A client recently requested some quick conceptual design
ideas to convert a plain boxy building into a Spanish style building. I knew my father was the right architect for
the task since he has 50 years of experience designing Spanish style
buildings. I, on the other hand, have
only designed about 10 Spanish style buildings in my career, and guessed that
it would take me about three times longer than it would take him. My father whipped out a few sketches of each
elevation in 15 minutes. They looked
great. I let him know I’d show it to the
client, and asked him how much he’d charge for the concepts (since he’s a
subcontractor). He said, “Well, let’s
see, it took me about 15 minutes, so at my hourly rate of $200, that’ll be $50.” I responded, “Well, that doesn’t seem
right. A surgeon doesn’t charge their
patients for the amount of time it takes to complete a surgery. A surgeon charges based on the type of
surgery and his expertise, his years of experience, his know-how, and so should
you!” These sketches would have taken
another architect many hours to complete, and they still wouldn’t have been as
good. Another architect would have
charged hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for these. My dad responded, “Well what do you think I
should charge then?” I decided, “Charge
$300…..the client is getting an amazing deal and you’ll get 6 times more than
you expected!”
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