Costing a Garden Design

How much does it cost to design a garden?

This is a really tricky question as there are many variables. A garden design in economics terms would be an elastic item as when the price changes the demand would so to change readily with it. If a garden design were $10 everyone who owns a property would invest in one. As the price goes up for the design the demand drops off while the perceived quality of the product (garden design) might conversely go up.

Some designers work their fees backwards from the income the income they wish to receive and the amount of service they wish to offer. Others work backwards from what price point they can meet to be regularly booked out. Others start at a high price point knowing they might not be booked out all the time. There are many approaches.

What can people afford?

One thing I commonly think about is whether or not I could afford to hire me. I guess the answer is more questions. How much do I value design and how much money would it save me money if I didn’t know what I know about gardens? I, like most average Australians wouldn’t think of hiring an interior designer and would undertake the job myself fumbling along making mistakes. But I would potentially stand to save some money by not making some common mistakes and saving myself time that I could spend working instead to pay for the design. This same thought process could be applied to landscape design.

This doesn’t mean that the average person is going to feel comfortable handing over a hefty sum of money for some picture with some notes. So, what should you be providing and to whom. There are many designers that never go near the low-cost jobs often for good reasons. Every time you take on a new job you lose time in billing, transport, phone calls and other initiation activities. You also need to provide less of your time if you are going to charge less, which means a lower standard of work and communication which some people don’t wish to provide. This means that you need to very quick while charging a high hourly rate and some value to the client.

Business Models

Everyone’s business is a little different. These are some more common ones.

• Horticulturist and Garden Designer - Designs gardens part time while also maintaining gardens and working on softscape interventions in construction. They may also create simple interventions for low budget gardens.

• Landscape Designer - Main source of income is from the design and documentation. May also install plants and provide consultancy.

• Landscape Designer - All income from design and documentation.

Working out fees

METHOD ONE - For a single person running a sole trading business.

• How much would you like to earn net before tax? E.g. $80,000, near the average Australian annual income.

• You could look at what level of service you wish to provide on average and how long it would take you provide it. E.g. Client Brief, Site Analysis, Concept Plan, Design Development, Planting Plan, Specifications, tender documentation, 3 site visits. You might wish to complete this in 8 days.

• How many days for non chargeable activities do you need per year such as, tax, professional development, restocking supplies etc. E.g. 1 day per week

• How much sick leave and annual leave you need. E.g. 25 days

• What business expenses do you have. Computers, software, transport, office supplies, insurances, risk tolerance etc. E.g. $15,000

Desired income ($80,000) + Expenses ($15,000) = $95,000

There are approximately 260 work days per year minus 25 for your leave = 235 days to complete your work in.

For the 8 days on a project you would also have 2 days of unpaid activities. So each project would take 10 days.

235 days / 10 = 23.5 projects per year.

$95,000 / 23 projects = $4,130 per job in fees.

Your approximate day rate for chargeable work activities would then be $4,130 / 8 days = $516 per chargeable day.

Lesson Outline

• How much does a landscape design cost?

• What can people afford?

• Business models

• Working out fees

Definitions

Net - Total earned after expenses and tax

Gross - Total earned before business expenses and tax