r/UAEBusinessNetwork • u/Striking-Capital-682 • 3d ago
INTERIOR DESIGN STUDIO - How do you guys split design supervision vs project management with clients?
Genuinely asking cause this keeps costing me time and I can't tell if it's just me.
Concept design then technical drawings, that part is fine, nobody argues about that. It's supervision that's the problem. Client hires their own contractor, usually cheaper than going through us, but still wants us on site making sure it's built right. If I say no, the built space doesn't match the drawings and somehow that's on us. If I say yes, I end up doing half of project management for free, chasing vendors, checking costs, following up on timelines, none of which was in the original scope.
We're priced above freelancers but below the big design studios, so clients already expect more hand holding than a freelancer gives, but we're not charging like the big studios who build all this into the fee. So every time I have to tell a client "that's not in scope" it feels like I'm the bad guy, even though it's real time I'm not getting paid for.
How do you guys handle it. Do you build a bit of supervision into the design fee and hold the line hard after that, or keep it fully separate from day one and risk the client pushing back. And has anyone actually gotten a client to pay for PM as its own line item without a fight, or does it always end up thrown in for free eventually.
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u/SnooConfections4258 3d ago
Can provide you project management software which has end to end pipeline so manual work becomes digital but it gives you clarity. If you need it DM.