Are you guessing your fees?
If you're not using a formal process to calculate your fees, there's a good chance you're estimating by instinct, or by "feeling".
That's not a criticism. Many designers are doing exactly that, often because they've never been shown a better way. In the early years of my business I made the same mistakes myself, and since then I've worked with many established practices that still haven't resolved their fee structure, after more than a decade in business.
Once you start researching fee methodologies, things can feel even more confusing, as there's no one-size-fits-all pricing model for every studio or every project type. But there are several methods commonly used across architecture and design:
Hourly Rate: charging for actual hours worked, multiplied by your studio's hourly rate or rates, against an agreed scope.
Fixed Fee: charging a flat fee, either by stage or for the whole project, ideally based on the hours required to deliver the scope.
Percentage Fee: charging a percentage of the overall project cost for an agreed scope of work.
Combination Model: using a mix of the above, often applied across different stages or service areas.
Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. The more important point is this: the most effective methods are anchored to the project scope, and the strongest fee structures use time as the measure.
Why? Because time gives you a quantifiable basis for pricing. It creates a bridge between front-end estimation and back-end analysis. It helps you assess whether your fee is viable, whether your team is resourced appropriately, and whether the project is actually profitable once complete.
This is where many businesses come unstuck: they propose a fee, but don't have the systems necessary for that fee to be tested, reviewed and improved.
