Designers - Ever find yourself running around, spending huge amounts of time looking at tile, stone, plumbing fixtures, lighting, fabrics, and the like? The internet is a highly useful tool, but there's often no substitute for seeing and touching "the real thing" when it comes to material selection. Ever then wonder if you can justify all of that time when billing your client, if you're working on a hourly or consulting basis?
The answer is a big YES, given that you are researching and selecting items with the clients' best interests in mind, and providing information and specifications as they have hired you to do. Generally, designers and clients have established a budget framework to follow, and hours can be incurred in many different ways.
If working on a fixed-fee basis, designers need to be careful that they are fairly compensated for the all of the time they spend on a project, and that their compensation doesn't flatten out. Experienced designers are usually fairly well accomplished at estimating fixed fees, but it can sometimes take quite a bit of homework and thought about every possible detail of a project to arrive at a realistic and fair fixed fee.
Even minor details can consume a significant amount of a designer's time. Grout colors, cabinet hardware, switchplate and outlet cover colors, paint finish specs (eggshell vs. pearl?), and many other details must be kept track of and taken into account when estimating fair compensation.
At the same time, clients need to understand that the designer is typically highly invested in making sure that everything turns out great for the client, and that he or she will typically need to spend a significant amount of time pay attention to details, making potentially numerous trips to the design center, as well as phone calls and emails to ensure that all aspects of a project are covered, no matter how large or small. The intangibles that contribute to a project's success are sometimes difficult to measure. Whether you're working on an hourly basis, a fixed fee, or a mark-up basis, designers typically strive to produce wonderful results at realistic and fair rates.