You kids are the best!
Laurie:
Thank you!
Kira:
Thank you!
Stuart:
Thank you
Questions answered:
Adrian:
How do I stop tyre kickers who use our proposal as a check quote (against their preferred architect)?
Melissa:
Should I include details of my insurances in the proposal?
Kim:
Should I charge hourly fee, or percentage of cost of the project?
James:
How do I justify hourly rate fees for a contract administration stage? The contract administration stage may start 1 year after the client/architect contract is signed and finish 2 or 2.5 years after a client contract is signed and run a further 12 months for a defects period. Trying to flip between fixed fees for earlier design stages to hourly rates for administration stages is often treated with a lot of suspicion by clients.
Sue:
Clients never give useful feedback on proposals- and never advise on the fees range. Is this valid? They always claim probity concerns.
Martyn:
How do you avoid doing free feasibilities? This is where most work comes from.
Fariba:
How do I collect the fee when client doesn’t pay?
Anonymous Attendee:
I’m an interior designer and sometimes accused of ‘double dipping’ because I charge both for my time and the products that I sell. They don’t realize the quantity of paperwork, project management and risks involved in placing orders, especially for custom products. Thank you.
Anonymous Attendee:
On pricing a design early in the design process (say pre-development application/resource consent), do you have any recommended methods as a rule of thumb that is safe for you as architect?
Mark:
Given that Blue Turtle have been so successful with promoting the Option Pricing Model – what are the next competitive advantages we can consider? I’ve had a number of clients literally say “ho hum” at the pricing options because they had a number of other local architects are submitting fee proposals with Pricing Options.
Ray:
As a client, I hate surprises. How important is it to have a process that avoids clients getting surprises?
Adrian:
When sending a fee proposal, do you think it is ethical to include a condition that if we are unsuccessful, that we ask the client to reveal the fees of the other architects?
Kira:
If we have spoken to a potential client over the phone, been paid a deposit and then turned up to the site for a meeting and decided that we don’t want to work on the project, how can we exit having already received a deposit in the expectation that we are going to work on that project?
Kira:
The reason that I would not work on the project is because the client was not completely transparent about the state of the existing building and also changed the scope of work during our meeting.
References:
1. Fee Proposal Workshop: On Demand Training & Mentoring:
Click for details

2. Architect Marketing Short Course
Click to View

3. Schedule a Call with Ian Motley
Click to View Calendar

To Register for a future session Click here