“Not being bogged down with the design work had given me time to get out in front of potential clients. The gross revenue for 2012-2013 was $450,000 and his gross revenue for 2013-2014 was $800,000 with all the 2013-2014 designs completed remotely. By the end of the year, he was surprised to find his business had doubled. In 2012, Hiner hired Maryott as a freelance designer during an especially busy period. Both men were landscapers promoting their own businesses when they met at a Colorado home and garden show five years ago.Īround the same age (Hiner is 29 and Maryott 33), they became good friends after discovering a mutual passion for outdoor activities and craft beer. Budget is important.Ĭharging for designs is a great way to weed out homeowners who are just window-shopping for ideas.
LANDSCAP 3D DESIGNER JOBS ONLINE INSTALL
We can design a $200,000 install or a $50,000 install in the same amount of space. Try to get a budget out of your homeowner. Inform us of site lines the homeowner wants to maintain. Our designs and take-offs are only as accurate as the information we receive. Again, take lots and lots of pictures of the property. Make sure there’s a site reference point in every picture. Take thorough and detailed site pictures. Know the right questions to ask so you can translate that into a design your homeowner will love. A 5-minute phone call is worth 100 emails back and forth.īe able to translate what your homeowner is looking for. Even though we’re an online company, we put a lot of time and effort into getting to know our contractors. Here are some tips from RDS on how contractors can make a remote designer feel like they are on the property.Ĭall us.
“We tell them ‘Yes you can and yes you should.’ We hate seeing shoddy sketches on a napkin.” I don’t have the skill or the right design program,’” Maryott says. “Contractors often say – ‘I can’t charge for a design. Instead, they work from photos and information gathered by the contractor. But here’s the twist – Hiner and Maryott, based in Colorado Springs, don’t usually visit the landscape site. Their business, Remote Design Solutions, opened last fall as a company that produces custom landscaping plans for contractors, who then sell the plans (often rebranded with their own logos) to customers. Today Maryott and partner Matt Hiner are promoting a new business that aims to elevate the design standards of the average landscaping contractor while freeing up time that could be better spent finding new customers. It’s a question that vexes design/build contractors across the country: How much – if anything – do you charge for just the drawings? “I was afraid I’d scare the homeowners away and then I wouldn’t get the more lucrative installation work,” Maryott says. When landscaper Brad Maryott started a design/build business in Nebraska 15 years ago while finishing up college, he was too afraid to charge for his designs.