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You definitely have to price your designs based on the amount of work involved. If you are not sure, give them a design price quote for a portion of the job that you feel you can comfortably do for that price. Then you can adjust the next design phase based on how the first part goes.
I like to write up a little narrative of exactly what I am going to do for the price of the design. I will describe what limits of area of the property, the levelof detail in the plan, how many times I will meet with them, how many times I will revise it, how many copies they will get, and even how big a sheet of paper and in what scale it will be drawn. There is also a description of a few other things that I will provide for additional hourly fees and that anything more will be billed hourly (rates are listed). You'd be amazed how well these people stick to the contract to avoid extra fees. It really cuts back on nonsense because it makes all those things that people do to get you that eat up your profit become extra expenses for them. So, you either make more money, or they don't ask you to do them (almost always the latter).
It is just like writing a landscape install contract. You make sure that there is no way anyone can justify that you are not providing the service that you contracted to do. You would not throw in an extra half dozen trees if someone asked you to and no one asks you two because it says how many in the contract.
The key to it is a contract that describes what the client has to do for the extras and making it very clear what constitutes an extra. Don't do anything without a signed contract and a deposit. Also, state that the balance is due upon receiving the plans (no ticky, no shirty). Mail them the quote for doing the construction after you present and get paid for the plan. They are two separate things and should be treated as such. One is a design that has a price. The second is a free estimate that you do afterwards (even if you do it prior to giving them the plan, don't send it until after). You don't want your install price influence them to not pay for the design, but you want the anticipation of getting that price quote to make them close the first deal.
I used to wonder why they made us take psychology in landscape architecture. I no longer wonder. These things work very, very, well.
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